He Poisoned Me for His Secret Son,Now I Want OutChapter 1

After those viral videos of boyfriends treating their girlfriends like babies took over the internet, I decided to test the waters.

I sent a photo of a cat to my boyfriend, who had just proposed to me the week before.

"This will be our first baby. A fur baby still counts."

Herman Barnes rubbed the top of my head, his smile casual and unhurried.

"No. That'd be the second."

I stared at him, this man who had never once said anything remotely romantic.

I was sure he meant that I was the first—fragile, sensitive me.

I didn't press him on it. After all, he really did take good care of me.

I burrowed into his arms, giddy, already dreaming of our future together.

Then came the parent-teacher conference at the kindergarten.

I watched my fiancé walk through the school gates holding the hand of a child he'd told me belonged to a friend who had passed away.

I was about to go over and ask what was going on when the little boy's voice stopped me cold.

"I don't want to be a kid without a dad anymore. When are you going to tell Ms. Gill that you're my real father?"

Herman gently pinched the boy's cheek.

"Once Ms. Gill and I are married, I'll convince her to adopt you. But until then, you can't let her find out about you or your mother."

The boy nodded obediently.

The ground dropped out from under me.

The first baby he'd been talking about wasn't me.

It was his illegitimate son.

……

"When are you going to let Herbert Hayward call you 'Dad' for real? If this keeps up, it's going to mess with his head."

An unfamiliar voice. A woman's.

I hadn't even recovered from the shock of my fiancé having a child when I saw a face I didn't recognize and yet somehow did.

My heart seized.

I knew her.

Janet Hayward. Herman's ex-girlfriend.

I'd seen that face years ago, young and fresh in an old college group photo.

Now, looking more carefully, Herbert really did share their features. The resemblance was unmistakable—sixty percent theirs.

Two years. Two full years, and I hadn't noticed a thing.

So all those times his friends had teased him about his "epic love story" with his ex, it had been real.

Back then, Herman had looked me straight in the eye like an earnest schoolboy and sworn up and down they were just joking.

Promise after promise. Oath after oath.

And I, like a fool, had laughed it off and teased him for being more sensitive than I was.