Updated Oct 23, 2025 • ~9 min read
LINA’S POV
Six weeks pregnant, and I was finally starting to feel human again.
The morning sickness had eased into occasional queasiness. I could drink coffee again without gagging. Life was slowly returning to something resembling normal—or at least, as normal as life could be when you were fake-married to one man while pregnant with another man’s baby.
“You’re glowing,” Stella said over video chat. She’d been suspicious about my mysterious “stomach bug” but had finally accepted my explanation. “Seriously, your skin looks amazing.”
“It’s called hydration. You should try it.”
“Don’t be cute.” She squinted at the screen. “Where’s the husband? I still haven’t met him.”
“Working. Always working.”
“Lina, it’s been a month. I’m starting to think you made him up.”
“You helped me move into his apartment.”
“Doesn’t mean he’s real. Could be a very elaborate catfish situation.” She grinned. “Seriously though, when do I get to meet Sebastian Santoro, the man who swept my best friend off her feet?”
The doorbell rang, saving me from answering.
“Hang on, someone’s at the door.”
“It’s probably your fake husband.”
“He has a key, genius.”
I opened the door to find a woman in a business suit holding a manila envelope.
“Lina Moreno-Santoro?” she asked.
“Yes?”
She handed me the envelope. “You’ve been served.”
Then she walked away, leaving me standing in the doorway with my heart hammering.
“Lina?” Stella’s voice came from my laptop. “Who was that?”
“I don’t know.” I closed the door, staring at the envelope like it might explode. “Someone just served me papers.”
“Papers? What kind of papers?”
My hands shook as I opened it. Read the first page. Then the second. Then went back to the first because I couldn’t have read it right.
Petition for Custody and Parental Rights
Jasper Bennett, Petitioner
v.
Lina Moreno-Santoro, Respondent
“Oh my God,” I whispered.
“Lina, you’re scaring me. What is it?”
I couldn’t answer. Couldn’t breathe. The words swam on the page.
…petitioner seeks sole legal and physical custody…
…respondent’s unstable living situation…
…fraudulent marriage…
“Lina!”
“I have to go.” I ended the call before Stella could respond.
My phone was already dialing Seb.
SEB’S POV
I was in the middle of a presentation when my phone vibrated. Lina. She never called during work hours.
I excused myself and stepped into the hallway.
“What’s wrong?”
“He’s—” Her voice broke. “Seb, Jasper is suing me for custody. Full custody. He’s saying our marriage is fraudulent and I’m unfit and—”
“Slow down. Where are you?”
“Home. Someone just served me papers.” She was crying now. “How did he even know about us? About the arrangement?”
My blood went cold. “What exactly do the papers say?”
She read them to me, her voice shaking. With every word, my anger grew.
Jasper Bennett had done his homework. The petition outlined our marriage timeline—how quickly we’d gotten married, how we’d had separate bedrooms, how Lina had moved in right after the courthouse ceremony. It painted a picture of immigration fraud and suggested Lina was unstable, making reckless decisions.
“He’s using our arrangement against you,” I said quietly.
“How did he find out? I never told him we weren’t really together.”
“He hired an investigator. Had to.” I was already heading for the elevator. “Lina, I’m coming home. Don’t talk to anyone. Don’t sign anything.”
“He wants my baby, Seb.” She sobbed. “He didn’t want anything to do with us a month ago and now he’s trying to take my baby.”
“He won’t. I promise you, he won’t.”
LINA’S POV
I was sitting on the couch, staring at the papers, when Seb burst through the door forty minutes later. He still had his suit jacket on, his tie slightly askew like he’d been running.
He sat next to me and pulled me into his arms without a word.
“I don’t understand,” I said into his shoulder. “He said he needed time to think. I gave him space. And now this?”
“People get scared.” Seb’s voice was tight with anger. “They do stupid things.”
“This isn’t stupid. This is cruel.” I pulled back to look at him. “He’s claiming our marriage is fake. If he proves that, you could get deported. I could face charges for immigration fraud. And he’d get the baby because I’d be deemed unfit.”
“None of that is going to happen.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because we’re not going to let it.” He took the papers from me, scanning them with the focus he usually reserved for work contracts. “He has no case. You’re a good person with a stable home and income—”
“Barely stable. I’m a freelancer living in someone else’s apartment.”
“Our apartment,” he corrected. “You’re my wife. That makes this your home.”
