Chapter 2: The Cradle of Secrets
Christian’s hands shook violently as he untied the heavy cloth binding Lily's wrists. The moment the fabric fell away, Lily collapsed forward, her body weak from exhaustion. Christian caught her instantly, shielding her and the baby with his large frame. Lily winced, gasping for air, but her primary instinct was to immediately check the infant. The baby stirred, letting out a soft, tiny whimper, but remained asleep.
"Lily," Christian whispered, his voice cracking as he reached out, his thumb gently brushing the blood from her lip. "Is he... is this baby...?"
Lily looked up at the billionaire tycoon, her wide, tear-filled eyes swimming with an unspoken, desperate plea. "Please, Mr. Montgomery... don't let her hurt him. I didn't steal anything. I swear to you on my life, I didn't touch her jewelry."
"Of course she's going to lie, Christian!" Chloe snapped, slamming her wine glass down onto the marble vanity. The glass shattered, splashing dark red liquid across the expensive cosmetics. "She’s been sneaking into our private quarters for weeks! I found her in your study handling private documents. She's an industrial spy, or a blackmailer!"
"Shut up, Chloe!" Christian roared, his voice echoing like thunder through the massive master suite. He stood up, turning to face his wife, his eyes blazing with a dangerous, lethal intensity. "I know exactly why she was in my study. And I know exactly who this baby is."
Chloe froze, her arrogant smirk faltering for a split second before she recovered her icy composure. "What are you talking about? She’s just a stray you let into this house."
"Nine months ago, Chloe, you told me you were traveling to a holistic fertility clinic in Switzerland for an experimental IVF procedure," Christian said, his voice dropping to a deadly, calm whisper. "You said you wanted total privacy, so you forbade me from coming with you. You came back three months later, claiming the procedure failed and that we could never conceive. But you didn't go to Switzerland, did you?"
Christian pulled his phone from his pocket, pulling up an encrypted data file his private security team had messaged him while he was boarding his flight from London.
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"I received a tip-off from our family attorney last night," Christian continued, stepping closer to his wife. "He found an offshore bank account under your name that had been funneling fifty thousand dollars a month to a private medical facility in upstate New York. I dug deeper. You didn't fail an IVF procedure, Chloe. You secretly paid a corrupt agency to find a surrogate mother to carry my biological child, because you refused to 'ruin your body' with a pregnancy."
Christian pointed a trembling finger at Lily, who was crying silently on the bed. "That surrogate was Lily. And the agency you used didn't tell her the truth. They told her she was carrying a child for an anonymous donor. But when she gave birth two weeks ago, she discovered the paperwork had my name on it. She realized her baby was being brought into a house run by a monster. So she took a job as our housemaid just to stay close to her son and protect him from you."
