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I flew from Texas to Boston, a bouquet of yellow roses beside me, ready to surprise Chloe for our fifth anniversary. I imagined her delight, the simple life waiting for us back home. But when I used her spare key and found her in that sterile city apartment, the surprise was all mine. Chloe was heavily pregnant. The roses fell as she confessed: our five years of shared sadness over infertility was a lie. This baby wasn't ours; it was for her ex, Julian, who allegedly had a terminal illness. Then Julian himself walked in, casually possessive, and Chloe defended him, shooing me out of what I thought was our home. My heart didn't just break; it evaporated. A "noble sacrifice"? It felt like a sick joke, a cheap trick to excuse an unthinkable betrayal. Why was he really here, and why did her story about his illness sound so rehearsed? Something snapped. Instead of walking away, I opened my laptop. "Julian Croft Boston." What I found-that he was already married to a powerful heiress, Scarlett Ashworth-Croft-ignited a cold fury. I sent his wife an email. Now, I had a plan.