Frozen in 1975, I awoke in 2025, the experiment’s sole survivor. With the appearance of a twenty-year-old, I sought out my now-wealthy younger brother. Suddenly, strange pop-up comments appeared:
“She’s too foolish. Her brother forgot her long ago. Reuniting is pointless.”
“The Thornes are fighting over inheritance. Claiming kinship will get her eliminated!”
“Only Damian Miller truly cares. Marrying him is her only path to happiness.”
Damian immediately knelt, proposing, “Jessica, high society is dangerous. Marry me. I’ll protect you always.”
I was nearly moved to say yes when I overheard his thoughts: “System, are the fake comments out?”
“Released, Host. But marry Jessica? In the original plot, once the villainess Emily becomes heir, you could live in luxury with her.”
“I gave Jessica’s heir position to Emily. I owe Jessica a lifetime, but Emily will be fine without me.”
I swallowed my emotional response. You schemer, I was being sincere, and you were plotting. But you’re mistaken—I’ve always prioritized my career; a little romance won’t hinder me.
1
Seeing my silence, Damian slipped a ring onto my finger, his eyes full of affection.
“Jessica, don’t worry, I’ll protect you for the rest of your life.”
I pulled off the ring and slapped it across his face.
“No need. I’m going to reunite with my family.”
Damian’s thin lips pressed together, his eyes bloodshot as he stared at me. Pop-up comments scrolled frantically before me.
“The devoted male lead is being rejected, how unfair! The protagonist is such an idiot; if she goes to reunite tonight, she’ll definitely be thrown to the dogs by Emily Thorne!”
“I don’t get the protagonist. Why throw away a good life to court death?”
I ignored them, lifting my leg to walk away. Damian hastily grabbed me, his voice urgent.
“Jessica, don’t bother. Even if you go, Old Man Thorne won’t acknowledge you as his sister, and there’s no way he’ll give you any property!”
I looked at him. “Why?”
Damian sighed.
“Old Man Thorne made his fortune from your pickle stall and became the richest man, he’s long forgotten his roots. Now, everyone in the Thorne family wants you dead, so why would he just hand over his property?”
I saw his face full of worry and found it amusing. I raised my hand and pushed him away.
“Even so, that’s my business. Whatever the outcome, I have to try.”
The pop-up comments went wild.
“No, is the protagonist crazy? Is a home and property more important than life? She’s just asking for trouble!”
“The male lead is really worried about the protagonist, poor guy, he’s so devoted but it’s misplaced. Just wait, the protagonist will regret it!”
The more enthusiastic the comments became, the faster I strode towards the mansion. Behind me, I heard Damian’s confused inner thoughts.
“What’s going on? Why is Jessica Thorne so insistent on this family reunion? Does she know Old Man Thorne has been waiting for her return all this time?”
“Host, what do we do now?”
Damian’s inner thoughts: “I’ll just play it by ear. I won’t let her succeed.”
I followed the address and found my brother’s estate. There were many people coming and going. Dressed decently, I blended in.
Suddenly, a woman in a luxurious dress raised her hand to stop me, scanning me from head to toe with a condescending gaze.
“Who are you? I don’t recall you being invited to this family gathering.”
The comments started flashing.
“The vicious female villainess has finally appeared. The protagonist is doomed now. Serves her right, who told her to come back for a reunion!”
“The villainess is Old Man Thorne’s beloved granddaughter, raised to be the heir. If she didn’t have some tricks up her sleeve, she wouldn’t have gotten to this position.”
The woman before me had arrogant brows. I spoke calmly.
“I’m here for a family reunion.”
Emily Thorne crossed her arms, letting out a mocking laugh.
“Another one here for a reunion. Tell me, which of the Thorne family’s illegitimate daughters are you?”
At that, I straightened my back, my voice firm and clear.
“I am your great-aunt.”
Emily froze, then looked utterly speechless, as if she’d met a madwoman. The hall immediately erupted in laughter.
“I’ve seen people claiming to be fathers, mothers, but it’s the first time I’ve seen someone claiming to be a granddaughter.”
“If she really were the great-aunt, then Leo Thorne, who broke her only portrait, would be strangled by now.”
I followed the mocking voices, spotting an out-of-place young man sitting in a corner. He had delicate features, his clothes stained with red wine, looking quite disheveled. He stared at me fixedly, as if he’d seen something horrifying, his gaze filled with disbelief.
“It’s really… Great-Aunt…”
Upon hearing this, the group of people who had been mocking me maliciously patted his face, laughing uncontrollably.
“A great-aunt would have to be seventy or eighty years old. She’s just a young girl, looks even younger than Emily. You really believe she’s your great-aunt? So stupid and foolish, you’re not even fit to compete with Emily for heir!”
“Exactly, he’s cursed. Born to an unlucky fate, his birth killed his mom, then he shattered Great-Aunt’s portrait, making the Old Man so angry he almost didn’t make it out of the hospital. You should just quietly shut up and stay in your room, understand?!”
“Alright, just hit him, but don’t mention Great-Aunt’s portrait. That’s Grandpa’s sore spot.”
With that, a few of them moved to pour wine on him again. My temper flared.
“Stop it!”
My sharp command startled them, making them nearly drop their drinks. Emily coldly glanced at me.
“Why are you still here? Someone throw her out. If Grandpa sees such a thing, he’ll get angry.”
My eyes darkened. Just as a few people were about to act, the main door was suddenly pushed open, and Old Man Thorne entered, escorted by bodyguards. Everyone immediately fell silent, watching Old Man Thorne take the main seat.
I gazed at him blankly. Fifty years had passed; my brother’s hair had turned white, and time had etched its lines onto his face. Seeing those weathered yet familiar eyes, I instinctively called out his name.
“Jonathan Thorne…”
Old Man Thorne’s body stiffened. He slowly raised his eyelids, looking at me. The pop-up comments exploded.
“Holy cow, the protagonist is too bold! Daring to call Old Man Thorne by his first name, does she have a death wish?”
“Look at these people, looking like they’ve seen a ghost, it’s hilarious! Now there’s a show, the protagonist is in for it!”
Everyone stirred, looking at me with schadenfreude. Emily’s face grew darker and darker. She said angrily.
“This is an outrage! Security, immediately throw this raving lunatic out!”
Several security guards rushed forward to restrain me. I ripped off the ancestral jade pendant from my neck and held it high.
“I am your great-aunt. I’d like to see who dares to touch me!”
At this, everyone gasped.
“This, this is the Thorne family heirloom from their registry. Could she really be the great-aunt?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Is your great-aunt twenty years old?”
“But I heard Old Man Thorne say that Great-Aunt participated in a secret experiment back then. Could the result of this experiment be eternal youth?”
Hearing this, a flicker of panic crossed Emily’s eyes. She hastily stepped forward and intimately linked her arm with Old Man Thorne’s.
“Grandpa, even a jade pendant can be faked. She’s just a lunatic, please don’t believe her nonsense.”
The atmosphere in the hall tensed. Old Man Thorne leaned on his cane, looking at me for a long time, then slowly spoke.
“Bring the jade pendant here, let me have a good look.”
Just as I was about to hand over the jade pendant, Damian Miller suddenly burst through the door, snatched the pendant from my hand, and smashed it to the ground.
“Jessica, stop deceiving yourself. The Thorne family is not somewhere you can aspire to!”
2
When I came to my senses, the jade pendant was shattered into pieces. My head buzzed instantly. My hand moved faster than my brain, delivering a slap to his face first.
“Damian Miller, if you’re sick, go see a doctor. Why are you smashing my stuff?!”
Damian took the slap but didn’t resist, only giving me a deep look before bowing to everyone and apologizing.
“Please excuse us, everyone. She’s my girlfriend, and that jade pendant was a fake she bought online for nine ninety-nine!”
“She has delusional disorder; she always fantasizes about being rich. This is her medical record. Every word I say is true. I hope everyone won’t blame her.”
The medical record was passed around, eliciting murmurs of sympathy and scorn.
“She’s truly gone mad with poverty, dreaming of getting rich by claiming kinship. But her demeanor just now was so convincing, even I was almost fooled.”
“Sure enough, she’s mentally ill. Daring to try and scam the Thorne family. Only Old Man Thorne is kind-hearted; with another powerful family, the grass on her grave would be three feet high by now.”
The medical record was handed to Old Man Thorne. His face darkened bit by bit. He waved his hand helplessly.
“Alright, take her away. Our Thorne family won’t trouble a patient.”
Emily secretly breathed a sigh of relief, a triumphant smile playing on her lips.
“Didn’t you hear Grandpa dismissing her? Security, hurry up and throw her out!”
Several security guards moved to act again. Damian shielded me from them, reaching out to me, pleading.
“Jessica, high society isn’t a place for us to get involved in. I just want to live a good life with you. Come with me quickly!”
The pop-up comments exploded instantly.
“Ahhh, the male lead loves her so much! He risks his own safety to take her away, I’m crying!”
“Protagonist, don’t be ungrateful! Only by following the male lead can you survive!”
Everyone’s gazes fell on me, filled with mockery. I understood. Damian intended to use this method to force me to leave, ensuring Emily became the heir. I slapped his hand away and spoke to Old Man Thorne.
“Since no one believes me, I request scientific examination – a DNA test.”
After I woke up, I frantically searched for my family. During that time, I had already learned about new methods of family reunion. DNA could help me confirm kinship; I wouldn’t let anyone manipulate me.
Everyone was stunned.
“What’s going on? She actually dares to do a DNA test? Could she really be the great-aunt?”
Emily’s smile froze, her expression turning a bit panicked.
“You’re just trying to stall. Why should we listen to you?”
“Enough.”
Old Man Thorne rapped his cane heavily twice on the floor, and everyone immediately fell silent.
“Emily, go find a doctor to conduct a DNA test for her.”
Emily bit her lower lip, unwilling but not daring to argue. “Yes, Grandpa, I’ll go right away.”
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1
Martha offered me the steaming bowl of collagen elixir, claiming she was too old for it. Her eager eyes filled me with dread. In my previous life, that broth had drained me, mysteriously transferring all my skincare benefits to her.
I refused and made her drink it instead. After, I tested a theory: applying my serum caused an age spot to bloom exactly where Martha had a blemish. My blood ran cold—the nightmare was repeating.
I remembered aging decades in weeks before. Panicked, I swept all my expensive skincare into the trash. Martha walked in, feigned heartbreak, and begged to salvage the bottles.
She fished the jars out of the trash, cradling them against her chest like newborn babies.
Watching her, a twisted idea sparked in my mind. I immediately grabbed a bottle of rich night cream and smeared a generous layer directly onto her cheek, desperate to see if my newly formed age spot would vanish.
It didn’t. In fact, my blemish only grew darker.
Martha, completely oblivious to my horror, happily patted her cheeks. She bragged about how luxury products really did work miracles, claiming her skin felt tighter and brighter already.
But through the reflection in the mirror, I caught a fleeting, venomous glint in her eyes.
The bathroom door clicked open. My husband, David, stepped out with a towel slung low on his waist.
He shot Martha a frigid glare before turning his annoyance entirely on me. “What exactly are you doing? I thought I told you to keep the help out of our bedroom when I’m around.”
Staring at his irritated scowl, the memory of how she got here hit me hard. David was the one who brought Martha into our home in my previous life.
He claimed she was an elite estate manager who had served the Montgomery family for years. Supposedly, the Montgomerys were relocating to Europe, so they highly recommended her to him.
At first, I had been thrilled. Martha was efficient, her cooking was phenomenal, and she ran the massive estate like a well oiled machine.
But three days in, the bizarre horror began.
Every time I did my skincare routine, my face broke out in unexplained dark patches. Fine lines webbed out from the corners of my eyes. Meanwhile, Martha’s sun damaged, leathery skin grew increasingly flawless. Her deep set wrinkles literally ironed themselves out.
I was an avid runner. Yet a week into her employment, my body turned sluggish and bloated. Thick rolls of fat stubbornly clung to my waistline.
Martha, on the other hand, shed weight like a snake shedding skin. She walked around the house radiating youthful energy, her figure growing slim and tight.
I had been so terrified I rushed to an exclusive med spa for laser treatments.
When the esthetician pulled the protective goggles off my face, she actually screamed. Huge, ugly patches of pigmentation had erupted across my cheeks, and my skin was sagging off my bone structure.
I tried getting body sculpting massages, only to wake up with deep stretch marks and a jagged scar on my lower stomach that looked exactly like a C-section mark.
Meanwhile, Martha was parading around the kitchen with a flawless complexion and the faint, sexy outline of abs showing through her shirt.
That night, David took one look at my ruined body and literally kicked me out of our bed.
When I hysterically tried to explain how weird Martha’s transformation was, he just sneered at me.
“Everyone knows women hit a wall and age overnight,” he had scoffed. “So you’re aging like milk before you even hit thirty. And you’re blaming the damn housekeeper for it?”
