“Take it,” Zoe whispered, her voice low but trembling, like it cost her something to even say the words. Her hand shoved the plastic stick into my palm.

I didn’t want to look, but my eyes dropped anyway. And there it was. Two bold red lines, thick and cruel, glaring up at me like they wanted to mock me. Like they were laughing at how stupid I’d been.

I swallowed hard. My throat burned. “No…” My voice cracked, broken. “No, this can’t… this can’t be real.”

Zoe pressed her hand against her forehead and started pacing the room like a caged animal, her heels thudding against the marble floor. “It’s real, Chloe. You’re pregnant.”

Pregnant.

The word was heavy. Ugly. Like a punch to the chest. My lungs squeezed, my vision blurred, and I felt myself sinking under a weight I wasn’t ready to carry.

“But… how?” My knees buckled, and I dropped onto the edge of the bed, gripping the stick like it was some cursed weapon. My fingers shook so hard I almost dropped it. “That night… I don’t even remember what happened. How could I…”

Zoe spun on her heel and looked at me with eyes sharp as knives. “That’s exactly what I’m asking you! How do you get yourself pregnant from a night you can’t even remember? Didn’t you think? Didn’t you… use anything?”

“I don’t remember!” The words tumbled out with tears, my voice cracking. “Zoe, I don’t even know who it was. I don’t know his face, his name… it’s just blank. Like my memory got erased.”

Her jaw tightened, and something flashed in her eyes before she looked away. For a split second, I thought I saw guilt.

“I thought you remembered him,” she muttered under her breath.

My head snapped up, panic rushing through me. “Wait… what? What do you mean, you thought I remembered? You told me you knew. You told me you could handle yourself that night!”

Zoe’s hands shot up too quickly, too defensive. “I was drunk too, Chloe! Do you expect me to keep an eye on you every second? I thought I could handle it, but I blacked out same as you. I don’t know who you ended up with, okay? Don’t pin this on me.”

Her voice was sharp, but it didn’t kill the suspicion gnawing at my chest. Something wasn’t right. Something about the way she avoided my eyes, the way she twisted her fingers together like she was hiding something.

The silence after was thick, suffocating.

I pressed my hands to my face, tears dripping hot and fast. “Then what am I supposed to do now? Zoe… what if people find out? What if Papa finds out? Do you know what this would do to him? To us? To the Rodriguez name?”

Her lips pressed into a hard line, her voice softening but only slightly. She sat down beside me and grabbed my hand, squeezing it like she could anchor me. “We can’t let anyone know. Do you hear me? Not a soul. We’re Alejandro Rodriguez’s daughters. People look at us like we’re untouchable. We can’t let one mistake drag our family through shame.”

“But…” My throat burned with all the things I wanted to say, but they got stuck halfway out.

“No, Chloe.” Her tone sharpened, slicing my protest in half. “We’ll figure something out. We always do. But you cannot breathe a word of this to anyone. Not your friends, not even Dad.”

Her eyes locked onto mine, almost desperate. But under that desperation, I saw something else. A flicker of fear. A flicker of a secret.

I froze, staring at her, wondering if my twin, the only person I thought I could trust with my life, was hiding something from me.

Before I could ask, before I could push, a sharp knock was heard at the moment.

“Girls.” My father’s voice boomed from the other side of the door, deep and commanding, a voice that never asked—it only ordered. “Come to the study. I have an announcement.”

Every muscle in me went stiff.

Zoe scrambled, yanking the test from my hand and shoving it under a pillow. My heart pounded so hard I thought Papa would hear it through the door.

We followed him into the study. His tall frame stood by the wide window, light casting over his shoulders, his silhouette like a shadow swallowing the whole room. Hands clasped neatly behind his back, jaw clenched with that authority that made everyone else shrink.

I swallowed hard. The air in the study always felt heavy, like his presence alone could choke me.

“I’ve made a decision,” Alejandro Rodriguez said finally, his deep voice calm but unyielding. He turned, his gaze sharp as steel, locking first on Zoe.

“You, Zoe,” he said, no hesitation in his tone, “will be getting married.”

The words crashed into me like ice water.

“Married?” Zoe’s voice didn’t shake, but I saw her hand twitch by her side.

“Yes,” Papa said firmly, his face unreadable. “The arrangements are already in motion. You will wed Jake Williams Martinez. The date will be announced soon. It is settled.”

I couldn’t breathe. The room tilted around me, my head spinning, my heart clawing against my ribs.

Zoe. Married. To Jake.

Jake, the one person whose name I’d heard whispered in the halls, tied to power, wealth, danger. A man we barely knew, a man with shadows clinging to his name.

And here was my father, trading his daughter like a chess piece, tying our family to the Martinez empire like it was nothing.

I looked at Zoe, waiting for her to scream, to protest, to do anything, but her face was blank. Masked. Only her eyes flickered, and I couldn’t read what was behind them.

My secret pressed against my chest like it wanted to explode out. I was pregnant. And my sister, my twin, my only cover, was about to be thrown into a marriage none of us had a choice in.

My hands clenched so tight my nails dug into my palms.

For the first time in my life, I wasn’t sure if I could trust Zoe anymore.

And worse, I wasn’t sure if I could survive what was coming.