Chapter 1

I once thought Peyton was the person who loved me most in the world.

Five years of marriage. He worshipped the ground I walked on. Even I believed it was real.

Until a paternity test told me the truth. The child calling me "Mommy" wasn't mine.

Until I saw him holding Lily, my sponsored student. Their lips locked under fireworks.

Until I learned that the baby I nearly died to bring into the world had been suffocated with a handkerchief. Lily burned my baby to ash.

They took everything from me. But they didn't know one thing.

I'm the heir to the Summers family.

Heartbroken and done with lies, I called my brother.

"I was wrong. I'll take the arranged marriage."

Seraphina's POV

"Is your child adopted?"

When I heard the doctor's question, I instinctively held the child in my arms tighter. "What?"

This was the baby I gave birth to myself.

How could he possibly be adopted?!

The doctor turned the computer screen toward me, pointing at the parental information section.

"The child's blood test results came back. Type B."

"You're Type O. Your husband Peyton is Type A."

"Type O and Type A cannot produce a Type B child."

The doctor's words felt like a heavy boulder crashing down on my heart.

The child had a slight fever today. Peyton was away on business, and our driver happened to have taken the day off. Worried the baby's condition might worsen, I quickly hailed a taxi and rushed to the nearest hospital.

I'd previously always gone to the Summers family's private hospital far from home. At that hospital, no doctor had ever raised such doubts.

The doctor looked at my pale face and softened her tone. "If you have concerns, I can arrange an expedited paternity test."

"It only takes three hours to get results."

I numbly signed the consent form.

Three hours felt as long as a century.

I sat on a chair in the hospital corridor, the sleeping child in my arms.

The child's breathing was even, his little face looking innocent and harmless.

But looking at him, I suddenly felt like he was a stranger.

Five years of marriage. Everyone said Peyton had spoiled me into the happiest wife in San Francisco.

He remembered all my preferences, would cancel all social engagements to come home and keep me company, took meticulous care of me during my pregnancy.

Everyone envied me.

Even I believed it myself.

I thought I'd married the man who loved me most.

I thought our child was the best proof of our love.

But now, it had all become a joke.

The paternity test report was finally delivered to my hands.

A thin sheet of paper, so hot it burned my fingertips. The sentence at the bottom was painfully clear.

"Based on DNA analysis results, Seraphina is not the biological mother of this child."

This wasn't my child.

Then where was my child?

Before I could process this information, a familiar voice suddenly reached my ears. I looked toward the sound and actually discovered my husband Peyton.

Wasn't he supposed to be on a business trip?

Peyton was steadily supporting a woman. The woman was clutching her lower abdomen, her face flushed with an unnatural redness. "It's all your fault, honey. Why did you have sex with me in the car? Now the baby in my belly is upset, and you've landed me in the hospital."

When I saw that face clearly, my eyes widened instantly.

It was actually Lily!

Lily was a poverty-stricken student I'd been quietly sponsoring since high school. I gave her the opportunity to study, gave her a job.

Now she was Peyton's chief assistant.

I gave her my complete trust, never once guarded against her.

But I never imagined that Lily had secretly been sleeping with Peyton!

My heart racing in panic, I hid in the stairwell holding the child, then heard Peyton say indulgently.

"It's because you're too attractive. You've already given birth to Harper, yet you're still so tempting..."

I couldn't believe it, because the child in my arms was Harper!

So the child I'd been raising for nearly a year was Lily's.

Lily was even pregnant with Peyton's second child.

My world instantly collapsed.

I held the baby that didn't belong to me and walked out of the hospital step by step.

Returning to the empty house, I closed the door and finally couldn't hold on anymore.

I called my brother Ashton. I hadn't talked to him in years. My voice shook, but it was oddly clear.

"I lost the bet. He fell for her."

"I need you to check three things for me."

"Peyton."

"Lily."

"And the day I gave birth at Summers Hospital one year ago. Every camera. Every record. Every nurse present. I want it all."

"I have to know where my baby is."

The wind from the corridor lifted my clothes.

I gazed into the distance, my eyes gradually turning cold.

Peyton.

You lied to me.

This time, I won't trust you again.