Yet the very next morning, his eyes were glued to Martha’s newly snatched waist, tracking her every move.
In a fit of rage, I fired her.
That was the nail in my coffin. My periods stopped instantly. The doctors diagnosed me with early onset menopause, severe diabetes, and hypertension.
David didn’t just mock my repulsive appearance, he started bringing random women back to our house.
The stress and betrayal triggered a massive stroke. I collapsed on the floor, begging him to call an ambulance. He didn’t even look down. He just wrapped his arm around his latest fling and stepped over my paralyzed body to go into our bedroom.
I died in the ambulance the next morning. It was too late.
But now I was back. And this time, I was going to unearth whatever sick witchcraft she was using and burn it to the ground.
2
I slipped away from David and locked myself in my private study.
I pulled up a popular social media app, and just as I suspected, Martha was live streaming.
In my past life, she had built an audience by vlogging her “humble” life working for a billionaire family. Her hook was a “Thirty Day Reverse Aging Challenge.” She claimed she was going to copy her wealthy boss’s routine to transform from forty back to twenty.
The comment section had been a bloodbath of mockery.
[Lady, you need a whole new genetic code, not a skincare routine.]
[If you can look twenty in a month, I can go back to kindergarten.]
When I first saw the stream in my past life, I brushed it off. I figured she was just trying to hustle for some extra ad revenue.
But then her face actually started morphing. She shed decades in real time.
Her follower count exploded into the hundreds of thousands. People were obsessed, begging for her secret.
Internet sleuths eventually figured out she worked for me and David.
By that point, I looked like a rotting corpse. But I was the CEO of Woods Cosmetics. I had pre scheduled corporate galas and shareholder meetings I couldn’t abandon.
The internet put my red carpet photos side by side with Martha’s livestreams.
[Holy hell. Is she copying the billionaire’s routine, or is she literally sucking the youth out of her?]
[Wait, the Woods heiress used to be gorgeous. Her face single handedly pumped their stock prices. What the hell happened to her?]
Since my family’s empire was built on beauty and wellness, seeing the CEO look like a swamp witch caused our stock to plummet overnight.
Right now, sitting in my study, I watched her hold up the expensive creams she had just fished out of my trash. She bragged to the camera that her generous boss had gifted them to her. Then she officially launched her thirty day challenge.
A chilling realization locked the breath in my throat. From the day she moved in to the day I died in my past life, it had been exactly thirty days.
I created a burner account and typed into the chaotic chat.
[Thirty days is impossible. Do you have some kind of dark magic going on? Tell me your secret. Name your price.]
On screen, Martha offered a coy, sinister little smile as she patted the stolen lotion into her cheeks.
“No dark magic here, honey. I just copy exactly what my boss does. Sincerity brings miracles.”
In that exact second, my cheeks began to itch. I pulled out my compact mirror. More age spots.
The delicate, carefully maintained skin around my eyes suddenly felt dry and crinkled.
I whipped my head back to the screen. Martha’s skin was practically glowing with renewed hydration.
[Am I tripping, or did her skin just clear up?]
[Bro, her dark spots are fading. The crow’s feet are literally gone.]
[It’s definitely a beauty filter.]
Martha aggressively leaned her face right into the camera lens. “No filters here, sweeties. Bare faced and proud.”
Staring at her, a profound wave of nausea washed over me. It was an exchange. A literal transaction of flesh and time. She was swapping her decay for my youth.
Then a wild, desperate thought struck me.
What if I stopped taking care of myself? What if I actively destroyed my own body?
Could she steal from an empty vault?
For the next few days, I scrubbed my face with harsh, chemical heavy acids until my skin was raw and inflamed. I completely abandoned my treadmill and gorged on deep fried junk food and heavy sugar. My waistline expanded aggressively.
I watched Martha like a hawk.
But to my absolute despair, the results were identical to my past life. She kept getting hotter. Younger.
My ruined skin and rapidly accumulating fat didn’t transfer to her at all. The curse only took the good and left me with the bad.
David returned from a business trip and physically recoiled when I greeted him in the hallway. His face contorted in pure disgust.
“Victoria, what the hell is wrong with you?” he snapped. “The Pierce Holdings anniversary gala is in a few days. If you look like this, don’t even bother showing up. I won’t have you embarrassing my family.”
Martha hovered in the background, the corners of her lips twitching upward before she slapped on a mask of fake concern. “Ma’am, maybe you should book a dermatologist appointment?”
“And all that junk food you’ve been eating is making Mr. Pierce so upset,” she added in a sickly sweet tone. “If a woman loses her face and her figure, how is she supposed to keep her man happy?”
I let out a low, humorless chuckle. I turned on my heel, walked back into my study, and dialed my executive assistant.
“Cancel all my public appearances for the month. And I need you to run a deep background check on someone.”
3
I ghosted the entire corporate world. I locked myself inside the mansion and did absolutely nothing.
But avoiding skincare didn’t stop the curse. The dark pigmentation stained my cheeks permanently. My hair started falling out in clumps. Deep, jagged wrinkles carved into my forehead.
The worst part was the physical toll. My muscles felt like lead, and my vision grew so blurry I had to be rushed to a private clinic.
The specialist looked at my blood work in absolute shock. He diagnosed me with accelerated premature aging, early stage diabetes, and severe presbyopia.
“Ms. Woods, your condition is medically unprecedented. We need to admit you for a full panel of invasive tests.”
I declined. I knew no amount of medical science could cure a supernatural parasite.
My sudden disappearance from high society triggered wild rumors. Whispers circulated that the Woods heiress had contracted a flesh eating disease.
Meanwhile, Martha was thriving. Her daily visible de aging had pushed her follower count past the hundred thousand mark.
I watched her latest stream. She was wearing a tight yoga set, her bare face flawless and radiant. Her body was a perfectly sculpted hourglass. She looked like a twenty five year old fitness influencer.
[This is genuinely terrifying. Martha, what kind of deal did you make with the devil?]
[At this rate, she’s going to look like a teenager before the month is over.]
[We can’t call her Auntie Martha anymore. This is a whole college girl.]
Martha giggled, twisting her waist to show off her curves, eating up the validation.
At the exact same moment, I looked down in horror as thick, angry purple stretch marks ripped across my stomach and thighs, crawling over my skin like earthworms.
Another fistful of dry, brittle hair cascaded onto my shoulders.
On the screen, virtual gifts rained down on Martha’s stream. “Thank you, guys! So sweet of you.”
“How did I do it?” She feigned innocence. “Maybe living in a billionaire’s mansion just fixed my aura. Good feng shui, you know?”
Looking at the dead hair clumped in my trembling hands, something inside me finally snapped.
I lost my mind. I sprinted out of my room, kicked Martha’s door open, and lunged at her, digging my nails into her arm as I screamed.
“Tell me! What kind of sick voodoo are you using to dump your rotting carcass onto me!”
Martha shrieked at the top of her lungs, a sound perfectly calculated to bring David running.
He burst into the room, took one look at my deranged, balding appearance, and violently shoved me away from her.
“Are you psycho? Look at yourself in the mirror, you look like a goddamn monster!”
“David, look at me and then look at her!” I shrieked from the floor. “She’s been here less than two weeks. Do you seriously not see anything wrong with this?”
David’s eyes swept over Martha. She was trembling gracefully, her flawless skin glowing under the lights. Her sports bra exposed a tight, toned stomach, and the yoga pants clung perfectly to her long, straight legs.
I didn’t miss the flash of raw, hungry lust that sparked in his eyes.
A cold laugh bubbled up in my chest. A dog really couldn’t stop eating trash.
Martha dramatically dropped to her knees, sobbing beautifully. “Sir, I do the chores, I buy the groceries, I cook the meals. I haven’t done a single thing wrong. I have no idea why the Mrs. looks like that.”
“It’s not my fault she let herself go!”
She looked at me with big, tear filled eyes. “Ma’am, I know you’re under a lot of stress, but you can’t just project your insecurities onto me.”
“It’s fine, though. People like me are just punching bags for the rich anyway.”
David glared down at me with pure revulsion. “You are acting lower than the dirt on a servant’s shoe. You don’t deserve to be the lady of the Pierce family.”
The blood drained from my face.
David and I were a corporate arranged marriage, but we had grown up in the same circles. We were childhood friends.
On our wedding day, he had stood in front of hundreds of people and sworn an oath. He promised that no matter what happened, he would always be my shield.
Staring up at the exact same look of disgust he had given me in my past life, my voice dropped to an icy whisper.
“David. Think very carefully about your next move. Are you really going to burn our alliance to the ground for a maid?”
That made him hesitate. Our families had billions tied up in joint ventures. He knew the financial suicide of crossing me.
Sensing the shift, Martha suddenly stood up. “If the lady of the house hates me this much, I’ll quit. I’ll pack my bags right now and you’ll never see me again. Will that make you happy?”
She ran out of the room crying.
But instead of relief, a sudden, blinding panic seized my chest.
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The night before the wedding, someone sent me a VIP hotel room key.
The room number was the same one where Lucas had proposed to me.
I thought it was a romantic surprise he’d planned before our wedding.
But when I pushed open the door, I saw him tangled in the sheets with another woman.
After they finished, he casually pushed the woman away from his embrace.
He lit a cigarette, and through the smoke, smiled carelessly:
“Nothing personal. I was just tired of hiding it. Figured I’d let you find out early, so I wouldn’t have to explain after the wedding.”
He flicked his cigarette ash and added:
“Don’t worry, you’re still my one and only wife.”
“You’ve been with me for ten years. You’ve made enemies with plenty of powerful people in business. If you don’t marry me, you won’t find anyone else willing to take you!”
“Tomorrow, everything goes as planned. Just one thing—”
“The wedding’s yours, but the marriage certificate goes to her.”
He thought I’d at least ask why…
But I simply took off my engagement ring, set it down quietly, and walked away.
The next day, Lucas stood waiting for me in his groom’s tuxedo at the church.
I didn’t run. I didn’t hide.
I walked straight up to him with my mortal enemy on my arm, flashing a marriage certificate:
“The wedding’s yours—but the marriage certificate? I gave it to him.”
“Here she comes, here she comes–the bride’s finally out.”
By the time I came downstairs, a crowd of reporters had already gathered at the hotel entrance.
Camera flashes popped like firecrackers.
“Miss Gwen, how are you feeling on your wedding day?”
“Miss Gwen, what do you think about the century wedding Mr. Shaw prepared for you?”
I didn’t say anything.
Under the bodyguards’ escort, I got into the car.
The wedding was set at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the eastern part of the city.
Lucas stood on the steps in his white tuxedo, his face wearing an expression of complete confidence.
This morning he’d called, saying he’d gone seven rounds last night and his body couldn’t take it–he needed to catch up on sleep.
He couldn’t pick up his bride.
He was absolutely certain I would still show up.
His best buddy, Brian, was the first to whistle.
“She still came!”
He elbowed Lucas with an ambiguous grin.
“That’s our Lucas for you–living it up the night before the wedding, and the bride still shows up in her wedding dress like a good girl. What do you call that? That’s what I call well-trained!”
Another friend, Jason, chimed in.
“Damn right. With the way he was going at it in that bed yesterday, anyone else would be collapsed by now. But our Lucas can still stand here as the groom. Gotta hand it to him.”
The group erupted in laughter.
Lucas’s lips curved slightly.
His tone was casual. “Gwen’s been with me for ten years. Who else would marry her besides me?”
He glanced down at the engagement ring I’d taken off yesterday.
“Throwing a tantrum is normal. But in the end–”
He paused, his voice confident. “She’ll still walk up to me and put her hand in mine.”
Brian gave him a thumbs up.
The car door opened.
I stepped out in my white gown.
Sunlight fell on the wedding dress, refracting into scattered sparkles.
A flash of admiration crossed Lucas’s eyes.
He gave a sincere compliment. “Gwen, you look absolutely beautiful in that wedding dress!”
But before he could touch my hand, his vibrating phone pulled his attention away.
Looking at the contact name on the screen, his lips unconsciously curved upward as he stepped aside to answer.
“What’s wrong? Didn’t I tell you to call later?”
A lazy, coquettish voice came through the phone.
“Lucas, I’m flying abroad this afternoon… so I made an appointment to get our marriage certificate in ten minutes. Can you swing by the county clerk’s office I want to get the marriage certificate before I leave.”
“Ten minutes?” Lucas chuckled low. “That urgent?”
After hanging up, Brian leaned over. “Who was it?”
“Vivian.” Lucas pocketed his phone, his eyes brightening a few degrees. “She’s flying abroad this afternoon and insists on getting the certificate before she leaves. She acted all cute and I couldn’t say no.”
Brian raised an eyebrow. “What about the wedding here–”
“What’s the rush?” Lucas was unconcerned. “The wedding ceremony takes an hour or two. I’ll go to the marriage license bureau first–ten minutes, that’s it. You know Vivian’s personality. If I don’t humor her, she’ll really cry at the airport.”
