The Billionaire's Surrogate Trap

When I found out, yet again, that the IVF baby growing in my womb was actually created from my husband's sperm and his mistress's egg.

I didn't throw a violent, hysterical fit and destroy the pregnancy like the previous times.

Instead, I chose to play the obedient wife. I nurtured the baby and gave birth to him.

Since then, I became the biggest joke in the entire upper-class social circuit, single-handedly keeping hundreds of gossip blogs in business.

Every cheating billionaire wished they had a wife as "magnanimous" and "forgiving" as me.

Every mistress in our social circle prayed they could seduce a husband like mine.

As for the other elite wives, they looked at me like I was a pathetic, spineless disgrace to womanhood.

Until the tenth month, when I safely delivered the baby boy.

The moment I was wheeled out of the delivery room, Arthur kissed my forehead as gently as he always did.

"Chloe is terrified of pain, and you can't conceive anyway. It's perfect that you could carry the child for us."

"Don't worry, she only wants to be a mother. She won't threaten your position as Mrs. Vance. You are still the only woman I truly love."

Everyone said I loved Arthur Vance to the point of madness. They said that because I couldn't beat the mistress, my only choice was to join them.

But only I knew the truth.

I was forced to carry this child by the Vance family matriarch, calling in a life debt I owed her from years ago.

Now that the eldest Vance grandson was born.

The divorce agreement she promised me would finally go into effect.

As the local anesthesia wore off, the throbbing pain from the C-section incision woke me from my stupor.

Opening my eyes, I saw Arthur holding the baby, his face beaming with absolute joy.

"Honey, Grandma has already picked out a name for our baby. All you have to do is sign this, and we can register his birth certificate."

He handed me the paperwork.

Seeing the name Arthur Vance II written on the line, my groggy brain instantly snapped awake.

Arthur Vance II.

The Second. Carrying on the legacy.

That was the beautiful hope I had for my own unborn son.

It was the expectation we once had for our love.

And more importantly, it was the traditional naming convention reserved exclusively for the eldest son of the 13th generation in the Vance family tree.

Years ago, to save Arthur from kidnappers, I took a knife to the abdomen for him. It severely damaged my reproductive organs, making it nearly impossible for me to conceive.

Later, during our first successful IVF pregnancy, I walked in on him sleeping with my illegitimate half-sister, Chloe, in our marital bed. In the ensuing chaos, he shoved me. I hemorrhaged and was forced to have a late-term abortion.

It was a fully formed baby boy.

After recovering from the miscarriage, I wanted to set up a small memorial for him and bury him in the family plot.

But the family's spiritual advisor said the child had died prematurely, so the timing was bad, and we had to wait.

I waited for over a year.

Throughout this current pregnancy, Arthur whispered in my ear countless times, asking if we could give the name "Arthur II" to this bastard child.

I never agreed.

But now, looking at his expectant eyes, the memory of him crying and begging for my forgiveness back then just made me feel sick.

I knew Grandma didn't pick that name.

Chloe just loved stealing everything that was mine. She must have whispered it into Arthur's ear.

Whatever. The divorce was already set in stone. The last name of a sociopathic father wasn't worth fighting over.

"Whatever. Call him whatever you want."

"I only have one condition. Do not list me as the mother on the birth certificate. My real son in heaven wouldn't like it."

Arthur froze, a flash of guilt crossing his eyes.

"Evelyn, please don't worry. I only used her because she shares half your bloodline. Me and her..."

Before he could finish, a loud crash echoed from the hallway.

"You little bitch, who told you you could show your face here?!"

Chloe was knocked to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably.

"I just wanted to come see the baby."

Grandma Vance was relentlessly striking her with her heavy wooden cane.

"Get out!"

In that instant, Arthur reacted like a startled bird. He didn't even have time to hand the baby to the nurse. He practically tossed the newborn onto my chest and sprinted out the door.

The weight of the baby pressed directly onto my freshly sutured incision. A piercing agony shot through me, and I cried out in pain.

But he acted like he couldn't hear me and kept running.

He threw himself in front of the old woman's cane without hesitation, shielding Chloe tightly behind his back. The way he aggressively protected her made his comforting words from a minute ago seem like an absolute joke.

"Grandma! It was my idea! I did it for the Vance family! Stop hurting innocent people!"

Grandma Vance froze for a second, instinctively looking past him into my room.

Seeing the stark white hospital bedsheets rapidly turning crimson with my blood, she slammed her cane hard against Arthur's back.

"You animal! Her incision hasn't healed, how could you just drop the baby on her?!"

Arthur's eyes filled with sudden panic and regret. He was about to rush back into the room to check on me.

But behind him, Chloe suddenly went limp and collapsed.

Panicking, he scooped her up into his arms, ready to carry her away.

Grandma Vance blocked his path with her body.

"Don't you dare leave! Your wife is bleeding out in there! Do you still want a family or not?!"

Arthur's eyes were torn with hesitation.

"I do! But she got hurt because you hit her! I can't just leave her! Evelyn... she has you here, she'll be fine!"

Once upon a time, he used to shield me from every storm just like that.

