Introduction
I was born with a body men couldn't resist, and yet, after I got married, I became allergic to men.
Every time he touched me, my skin broke out in welts. More than once, I nearly suffocated to death.
But I wanted a baby so badly I was willing to gamble. So I crawled into his bed in the dark.
When the test came back positive, I was naive enough to believe everything could finally go back to normal.
Eight months pregnant. One night with my husband. And the allergic reaction came roaring back, bad enough that they rushed me to the ER.
After the surgery, I couldn't find my husband anywhere. Then I heard his voice drifting down the hallway, laughing with his buddies.
"Did you see her face? Swollen up like a pig. God, it was hilarious."
Liam Chamberlain was swinging the little vial of "prenatal supplement" he'd been feeding me for months. His voice dripped with contempt.
"I designed this serum myself. One touch from any man and she breaks out. That's the only way to keep her off me."
"But hey, she wanted a baby so bad. So I figured, why not let her carry mine and Daphne's? Call it a favor."
The blood drained out of me all at once.
My baby. The child I had wanted with every breath in my body.
It was never mine.
Chapter 1
"But Liam, man—if your wife ever finds out the truth, aren't you scared she'll lose it?"
He let out a low scoff. The cigarette ash flared and dimmed between his fingers.
"Lose it? She’s born in dying for a man to touch her. That night, I didn't even **** her. Let her have what she wanted, easy. She should be on her knees thanking me."
"She got one good night under me, and I figured out how to give Daphne a baby without putting her through any of the pain. Two birds, one stone."
One of the guys was rolling the little bottle between his fingers, smirking.
"Ever since you got married, man, the hospital's been mass-producing this stuff. And your wife actually thinks you mixed her up some special prenatal vitamin. Hilarious!"
"Right? Like Liam's got the energy to baby her. Daphne's the one he's scared to even touch wrong."
The hospital corridor exploded with their laughter.
I stood frozen in the shadows. Ice in my veins.
Every accidental brush of Liam's skin against mine had nearly killed me.
A rash if I was lucky. Full-body swelling and an ER trip if I wasn't.
Our families had been marrying each other for generations. I'd blamed myself, over and over, for failing him as a wife.
Liam was always so calm about it. So gentle. *It's okay,* he'd say. *Don't worry about it.*
And little by little, I learned to swallow the loneliness. To keep the safest possible distance from my own husband.
All of it. All of it was because Liam was saving himself for his childhood sweetheart.
And now I was just the vessel they were using to grow their little love child.
I pressed a hand to my swollen belly. My stomach lurched. I wanted to throw up every single "prenatal vitamin" I'd ever swallowed.
Around the corner, Liam was still venting to his buddies.
"If I could've come up with any other way to get Daphne a kid, I never would've put myself through that night. Just thinking about it makes me sick."
"Oh, I bet, man!" one of them howled.
Another roar of laughter. More mockery layered on top.
The tears broke loose all at once.
I should've seen it years ago.
Liam was one of the top physicians in the country. If he'd actually wanted to cure his wife's allergy, do you really think he couldn't?
I was the fool.
I'd underestimated just how obsessed he was with Daphne, the woman he couldn't have.
But why was I the one paying for it?
Five years of a sexless marriage. Five years of pitying looks.
My friends whispered behind my hands that I was a pretty little ornament. Useless. Not even a real woman.
His parents had never once let me through the front door of the family estate.
"The Chamberlains marrying a useless girl like you—can't be touched, can't get pregnant. It's an insult to every ancestor in this family."
I'd swallowed it all. Drowned in it. Told myself one day everything would be normal.
Liam. How exactly do you plan to pay me back for five years of loving you with everything I had?
In the end, I didn't have the guts to march around that corner and confront him.
I just drifted, numb, toward the front desk.
I turned my head—and walked straight into Liam, breathless from running.