Brian wisely said nothing more.
Lucas walked over to me, draped his arm over my shoulder, and had the photographer raise his camera.
“Come on, take a picture for me. A keepsake.”
Click. Done.
He glanced at his watch. “Alright, that’s it for now. I need to go or I’ll miss the appointment.”
He turned and strode toward another car.
“Lucas!”
I stood in place and called out to him.
He paused mid-step and looked back at me.
His eyes still carried that careless confidence of someone who had everything under control.
“If you leave today,” I said, word by word, “I’m replacing the groom.”
He froze for a moment, then laughed–a scornful, confident laugh.
“Replace the groom? Where are you going to find one? You really think life is a TV drama?”
“Everyone in Bayport knows you’re mine.”
“Of course… if you really have the ability to find someone willing to marry you, I suppose I could let you go–”
He pulled open the car door and tossed back a light, teasing remark.
“Stop making a scene. Be good and wait for me. Those wild cards out there, I know how to handle them, okay?”
The groomsmen behind him exchanged glances.
Brian chased after him a couple steps. “Lucas, you’re really leaving–”
“You guys hold down the fort. It’s not like I’m not coming back.”
Lucas closed the car door, his voice carrying a hint of impatience. “That girl is too hard to deal with. I don’t want to create trouble for myself.”
The car started and drove away.
I stood in place, the hem of my wedding dress lifted by the wind.
The photographer beside me stood awkwardly with his camera.
No one spoke.
I looked down at my left ring finger, now bare, and slowly curved my lips into a smile.
Lucas, go ahead.
Go get your certificate.
As for this multi-million dollar century wedding–I’ll gladly accept it.
I lifted my dress and walked into the church.
Guests were seated, the officiant was in position, the wedding march was playing.
Everything was perfect, except the groom wasn’t there.
Brian caught up with me, forcing out a smile.
“Lucas had something urgent to handle. He’ll be right back. Just take a seat for a bit.”
Jason also came over with a laugh.
“Right, right. Lucas always has things under control. Today’s your big day–he’ll definitely be here soon.”
“Exactly, Lucas never drops the ball on important matters.”
The group chattered on, making “the groom ran off” sound like he’d just stepped out to pick up a package.
I glanced at the clock at the front of the church. 10:40 AM.
“Okay, I’ll wait for him.”
I calmly sent them away.
Brian clearly relaxed and quickly had someone bring me tea and water.
I waited.
But who I was waiting for, you don’t need to worry about.
This wedding had been hyped up for three months.
Most of the groom’s important relatives were in attendance.
I looked around, my gaze falling on every detail.
The white rose waterfall by the floor-to-ceiling windows, the crystal bead curtains hanging from the dome…
Even the font on the guest place cards had been specially designed by a designer he’d commissioned.
Lucas was that kind of person–when he did something, he did it to perfection.
He was like this when pursuing me, and like this when planning the wedding.
He made this wedding the talk of the entire city, made it into every woman’s dream wedding…
But even his cheating was this extreme.
No room for redemption, no explanations.
In his logic, being good to someone and hurting that same person never conflicted.
And I only had one option: accept it.
In the lounge, my best friend Harper, who’d specially flown in from Portside to be my bridesmaid, helped me with my dress, her face full of indignation.
“Is Lucas sick? Running off to register a marriage with another woman on his wedding day? Did his brain get caught in a door?”
She sat down beside me huffily, tugging at her bridesmaid dress.
“I thought he was just talking. Even if… did it have to be today?”
Her voice carried the fire of righteous anger on my behalf.
“When you two were planning this wedding together, he searched every flower shop in the city just to pick your bouquet. When you tried on wedding dresses, his eyes got red faster than yours.”
“I was so envious I was practically jealous, and I even beat up my clueless boyfriend!”
She paused, her voice dropping. “Who could have known he’d turn around and pull something like this?”
I didn’t respond, just kept scrolling through my phone.
On social media, Vivian had just posted an update.
The photo showed a man’s shirt and women’s underwear scattered on the floor.
“Someone said he’d only come for ten minutes, but ended up not wanting to leave~”
She’d deliberately tagged the location–and it wasn’t the county clerk’s office.
Mutual friends had already commented. “Vivian, who are you trying to piss off?”
Vivian replied. “Whoever’s waiting in a wedding dress and can’t find their man!”
I took a screenshot with an expressionless face.
“Gwen, stop waiting!” Harper snatched my phone away. “Look at this! What kind of person is this?”
“You came back from England after graduation just for him. Do you know how angry your parents were?”
“Back then, Lucas was nothing. And you still dared to make a ten-year bet with your parents! Now you’ve lost everything.”
“If it weren’t for you working day and night all these years, helping him with proposals, pulling in investments, and quietly using your connections as the shipping magnate’s daughter to get his projects off the ground, could he have achieved what he has today?”
“And he turns around and gets cozy with the investor’s daughter!”
“I really couldn’t see it–he’s so good at pretending! He waited until the night before the wedding to finally let you discover he was sleeping around with someone else.”
“I can’t believe he would stoop so low–deliberately showing you, making you see and hear exactly what he thinks of you with your own eyes and ears!”
Harper got more and more upset, her eyes reddening.
“Gwen, stop waiting. You should live for yourself for once!”
“Harper, thank you for coming today. As for Mom and Dad… after the wedding, I’ll go back and admit I was wrong.”
A bet is a bet.
Today was the day I accepted the price of losing.
After calming down my best friend and myself, I walked toward the terrace at the end of the hallway for some air.
Just as I was about to push the door, I heard several men’s voices inside.
The groomsmen, hiding out here smoking.
“So Lucas really isn’t coming back?”
“He said Vivian’s glued to him and he can’t get away. Told us to stall for him.”
Brian exhaled smoke. “How long do you think Gwen will put up with this?”
“Look at her today–wedding dress on, red carpet walked, groom gone–and she didn’t even frown.”
“To have a wife like this, what more could a man ask for?” Jason sighed. “Lucas really doesn’t know how good he has it.”
“Lucas has no attention for that right now. Vivian’s got him wrapped around her finger–the man’s lost his soul.”
The group laughed.
Then someone made a video call. “Lucas, you finally picked up. Gwen’s still waiting. Isn’t it inappropriate for you not to come back?”
Ambiguous sounds came through the phone.
“Can’t you see I’m busy?” Lucas’s voice carried both impatience and the hoarseness of desire. “I can’t make it back. Just take care of the relatives and friends.”
“Okay, okay, Lucas, you do you.” Brian said with a grin. “Gwen’s much easier to handle anyway…”
Before he could finish, I pushed open the terrace door.
The smiles froze on their faces.
Brian hid his phone behind his back.
I looked at them. “The wedding starts in three minutes. What are you hiding out here for? There are over three hundred guests sitting out there. Are you going to make them wait? Or let them watch the joke?”
As soon as I finished speaking, the group burst out laughing.
“Gwen, stop it.” Jason waved his hand while laughing. “Three minutes? Is that enough? Our Lucas doesn’t finish that fast. He can’t make it…”
“It’s enough.”
I calmly interrupted, then turned and left.
Brian then remembered the video was still on and glanced at the screen.
“Lucas, Gwen says the wedding starts in three minutes. You’d better hurry.”
Lucas’s low laughter came through the phone, carrying the lazy aftermath of passion.
“Three minutes? Does this woman have some kind of misunderstanding about me?”
A woman’s soft giggle came through the speaker, saying something sweet.
“Lucas…” Brian asked quietly. “So…”
There was two seconds of silence on the other end, then Lucas’s impatient voice came through. “Go ahead and help me hold down the fort. I’ll come over when I’m done here.”
When he said “done,” another coquettish sound came from the woman in the background.
Brian quickly hung up the video call.
The group frantically stubbed out their cigarettes, straightened their suits, and filed out of the terrace.
As he caught up with me, Jason said quietly.
“Gwen, we all know about you and Lucas after all these years. He does have feelings for you, it’s just… you know how men are.”
I didn’t look at him or respond.
Actually, until yesterday, I still didn’t want to believe he’d developed a taste for the new and grown tired of the old.
Vivian was an investor’s only daughter, fresh out of college.
Ever since they met once at a celebration banquet, his gaze toward her had been off.
Back then I thought I was being paranoid.
After all, we’d been together for ten years. If I didn’t understand him, I wouldn’t have persisted this long.
So I chose to trust him through many ambiguous moments, many late-night messages left unread.
I didn’t believe that after all our struggles, just when we were about to build our life together, we would lose to a girl fresh out of college.
But he gradually became eager to tear off his mask, getting more and more outrageous.
He stopped hiding it, even deliberately making sure I found out.
Then he packaged his betrayal as a gift.
“How could someone as outstanding as me have just one woman? But my heart belongs to you. No one but you can be Mrs. Shaw.”
Expecting me to be grateful.
Harper was right–he was too good at pretending.
He pretended right up until the day before the wedding before finally tearing off that last layer of disguise.
In the cruelest way possible, making me see with my own eyes and hear with my own ears exactly what he considered me to be.
He pretended until I had no way out.
“Gwen, walk slowly on the red carpet later. We’ll back you up from behind.”
“Right, right. Lucas said when he’s done he’ll come over. You just go through the motions first.”
They thought I was just going through the motions at the wedding.
Thought I’d walk the red carpet alone in my wedding dress, stand before the priest, and wait for a groom who might never show up.
Then smile and say “I do” to an empty groom’s spot.
This was the script Lucas left for me.
The groomsmen stood on either side of me, their faces still wearing those “everything’s under control” smiles.
The church doors slowly opened, and a figure stood in the backlight.
Then everyone’s smiles froze.
Lucas stubbed out his cigarette and buckled his belt.
“You’re really leaving?” Vivian sat on the bed wrapped in sheets, her face full of displeasure. “You promised to stay with me all day. I only agreed to postpone getting the certificate because of that, and now you’re just leaving?”
“I have to go.” Lucas picked up his jacket. “She only gave me three minutes. If I don’t get there, with her temper–you know how she is–”
“What temper?” Vivian pouted. “Isn’t she supposed to be so understanding?”
“Understanding is one thing, but today’s different.” Lucas checked himself in the mirror, adjusting his collar. “The century wedding–I promised her that.”
“Then why did you come to me?”
“Didn’t you insist?” Lucas smiled, walked over and pinched her cheek. “Be good. I’ll be back tonight.”
Vivian swatted his hand away and turned around. “So when are we postponing the certificate to?”
“We’ll see.” Lucas answered perfunctorily, picking up his phone from the nightstand.
The screen lit up. His messages had exploded.
Voice messages one after another, and the last one was a video from Brian.
He frowned and casually clicked it open.
His eyes widened.
🌟 Continue the story here
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After my daughter died, I finally became the version of myself Adrian had always wanted.
When he kissed his adopted sister, I pretended not to see.
When he slept with her, I was even willing to buy them condoms.
Everyone said I was so understanding, so generous. Adrian finally let down his guard around me.
But I seized the opportunity to escape and went to Antarctica for research.
Five years later, when I returned home wearing an international award medal, Adrian knelt in the falling snow begging for my forgiveness. I simply took the arm of the man beside me.
“Mr. Blackwood, long time no see. This is my husband.”
Lynn’s POV
After my daughter died, I finally became the version of myself Adrian had always wanted.
When he came home late from business dinners, I no longer cared what time he returned.
When he traveled for work, I no longer asked who accompanied him.
When he drunkenly murmured the name “Melissa” unconsciously, I no longer became hysterical.
Even when my fever reached near-delirium levels, I forced myself to call for emergency help and got myself to the hospital.
The nurse looked at me and couldn’t help saying,
“Ms. Hart, do you want to notify your family?”
Family?
I laughed. Part self-mockery, part utter relief.
“No need.”
My voice was soft.
“I don’t have any family.”
The nurse opened her mouth, wanting to say something more, but finally just sighed and left with her clipboard.
The hospital room returned to deathly silence.
I closed my eyes. My daughter’s sweet face calling “Mommy” appeared vividly in my mind once again.
Following that came Adrian’s cold, resolute face.
“Lynn, Anna needs a bone marrow transplant. Only Melissa is a match. She has one condition.”
“She wants you to sign this divorce agreement.”
“Trade your departure for Anna’s chance to live. It’s fair, isn’t it?”
Fair? How laughable!
When had Adrian ever been fair to me?
After I married him, I learned that his heart belonged to someone named Melissa Blackwood.
The adopted sister he treasured like a jewel, frail and unable to care for herself.
I once naively believed that if I tried hard enough, loved him enough, I could eventually melt his heart.
But five years of marriage resulted in him forcing me to choose between my daughter’s life and our marriage, all for his so called sister.
I signed the papers, gave up my position as Mrs. Blackwood, only asking that he keep his promise and save our daughter.
But he ultimately deceived me.
At the last moment, Melissa backed out, using her poor health as an excuse to refuse the donation.