Once upon a time, I was never the option he chose to abandon.

Fighting through the blinding pain, I looked at him with dead eyes.

"Grandma. Let him go."

He seemed shocked that I was being so magnanimous.

After all, in the past, to stop him from leaving, I had thrown tantrums, screamed, cried on the floor, and discarded every last shred of my dignity.

He gave me a complex look, opening his mouth as if to say something, but ultimately turned and strode quickly down the hall.

The nurses and postpartum care specialists rushed in to re-stitch and treat my wound.

The baby was rocked to sleep.

My phone suddenly buzzed with a text from him.

[I forgot about your incision, I'm sorry. I just didn't want a scene at the hospital, it would look bad for the Vance family's reputation.]

[Chloe passed out, she needs someone with her, so I won't come back tonight. Get some rest.]

I stared at the screen for a long time.

I remembered a time when I got slightly injured while traveling out of state. He took an eleven-hour flight, canceled all his multi-million dollar meetings, just to accompany me to a basic checkup, refusing to leave my side for a single second.

Seeing me sigh, Grandma snatched the phone from my hand.

Looking at his cold, dismissive words, she let out a harsh scoff.

"That ungrateful bastard! When he gets back, I'll teach him a lesson. Don't worry, Evelyn, Grandma will..."

Hearing this, I suddenly laughed. I looked at her with perfectly calm eyes.

"You tacitly approved of all of this, didn't you?"

"I don't care what he does anymore. You promised me before that once I delivered this child, you would help me get a divorce. I expect you to keep your word."

Her expression froze, a heavy, thick guilt filling her old eyes.

"It's Grandma who wronged you."

"I've already tricked him into signing the divorce papers. Rest here in the postpartum center for the next thirty days, and then you can leave."

Grandma took the baby with her, hiring a private team of nannies to care for him.

I stayed at the luxury postpartum center under the guise of "recovering," completely isolating myself from the outside gossip.

But that night, the scandal still spread like wildfire through the elite circles. The heir to the Vance empire flew into a rage for his mistress, abandoning his wife who just gave birth, defying the family matriarch to protect his sister-in-law.

Vance Group's stock plummeted for days. Arthur was drowning in corporate fires.

Chloe's "relationship advice" influencer accounts were besieged by furious netizens. The old scandalwhere I had personally exposed her for seducing her brother-in-law, only for Arthur to forcefully suppress itwas dug back up.

She was universally despised across all platforms. If Arthur hadn't intervened with his legal team, her accounts would have been deleted, and she would have faced millions in breach-of-contract penalties from her sponsors.

I didn't see him again until seven days later.

The first thing he did when he walked in was look at me with profound disappointment.

"Evelyn. Are you happy now, getting your revenge on us like this?"

I paused for a second before realizing he was blaming me for spreading the gossip to the press.

It made sense. I used to work in PR and media; manipulating the narrative was my specialty.

Unfortunately, the first time I went crazy and leaked the truth about him and Chloe, he threatened my agency, claiming I was violating NDA and committing defamation, and forced them to fire me.

It wouldn't be easy for me to find people to help me pull a stunt like this now.

I gave him a sidelong glance, having long since lost the urge to feel wronged by his false accusations.

I continued putting together the memorial gifts for Arthur II's upcoming anniversary.

"You should know that the scandals you two are involved in aren't just the ones the public knows about. If I actually wanted to expose you, you'd be bleeding a lot more cash than this."

He stood frozen in the doorway for a long time.

When he spoke, his voice sounded almost helpless.

"After this blows over, I'll cut ties with her. But you have to promise me, we're going to live a good life together from now on, okay? We have a child now. We're going to be a happy family."

He said exactly the same thing to me almost every single day when I was pregnant.

But it never stopped him from continuing to tangle with Chloe behind my back.

One day he pitied her for being an illegitimate child, the next day he felt bad because she had no family to rely on.

In short, he had a million excuses for why he "couldn't control himself" around her and why he had to ensure her life was perfectly comfortable.

He stood in the doorway, refusing to leave, as if he would stay planted there until I answered.

Looking at his shadow blocking the sunlight, I gave a dismissive, non-committal hum.

It wasn't until the next morning, when a fake "sex tape" supposedly showing me having an affair went viral across the entire internet, that I realized what he meant by "after this blows over."

Arthur released a public clarification video.

In the video, he told the media with a heartbroken expression that Chloe had discovered I was cheating on him during my pregnancy. To protect my own image, I maliciously spread false rumors about him to destroy him.

Chloe, crying beautifully on camera, claimed she only tried to advise me not to hurt Arthur's feelings, but I assumed she was going to expose my affair and decided to destroy her in revenge.

The entire internet demanded that Arthur immediately divorce a "disgusting slut" like me.

But he put on the performance of a deeply devoted martyr.

"No matter what mistakes Evelyn makes in this life, I cannot stop loving her."

Watching his sickeningly hypocritical performance, I couldn't hold it in and vomited into the trash can.

Hearing me retch, Arthur, who was standing outside my suite, rushed in.

"What's wrong?"

I frowned, looking at Chloe trailing right behind him, and shoved his hand away.

