Just A Vessel: The Surrogate's Escape

I went to the bank to set up a trust fund for my twins, only to have the manager look at me with pity.

"Mrs. Dunlap, the trust requires the *biological* mother's signature."

I froze. I *was* their mother. Or so I thought.

That day, I learned my husband, the most powerful Mafia Don on the coast, had used his ex-lover’s frozen eggs.

For six years, I wasn't his wife. I was just the incubator.

When his "true love," Iliana, returned from exile, my life disintegrated.

My children, poisoned by her lies, pushed me down the stairs and called me "just the nanny."

Gavyn didn't help me up. He stepped over my bleeding body to take his "real family" out for ice cream.

But the ultimate betrayal happened on a windswept cliff.

Staged by Iliana, we were both tied up, allegedly rigged to explode.

Forced to choose who to save, Gavyn didn't hesitate.

He cut Iliana loose.

"You did this to yourself, Alex," he said, driving away with the children, leaving me to die.

He thought he was leaving behind a corpse.

He didn't know I had skimmed ten million dollars from the household accounts.

"Cut me loose," I told the hitman, transferring the money. "And tell him the ocean took me."

Two years later, the Don is on his knees in my garden, begging for a second chance.

Too bad he has to get through my new fiancé first—the head of the rival cartel.

Chapter 1

Alex POV

The bank manager slid the rejection letter across the mahogany desk, and in that single, fluid motion, the foundation of my six-year marriage didn't just crack; it disintegrated.

I sat frozen in the plush leather chair of the First National Bank, the aggressive air conditioning suddenly biting into my skin like the chill of a morgue.

I had come here to secure trust funds for my twins, Kennith and Kaelynn—a surprise for their sixth birthday.

It was supposed to be a formality.

I was Alexandra Dunlap. Wife of Gavyn Dunlap, the *Capo dei Capi* of the entire eastern seaboard.

My signature usually moved mountains. Or, at the very least, it moved millions without a blink of an eye.

"I don't understand," I said, my voice steady despite the tremors radiating through my hands.

Mr. Henderson adjusted his glasses, studiously refusing to meet my gaze.

"Mrs. Dunlap, the trust requires the biological mother's signature for the initial setup, per the Family's internal protocols regarding lineage verification."

"I *am* their mother," I stated, the words tasting like ash on my tongue.

He hesitated, then reluctantly turned his computer screen toward me.

"According to the birth certificates on file with the State and the Syndicate registry... you are the legal guardian via marriage."

My eyes scanned the document on the screen.

Biological Father: Gavyn Dunlap.

Biological Mother: Iliana Dudley.

The room lurched.

Iliana Dudley.

The ghost.

The woman whose name was never spoken within our estate, yet whose presence lingered like the cloying scent