And Adrian simply said to me dismissively,
“Melissa’s body is weak. Donating bone marrow is too risky for her. We’ll find another way.”
Another way?
Late-stage acute leukemia. Where was there time for another way?
Two weeks ago, Anna finally stopped breathing in my arms.
At that moment, my heart died with her.
“Ms. Hart, your husband is here.”
The nurse’s voice came from the doorway, carefully cautious.
I opened my eyes and, unsurprised, saw Adrian standing at the hospital room door.
The man was still strikingly handsome. His perfectly tailored black coat made his figure appear tall and upright, though his brow was shrouded in lingering gloom and barely perceptible irritation.
He walked to the bedside in a few strides, looking down at me, his tone carrying his usual interrogative edge.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were sick? If the hospital hadn’t notified me, how long were you planning to hide this?”
I met his gaze.
“Mr. Blackwood is so busy. I didn’t dare trouble you with such a small matter.”
I paused, then added,
“Besides, we’ve already signed the divorce agreement. We’ll be divorced soon.”
I pronounced “Mr. Blackwood” with particular clarity, deliberately distant.
I knew.
He hated seeing me like this.
Because the me in his memory wasn’t like this.
I used to blush for half the day over an offhand word of concern from him, would carefully call to ask when he wasn’t coming home for dinner, would even secretly cry under the covers over an ambiguous phone call from Melissa.
Back then, he found me annoying, thought I wasn’t magnanimous enough, unworthy of being Mrs. Blackwood.
But now that I’d truly become what he wanted. No longer asking about his affairs, not even needing him when I was sick. He was unhappy.
“We only submitted the divorce application. We’re not officially divorced yet! And even if we divorce, I’m still Anna’s father!”
Adrian practically growled this sentence, trying to use our daughter to maintain the pitiful connection between us.
Hearing my daughter’s name, my body stiffened almost imperceptibly, but quickly returned to calm.
“Anna doesn’t need a father anymore.”
I lowered my lashes, hiding the immense grief that instantly welled up in my eyes.
“Adrian, from the moment you chose Melissa and abandoned Anna, you lost the right to be her father.”
“You!”
Adrian’s face turned iron-blue. He wanted to argue back but couldn’t find the words.
Just then, his phone rang with a special ringtone. Melissa’s.
He instinctively glanced at me. I’d already turned my face away, looking out the window, because everything around me was now irrelevant.
Adrian answered the call irritably, though his tone unconsciously softened.
“What’s wrong?”
Melissa’s delicate, helpless crying came through the phone.
“My heart feels uncomfortable. It’s so hard… Can you come stay with me?”
Adrian’s brow furrowed deeply.
“I’ll be right there.”
After hanging up, he looked at me, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he tried to say something.
I spoke first.
“If Mr. Blackwood has business, please go ahead. I don’t lack people to care for me.”
In the end, he couldn’t say a single word.
The moment the hospital room door closed, a tear finally slid from the corner of my eye, quickly disappearing into my hair.
Not for him.
But for the me who once foolishly loved him, and for the daughter who never got to see this world.
Then I reached under my pillow for my phone and dialed a number.
“Professor Cooper, I accept this assignment. I’m willing to go to Antarctica for the research project.”
Lynn’s POV
On the phone, Professor Cooper’s tone was serious.
“This is a national level polar research program that will last at least five years. During that time, complete confidentiality is required. You cannot have any contact with the outside world. This means you must completely sever past social relationships, including your family. Have you thought this through?”
I gripped the phone tightly.
“I’ve thought it through very clearly.”
“But you previously declined three important overseas research opportunities to stay with Adrian. Now you want to leave for five years. Are you really willing?”
Willing?
What was there to miss?
My heart was dead. There was nothing left here worth cherishing.
I lowered my eyes dimly.
“Professor Cooper, Adrian and I have already signed divorce papers. The documents will be processed soon, so you don’t need to have these concerns.”
“Alright, I understand. Departure is on the fifth of next month. I’ll send the relevant materials and confidentiality agreement to your email. Once you sign, there’s no backing out.”
After the call ended, Professor Cooper quickly sent the email. Without hesitation, I signed my name on the confidentiality agreement.
After signing, my phone screen went dark, reflecting my pale, gaunt face.
My beginning with Adrian was at an academic summit.
He was a young investor invited to attend. I was a new researcher brought along by my advisor to gain experience.
He was handsome and brilliant, with exceptional eloquence, yet showed tremendous patience and interest in the somewhat reserved me, initiating conversation.
His way of pursuing me was low-key but thoughtful.
He remembered literature I’d mentioned in passing, and when my experiments hit bottlenecks, he offered unexpected perspectives from his businessman’s way of thinking.
He said he’d never met a girl like me. Pure, persistent, intelligent, like a rough diamond, already shining from within, making people want to protect her.
He asked if I could give him a chance to be my protector.
So I uncontrollably fell for him, dove in headfirst.
After marriage, we had a sweet period.
Until shortly after I discovered I was pregnant, I accidentally overheard an intense argument between Adrian and his mother outside the study in the old mansion.
“What’s wrong with Lynn? Clean family background, highly educated professional, good reputation, impressive credentials. In what way is she not good enough for you? In what way is she not good enough for the Blackwood family?”
“But I don’t love her! You’ve always known who my heart belongs to!”
“Precisely because I know, I can’t let you be foolish! I’m telling you. Either have a proper marriage with Lynn, or tomorrow I’ll send Melissa somewhere you’ll never find her!”
That’s when I learned that Adrian’s initiative in approaching me, marrying me, was merely the Blackwood family’s way of covering up the scandal of his romantic relationship with his adopted sister.
In that moment I finally understood why every time Adrian and I were together, Melissa always found various excuses to call him away from my side.
But even then I deceived myself, fantasizing that if I loved him enough, I could eventually find my way into his heart.
Yet now, reality not only slapped me hard in the face but took my daughter’s life.
This belated awakening made me understand what heart-piercing pain truly meant.
Two days later, I handled the discharge procedures alone and returned to the villa.
I found a large cardboard box and sorted out everything I didn’t need, placing it all in the box.
Carrying the packed box outside the villa to the garbage bins, I threw it out with a single motion.
Just then, urgent braking sounds suddenly rang out.
“What are you throwing away?”
Adrian got out of his car and quickly approached.
He then saw the cardboard box by the garbage bin filled with various items I’d treasured.
Like the movie tickets from our first date, like small gifts he occasionally brought me from business trips, like photos from our honeymoon, and so on.
There was even my diary.
“Lynn, have you lost your mind?”
Adrian’s pupils contracted. He looked at me incredulously.
“You’ve always treasured these things. What does suddenly throwing them all away mean?”
Lynn’s POV
“It means nothing.”
I didn’t even look at him.
“Things I used to consider treasures, I don’t care about anymore. Since I don’t care, there’s no need to keep them.”
With that, I turned and walked back to the villa.
Adrian pursued me without a second thought.
“Lynn!”
He caught up with me at the staircase, gripping my wrist.
“How long are you going to keep this up? Anna’s death is hard for me too. I’m her father as well! Do you think only you’re in pain?”
“You’re in pain?”
I repeated softly, as if I’d heard the world’s most ridiculous joke.
“If you really cared about Anna, you wouldn’t have chosen Melissa and given up Anna’s chance to live.”
“Melissa’s body is weak and she has a heart condition. I couldn’t watch her risk her life to save Anna!”
Yes, of course he couldn’t let the woman he loved risk her life to save our daughter.
Laughable. When they presented their conditions, I truly saw them as my last hope.
Then came even deeper despair.
“Lynn, please stop this, okay?”
He gripped my hand, pulling me into his embrace, softening his tone to soothe me.
“We’re still young. We can have another child in the future. We-”
“Don’t touch me! Adrian, you disgust me!”
Before he could finish his sentence, he struck some nerve in me. I suddenly became furious and shoved him hard.
Caught off guard, Adrian staggered back a step from my push, hitting the stair railing, looking at me in shock.
I laughed bitterly in my anger.
“Do I need to remind you again? We’ve already submitted our divorce application. Soon we’ll have nothing to do with each other. In the future, you can have children with whoever you want!”
My only child was Anna.
Meeting my gaze, Adrian panicked.
“I only had you sign the agreement to placate Melissa, to get her to agree to donate to Anna. I didn’t expect she would ultimately…”
He paused, his Adam’s apple bobbing, then continued,
“Don’t worry. I’ll withdraw the application before the divorce takes effect. We won’t get divorced.”
Withdraw the application?
Too bad. Too late.
I sneered inwardly.
What Adrian didn’t know was that after he made me sign that divorce agreement, I’d already had someone expedite the divorce processing.
I would never love him again, never stay by his side, and never bear another child with him.
I would go somewhere he could never find me, disappear from his world forever, and let him be with Melissa.
I didn’t want to say another word to him. I coldly withdrew my gaze and silently turned back to the bedroom.
“Lynn…”
Just as Adrian was about to follow, the phone in his pocket suddenly rang.
He took out his phone and answered, impatiently asking Melissa,
“What now?”
“Stomachache? Go to the hospital! I’m not a doctor. What’s the point of calling me?”
I didn’t know what Melissa said to him.
But I heard that after the call, Adrian ultimately left the villa once again.
I’d grown accustomed to scenes like this.
Over these years, Melissa always used excuses like being weak or having heart discomfort to make him abandon our daughter and me when we needed him most. I’d lost count of how many times.
I used to be hurt, would try repeatedly to stop him, tell him Melissa was doing it on purpose, ask him not to go.
I’d also cry and rage, smashing the entire villa to ruins after he still chose Melissa.
But now, my emotions couldn’t stir even a ripple.
It turned out that after your heart died, the things that once drove you to hysteria truly no longer seemed important.
Lynn’s POV
The next afternoon, Adrian came home early from the company. He said he’d reserved my favorite French restaurant, hired my favorite violinist to perform, and asked me to change and go out with him.
I refused without thinking.
“I don’t want to go out.”
“Lynn, since Anna’s funeral, you’ve been cooped up at home all day. You’ll make yourself sick like this.”
Concern showed in his eyes, his tone softer than usual.
“Go listen to some music and change your mood, okay?”
How much I used to long for him to care about me even a little.
Now he was finally starting to worry about my mental and physical health, but only after my heart had died to ash.
I didn’t understand why, now that I’d finally stopped fussing and cleared the way for him and Melissa, he was acting like he cared about me.
Just as I was about to refuse, Adrian pulled me along, taking me to the car outside the villa without allowing refusal.
“Never mind, what you’re wearing is fine. There won’t be outsiders anyway.”
I struggled but couldn’t break free from his grip.
At the French restaurant, we were led by a waiter to a window seat.
When I saw Melissa sitting there in an off-white dress, I stopped.
I turned to look at Adrian and smiled.
“This is what you call changing my mood?”
“She’s felt terrible about Anna all along.”
His grip on my wrist tightened as he coaxed softly,
“When she learned about what I prepared for you today, she begged me for a long time. She said she wanted to use this opportunity to apologize to you in person, to make amends for what she owes you and Anna.”
Melissa stood and approached me. Her eyes immediately reddened.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry… I know it’s too late to say anything now, but I truly-”
“Shut up!”
I directly slapped away her outstretched hand, sarcastically curling my lips.
“Apologize? Make amends? Melissa, what game are you playing now?”
Melissa’s eyes immediately reddened further.
“I know you’ve never liked me, and Anna’s death made you hate me even more, but Anna’s gone, and that makes me very sad too…”
My hands clenched tightly into fists.
“Enough, Melissa! If you really feel guilty, then go kneel at Anna’s grave! What’s the point of this performance in front of me?”
Melissa’s expression stiffened, then she looked at Adrian with grievance.
“Adrian…”
Adrian’s brow furrowed deeply, as if I were being completely unreasonable.
“Melissa came to apologize sincerely. Can’t you just let the past be the past? We’re all family.”
“Who’s family with her?”
I interrupted him, my gaze coldly sweeping over him, then looking at Melissa, enunciating each word,
“My only family was my daughter, and she’s dead.”
That one sentence froze the air.
Finally, Adrian’s expression showed displeasure as he pushed and pulled me into my seat.
“Today isn’t for you two to argue. Eat properly and listen to the music.”
He then clapped his hands. Waiters began serving food, and the waiting violinist started playing.
Graceful, light music flowed through every corner of the restaurant.
This violinist’s performance was what I used to love most. Every dish on the table was what I used to love eating most.
But now I couldn’t take in the music or swallow the food.
Especially not while sharing a space with Melissa, sitting at the same table.
Halfway through dinner, I excused myself to use the restroom.
When I came out, Melissa blocked my path at the door.
The timid, guilty look she’d had earlier was gone, replaced by a triumphant light laugh.
“It’s not pleasant, is it? Getting your hopes up, only to fall even deeper.”
Lynn’s POV
I didn’t want to engage. I didn’t even spare her a glance, simply moving to step past her.