"Nothing. Just realized how disgusting you are. To cover up your mistress's sins, you're willing to completely destroy your own wife's reputation at any cost. Arthur Vance, your love is truly spectacular."

His face turned chalk-white. He opened his mouth to explain.

But Chloe suddenly dropped to her knees, crying like a fragile, broken doll.

"I'm sorry, sister, it's all my fault! Arthur only used you as a shield to protect me."

Arthur's heart instantly ached for her. He glared at me reproachfully.

"I came here specifically to talk to you about this. That video was completely AI-generated. At the end of the day, she's your sister. Sacrificing yourself a little to help her is what family does. I'm helping her because I want to maintain your family bonds! Why do you always have to be so aggressive toward her?"

"Besides, you're a stay-at-home housewife. Public reputation doesn't matter to you. What outsiders say won't change my feelings for you. As long as I know it's fake, that's enough. But she's different. She has no one to rely on, and her entire career is built on social media. If her image is destroyed, her life is over."

Listening to his high-sounding, self-righteous defense, I felt nothing but pure nausea.

A stay-at-home housewife? I'm only in this position because of you!

Back then, he didn't just force my company to fire me. He blacklisted me across the entire media industry, declaring that anyone who hired me was declaring war on the Vance Group.

I faced endless rejections. When I finally found a job at a small, independent PR boutique, he maliciously reported us to regulatory boards until we were shut down.

Eventually, my professional licenses were revoked, and I became an untouchable pariah in the industry.

I was too lazy to argue with him. My postpartum doula told me I needed to keep my mood elevated during my recovery month. Anyway, in half a month, I would be completely free.

Grandma had promised me that when the time came, she would clear my name and prove my innocence. What these two thought of me didn't matter anymore.

I looked at him with a deadpan expression, let out a long exhale, and rolled over, pulling the covers up.

"Whatever you say. Do what you want."

He thought I was going to jump up and attack Chloe like I used to. He was so tense he was practically shielding her with his entire body.

But seeing me just turn my back and lie down, all his defensive posturing abruptly halted.

After a long pause, he asked in a tone of pure disbelief.

"You... you aren't mad?"

My voice was entirely flat.

"Isn't this what you always wanted? For me to get along with her?"

He let out a massive sigh of relief and chuckled.

"You've finally learned to behave. I knew you weren't that heartless. I'll definitely make it up to you in the future."

I didn't reply. I didn't even glance at him until they walked out the door.

After a long silence, I placed a hand over my chest. It was beating steadily. No racing, no pain.

So this is what letting go feels like.

For the next few days, perhaps driven by guilt, he visited me frequently. Even when I gave him the cold shoulder or completely ignored him, he didn't get angry. He just kept rambling on about the beautiful life we would have together.

It wasn't until he brought up the "One-Month Celebration Banquet" for the baby that he finally spoke with hesitation.

"Chloe will never be able to publicly claim her biological child in this lifetime. So, I was thinking... before the baby is old enough to understand, I want to let her attend the banquet openly as the mother."

"It would give her some closure. What do you think?"

My hands didn't stop knitting the tiny sweater I was working on. I didn't even raise my eyes.

"I already told you, do whatever you want. This isn't my child. Whatever you decide has absolutely nothing to do with me."

He choked on his words. A mix of redness and faint anger flashed in his eyes. He reached over and snatched the memorial items I was preparing for Arthur II out of my hands.

"Why are you acting like this lately?! Do you even know what her attending as the mother means?! It means publicly acknowledging her as the Lady of the Vance family! You used to fight me to the death over this!"

I paused, looking at him with utter boredom.

"Isn't that a good thing? Just two months ago, when you guys were sleeping together, weren't you crying about how tragic it was that you couldn't give her a legitimate title in this lifetime?"

He froze, standing there completely paralyzed, his face turning as white as a marble statue.

I took my items back, my emotional state so incredibly stable it was as if nothing had happened.

His desperate, rambling explanationsclaiming he didn't actually love her, that he was just drugged and took her virginity, so he felt obligated to take responsibility for herwere completely defeated by my absolute, suffocating silence.

After that day, he didn't visit me again.

But I frequently saw Chloe posting on Instagram. They took the baby and shot dozens of different "Happy Family" studio portraits.

On the day I was discharged from the postpartum center, the entire Vance family was throwing a massive banquet for the bastard child.

Grandma told me the final divorce decree would be processed by tomorrow.

I went back to the penthouse to pack my things. The warm, cozy marital home we had designed together had been completely remodeled into a style Chloe liked.

Even the beautiful maternity portrait of him holding my pregnant belly, which used to sit next to the TV, had been replaced by a massive family portrait of him, Chloe, and the baby.

In the photo, Arthur was smiling radiantly.

It was an even happier smile than the day he successfully proposed to me.

I walked into the master bedroom, planning to pack some of the clothes I owned before we got married.

But after tearing through the entire walk-in closet, I couldn't find the hand-embroidered, pure silk cheongsam my mother had made for me before she died.

I was just about to call the staff to ask about it, when I saw a photo on Instagram. It was Chloe, wearing my mother's cheongsam at the banquet.