She Took Her Sister's Place at the Altar. The Billionaire Groom Already Knew.

She kept her job at the hospital. Alexander drove her there every morning himself. He came to the ward on Sundays and read stories to the kids, terribly, doing all the voices wrong. He learned how she liked her tea. She learned that he slept with a purple knit hat on his nightstand.

The guest room stayed the guest room for exactly six weeks.

Then one night, he found her asleep on the couch after a double shift, carried her to his own room, and stayed up all night just watching her sleep.

When she woke up, he was still there.

"I'm in love with you," he said. "I think I have been for six years."

She didn't say anything. She just kissed him.

Chloe came home in the fifth month.

She walked into Alexander's company's charity gala at the Met in a red dress, tanned, crying, with mascara running down her face, and threw herself into his arms in front of three hundred people.

"Alex," she sobbed. "I made a terrible mistake. I was scared. I panicked. Mom and Dad pressured me, and I ran, and I've regretted it every single day."

Alexander stood perfectly still. He didn't hug her back.

Across the room, Evie froze with a glass of water in her hand.

"Please," Chloe said, loud enough for everyone around them to hear. "Just give me a chance. You were supposed to marry me. Everyone knows Evie only did it for the money."

Evie set down her glass and walked out of the gala.

Alexander found her an hour later, sitting on the cold stone steps outside the Met.

"Evie—"

"She wrote it all down," Evie said, staring straight ahead. "Before the wedding. The whole plan. Come back in six months, cry, get you back, get the prenup money. Mom helped her." She laughed bitterly. "And it's working. Did you see their faces in there? Everyone believes her. Of course they do. Chloe's the beautiful one. I'm the substitute."

"Evie, look at me."

"You were going to marry her. You chose her first."

"I chose the Sinclair daughter," Alexander said. "Because I thought it was you."

"Then why didn't you hug her back just now? Or push her away?" Her voice cracked. "You just stood there."

Alexander was silent.

Evie stood up.

"I'm going to Nana June's for a few days," she said. "I need to think."

She walked down the steps and into a cab, and she didn't look back.

Four days later, Evie found out she was pregnant.

She sat on the edge of the bathtub in Nana June's old apartment on the Upper West Side, holding the test with shaking hands.

That same afternoon, her phone lit up with a text from her mother.

Your sister and Alexander had lunch today at Le Bernardin. Photos are on Page Six. I think you should accept that this was always meant to be temporary, dear. Your father's lawyer can draw up the annulment papers.

Below the text was a photo.

Alexander and Chloe at a corner table. Chloe was leaning across, holding his hand, smiling.

Alexander wasn't pulling away.