The moment we brushed shoulders, Melissa said with apparent regret,
“Anna’s angelic little face, with those two dimples when she smiled. Thinking about such an adorable child just gone like that. It’s truly a pity.”
I thought I’d gone numb from the pain, but hearing these words, thinking of my daughter’s face, my heart still couldn’t help but clench.
I stopped and looked at Melissa.
“You never planned to save her, did you? From beginning to end, you were just toying with me, wanting to watch me get hope then experience even more painful despair, weren’t you?”
“So what if I was?”
Melissa raised an eyebrow languidly, lifting a cold smile.
“Adrian and I are truly in love. You’re just a tool the Blackwood family used to silence outsiders. The child you gave birth to was never supposed to exist. A child who never should have been born.”
“Melissa!!”
Bastard?
Deserved to die?
In an instant, all my remaining rationality was destroyed.
Furious, I raised my hand and slapped Melissa hard across the face.
Melissa staggered backward from the blow.
“You…”
She covered her face, now bearing a clear handprint, but abnormally showed no anger. Instead, tears instantly welled up as a flash of triumph passed through her eyes.
“What are you doing!”
A harsh rebuke came from behind.
The next moment, a large hand clamped on my shoulder, roughly and angrily pulling me away.
The force made me lose balance. Caught off guard, I crashed into the wall.
My head hit the hard wall heavily. Stars immediately burst before my eyes, and intense dizziness struck, nearly making me unable to stand.
Perhaps realizing belatedly that he’d used too much force, Adrian’s expression froze.
“You-”
Just then, the massive decorative oil painting hanging on the wall behind me made an unusual sound.
Immediately after, the entire painting suddenly loosened and fell directly down.
“Watch out!”
Adrian’s pupils contracted sharply. His body reacted on instinct before his brain could process.
Not knowing what was happening, I saw his expression turn horrified as he pulled Melissa into his arms and quickly turned, his back toward me.
The next instant.
Standing beneath the huge oil painting, I took the full impact.
I didn’t even feel the pain before darkness swallowed my consciousness. I was knocked unconscious on the spot.
When I regained consciousness and opened my eyes, I saw the white ceiling of a hospital room.
Then my head felt like it was exploding with pain, my body like it had been run over by wheels.
“You’re awake?”
Adrian’s concerned voice came from beside me, carrying barely perceptible relief.
But I just stared at the ceiling without even moving my eyes.
“Are you uncomfortable anywhere else? Are you dizzy? The doctor said you have a mild concussion, with multiple contusions on your back and legs. You need to stay in the hospital for observation for a few days…”
He reached out, wanting to touch my forehead.
I tilted my head slightly, avoiding his touch.
Adrian’s hand froze in midair. Displeasure flashed in his eyes, but he quickly suppressed it.
He withdrew his hand, his tone growing heavier.
“Even if you hate Melissa, you shouldn’t have hit her. You left her face all red. How could you strike so hard?”
Ha…
Remembering how he’d protected Melissa in his arms before I was knocked unconscious, I wasn’t at all surprised to be questioned like this when I woke.
I pulled at the corner of my mouth, wanting to laugh but unable to.
I turned my gaze to look at him.
“Do you know what she said to me?”
“What could she say?”
Adrian frowned deeply.
“She just wanted to apologize to you, said something about Anna that made you sad. I know you’re hurting inside, but Melissa-”
“She said,”
I interrupted him,
“that Anna was a bastard who never should have come into this world, and deserved to die.”
Hearing this, Adrian’s form trembled, his expression freezing.
“Adrian, was our daughter a bastard? Do you also think she deserved to die?”
Lynn’s POV
“Melissa would never say something like that!”
Adrian almost reflexively defended her without thinking.
“I know you’re suffering. You hate her. But no matter how much you hate her, you can’t use words like that to slander her.”
He didn’t believe me. Didn’t believe those words came from Melissa’s mouth.
I wasn’t surprised at all.
After all, in Adrian’s mind, Melissa was so delicate and unable to care for herself, so purely innocent.
“Besides, bone marrow donation is voluntary. Melissa had no obligation to save Anna. You shouldn’t harbor such resentment toward her over this.”
He paused, then added with finality,
“Anna’s matter ends here. Stop making a fuss.”
Ends here?
It turned out that when your heart died to the extreme, even anger would be extinguished.
The bone-deep exhaustion made me feel like all my strength had been drained. Suddenly I didn’t want to waste any more words on him.
“Then you should go.”
I closed my eyes again.
“I’m tired. I want to rest.”
Adrian didn’t move. His jawline tightened slightly.
“I’m not comfortable leaving you here alone. I’ll stay and keep you company.”
I said nothing, just turned slightly to my side, giving him my back.
Over the next few days, Adrian pushed aside considerable work and social obligations, truly staying in the hospital room.
He brought me tea and water.
He even peeled apples, cut them into small pieces, stuck toothpicks in them, and placed them within my reach.
When my hand grew cold during IV drips, he’d raise the air conditioning temperature and clumsily try to warm my hands.
Even the nurse who came to change the IV said,
“Ms. Hart, your husband is so considerate.”
Considerate?
In the past, how much I longed for him to care about me even a little.
Now he was finally starting to worry about my physical and mental health, but only after my heart had turned to ash.
I didn’t understand that I’d finally stopped fussing and cleared the way for him and Melissa. Why was he acting so concerned about me?
I refused the fruit he offered. I pushed away his attempts to warm my hands.
I wanted no more of his kindness, however small.
I completely ignored him, as if he were transparent. Even when Adrian showed displeasure several times at being ignored, I paid no attention.
This continued for several days.
One evening a few days later, I woke from light sleep.
Adrian, who’d been sitting on the sofa, was nowhere to be seen.
I didn’t care. I just felt my throat was terribly dry. Supporting myself with my arms, I slowly sat up, wanting to pour myself some water.
Just then, the hospital room door was forcefully pushed open as a man’s voice rang out.
“Lynn, why did you do this?”
Adrian brought with him biting cold and towering fury. He crossed to the bedside in a few strides, his tall figure overwhelmingly oppressive as he demanded answers.
I paused, water glass in hand, halfway to pouring.
“What did I do?”
“Still pretending?”
The fire in Adrian’s eyes burned fiercer.
“Melissa has been kneeling at Anna’s grave for a full day and night without eating or drinking! She says unless you forgive her, she won’t get up!”
Melissa knelt at Anna’s grave?
I hadn’t even processed this information when Adrian said with an iron-blue face,
“What exactly do you want? Our daughter is dead. Must you torture the living like this?”
Not understanding what game Melissa was playing now, I was too lazy to think about it.
I said, “She kneels if she wants. What does it have to do with me?”
“Nothing to do with you?”
Adrian snatched the water glass from my hand and slammed it heavily on the bedside table.
“If you hadn’t threatened and coerced her, why would she use this almost self-abusive method to beg your forgiveness? I never thought you’d become like this!”
Threatened? Coerced?
I raised my eyes and looked at him quietly for two seconds.
“What ability do I have to threaten her?”
“Still pretending!”
Adrian was furious beyond measure.
“If you hadn’t told her that unless she knelt at Anna’s grave until you forgave her, you’d tell Mom and Dad to send her abroad, would she be kneeling there without eating or drinking? Don’t you know she has a heart condition? If something happens to her, can you bear the responsibility!”
I see.
The same thing again.
Anytime, anywhere, no matter the truth, whatever Melissa said, he always believed without reservation.
Clearly, if he just thought about it, he’d realize. I detested Melissa so much, if telling his parents could send Melissa away, why wouldn’t I have done it earlier?
Forget it. Let it be.
“Yes.”
I simply nodded.
“I threatened her and forced her to kneel at Anna’s grave in repentance. So what? Are you here to get justice for her?”
Adrian froze, seemingly not expecting this reaction from me.
In the past, I would have argued my case to the death, never admitting it.
His brow furrowed, his tone softening somewhat.
“I’m not trying to get justice for her. I just want you to go to the cemetery and tell her you forgive her so she’ll come back.”
Lynn’s POV
Adrian half-forced me out of the hospital and brought me to the cemetery.
“I was wrong. I really know I was wrong…”
When Melissa saw us, she crawled on her knees to us, grabbing my legs with both hands.
“Please, don’t tell Mom and Dad. Don’t let them send me away… I’ll kneel, I’ll keep kneeling. You can make me kneel as long as you want.”She begged tearfully, large tears rolling down her face.
“Melissa, get up first.”
Adrian immediately stepped forward and bent down, trying to help Melissa up.
“The ground is cold. You’re not well. You can’t kneel like this.”
Melissa avoided his hand, shaking her head through tears.
“If she doesn’t forgive me, I’ll kneel here until I die… This is what I owe Anna.”
Adrian’s brow furrowed tightly. He turned to look at me.
“Don’t forget what you promised me.”
I looked down at Melissa clutching my legs, my mind recalling that day outside the bathroom. Melissa’s contemptuous, vicious words.
I had to admire this woman’s acting skills. Truly exquisite.
I smiled and slowly bent down.
Just as Adrian thought I was going to help Melissa up, the next second, I forcefully shoved Melissa away.
“Melissa, you don’t need to put on this performance for me. Want me to forgive you? Dream on!”
“Ah!”
Melissa was pushed over, her whole body falling backward and landing heavily on the stone pavement.
“Melissa!”
Adrian’s expression changed drastically as he rushed over.
He knelt on one knee to help Melissa up, his distress overflowing.
“Are you okay? Does it hurt? Did you hurt yourself anywhere?”
Melissa’s face was covered in tears, but she bit her lip and shook her head, putting on a brave face as if enduring pain without wanting him to worry.
“I’m fine… It’s not her fault. I shouldn’t have made her angry…”
Adrian noticed her trembling hands. He hastily picked up her hands to examine them, seeing her scraped palms oozing bright red blood.
The fury in his eyes could no longer be suppressed. His gaze cut toward me like a knife.
“Have you lost your mind? What did you promise me before we came here?”
I looked at him.
“I don’t remember promising you anything.”
From beginning to end, I never said I’d forgive Melissa, much less that I’d help him persuade her to go back.
“Lynn!!”
I said coldly,
“Melissa will never deserve my forgiveness in this lifetime. If she wants to kneel here until she dies, I certainly won’t stop her.”
He was furious beyond measure.
“Since you’re so stubborn and insist on continuing like this, then I’ll help you cool down and think clearly about whether you want to keep acting like you’ve lost your mind!”
He pulled out his phone and quickly dialed a number.
After the call connected, he commanded coldly into the phone,
“Come take my wife away. Send Mrs. Blackwood to Southhill Sanatorium. Without my permission, no one is allowed to visit her, and she’s not allowed to leave.”
Security guards soon appeared at the cemetery, gripping me on both sides.
“Mrs. Blackwood, please come with us.”
I hadn’t expected him to go this far for Melissa.
I tried to resist, struggling a few times, but couldn’t break free from their powerful restraint.
My lips trembled slightly as I said to Adrian,
“You’ll regret this.”
Southhill Sanatorium accepted patients with mental problems.
The seven days I was locked in there were among the darkest times of my life.
I was deemed to have gone mad from losing my daughter, so I was strapped to a special chair for electroshock therapy and force-fed pills of various colors.
The orderly holding me down said,
“Mr. Blackwood is very concerned about your recovery. He hopes you’ll cooperate with treatment, come to your senses soon, and live happily as a family.”
I found it utterly absurd and laughable. I stubbornly struggled and resisted, claiming I wasn’t sick.
But in return, I received even more brutal treatment.
At night, almost every evening, screams and crying came from other rooms in the corridor, along with dull thudding sounds that terrified me.
My body and spirit endured dual torment, pushing me to the brink of collapse several times.
My heart was left nothing but an empty, numb wasteland.
Until a week later, Adrian finally appeared and had me brought out of the sanatorium gates.
He got out of the car, his tall figure standing before me.
“Have you thought it through? Are you going to keep making a fuss over our child’s death?”
“Adrian.”
Without answering his question, I slowly raised my eyes.
Then I curved my lips and said,
“Every day in there, I kept thinking that the biggest mistake of my life was… ever loving you.”
Lynn’s POV
Adrian immediately grabbed my hand.
“What do you mean ‘ever loved’? Are you saying you… don’t love me anymore?”
I smiled, my lips moving.
“No…”
Before I could finish, Adrian’s phone suddenly rang from his pocket.
It was a call from Adrian’s mother.
He frowned, glanced at me, and finally answered the call first.
“Mom.”
“Where are you two? The whole family is waiting for you to eat.”
“Almost there. We’re on our way.”
Adrian answered briefly before ending the call.
His gaze returned to my face, his lips pressed thin.
“There’s a dinner party today. Mom and Dad want me to bring you back. Get in the car.”
With that, he took my hand and led me to the car.
I didn’t struggle, letting him pull me along.
The Blackwood estate.
When Adrian’s mother saw me, her eyes widened in surprise.
