Desperate to pay for her mother's surgery, Madeline Brooks makes a deal with Isabella Dalton to sell her virginity, sleeping with Sebastian Thorne in Isabella's place. Madeline rushes to the hospital with the money, only to find her mother has already passed away. Devastated, she is forced abroad by Isabella's bodyguards. Months later, Madeline finds new hope when she discovers she is pregnant. However, Isabella finds out. Desperate to win Sebastian, Isabella fakes her own pregnancy, goes abroad, and bribes a doctor to steal Madeline's baby right after birth, telling Madeline the baby was stillborn. Isabella then passes the baby off as hers and Sebastian's. Five years later, Madeline returns as a top designer. Unaware that her child is alive or that Sebastian was the man from that night, she coincidentally buys the house next door to his and meets him and little Noah Thorne. Since Isabella only uses Noah to manipulate Sebastian and treats the boy poorly, Noah despises her. Seeing this, Sebastian refuses to actually marry Isabella, despite naming her his fiancée.