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What was I supposed to do?

I didn’t know…I just didn’t know.

But that didn’t happen, right? It couldn’t be happening. Tome.

She just didn’t say I could never get pregnant, did she?

No, that was impossible.

CHAPTER 11

KATY

I was smoothing my hand over the skirt of my yellow Emilia Wickstead Elvita dress when Lan entered the room later that evening.

Instead of his usual dark jeans and low-effort T-shirt, Lan was dressed in long, tailored black slacks and a white button-down shirt with the top three buttons undone showing off his muscular chest.

He looked sexy.

More than sexy.

The smile on his lips and the glint in his brown eyes that lit upon seeing me only made him all the more handsome.

Gorgeous.

He was mine.

Mine.

Or was he hers?

The girl with perfect hair, perfect skin, and perfect body that stared at me in the mirror.

He was hers, right?

He belonged to her.

As long as she stayed this way, he would be hers.

Because the real girl inside couldn’t give him everything… all she would bring to the table was disappointment and resentment down the line.

“You look beautiful,” he whispered.

I knew. I’d spent hours trying to perfect my appearance. I needed to look perfect.Perfect.

I had no choice but to look perfect.

His calloused thumb glided softly along my cheek. “Ready?”

“Yes.”

Lan took my hand softly but not before giving me a sweet kiss as he led me out. I couldn’t even feel the warmth of his hold seep into my body because that was how cold I felt.

Instead of going through the main door like I had expected, Lan guided me out the back door, which led to acres of sprawling backyard with a pool and expansive garden shrouded in trees, shrubs, and modern plants.

I didn’t voice my question; instead, I followed him quietly, my eyes pinned on his tanned hand holding mine, wondering if they could just do something. I wondered if any second now his touch could caress my cold bones and make me feel warm again.

The halt of his footsteps snapped my eyes to the sight in front of me. We were far down the path in a closed area between a beautiful patch of lawn surrounded by neatly kept shrubs and sycamore trees. The entire area was lit up with hundreds and hundreds of tiny fairy lights like the stars had fallen upon them from the sky.