“Lynn, why have you gotten so thin?”
She walked forward, grasped my cold hands, and comforted me earnestly.
“Mom knows you’re heartbroken. Anna’s death… we’re all very sad. But no matter how sad you are, you must eat properly and take care of yourself. After all, you and Adrian are still young. You can have children in the future.”
I kept my eyes lowered, saying nothing.
Adrian’s mother assumed I was still immersed in grief. She sighed and patted my hand.
“Alright, let’s eat first.”
In the dining room, Melissa was already sitting in the seat next to Adrian.
Hearing Adrian’s mother’s words, her fingers tightened slightly. Her eyes swept over me with unconcealed jealous hatred before she quickly masked it, resuming her usual docile appearance.
Throughout the meal, I ate very little.
I sat there quietly, out of sync with the entire atmosphere of the dining room.
Adrian’s father asked Adrian a few questions about the company. Adrian’s mother occasionally tried to steer the conversation toward me, but I deflected with silence or brief responses.
Midway through, my phone vibrated.
I glanced at the screen. It was the lawyer’s number.
I stood up, saying softly,
“I need to take a call.”
Finding a quiet corner, I answered.
The lawyer said,
“Ms. Hart, your divorce decree from Mr. Blackwood has been processed. When you have time, please come pick it up.”
“Alright, I understand. Thank you.”
After hanging up, I stood there for a few seconds, slightly dazed.
Finally, this day had come.
I turned around, about to return, when I heard lowered voices from the balcony direction.
My steps halted.
The balcony curtains weren’t completely drawn. Through the gap, I saw Melissa standing in front of Adrian, her face upturned, eyes red.
“Do you think she’ll tell Mom and Dad? They were already against our relationship. If she tells them I deliberately didn’t want to donate bone marrow to save Anna, will they send me away in anger?”
“No, they won’t. Don’t overthink it.”
“But I’m really scared… I’m afraid of leaving you, afraid I’ll never see you again…”
Melissa’s tears fell, looking utterly pitiful.
Adrian sighed helplessly, reaching out to wipe away her tears.
“She should have learned her lesson this time and won’t dare make trouble again. After this, I’ll find a time to talk to her. As long as she stops dwelling on the past, I’ll withdraw the divorce application. She’ll still be Mrs. Blackwood, and everything will go back to how it was.”
“But I’m still uneasy.”
Melissa raised her tearful eyes.
“After the party tonight, can you take me back to my apartment? I don’t want to go back alone.”
Adrian hesitated for a moment but finally agreed. “Okay.”
Hearing this, I silently turned and left. After saying goodbye to Adrian’s parents, I walked out of the Blackwood estate and hailed a cab to leave alone.
An hour later, at the law office.
I received the divorce decree from the lawyer.
I suddenly thought of the day I married Adrian five years ago.
Back then, I didn’t know this marriage was full of deception, harm, and cold ruthlessness. I thought I’d found true love and happily took photos with Adrian.
Looking back now, that happiness felt like something from a previous century.
I closed my eyes and put away the divorce decree.
Shortly after returning to the villa, my phone showed a message from an airline, reminding me of my boarding time.
Then I pulled a suitcase out of the closet.
I’d already prepared my luggage for departure. Some simple clothes, important documents, and a photo of just my daughter and me.
I pulled the suitcase downstairs without looking back at this house I’d lived in for five years.
On the way to the airport, my phone vibrated again.
This time it was a message from Adrian on social media.
“I’ve had someone withdraw the divorce application. Wait for me to come home later. I have some things I want to discuss with you in person.”
I stared at these words for a few seconds.
Then I typed a message in reply.
“There’s no need to talk anymore, Adrian. I’m letting you be with Melissa. We’ll never see each other again in this lifetime.”
After sending it, I dragged the man’s contact into my block list, then sent an audio message to Adrian’s mother’s number before turning off my phone, removing the SIM card, and throwing it out the car window.
Adrian, in this lifetime, we will never meet again, in life or death.
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I am Lila, the only daughter of the Silver Pack Alpha.
To secure a century-long alliance between our two packs, I married Ethan, the new Alpha of the Black Pack.
Seven months into my pregnancy, while shopping for baby clothes at a maternity store,
I saw Ethan tenderly stroking his sister-in-law Seraphina’s swollen belly.
Hearing their conversation, my heart ached until I could barely breathe.
“Seraphina, thank you for giving me another child. My life as a wolf is complete now.”
“It’s my honor to carry your bloodline, my beloved Alpha.”
After returning home, I hired a private investigator and uncovered the whole truth.
He and Seraphina had been having an affair even before his brother Julian died.
Even before marrying me, he had already designated Seraphina’s unborn child as the next Alpha of the Black Pack.
I removed the wedding ring that symbolized our political marriage.
This was the Alpha who had betrayed me from the very beginning. I didn’t want him anymore.
I sensed Ethan’s presence coming from the entryway and pressed my fingers against the corners of my eyes.
Ethan wrapped his arms around me from behind, resting his chin in the hollow of my shoulder.
He reeked of Seraphina’s signature sweet orange perfume, the scent so overpowering it made my nose sting.
“Guess what I brought you.”
I turned around and saw him holding a bouquet of lilies.
I reached out to take them and looked up at him.
“I thought you’d bring me the Starlight Brooch.”
His expression froze for a moment.
The Starlight Brooch, a Luna heirloom passed down through three hundred years of Black Pack history.
It should have been pinned to my collar on my very first day as part of the Black Pack.
“About that…” Ethan looked down, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the edge of his sleeve.
“I wanted to give it to you at the baby’s birthday celebration. That would better show everyone how important you are.”
The birthday celebration.
I almost laughed out loud.
Last week, someone in the Pack had leaked news about the Starlight Brooch.
Ethan knew perfectly well that I loved wearing brooches, and as his Luna, I should have received that brooch long ago.
Yet just hours earlier, I had seen him with my own eyes pin that very brooch to Seraphina’s collar.
The image the investigator had captured of them kissing in the Alpha’s study flooded my mind.
My stomach churned violently. The wolf pup inside me kicked restlessly. I stumbled to the sink and dry-heaved.
Ethan immediately called for the doctor in a panic, but the next second, his phone began vibrating frantically.
Through the speakerphone came Seraphina’s delicate, tearful voice.
“Ethan, I slipped on the stairs. My belly hurts so much.”
After hearing this, Ethan’s face filled with anxiety. He grabbed the doctor and rushed out without a backward glance.
I watched his panicked retreating figure, and tears finally poured from my eyes.
Before Julian died, he had clasped Ethan’s hand and entrusted him with caring for his wife and child.
But Ethan had already been involved with Seraphina even then.
When Seraphina was attacked by rogues, he abandoned me on our wedding anniversary to stay by her side all night.
When Seraphina went on a hunger strike, he left me, just after I’d miscarried and lost our first pup, to coax her into eating.
Before, I had thought he was simply protecting his former Alpha’s widow out of family loyalty.
I had even convinced my father to deploy Silver Pack’s elite forces for his sake,
helping him suppress the elder rebellion within his Pack and secure his position as Alpha.
I never imagined he had calculated everything from the very beginning:
Killing his brother to seize power, using our political marriage to stabilize his position, then carrying on his illicit affair with Seraphina behind my back.
He used me as a tool to consolidate his power, while becoming another woman’s support and another pup’s father.
With all my strength, I wrenched off my wedding ring and hurled it into the fireplace.
The floor-to-ceiling window reflected my pale, haggard face.
My pregnancy-swollen ring finger, rubbed raw and bloody by the ring, throbbed painfully, and my heart sent sharp stabs of pain through my chest from the emotional turmoil.
After my emotions settled, I dialed the number at the top of my contacts, my voice hoarse. “Mom, I want to come home.”
Ethan didn’t return all night.
I threw the bouquet of wilted lilies from the entryway vase into the trash without a second thought.
My phone notification reminded me that today was my newborn care class at the nursing center.
I placed my hand over my swollen belly. The pup kicked me gently.
Even though Ethan had been using me all along, the child was innocent.
It was my flesh and blood, my one and only treasure.
I had the butler prepare the car to take me to Silver Pack’s exclusive nursing center.
The nursing center’s reception hall was filled with soft morning light.
Every waiting couple sat close together, the husband’s hand resting on his wife’s rounded belly.
They leaned their heads together, speaking softly, occasionally exchanging smiling glances.
I chose the most isolated corner seat and sat down. A familiar scent caught me off guard.
The moment I looked up, my heart froze.
Ethan was carefully supporting Seraphina as they walked toward me from the end of the corridor.
His hand protected her lower back as though escorting a priceless, fragile treasure.
When he looked down at her, his eyes were filled with affection and tenderness he couldn’t hide.
I suddenly remembered the week I first learned I was pregnant. On my way back from visiting Silver Pack, I was attacked by three rogues.
After Ethan received the news, he led a team overnight and chased them for three hundred kilometers.
He dragged those rogues back and personally executed them in the Pack council hall in front of all the elders.
I had scolded him through tears for being too impulsive.
He had just assumed the Alpha position. His foundation was unstable, and countless eyes were watching him.
If someone used this against him, they could impeach him before the elder council for overstepping his authority. He would have to give up the position he had fought so hard for.
But he had pulled me into his arms, resting his chin on my head, and said that anyone who dared harm his Luna and pup would pay, even if it cost him his Alpha title.
I had trembled and sobbed in his arms then, thinking I had married the right person.
I could never understand it. The Ethan who had once defied the entire elder council for my sake had been setting me up from the very beginning.
The announcement suddenly crackled over the speakers. “Lila, please proceed to the classroom.”
Though only a few rows of seats separated us, Ethan finally noticed me.
His eyes darted away for a moment before he quickly crossed the corridor toward me.
He lifted his hand to tuck a loose strand of hair behind my ear.
“Why didn’t you call me? I would have come with you.”
I looked past his shoulder toward Seraphina, who sat in the waiting area holding a glass of water.
I swallowed the bitterness rising in my throat and forced a tight smile. “I was afraid you’d be too busy.”
Ethan’s brow furrowed. He sighed, his tone carrying a hint of helplessness and exhaustion.
“Julian is gone. Seraphina is pregnant and has no one to look after her.
I’m just fulfilling my responsibility to my brother. Don’t take it to heart.”
Before he finished speaking, Seraphina hurried forward holding her belly, positioning herself in front of Ethan. She grasped my hands, her eyes reddening.
“Lila, please don’t misunderstand Ethan. It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t keep troubling him. I promise I won’t ask for his help anymore.”
I hadn’t even opened my mouth, yet Seraphina’s tears were already streaming down her face.
Ethan immediately pulled her protectively into his arms and looked up at me with fury in his eyes.
“Lila, can’t you be a little more tolerant? She’s my sister-in-law, part of the Black Pack!”
Then what about me? His legitimate Luna, the one who had given everything my entire Pack had for him. What was I?
The nurse walked to my side and gently reminded me again that it was time to enter the classroom.
I turned away and wiped my tears.
From the corner of my eye, I caught Seraphina deliberately tilting her neck to reveal a fresh, crimson bite mark.
In the photos the investigator had sent last night, Ethan had been kissing her on the estate balcony while I waited at home all night.
When the class ended, Ethan was waiting at the door. He took my hand with feigned concern. “How was the class? Are you tired?”
I calmly withdrew my hand. “The nurse said the baby’s heartbeat is weak. She told me to stay calm and avoid stress.”
Ethan nodded. Down the corridor, Seraphina coughed softly.
He immediately ruffled my hair. “I’ll take Seraphina home first. I’ll come back to pick you up later.”
The last ember of hope in my heart was completely extinguished. I forced a smile and nodded. “Okay.”
I stood in the cold wind at the nursing center entrance for three hours. Ethan never appeared.
I pulled out the guarantee letter he had signed and stamped before our wedding. If he ever betrayed our marriage, he would voluntarily relinquish his position as Alpha.
With one click, I sent scanned copies to the elder councils of both Packs, copying my father.
I sent the document to the alliance elder councils of both Packs, as well as to my father.
After returning home, I began packing to leave.
The door was kicked open. Alpha pressure instantly swept through the entire house, making my chest tighten.
Ethan stormed in and seized my wrist, demanding furiously, “If you have complaints, take them out on me!”
I frowned in confusion. The next second, he slammed me hard against the wall. Pain shot through my spine. He unleashed a flood of accusations at me.
“Someone poisoned Seraphina’s breakfast with slow-acting wolfsbane, and then she was attacked by rogues! If the guards hadn’t arrived in time, she and the baby would both be dead! Lila, you’re a murderer!”
The moonstone bracelet on my wrist suddenly snapped. Moonstones scattered across the floor.
He had made it for me by hand when we first confirmed our alliance marriage, engraved with both our wolf insignias.
I winced in pain and met his bloodshot wolf eyes directly. “What are you talking about?”
Footsteps sounded in the hallway.
