My twin sister, Scarlett, and I married the twin brothers of the Sterling family. She married the older brother, Sebastian, a top lawyer. I married the younger, Julian, a brilliant surgeon.

My high-risk pregnancy had me on bed rest at the manor when I was kidnapped. From the manor's landline, my captors made a series of frantic calls to Julian, but every single one went straight to voicemail.

In a fit of desperation, one of them slammed a golf club into my abdomen. My baby was gone.

Finally, the kidnappers made one last call to Julian. This time, he answered. "Chloe just collapsed at a dinner party. I'm with her. Stop this pathetic cry for attention."

With no ransom coming, the kidnappers bound my hands and feet and threw me into the frigid indoor pool. Then, they vanished.

Just as I was about to suffocate, my sister, Scarlett, arrived and pulled me from the water. Seeing me bleeding profusely from the miscarriage, she frantically called Sebastian.

But all she heard was his cold dismissal. "I'm dealing with the PR crisis Chloe caused. Don't bother me."

She tried to call the police, but her phone was lost in the ensuing chaos. Left with no other choice, she was forced to drive me to the hospital herself.

On the way, a sudden blizzard hit, and a fallen tree blocked the mountain road. Our car skidded off the highway.

We were trapped in the car, freezing and waiting for death. Fortunately, a highway patrol cruiser found us just in time. We survived.

When we woke up in the hospital, the same thought screamed through both our minds: We had to get a divorce.

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1

When I woke up, I was lying in a hospital bed, every bone in my body screaming in protest.

The pain was a constant thrum, but the cramping in my lower abdomen was a sharp, hollow ache. An emptiness so profound I knew with chilling certainty: my baby was gone.

I picked up my phone and sent a message to Julian Sterling.

"The baby's gone."

I stared at the screen, waiting for a reply, but the phone remained dark. After a moment, I typed another line.

"Let's get a divorce."

Still nothing.

Hours later, his call finally came through.

I answered, expecting to hear his voice, but it was Chloe Davenport on the line.

"Avery, please don't be angry with Julian. There was an incident at the dinner party—I had a pregnancy scare. He was the only one I could call, so I begged him to stay."

"This is all my fault. But please, don't divorce him over it. He truly loves you; this would destroy him."

Before I could utter a word, Julian snatched the phone. His voice was laced with impatience. "Avery, how long are you going to pull this stunt? Using the baby and threatening divorce to get what you want?"

"Has your jealousy gotten this out of control? Chloe had a scare—it's a high-risk pregnancy."

"I'm staying with her. Can't you show a single ounce of compassion?"

His agitation grew with every word, his voice rising to a roar.

I was too stunned to speak as silent tears streamed down my cheeks.

"Julian, I'm not lying. Our baby is gone," I whispered, my throat tight with grief. "I was kidnapped at the manor. You didn't answer your phone, and I lost our child."

I was sobbing, desperate for him to believe me. His only response was a cold, dismissive laugh from the other end of the line.

"Avery, your lies are getting more ridiculous. This sounds like a script from a bad soap opera," he scoffed. "I went to the manor. Everything was fine. Stop playing the victim. I'm busy with Chloe."

"Don't bother me."

Then, in the background, I heard Chloe's soothing voice again. "Julian, don't be mad at Avery."

"She's probably just making it up for attention."

Julian snapped back, "Stop defending her. She's pretending the baby is dead just to get my attention!"

"What kind of mother would do something so monstrous?"

"She doesn't deserve your sympathy. Let her have her little drama! Let's see how long she keeps it up when no one's watching."

With that, he hung up.

I sat numbly on the bed as the phone slipped from my limp fingers, landing softly on the blanket.

My sister, Scarlett Callahan, rushed over from her bed in the same room and wrapped her arms around me.

"Avery, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. I never should have let you get involved with Julian. I should have stopped you from marrying that bastard!" Scarlett cried, holding me tight, her tears scorching my skin.

She knew how much I had endured for this baby.

Conceiving him had been a long, arduous journey.

I was so terrified of losing him that I'd retreated to the remote manor to rest the moment I found out I was pregnant.

I spent my entire pregnancy there, doing everything in my power to protect him.

