Pregnant and Betrayed

I discovered I was pregnant with my boyfriend of five years, empire heir Cash Robinson, in the same clinic where I learned his fiancée was also pregnant with his child.

His family' s response was to have me thrown to their guard dogs. As they mauled me, I heard Cash walk away, believing the lie that I had taken their money and left.

But they made one mistake: I survived. And with the help of his best friend, I' m coming back to burn their entire world to the ground.

Chapter 1

Eliza POV:

I found out my five-year relationship was a lie in the sterile silence of a clinic waiting room, the same place I had just discovered I was pregnant.

For five years, everyone in New York knew me as Eliza Fuentes, the charity case, the housekeeper' s daughter who had somehow captured the heart of Cash Robinson, the heir to the Robinson empire.

They talked about us in hushed tones at galas I attended on his arm. They whispered about the tragic accident on the slick Hamptons road, where he' d swerved to save me, leaving him with a permanent limp. A noble sacrifice. A testament to his love.

That limp was the reason his family, led by the ice-cold patriarch Alton Thornton, had tolerated me. They' d made a pact with their son, a five-year deal I wasn' t supposed to know about but learned of through hushed arguments behind study doors. If Cash could successfully launch the new Robinson tech subsidiary, proving his worth despite his "disability," they would finally approve our marriage.

The five-year deadline was next week.

A nervous energy had been thrumming under my skin for days. Cash had been distant, his nights spent at the office growing longer, his texts shorter. He' d chalked it up to the pressure of the launch.

"Just one more week, 'Liza," he' d murmured into my hair two nights ago, his voice thick with exhaustion. "Then it' s just you and me. Forever."

I' d held onto those words like a prayer.

So when the nausea started, when my period was laughably late, a spark of wild, terrifying hope ignited in my chest. A baby. Our baby. It would be the perfect, undeniable seal on our future.

I didn' t tell him. I wanted to see the confirmation in writing, to hold the proof in my hands before I surprised him. I scheduled an appointment at the most exclusive private clinic on the Upper East Side, the kind of place where discretion was the most expensive service they offered.

And that' s where I saw her.

Catherine Yang.

She glided into the waiting room like she owned it, her Hermes Birkin swinging from her arm. She was the daughter of a new-money tech giant, a socialite whose picture was plastered across every gossip column. She was also a permanent fixture in Cash' s life, a "childhood friend" he could never quite shake.

I hated her. I hated the effortless way she belonged in this world, and I hated the way Cash' s eyes would sometimes follow her at parties, a flicker of something I refused to name.

She didn't see me, tucked away in a corner chair. She approached the front desk, her voice a low, confident murmur.

A small, triumphant smile played on her lips as she turned away from the desk, her perfectly manicured hand resting unconsciously, almost possessively, on her flat stomach. A cold dread, sharp and sudden, washed over me. It was an instinct, a primal recognition of a threat I couldn't yet name.

My own name was called then. I walked past her in a daze, my heart hammering against my ribs.

An hour later, the doctor' s cheerful confirmation felt like a death sentence. "Congratulations, Ms. Fuentes. You' re about six weeks along."

I clutched the printout of the ultrasound-a tiny, blurry speck that was supposed to be our future-and walked back into the waiting room on unsteady legs.

Catherine was gone. But her presence lingered, a sickly-sweet perfume in the air. As I was about to leave, I heard one of the nurses speaking quietly to the receptionist.

"Can you believe it? Catherine Yang. Another one for Dr. Miller. She' s about six weeks, too. Said she wanted to confirm everything before the engagement announcement with Cash Robinson next month."

The world tilted.

Cash Robinson.

Six weeks.