Chapter 1

My husband, Julian, was a genetic elitist.

He looked down on me for graduating from community college, claimed my genes were inferior, and insisted on having a child with his stepsister, an Ivy League graduate.

Three months into my pregnancy, they forced me to terminate it. My uterus cramped, bleeding heavily, and I begged him through tears to take me to the hospital.

He watched, cold and detached. "It's for the best. That child's genes weren't worthy of mine."

His stepsister, Vivian, tried to console me.

"You should be grateful! You'll get to help raise a child of superior lineage. It's a privilege."

They would discuss intimate fertility details in eight different languages right in front of me.

What they never knew was that I understood every word.

The day Vivian's pregnancy was confirmed, Julian went to church himself to pray for the "genius" in her womb.

That same day, I left a signed divorce agreement and never looked back.

There was one secret I had never told Julian.

He and Vivian would never have a high-IQ child.