"I've been regulating my cycle." I snatched the pills back, forcing my voice steady.
Malcolm laughed in disbelief, his eyes going cold.
"You don't want to carry my child, is that it?!"
He stared at my face, at the distance that had settled there without either of us noticing when it began. Fury surged through him, though beneath it flickered something he refused to acknowledge: panic.
My silence was answer enough.
"Wonderful."
To mask that sliver of unease, Malcolm released me with a shove so abrupt it bordered on violent.
"If you won't do it, I'll find someone who will!"
He stormed out and into the guest bedroom, dragging Lillian back with him.
He sat her on the edge of the bed, his voice deliberately low, almost coaxing. "Lillian, would you be willing to have my baby?"
Lillian's cheeks flushed. She nodded, her voice barely above a whisper. "But I don't know how."
Malcolm let out a quiet laugh. It was soft but carried no warmth. His gaze drifted past her and landed squarely on me, bright with undisguised humiliation.
"That's fine."
"Your sister will teach you."
My head snapped up. A high-pitched ringing filled my ears, and for a second I was sure I'd misheard.
Malcolm was going to sleep with Lillian right in front of me and make me coach them through it?
"She's taught plenty of women what to do in bed. One more won't make a difference."
He spoke slowly, his tone airy, laced with contempt.
Something seized my heart and squeezed. I thought of our wedding night seven years ago, Malcolm holding my hand, murmuring against my hair:
"You don't have to learn any of that servant nonsense my mother talks about. I'd never let you suffer even the smallest indignity."
My nails dug into my palms until they nearly broke the skin. I couldn't feel the pain.
Humiliation swallowed me whole.
I watched, eyes open, as the man who was still legally my husband pressed another woman into the bed and lavished her with tenderness.
I didn't want to watch. He made me guide them.
I was pinned in place, and whatever warmth remained inside me cooled degree by degree.
Until there was nothing left but dead, frozen silence.
Malcolm told me what to say, and I said it.
Calm as a puppet with its strings pulled taut.
When it was over, Lillian looked up with wounded eyes, her voice cottony and soft.
"Am I boring? I don't know anything. I'm not as good as she is..."
Malcolm leaned down to soothe her, his expression sated.
"You're nothing like her."
"She's a tramp. She knows every trick in the book because she trained her old lovers one by one."
"But you're innocent. Pure as a blank page. That's what makes you irresistible."
I let out a hollow laugh.
When we first married, I'd been curious about all of it. The two of us would hide under the covers, blushing, figuring things out together.
Now all of that had been reduced to one breezy verdict: I was easy.
I couldn't hold it in anymore. I bolted to the bathroom and threw up until there was nothing left.
The woman in the mirror was ashen, her lips drained of color.
My phone rang.
"The three-year agreement is up. It's time for you to step aside." Lauren Henson's voice on the other end was flat, indifferent.
"I've already sent Lillian to the Delgado estate. Find a way to make Malcolm marry her. This marriage was supposed to be hers in the first place."
"Don't overstay your welcome."
A strange clarity settled over me. My entire life had been something of a joke.
The love was a lie.
So was the family.
Lillian had been reclaimed by the Hensons three years ago, but they'd never made it public.
They even told me my birth parents had died in a car accident.
I had nothing left.
"As long as you give up your position," they continued, "we'll grant you one condition."
I closed my eyes. My throat burned, dry as paper.
"Fine. I want a green card."
I never wanted the title of Mrs. Delgado anyway.
Malcolm was standing in the doorway. I didn't know how long he'd been there. His gaze was heavy, fixed on me.
"You're going to the States?"
My body went rigid, but I smoothed it over quickly.
"A business partner's wife invited me to see an exhibition in the US."
Malcolm frowned. His tone dropped back to ice.
"I'll ask you one last time. Will you have my child?"
I knew that if I nodded, everything would go back to the way it was. As if none of this had happened.
In six days I would be gone for good.
Whether or not I agreed was mine to decide.
But the word "yes" lodged in my throat like a stone.
I couldn't force it out.
"Perfect," Malcolm's face darkened in an instant.
"You're going to regret this, Prudence."
The door slammed shut hard enough to rattle the frame.
I stood before the mirror and realized tears were already sliding down my cheeks.
The truth was, I already had regrets.
Regretting ever loving Malcolm Delgado.
Regretting ever marrying him.
The next morning, Malcolm gathered every servant in the house and made his announcement.
"From today on, you will treat Lillian as the lady of this house."
"Meals, daily care, everything prepared to the highest standard for a woman trying to conceive."
The butler hesitated, then asked carefully, "And the living arrangements...?"
Malcolm glanced at me. His tone was thin, mocking.
"Move my wife's things out of the master bedroom and give it to Lillian. She's carrying something precious now. She deserves the best."
"Malcolm, that's our bedroom!"
My voice cracked for the first time.
Every piece of that room we had chosen together, arranged together.
Every sweet memory we ever made lived between those walls.
Last night he'd taken another woman in that bed, and the thought alone made my stomach turn.
Now he wanted me to hand over the entire room.
Lillian spoke up, her voice small. "It's okay, really. I can stay in the guest room... even if it's a little scary being alone."
Malcolm pulled her into his arms at once, his voice softening. "No need."
He looked at me, careless and cutting. "Since you won't have my child, Prudence, don't interfere with my decisions."
"Until the baby is born, Lillian is the lady of this house."
"And when the child arrives, it'll be registered under your name. Lillian will never get to hear her own baby call her 'Mom.'"
"To make up for that, you'll move into the guest room and take care of her. Through the pregnancy, the delivery, and recovery."
My eyes finally burned red.
He wanted me to play nursemaid to his mistress?
The servants exchanged uneasy glances, none of them daring to breathe.
Was the lady of the Delgado household really being replaced?
Malcolm looked at me and raised one brow. "Any objections?"