Seraphina appeared at the doorway, her face pale, leaning against the frame. Her wrist was wrapped in thick bandages.
She bit her lower lip, trembling all over.
“Lila, I know you don’t like me, but there’s a little life in my belly too. What you did today was too much.”
Rage surged through me. I shook off Ethan’s grip, my fury boiling.
“I didn’t do anything! I would never stoop to such despicable methods to hurt you!”
I advanced on Seraphina angrily. She backed away, tears streaming down her face.
A sharp slap rang out. My cheek burned with stinging pain.
Ethan stood before me, ice-cold, his broad frame completely shielding Seraphina. His wolf claws had emerged, radiating aggression.
I stood frozen. His eyes held anger, contempt, resentment, but not a trace of the trust he once had.
He had once said that no matter what happened, he would trust me unconditionally and stand by my side.
A sudden dropping pain shot through my lower abdomen. I braced myself against the wall and slowly slid to the floor.
But Ethan didn’t spare me a single glance. He even moved his foot away in disgust, as if afraid I would contaminate him.
I bit down hard, refusing to show any weakness.
Seraphina’s sobs echoed through the room, along with Ethan’s low, gentle words of comfort.
I suddenly remembered two years ago during a hunt in the mountain forest. Seraphina and I had both encountered a black bear.
Seraphina had carried a beast-repelling sachet, while I had been notified to participate at the last minute and hadn’t had time to prepare.
Yet Ethan’s first reaction was to protect her.
Only after confirming Seraphina was completely unharmed did he remember me, still exposed in the bear’s line of sight.
I lost control and overturned the tea table beside me. Shattered cup fragments flew, cutting Ethan’s hand.
He grunted but immediately checked whether Seraphina was injured. Upon seeing the tiny scratch on her finger, he immediately scooped her up in his arms and coldly ordered the butler.
“Lock the Luna in the dungeon. Without my permission, don’t give her any food or water, and don’t let anyone visit her. I won’t have her going out to harm people again!”
The door slammed shut. The sound of the lock stabbed painfully at my eardrums.
Delayed pain ripped through my belly. I fearfully clutched my abdomen. Warmth trickled between my legs.
My light-colored dress was instantly stained with a large patch of vivid crimson. My mind went blank.
Violent contractions tore through my entire body. I crawled frantically to the door and pounded on it, my voice trembling uncontrollably with terror.
“Ethan, I’m bleeding. Please open the door. Take me to the doctor. I’m going to lose the pup…”
The footsteps outside the door paused, then drew closer. A flicker of hope ignited in my heart.
The door handle turned slightly, followed by Ethan’s cold, mocking voice.
“Lila, I won’t fall for your childish tricks anymore.”
My heart sank. I beat the door frantically.
“Ethan, come back! I’m not lying! My belly really hurts. The baby is in danger!”
Only dead silence answered me.
My phone wasn’t with me. Blood flowed more and more. My belly felt like someone was tearing me apart inside.
As consciousness faded, I finally remembered the emergency rescue brooch my mother had given me.
It connected directly to Silver Pack’s guard team and emergency doctors.
I used every ounce of strength to drag myself to the corner of the dungeon, fumbled for the brooch hidden in my collar, and pressed the emergency button with all my might.
Then consciousness abandoned me completely, and I collapsed onto the cold, damp stone floor.
When I woke again, the scent of disinfectant and bitter herbs filled my nostrils.
I frantically felt for my belly. It was completely flat. I couldn’t sense even a trace of the pup’s presence.
Realizing I had lost my most precious treasure, I broke down and sobbed, a dull, hollow ache cutting through me.
The doctor stood nearby and sighed with regret. “If you’d been brought in half an hour earlier, the pup might have been saved.”
The second time. This was the second time.
Ethan, you are the one who killed my children.
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My sister, Charlotte, craved living in the moment and had no interest in marriage.
And I was greedy for money, so I took Charlotte’s place and married Xavier, who was supposedly ugly and fierce.
Rumors spread that he despised me, only because his heart still belonged to his unattainable first love.
Finally, after saving enough money, I decided to fake my death and escape.
I sent a message to Charlotte, who ran a high-end club in the southern city:
“I’m coming to join you—remember to cover for me!”
One day, however, my CEO husband shaved his beard and showed up at my door.
His appearance was even more handsome than the city’s acknowledged heartthrob.
I panicked and tried to flee, but due to our size difference, he caught me in his arms with reddened eyes.
It was over.
This time, I truly couldn’t escape…
My husband Xavier was famous in this city as an iron-faced CEO.
He stood six foot two, just past twenty-five, his chin always covered in thick stubble.
When he looked at people, his gaze was sharp and piercing.
Anyone who caught his eye felt a survivor’s fear.
When people saw me following behind him, they couldn’t help but whisper.
“A man like that actually managed to get a wife?”
“He looks completely unromantic. Life with him must be boring as hell, like being a living widow! Poor Mrs. Xavier…”
I broke out in a cold sweat.
My husband truly didn’t understand romance.
But in bed, he was fierce and relentless, with no restraint.
Every night he’d make me cry and beg for mercy before he’d reluctantly stop.
“Xavier, no more…”
I’d think of sad things to make myself cry, tears streaming down my face, and Xavier couldn’t stand it.
He’d stop with a dark expression on his face.
He didn’t know how to comfort people.
He’d grasp my trembling, snow-white ankle, gently set it down, lean over to kiss my forehead, his voice hoarse:
“Stop crying.”
I was somewhat surprised, because he rarely kissed me.
Usually he just closed his eyes and went straight to work.
But the next moment, his stubble scraped against my eyelids.
The pain made tears stream down my face again.
Therefore, I often had red-rimmed eyes, looking frail and delicate.
The company was full of rumors that Xavier was abusive.
So what if he was powerful in business? Only the most incompetent men beat their wives at home.
Feeling guilty, I sniffled and got some anti-swelling ointment from the private doctor, then hurriedly fled.
This marriage wasn’t originally my destiny.
The person engaged to Xavier was my sister, Charlotte.
My name is Natalie, and Charlotte is my half-sister, but we have an excellent relationship.
Charlotte had always loved living in the moment, especially fond of handsome, refined men.
She’d bet on nine young entrepreneurs who came to this city to start businesses, telling each one reluctantly:
“I’ll wait for you to return successful and marry me. If it’s not you, I’ll never marry.”
Unfortunately, Charlotte lost every bet and even invested quite a bit of money.
She was so angry she came to my room, broke my things, and cried her heart out.
I also cried tears of heartache, angry but not daring to speak.
“Natalie, what should I do? I really don’t want to marry that Xavier!”
“His fierce looks are one thing, but he’s dark and fierce, famous for his bad temper.”
I knew Charlotte’s ambition was to open a high-end club, gather all the handsome young men in the world, and live it up every night with fine wine and music.
When Charlotte had a sudden inspiration and begged me with her bright, dewy eyes to marry him in her place, I hesitated.
“How can I do something so dishonest? If Dad finds out, I’m afraid…”
She saw through my hesitation and waved her hand grandly, saying she’d give me a hundred thousand dollars after it was done, plus a share of the dividends when she opened her high-end club in the future.
“Alright then, I’ll make an exception for you this once.”
I finally agreed.
It was nothing more than being a careful, heartbroken lapdog—I was familiar with that role.
So we hit it off immediately.
She staged a crying bride’s suicide by drowning, but actually secretly ran away, taking the money to the southern city to live carefree.
The family had no other daughters of marriageable age, so the burden of the marriage alliance successfully fell on me.
When I first married him, Xavier had no interest in me.
He was cold and emotionless.
On our wedding night, he still wore his suit, sitting upright, frankly telling me he didn’t go near women and wouldn’t touch me.
The very next day after the wedding, he went on a business trip to negotiate a major project and didn’t return for half a year.
But I was anxious.
Without sparks of passion, how could I conveniently be heartless later?
So I was gentle and considerate, deliberately seductive.
Finally, on the day of his triumphant return at the celebration banquet, I secretly made him drink spiked wine and seduced him into sleeping with me.
In his early twenties, after his first taste of such matters, Xavier became addicted.
They say bloodlust and possessiveness go hand in hand—I deeply agreed.
Though I found pleasure in suffering, I couldn’t help complaining.
“Mr. Xavier doesn’t go near women, so why does he spend every night with me?”
He asked in surprise, “I don’t go near women, I only go near my own wife. Married life is natural and proper—what’s wrong with that?”
I was speechless, secretly praying in my heart for early liberation.
Everyone said Xavier was so cold and heartless because he harbored a first love he’d cherished for years.
Only after his first love married someone else did he marry me in a fit of spite.
To maintain my infatuated persona, I often clung to Xavier coquettishly.
“Other women all have them, so I should too. You’ve never given me a token of love.”
This day, he surprisingly caught on and brought me back a diamond-studded Cartier bracelet.
I was very happy.
When he wasn’t looking, I secretly bit it—sure enough, it was solid.
So valuable.
He stared at me intently.
“What are you thinking about?”
I coughed lightly, inexplicably feeling guilty.
“Thinking about you.”
“I’m right in front of you every day. What do you need to think about me for?”
I met his scrutinizing gaze without hesitation, pretending to be wronged.
“You’ve accomplished great things, and now your career is thriving. More and more women will surround you. What if one day you look down on me, find me dull and boring—what will I do?”
Xavier lowered his eyes, reached out with two fingers to gently pinch the soft flesh of my cheek, and suddenly smiled.
“Having you is enough for me. More than that would be too much to handle.”
I froze, discovering for the first time that his smile was actually quite attractive.
Especially those long eyes hidden behind his full beard—like a hawk’s, piercing straight into the heart.
Before I could react, my body was already lifted horizontally by him beyond my control, and even before my clothes were fully removed, I was pressed face-down onto the bed.
His fingers were long and beautiful, covering my broken whimpers, his burning chest pressed tightly against my back.
With fingers intertwined, consciousness gradually sank and rose in the sea of desire.
I thought with a flushed face that in the future, without this bittersweet pleasure, I’d inevitably reminisce.
Until this day, he returned from a three-month business trip and came to discuss with me seriously.
“Nat, I need to bring someone to stay at home temporarily. She has nowhere to go.”
Only then did I learn that after Mr. Sutton failed in the northern market and died suddenly of a heart attack, his wife was brought back to this city by Xavier.
That person was his first love—Rebecca White, daughter of the Group’s HR Director.
Fair-skinned and beautiful, talented and stunning, she once had countless rich young masters at her feet.
Later, she married Xavier’s colleague, Mr. Sutton of Weiyuan Company, and became Xavier’s lifelong regret.
That Xavier liked her didn’t surprise me at all.
After all, he worked under the HR Director in his early years and had occasional contact with Rebecca White.
One glance captured his heart—completely reasonable.
My lips trembled lightly, unable to suppress my excitement.
“You’re bringing her here?”
Xavier shook his head.
“Just temporarily. The Sutton family home caught fire earlier and hasn’t been repaired yet. Her family won’t take in a widow, so she wants to stay here for a few days.”
“I’ll arrange for her to stay in the guest room next to yours. What do you think, Natalie?”
How considerate of him to discuss it with me so politely—how could I not accommodate his wishes?
I shook my head tactfully.
“I’m afraid of noise. Let Miss White stay in the guest room on the other side instead.”
Xavier nodded.
“That works. Won’t disturb me and my wife’s intimate time.”
When Rebecca White came back, everyone in their circle said I was about to fall out of favor, that Xavier would definitely keep a mistress.
Even Rebecca White herself thought so.
The day she returned, wearing a plain white dress, she looked like a beauty in distress—breathtakingly gorgeous.
“I’ll be staying with you from now on. I’m afraid I’ll be intruding.”
I waved my hands repeatedly.
“No intrusion at all. Feel free to reminisce with my husband whenever you have time. No need to worry about me.”
Rebecca White smiled disdainfully.
“Of course I’ll reminisce with Xavier. No need for an outsider like you to remind me.”
In her eyes, I was just a gentle, dull, flattering, vulgar woman who fawned over Xavier.
But she didn’t know that inside, my heart was growing more excited the more I calculated.
This day was finally coming.
That evening, I pretended to have my period and wasn’t feeling well, hiding in my room early.
Xavier drank heartily with his colleagues until midnight before the party broke up.
Seeing my lights out, he went to sleep in the study alone.
But while I pretended to sleep, I had someone watch the guest room.
Sure enough, Rebecca White was sitting before her mirror doing her makeup, wearing only a sheer nightgown that revealed glimpses of her cleavage.
She asked the housekeeper shyly:
“Do you think if I make a move myself, Xavier will accept me?”
“Who doesn’t know Mr. Xavier has been deeply in love with you for years? As long as you use a little trick, that petty wife will be replaced by you!”
I applauded in my heart, silently praying for her.
I quickly packed my already-exchanged bank cards and gold bars, secretly planning what posture to use when catching them tomorrow, how to break down crying.
But that night, everyone in the house was awakened from their dreams by a thunderous voice.
