Hazel Rogers never imagined her mother’s failing heart would force her into the arms of a stranger. With hospital bills piling up and no time left, she signs a desperate contract— as a surrogate for a billionaire who she doesn’t know. Ace Milan is cold, calculated, and devastatingly powerful, a man who built his empire on control and keeps  his heart locked behind a fortress. Hazel is just a transaction to him. But when a scary accident forces her to move into his home, the lines blur. He becomes cruel, unpredictable—testing her limits with sharp words and colder actions. Yet beneath his ice is something else, something broken, watching her with eyes that never quite soften. As her pregnancy progresses, Hazel stumbles upon whispers of the woman who came before her—the first surrogate. The one who vanished. No one speaks of her, and Ace refuses to explain. But the house holds secrets. Locked rooms. Late-night phone calls. Half-truths wrapped in charm. And suddenly, the child inside Hazel becomes more than a contract—it becomes a target. Torn between protecting the life growing inside her and uncovering the truth about the man she’s starting to feel dangerously drawn to, Hazel is forced to make a choice. Walk away before she ends up like the last surrogate… or risk everything to unravel the darkness Ace has spent his life hiding. One thing is clear—nothing in this arrangement is what it seems. And some secrets are buried deep for a reason.

  "How did this even happen? Of all the people in this world it had to be her?" I stepped out of the room banging the door behind me as if shutting it any faster would betray how my heart skipped a beat. Because obviously I wasn't expecting any of this. Who would?


  The girl from the hospital is my surrogate. 


  I knew the second I looked at her —the same ones I had seen at the hospital. The girl who couldn't speak, who didn't even look up when I nearly lost my temper that day. How was I supposed to know she'd been the one?


  I stood there and looked at her like our paths never crossed. She thinks I set this up. Well I didn't but whatever she thinks I don't care. She's in my home. Crying, refusing to eat and begging to leave. What was so hard in understanding that her safety is only important to me because she's carrying my child.


  I can't afford to go through this again. Not with everything that's happening. 


Chapter 16 - Chapter 16