The air in the Martin mansion was thick with unspoken animosity, a suffocating blanket Riley had hoped to pierce. She stood before Claire Monet, Brian’s mistress, her body trembling with a rage she struggled to contain. “What are you doing here?” Claire’s voice, deceptively sweet, cut through the tension.

Riley’s response was a fierce whisper, “I decided to fight for my marriage.” She moved to bypass Claire, but a deceptively delicate hand clamped around her wrist. “I’m pregnant with Brian’s child,” Claire announced, her blue eyes narrowing. Just as Riley pulled away, Claire stumbled, a dramatic sprawl on the tiled floor. “Ahhh! Miss Riley? What did I do to you?” she shrieked, her voice echoing through the opulent hall. “Brian, she pushed me! Help! Our baby!”

Brian Martin appeared in a blur, his eyes blazing with fury. A firm, stinging slap landed across Riley’s face, sending her sprawling. “How could you, Riley? You knew Claire is pregnant!” he roared, pointing a condemning finger. “Why are you trying to take away the one thing you could not give me?!” His mother, Beatrice, joined the chorus of accusations. “If anything happens to my grandchild, Riley, I will never forgive you! You are a barren woman!”

Pain lanced through Riley’s abdomen, sharp and unexpected. She gasped, clutching her stomach, as Brian cradled Claire and rushed out, leaving Riley on the cold floor, abandoned by her husband and reviled by his family. The mansion’s caretaker, on Beatrice’s command, unceremoniously dragged her out the door. Humiliation burned, eclipsing even the physical agony. As she drove, a horrifying realization dawned: blood. “No. No,” she whispered, placing a trembling hand on her belly. “My baby!”

Amidst her sobs, a car door opened. Strong arms lifted her. She looked up, her vision blurred by tears, to see a face from her past. Adrian King.