“On paper.”
“In every way that matters legally.” He set down the papers. “Lina, Jasper is trying to intimidate you. Make you panic and give up. But he’s wrong about everything. You’re not unfit. Our marriage is legal.”
“But it’s not real.”
“Isn’t it?” His eyes met mine. “We live together. Share expenses. Wear rings. We’re building a life together, even if it started unconventionally. That’s more real than a lot of marriages.”
“Seb—”
“I won’t let him take this baby from you.” His hand found mine. “Whatever it takes. I’m in this with you.”
My phone buzzed. A text from an unknown number:
We should talk before this gets uglier. You know I’m right. – Jasper
I showed it to Seb. His jaw clenched.
“Don’t respond.”
“Maybe I should talk to him. Explain—”
“Explain what? That you’re sorry for having a complicated life?” Seb stood up, pacing. “No. He made his choice when he filed these papers. Now we make ours.”
“Which is?”
He stopped pacing. Looked at me with something fierce and determined in his eyes.
“We prove we’re a real couple. We show the court that you have a stable marriage, a supportive partner, and a loving home for this baby.” He knelt in front of me, taking both my hands. “And we fight for custody together. Not just you. Us.”
“You’d do that? Stand up in court and claim my baby as yours?”
“If it keeps Jasper from taking the baby? Yes.” His grip tightened. “Lina, I told you I wouldn’t abandon you. I meant it.”
Tears spilled down my cheeks. “This could destroy everything. Your green card application. Your career. Your whole life.”
“Then we’ll be very convincing.” He brushed a tear away with his thumb. “We’ll make them believe what I’m starting to believe.”
“What’s that?”
“That this marriage might be the realest thing I’ve ever done.”
The next morning, I woke up to find Seb already awake, sitting at the kitchen table with his laptop and three different legal pads covered in notes.
“Did you sleep?” I asked.
“A little.” He looked up, and I could see the exhaustion around his eyes. “I’ve been researching custody law. Talking to people. We need a lawyer.”
“I can’t afford a lawyer.”
“I can.” He cut off my protest. “This affects both of us. Our green card application. Our marriage. I’m paying for the lawyer.”
“Seb—”
“Non-negotiable, Lina.”
I sat down across from him. “What did you find out?”
“Marcus’s case is weak. He’s the biological father, which gives him some rights, but you’re the mother. Courts favor mothers, especially in cases where the father showed initial disinterest.” He tapped his pen against the legal pad. “But he’s going to push the fraud angle. Try to prove our marriage is fake.”
“Because it is.”
“Because it was.” He met my eyes. “Things have changed.”
“Have they?”
“You tell me.” He reached across the table. “Do you want this marriage to be real?”
The question hung between us, heavy and terrifying and full of possibility.
“I don’t know,” I whispered. “Everything’s happening so fast. The pregnancy. Marcus. This custody case. I can’t think straight.”
“Then don’t think.” He stood, came around the table, pulled me to my feet. “Feel. What do you feel when you’re with me?”
“Safe,” I said immediately. “Confused. Grateful. Scared.”
“Scared of what?”
“That this isn’t real for you. That you’re just being noble. That when this is all over, you’ll realize you made a mistake.”
“I won’t.”
“You can’t know that.”
“I can.” His hands cupped my face. “Lina, I’m not good at this. Feelings. Vulnerability. But I know what I want. And I want to be here. With you. For this baby. For whatever comes next.”
“Even if it means fighting Marcus in court? Risking everything?”
“Especially then.”
My phone rang. A local number I didn’t recognize.
“Don’t answer it,” Seb said.
But I was already picking up. “Hello?”
“Mrs. Santoro? This is Natalia Kingsley. I’m a family law attorney, and I understand you might need representation.”
I looked at Seb. He mouthed: I called her.
“I… yes. I might.”
“Can you come to my office today? Two o’clock?” Her voice was brisk, professional. “We have a lot to discuss, and based on what Sebastian told me, we don’t have much time.”
“I’ll be there.”
After I hung up, Seb pulled me into his arms.
“We’re going to win this,” he said against my hair. “I promise.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because we have something Marcus doesn’t.”
“What’s that?”
“The truth.” He pulled back to look at me. “We’re a family. Maybe not in the way we planned. But we’re a family. And I’ll fight for this family with everything I have.”
I believed him.
God help me, I believed him.
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