And in the end, I had lost him anyway.

The pain in my chest was unbearable, a physical weight, as if someone had reached inside and was crushing my heart into dust.

Julian had no idea that while he was coddling Chloe, I was being dragged away by kidnappers and beaten until I miscarried our child.

After countless unanswered calls to Julian from the manor's landline, the kidnappers had lost their patience. They grabbed a golf club and slammed it into my abdomen.

They roared in fury as they struck me.

"If the Sterlings hadn't destroyed my company with that hostile takeover, I wouldn't be drowning in debt!"

"If your husband doesn't send the money, you and your baby are going to die!"

For a fleeting moment, I actually felt relief. This was just about money. Julian had more than enough.

But after their brutal interrogation, they tried Julian one last time. He finally picked up.

"I told you not to bother me with this!"

"Chloe just collapsed and she's at risk of a miscarriage. I'm with her! If you have a shred of decency, you'll stop calling!"

When the kidnappers realized the ransom was never coming, they lost their minds. They beat me until I was unconscious.

"Julian ruined our lives! Now we're going to make him feel what it's like to lose his wife and child!"

They threw me into the freezing indoor swimming pool and left me to die.

If Scarlett hadn't found me, I would have died.

Just then, her phone rang, pulling me from the horrifying memory. It was her husband, the top lawyer Sebastian Sterling.

She answered, and the icy condescension in his voice struck us both.

"Scarlett, why are you helping your sister lie? Claiming the baby is gone and trying to pin it on Chloe? Don't you know she's pregnant? Why are you going after a pregnant woman?"

"And tell your sister marriage isn't a game!"

"And I already told you, I'm handling Chloe's legal issues. Why do you keep calling? You're disrupting my work. The two of you are being completely unreasonable!"

Scarlett was stunned. She tried to explain, but Sebastian had already hung up.

Fighting back her own tears, she took my hand, a silent offering of comfort. We looked at each other, our shared disappointment mirrored in each other's eyes.

I had been through hell, and Julian couldn't be bothered to hear a single word of it.

Perhaps this marriage was a mistake from the very beginning.

Julian and Sebastian had never truly loved us. The only person they had ever truly loved was Chloe.

Scarlett and I had entered their lives only after Chloe abandoned the twin brothers to marry a down-on-his-luck European nobleman. That's when they had married us.

But now Chloe was back, and everything had changed. They orbited her constantly, catering to her every whim.

Sebastian, the top lawyer, was personally handling her petty legal disputes, while Julian, one of the city's top surgeons, was personally crafting her diet plans.

For us, they had nothing but cold indifference.

Scarlett and I clung to each other and wept, our hearts aching with a pain born of regret.

"What's the point of a marriage like this?" she sobbed, a hot tear landing on the back of my hand.

Our marriages had been a cruel joke from the start.

And now, it was time for the punchline.

Just then, my phone buzzed. A notification from Instagram.

I tapped the notification without thinking, and my screen lit up with a new post from Chloe.

In the photo, she was beaming, flanked by Julian on her left and Sebastian on her right. She looked like the very picture of bliss.

"Surrounded by the two most important men in my life. Can't wait to meet my little angel!"

Her caption was a victory lap, dripping with gloat.

A sharp pain lanced through my chest, and the tears I had been fighting to hold back finally broke free.

Chloe was surrounded by love. But what about me? What about Scarlett?

I had just lost my baby and was lying on a cold hospital bed. Scarlett had nearly frozen to death in a blizzard trying to save me.

The doctors had delivered the devastating news: the prolonged exposure to the cold had likely destroyed her chances of ever conceiving. She might never have a child of her own.

We had suffered so much, and our husbands didn't believe us. They didn't even care.

When my twin sister and I married the Sterling twin brothers, our story made the front page of The New York Times.

Everyone said it was a match made in heaven—the perfect foursome.

Twin sisters marrying twin brothers was the stuff of fairy tales.

People sent their blessings, hailing it as the most romantic story of the year.

But the fairy tale had curdled into a nightmare. Our marriages weren't just imperfect or unhappy. They were devastating.

"Scarlett, look at this," I choked out, handing her my phone.

