Chapter 1 - The Unchanging Secret
The lavish ballroom was filled with elite guests celebrating the annual corporate gala.
Nathan stood in the darkest corner of the room, staring miserably into his empty whiskey glass.
His beautiful wife, Sarah, was standing on the opposite side of the room, completely ignoring his existence.
Their ten-year marriage was rapidly falling apart because of one single, devastating mistake.
Across the room stood Vanessa, the young assistant who claimed she was carrying Nathan's unborn child.
She was wearing a tight silk dress, gently rubbing her stomach while accepting sympathetic glances from the guests.
Nathan had been paying for her luxury apartment and medical bills in a desperate attempt to keep the scandal quiet.
But Ethan, Nathan’s sharp and observant younger brother, stood near the buffet table watching Vanessa with intense suspicion.
Ethan had been secretly tracking the timeline of this supposed pregnancy for the past fourteen weeks.
He noticed something completely bizarre that no one else in their social circle seemed to catch.
The physical shape of Vanessa's pregnancy never changed, not even a little bit over the past month.
Human bodies grew and adapted naturally, but Vanessa’s stomach looked like a perfectly static, unchanging dome.
Ethan walked casually toward her, holding a sharp silver safety pin completely hidden between his fingers.
He pretended to stumble over the edge of a thick Persian rug just as she walked past him.
He reached out his hand to steady himself, deliberately pressing the sharp pin directly into the side of her swollen stomach.
Instead of hitting human flesh, the metal pin easily pierced through something thick and synthetic.
A loud, distinct popping sound echoed through the immediate area, followed by a sudden hiss of escaping air.
Vanessa’s perfectly rounded stomach instantly began to deflate right in front of Ethan's eyes.
She gasped in absolute terror, quickly throwing her arms over her ruined dress to hide the deflating silicone balloon.
Ethan opened his mouth to shout the truth to the entire crowded ballroom.
But before he could say a single word, Vanessa reached into her designer purse and pulled out a small glass vial.
She crushed it against her own leg, sending a massive wave of fake, dark red blood pouring down her dress.
She let out a blood-curdling scream, collapsing to the marble floor and sobbing hysterically.
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Nathan rushed through the crowd, dropping to his knees as Vanessa pointed a trembling finger directly at Ethan.
She screamed that Ethan had just brutally attacked her and murdered his own unborn nephew.
