The Husband Who Wasn't Her Husband
Chapter 01 - The Husband Who Wasn't Her Husband
At thirty-six weeks pregnant, Nora Bennett woke in Mercy General with a monitor strapped around her stomach and the taste of metal in her mouth.
A doctor stood near the bed. Beside him was her husband, Ethan, dressed in the cream suit he had worn that morning.
“The baby’s heartbeat keeps dropping,” Dr. Hayes said. “We may need to deliver tonight.”
Nora reached for Ethan’s hand, but something felt wrong. His palm was cold. His wedding ring was missing. When she asked what happened, he said her car had slid off the road during the storm.
Nora remembered pressing the brake pedal and feeling nothing. She remembered a dark sedan following her. Just before the crash, she had received a message from Ethan’s number: SIGN THE PAPERS TONIGHT, OR YOU’LL LOSE EVERYTHING.
The man beside her lifted a tablet. “The hospital needs your signature.”
Dr. Hayes frowned. “Only on the surgical consent.”
But the document was titled FINAL WISHES. Beneath the medical language was a clause transferring control of Nora’s voting shares in Bennett Hotels to her spouse if she became unable to make decisions.
“Why is that in a hospital form?” she asked.
Ethan leaned closer. “Your lawyer prepared it. We discussed this.”
They had never discussed it.
Nora studied him. Same dark hair. Same gray eyes. Same small scar near his jaw. Yet Ethan always called her Nor when he was scared. This man kept calling her Nora.
Before she could challenge him, the door opened.
A blonde woman in a green dress stepped inside, one hand over her pregnant stomach. Her face went pale when she saw the man by Nora’s bed.
“Adrian?” she whispered. “What are you doing here?”
The room went silent.
The blonde woman showed Nora a photograph. The man in it wore the same face and the same cream suit. His arm was around her, and his silver ring was engraved with the letter A.
Nora’s pulse raced. The baby monitor began to alarm.
Ethan had once mentioned an identical twin he had not spoken to in seven years.
The stranger removed a silver ring from his pocket.
“You’re not my husband,” Nora whispered.
May you like
The warmth vanished from his eyes.
“No,” Adrian said. “But by the time the real Ethan gets here, you’ll have signed everything.”