She glanced at the screen, and a flicker of rage and despair crossed her face.

"How could she? This is just cruel," she said, her voice hollow with helplessness and pain.

She squeezed my hand, as if trying to transfer some of her own strength to me.

"Scarlett, we can't go on like this," I said, my voice firm despite the sobs wracking my body. "Let's divorce them. Together."

She hesitated for only a second before her chin lifted in resolve.

"Okay. Let's do it," she agreed. "There's no point in holding on to this."

That same day, we contacted one of the top divorce lawyers in New York. He was efficient. By afternoon, the divorce papers were drawn up and dispatched to Julian and Sebastian.

After the confirmation email arrived, Scarlett and I looked at each other. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, we both exhaled in unison.

But a week passed with no response. Not a word from either of them.

Finally, I couldn't stand the silence any longer. I called Julian.

"Julian, did you receive the divorce papers? When are you going to sign them?" I tried to keep my voice steady, but a tremor gave me away.

His voice crackled through the phone, cold and furious. "Avery, do you really have to push it this far? Chloe needs to rest. Can't you be quiet for once? Do you get some kind of sick thrill out of all this drama?"

I heard Chloe's gentle voice beside him. "Julian, don't be mad at Avery. She's probably just in a bad mood."

"You know how emotional pregnant women can get. Maybe this is just her way of asking for attention. You should try to be more understanding."

She was playing the mediator, but every word was a carefully placed barb, designed to paint me as a hysterical woman throwing a tantrum for attention.

Hearing her words, something inside me snapped.

"Don't you dare talk to me about pregnancy!" I screamed, my voice breaking on a fresh wave of tears. "Julian, our baby is gone! Does that mean nothing to you?"

A beat of silence, then Julian's voice returned, colder than a tomb.

"Avery, cut the act. I'm sick of you using this pregnancy to get my attention. Chloe needs me right now. I don't have time for your lies."

His words were like shards of glass in my heart.

Then Chloe spoke again, her tone soft and saccharine. "Julian, maybe you should go to Avery. I'll be fine. She sounds so unstable. You're her husband. You should be with her."

Her words were meant to sound kind, but each syllable was a slap in the face.

Just before the line went dead, I heard Julian's dismissive voice: "She's just spoiled. Ignore her."

Then, he hung up.

I sat there, tears streaming down my face.

Scarlett took my hand. "Avery, you're still recovering. Please don't let this destroy you. I'm with you. When you're discharged, we'll leave them for good. Okay?"

I nodded through my tears. "Okay."

Those two weeks in the hospital were the most agonizing of our lives.

Julian and Sebastian never visited. They never called. It was as if we had simply ceased to exist.

Every day, we watched other patients surrounded by their families. But Scarlett and I had only each other.

At night, in the quiet of the ward, I could hear Scarlett's muffled sobs from the next bed. She tried to hide them, but I knew the depth of her pain.

I was in pain, too. Letting go of the man I had once loved with all my heart felt like tearing a part of myself away.

Finally, the day of our discharge arrived.

But as we were about to leave, a scene down the hall made me freeze.

Through the window of the maternity ward, I saw Sebastian carefully handing a cup of tea to Chloe.

Lying on the hospital bed, Chloe clung to Julian's arm. Her voice was soft, trembling. "Julian, I'm so scared. I hear giving birth hurts so much."

Julian gently patted her back and leaned in. "Don't worry, Chloe. I'll be here the whole time."

"I've arranged for the best obstetrician. Everything will go smoothly."

Sebastian nodded beside them. "Don't be afraid. We're not going anywhere. We'll be right here with you."

The three of them formed a perfect, harmonious tableau.

Meanwhile, Scarlett and I stood like forgotten shadows at the other end of the hall.

We held onto each other for support, watching them from a distance, feeling like outsiders in a story that was never ours.

My chest tightened, and the pain inside me resurfaced, sharp and raw.

In that moment, we finally understood. To Julian and Sebastian, Chloe was irreplaceable. We were just a diversion, a way to pass the lonely hours.

Now that they had found the woman they truly wanted to protect, there was no place left for us.

Scarlett squeezed my hand. Her own was cold and trembling.