Chapter 1 – The Diagnosis
The smell of antiseptic burned Daisy’s nose long before the doctor spoke.
It clung to the white walls, the polished floors, the stiff vinyl chair beneath her thighs. Everything about the clinic felt cold, impersonal—like it was designed to strip people down to facts and numbers, to diagnoses that didn’t care who you were or how badly you needed the world to make sense.
Daisy sat on the edge of the examination bed, her hands folded tightly in her lap. Her fingers were rough from factory work, knuckles faintly scarred, nails bitten down to nothing. She kept her eyes on them, afraid that if she looked up, she might see something in the doctor’s face that she wasn’t ready to face.
“Have you had sex recently?” the doctor asked, tone brisk, already typing into the computer.
Daisy swallowed. Her throat felt tight, dry.
“Once,” she said quietly. “About… four months ago.”
The clicking stopped.
The doctor turned toward her, eyebrows lifting just slightly. “Once?”
“Yes.”
There was a pause. Too long. The kind of pause that stretched until it filled the room, until it pressed against Daisy’s chest and made it hard to breathe.
“Well,” the doctor said at last, standing and adjusting her gloves, “that explains it.”
“Explains what?” Daisy asked, her voice barely more than a whisper.
The doctor met her eyes then, and something in that look—professional, detached, final—sent a chill through Daisy’s spine.
“You’re pregnant.”
The words landed like a blow.
Pregnant.
Daisy blinked. Once. Twice. She waited for them to rearrange themselves into something else, something harmless. A misunderstanding. A clerical error. Anything but this.
“That’s not possible,” she said quickly, the words tumbling over each other. “There must be a mistake. He told me—he told me he was sterile.”
The doctor frowned, already pulling up another chart. “With fertility treatments, sterility doesn’t always mean zero chance. It often just means low probability.”
“But there were no treatments,” Daisy insisted, panic rising. “None. And it was only once.”
The doctor sighed, clearly accustomed to disbelief. “Pregnancy only takes once.”
Daisy’s heart began to pound so loudly she could hear it in her ears.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “No, that can’t be right.”
The doctor turned the screen slightly toward her. Shapes and shadows appeared—blurred, unfamiliar. Daisy didn’t understand any of it, but she felt the truth of it settle deep in her bones anyway.
“There’s more,” the doctor added, her voice careful now.
Daisy’s hands curled into fists. “More?”
“Yes.” The doctor hesitated, then said it plainly. “You’re not carrying one fetus.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“You’re pregnant with triplets.”
The world shattered.
Daisy didn’t remember sliding down onto the bed. She didn’t remember clutching the thin sheet, or the way her chest started to hurt as if her ribs were caving in. All she knew was that suddenly there were three lives growing inside her, three fragile heartbeats she hadn’t asked for, hadn’t planned for, hadn’t even known existed until this moment.
Triplets.
“That’s… that’s not…” She laughed weakly, a broken sound that didn’t belong to her. “That’s not funny.”
The doctor didn’t smile.
“Triplets are considered a high-risk pregnancy,” she continued. “Especially at your age. You’re nineteen, correct?”
Daisy nodded numbly.
“You’ll need specialized prenatal care. Frequent monitoring. Nutritional support.” The doctor paused, then added gently, “You’re underweight. Have you been eating properly?”
Daisy didn’t answer. She thought of instant noodles stretched over days. Of skipping meals so she could save money. Of working double shifts until her legs shook.
“We’ll also need the father’s information,” the doctor said, already reaching for a clipboard. “There’s a lot of paperwork.”
The word father made Daisy flinch.
“I… I don’t—” Her voice cracked. “I don’t even know if he’ll want to be involved.”
The doctor studied her for a moment, then sighed. “Regardless, you’ll need to notify him. Triplets change things.”
Change things.
That was one way to put it.
When Daisy left the clinic, the sun was already sinking low in the sky, painting the city in gold and shadow. People passed her on the sidewalk, laughing, talking, living their normal lives, unaware that hers had just split into a before and an after.
She wrapped her arms around herself as if that might somehow protect the three tiny lives inside her.
He told me he was sterile.
Her thoughts spiraled, chasing each other in circles. The man’s face flickered in her mind—sharp features, cold eyes, an aura of power she’d felt even then, even in that moment she’d tried so hard to forget.
Marcus Sinclair.
The name alone felt dangerous.
She hadn’t known who he was when she first met him. Not really. Not until later. Not until the rumors whispered through the factory like wildfire.
The world’s biggest e-commerce CEO.
A man so far removed from her life that he might as well have lived on another planet.
And now she was carrying his children.
Three of them.
Daisy staggered slightly as she walked, her hand instinctively moving to her still-flat stomach.
Don’t be scared, babies, she thought, tears burning her eyes. Mommy won’t let anyone hurt you.
The thought of her father sent a fresh wave of terror through her.
If he found out…
She shuddered. Her father didn’t see her as a daughter. He saw her as an investment, a burden, something to be controlled and spent. If he learned she was pregnant—especially unmarried—he wouldn’t hesitate.
He’d force an abortion.
Or worse.
“I can’t let that happen,” Daisy whispered to herself, quickening her pace. “I won’t.”
She would have to leave. Run, if necessary. Disappear before he could sell her off, before he could decide what to do with her body and her future.
The factory loomed ahead, its gray walls and flickering lights as familiar as they were suffocating. It had been her prison for years now—long hours, low pay, endless humiliation—but it had also been her only means of survival.
Inside, the noise hit her all at once. Machines clanked and whirred, voices shouted over one another, supervisors barked orders. The smell of oil and sweat replaced the antiseptic from earlier, grounding her in harsh reality.
“Why aren’t you all in uniform?” a woman snapped nearby. “Do you have any idea who’s coming today?”
Daisy barely registered it at first.
Then she heard the name.
“Marcus Sinclair.”
Her heart skipped violently.
“He’s coming to inspect the factory,” another worker whispered excitedly. “Can you imagine? The world’s richest bachelor walking into this dump?”
“I heard he doesn’t even like women,” someone else laughed. “But if I could get him to notice me, I’d never work another day in my life.”
Daisy’s stomach twisted.
She lowered her head and moved toward her station, trying to make herself invisible.
Then it happened.
A collision. A gasp. Papers scattering across the floor.
“I’m so sorry,” Daisy blurted automatically, bending down.
A pair of polished shoes entered her vision. Expensive. Immaculate.
“Are you always this careless?” a deep voice asked.
Her breath caught.
Slowly, Daisy looked up.
Marcus Sinclair stood before her, taller than she remembered, broader somehow, his presence commanding the space around him. His dark eyes flicked over her face, narrowing slightly, as if something about her struck a chord he hadn’t expected.
For a split second, the world went silent.
Then reality came crashing back in.
“I— I didn’t mean—” Daisy scrambled to gather the papers, her hands shaking.
Marcus watched her, his gaze lingering longer than it should have.
“Interesting,” he murmured.
And just like that, Daisy knew—without understanding how or why—that her life was about to change in ways she couldn’t yet comprehend.
She pressed a hand to her stomach again, heart racing.
Triplets.
And the father was standing right in front of her.
End of Chapter 1
