"Please, get me pregnant!"
When Evelyn Grant stumbled frantically into the master bedroom on the second floor, its occupant had just stepped out of the bathroom.
He was naked, with only a towel wrapped around his lower body. It hung so loosely it looked ready to fall off, revealing the sharp lines of his V-cut abs. Droplets of water still clung to his pale skin.
Hearing this absurd request, Ryan Sterling's first reaction, surprisingly, wasn't shock.
His long, elegant dark eyes lowered for just a second in understanding before his thin lips curled into a knowing, playful smirk.
Wicked and cunning.
"Evelyn Grant. We haven't seen each other in three years, and the first thing you do is try to sleep with me?"
"Let me guess. My brother still doesn't believe you and has decided to testify in court, accusing you of intentionally murdering Jane Jacobs?"
A little over a month ago, her husband Julian Sterling's one true love suddenly fell from a building to her death.
Two lives were lost at once.
At the time, only Evelyn Grant and Jane Jacobs were on that rooftop!
Naturally, that made her the prime suspect.
Evelyn Grant had explained to Julian Sterling over and over again that she didn't do it! That Jane Jacobs had even lured her to the meeting by using his name!
Julian Sterling had personally told her he believed her. He said he wouldn't act as a witness or submit the security footage as evidence. His only condition was that since Jane Jacobs's dying wish was for them to divorce, Evelyn had to agree. If she did, he would let the whole thing go.
But she never expected it.
The day the thirty-day cooling-off period ended, the very day she received the divorce certificate, Julian Sterling tricked Evelyn Grant into coming to the Sterling Estate, locked the door from the outside, and left to bring people back to arrest the "murderer"!
She pushed, pounded on the door, and tried to reason with him.
"It really wasn't me! I didn't do it!"
"Julian, please believe me this once, just this once!"
But instead, she heard the man she had loved for ten years seethe from the other side of the door.
"You were the one who shamelessly insisted on marrying me back then! If Grandpa hadn't pressured me, I never would have registered our marriage! Jane has always been the only one in my heart. The baby in her belly was mine, too! You killed them both, and I'll make you pay with your life!"
'So that's how it was…'
'So that's how it was!'
'No wonder on their wedding night, Julian Sterling had swallowed his pride and confessed he was impotent, just to avoid consummating the marriage.'
And Evelyn Grant had actually believed him.
She had even protected her husband's dignity by never telling a soul about their sexless three-year marriage!
'How utterly laughable.'
But right now, at this moment, she had no time to dwell on any of that.
As a lawyer, Evelyn Grant knew all too well what the chances of receiving the death penalty were, with both a witness and physical evidence against her for two counts of murder.
The only way to survive was to get pregnant.
Because pregnant women are not subject to the death penalty.
She couldn't die.
Her younger brother was taking his college entrance exams this year, and her mother was seriously ill in the hospital.
She had to live!
She had to live to buy time to find evidence, to live until the day the truth came to light!
But Julian Sterling certainly hadn't anticipated a flaw in his seemingly perfect plan…
His younger brother, Ryan Sterling, had just returned to the country last night and was now also at the estate, locked inside with her.
"Yes."
Standing by the door, Evelyn Grant clenched her fists and straightened her back defiantly. "Whether you believe me or not, I didn't kill anyone. She tried to push me, but she lost her footing and fell."
Ryan Sterling slowly lifted his gaze, a low chuckle rumbling in his chest. "I believe you."
Evelyn Grant froze at his answer. "Then you'll…?"
"I can help you get pregnant."
He paused deliberately. "But I have a condition."
Her eyes suddenly lit up. She looked up, and in the cold light of the incandescent bulb, Ryan Sterling's face looked even more profound and exquisite.
When he spoke, his casual voice was laced with a lazy amusement.
"I hear that even if a pregnant inmate on death row has a miscarriage, she still can't be executed, is that right?"
Evelyn Grant nodded, the color draining from her small face. "Yes. So don't worry, I'll find a way to get rid of the baby. I absolutely won't—"
"I want you to have this baby."
"What?"
Ryan Sterling yanked her into his bedroom, shut the door, and pinned her against the wall.
"I said, Evelyn Grant, I want this child."