“What the hell—scared me to death!”
After that, there was clearly the sound of something rolling off the bed, followed by a woman’s sobbing, hidden in the darkness.
My heart shook.
This Xavier really didn’t know how to cherish beauty.
Even with his beloved, he dared to play such bold games?
The next day, carrying my anxiety, I held my breath and opened the study door.
But I saw Xavier sitting upright inside, reading through business proposals, his demeanor completely normal.
I was extremely puzzled and returned to the back courtyard.
Rebecca White’s face was bruised and swollen, hiding in the guest room crying, no longer looking refined at all.
During lunch with Xavier, I was preoccupied and probed tentatively:
“Last night, did you hear any sounds?”
He frowned.
“No. I was drunk and only remember dreaming I was throwing punches. I don’t remember anything else.”
I was at a loss for words and could only pick up a piece of cake and put it in my mouth.
As soon as I bit down, I felt nauseous.
Xavier immediately became displeased and put down his fork.
“Is the food not to your taste? Are these chefs useless? Take it away from my wife and remake it!”
I covered my chest.
Thinking about how I’d been uncomfortable these past few days, probably due to the summer heat, I didn’t pay much attention.
A few days later, as Mr. Sutton ‘s bereaved, Rebecca White came to the Group headquarters building with a lawyer.
Mr. Sutton ‘s failure in the northern market before his death had caused the company severe losses, but after all, he was a veteran who had worked for the company for many years.
After his sudden heart attack death, his wife Rebecca White had been dissatisfied with the company’s handling of the situation.
She made a scene at the building’s front desk, demanding to see the chairman, saying she wanted an explanation.
The receptionist couldn’t stop her, so ultimately the company’s PR department invited her into the conference room.
The chairman came out personally.
Rebecca White tearfully complained:
“Before he died, my husband said that if something happened to him, Mr. Xavier would take care of me. This was his last wish! Your company can’t just ignore me!”
She produced a screenshot of emails between Mr. Sutton and Xavier before his death.
The email content was actually ordinary work correspondence, but she twisted it into a promise of care.
To calm the situation and avoid a public relations crisis, the chairman finally made a compromise arrangement: Let Rebecca White enter Xavier’s department as an administrative specialist, a nominal position, and temporarily let her live in a guest room owned by the company under the Xavier family name.
Thus, Rebecca White transformed into Xavier’s nominal subordinate and moved into the main residence.
I looked forward to Xavier’s reaction, but he showed no emotion whatsoever, saying nothing, just expressionlessly accepting the company’s arrangement.
That night, which should have been Rebecca White’s first night moving in, Xavier came to my room after his business dinner ended.
“Nat, you should be feeling better today, right?”
Without a word, he started to untie my sash, his rough palm expertly sliding inside.
I couldn’t help but whimper, pushing him away with a flushed face.
“I—my period isn’t over yet! Mr. Xavier has a new colleague starting today—why don’t you go romance your new subordinate instead?”
Xavier’s expression darkened.
“I have no reason to have subordinates living in my home. That was the chairman’s arrangement—I couldn’t refuse.”
“Is it really the chairman’s arrangement, or has Xavier had someone in his heart all along, plotting this for a long time?”
Seeing the atmosphere was set, I suddenly seemed about to cry.
“You don’t need to say anything. I know everything. Since you’ve already transferred your affection elsewhere, why toy with my feelings? Rather than leaving me to guard an empty room, suffering torture.”
I took a deep breath.
“Why not just give me divorce papers and fulfill your devotion…”
Seeing my evasive gaze, his face showed suspicion.
“You’re my wife. Could it be you’re having an affair, wanting to climb a higher branch?”
I hastily denied it.
“Of course not!”
“Then why do you want a divorce?”
Xavier’s sharp eyes stared at me intently, as if wanting to see through my heart.
My palms were sweating.
“I—my ambitions aren’t domestic. I don’t want to be confined by you. Women have their own ideals and aspirations too.”
“I see you sleeping, eating, drinking, and playing around all day. I thought you liked it, so I only gave you gold, silver, and jewels. If you have any ideals, I can support you completely. I absolutely won’t stand in your way.”
Xavier was clearly angry.
Without waiting for me to speak, he pressed me against the wall, fiercely kissing my collarbone, using physical action to punish me.
“I don’t want to hear the word ‘divorce’ from your mouth a second time!”
I was ordered confined by him.
Xavier stormed off angrily.
Before leaving, he instructed the servants to watch me carefully, not allowing me to step outside.
He placed me under house arrest, not knowing it perfectly suited my plans.
I was grief-stricken, biting my pen as I wrote a “Ten Crimes of Xavier,” detailing everything, even criticizing him for not shaving his beard.
After finishing my farewell letter, I casually sent Charlotte a message:
“I’ve fooled Xavier. Departing immediately. Coming to join you—remember to pick me up, and remember my dividends and handsome men.”
That night, I set a fire in my room, eliminating all traces.
Afterward, I escaped through a small tunnel I had dug under the back wall.
In a place I couldn’t see, a dignified seven-foot man, looking at the ruins burned clean by the fire, cried his heart out—Xavier, who had never shed a tear.
But I was completely unaware of all this, humming a tune as I boarded a plane to the south.
I cheerfully went to find Charlotte.
The moment I saw Charlotte in that southern city, I was stunned.
Charlotte now wore brilliant colors, her smile radiant—she was already the famous owner of a high-end club throughout the city.
Clearly, she was living extremely well.
“Well, well, I didn’t expect you to actually escape. In that case, I’ll reluctantly take you in.”
Charlotte proudly showed me around her establishment.
I was dumbfounded.
The club had three floors.
The first floor was ordinary dining and dancing.
The second floor was more open—you could drink while watching muscular men perform.
The top floor had VIP suites where premium male models entertained guests.
“Natalie, you’ve come at just the right time. I’ll lend you my prized possession, but you must promise to help me with something.”
Charlotte enthusiastically introduced me to the most handsome mixed-race young man.
The young man had a small, reddish mole at the corner of his eye, like a frozen teardrop.
I couldn’t help but look twice.
However, when he leaned in to kiss me, my face paled and I instinctively dodged.
“…Let’s forget it. I’m not in the mood today.”
Charlotte pouted, urgently grabbing me.
“I don’t care. The person’s already here. Whether you use him is up to you, but you must help me with what you promised!”
It turned out that a grand Valentine’s Day gala was coming up, with a spectacular exotic dance as the finale—imported from abroad.
But the foreign dancer she’d hired at great expense had run off a month ago to be a wealthy merchant’s kept lover.
My mother was a professional dancer, best at this dance.
She was foreign, so I was born with mixed-race eyes, looking different from the locals.
That’s why she wanted me to substitute.
Under someone else’s roof, I had to bow my head.
I could only agree, on the condition that I wouldn’t entertain guests.
She laughed.
“You’re here to keep me company and chat anyway. Besides, I only have male models here—how would I make you entertain guests?”
I was given this emergency assignment and rehearsed with the dance troupe for half a month before the Valentine’s Day gala arrived.
At nightfall, this city was full of song and dance—a spectacular scene I’d never witnessed in the north.
I wore a water-blue exposed-waist dress, with two magnolia flowers tucked low by my temples, pearl-beaded face veils barely covering half my face, and went on stage barefoot.
I danced to the musician’s music, my tense movements gradually relaxing.
The crowd was full of rowdy catcalls and jokes.
In the candlelight, my snow-white, slender waist was on full display—Xavier’s favorite part in the past.
Lost in thought, my dance steps unconsciously faltered, and from the corner of my eye I suddenly caught sight of a pair of dark eyes below the stage.
That person was both strange and familiar, with a refined face free of any stubble, sharp features—even more handsome than the city’s acknowledged heartthrob.
After staring blankly for a long time, I suddenly realized who those eyes belonged to.
It was Xavier!
🌟 Continue the story here
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On the day of my prenatal checkup, I discovered that my husband had booked me a post-miscarriage care package instead of a postpartum recovery suite.
I was about to laugh it off as a mistake when he said flatly:
“I didn’t get it wrong. Actually, there’s something I need to come clean about.”
“I’ve been keeping a college student on the side. She’s pregnant, and I’ve already put her through enough. I can’t let her child suffer too.”
My voice trembled uncontrollably:
“Are you planning to divorce me and marry her?”
He smiled and said:
“No. You’ll be my only wife for life. Besides, your parents are dead. Where would you even go if we divorced?”
“I just want you to adopt Nina’s child. I’m having you abort yours because I’m worried you’d favor your own child later and mistreat mine and Nina’s.”
He calmly handed me the surgical consent form:
“Be good. I promise, you’ll always be Mrs. Turner.”
I looked at him deeply, then turned and staggered toward the operating room.
“No need. Ethan Turner, I hope you never regret the decision you’re making today.”
He didn’t know that in this world, I was the only one who could bear children for him—a man cursed with azoospermia and sterility.
I woke up three days later.
The first words I heard were:
“Mr. Turner, you really took a huge risk this time. Not only did you force the abortion of an eight-month fetus, but you also demanded her uterus be removed at the same time. Your wife almost bled out—we nearly lost her.”
Ethan’s indifferent voice responded:
“I promised Nina that I’d only ever have one child in this lifetime—hers and mine. The safest way to ensure that is to have Sophia’s uterus removed so she can’t conceive again.”
His gaze swept over and met mine directly.
Ethan showed no sign of panic. He reached over to tuck the blanket around me, saying with a touch of helplessness:
“You heard? I had no choice. Nina said that only if the wife is disabled and unable to bear children can we legally adopt. Since you needed the abortion anyway, I figured I’d have your uterus removed at the same time. Save you from going through another surgery.”
Seeing tears in my eyes, he gently wiped them away, saying with slight mockery:
“I didn’t expect removing the uterus during pregnancy would cause hemorrhaging. Lucky for you, the elite gynecologist I hired for Nina was already at the hospital. You benefited from Nina’s good fortune and survived.”
My whole body trembled as I mustered all my strength to slap his face.
My heart felt like it was tearing apart:
“Ethan, you’re not human.”
But my hand only grazed his cheek weakly, leaving not even a red mark.
A petite figure suddenly screamed and rushed over, slapping me hard across the face.
I fell back onto the bed, the oxygen tube slipping off as I gasped for air.
Looking up, I saw a young woman with tears in her eyes, standing in front of Ethan, shouting at me:
“How dare you hit him! Do you know he’s been standing guard outside the ICU for three whole days because of you? If I hadn’t brought him nutrition meals every day, he would’ve collapsed.”
“The man I care so deeply about—why should he be your tool for venting your emotions?”
I didn’t miss the flash of emotion and tenderness in Ethan’s eyes.
I had seen that look before.
It was the same look he gave me when I got alcohol poisoning from drinking on his behalf and miscarried our first child.
It was the same look when debt collectors threatened to chop off his hand, and I knelt crying and begging them, pawning my mother’s only keepsake to buy his freedom.
I had done so much for him.
But in the end, it couldn’t compare to a single tear from his new love.
My heart felt like it was being stabbed with a dull knife, over and over.
I propped myself up, looking at their affectionate display, and laughed bitterly:
“Should I be grateful to him then? Grateful that for you, he aborted my full-term baby, secretly removed my uterus, nearly killed me, yet still deigned to stay by my bedside until I woke up?”
Nina’s tears fell like broken pearls.
She stared at me stubbornly:
“It’s all my fault, okay?! I’m the one who hurt you! I’ll atone for it, okay?!”
Like a madwoman, she shoved Ethan aside, grabbed the fruit knife from my bedside table, and thrust it toward her own belly:
“I’ll cut out my baby and my uterus right now to make it up to you, okay?!”
Ethan grabbed her tightly, gripping the knife handle as blood dripped down continuously.
He looked up at me coldly, frozen in shock:
“Sophia, are you satisfied now?”
He carefully lifted the unconscious Nina in his arms and left without looking back, leaving only one sentence:
“Seems I’ve been too good to you, making you think you can do whatever you want. Since that’s the case, you’d better learn what suffering really means.”
I watched his retreating figure, laughing through my tears.
The man who once promised to cherish me forever and never let me suffer had finally died in the passage of time.
Ethan’s bodyguard coldly dragged me up and threw me out the door.
“Starting today, everything Mr. Turner gave you will be taken back. If you want to keep staying in this hospital room…”
I smiled bitterly and turned to leave.
“No need. I don’t want anything from Ethan anymore.”
My phone and wallet were all confiscated.
Because they were all things Ethan had given me.
Penniless, I stood on the street, desperately trying to flag down a car to take me home.
But every time a kind person stopped, Ethan’s bodyguard would dutifully say:
“If you’re not afraid of offending Mr. Turner of Empire Group, go ahead and let her in your car.”
They would shake their heads helplessly at me and quickly drive away.
The bodyguard looked at my barely-standing body and said coldly:
“Mr. Turner asked me to tell you, this is what happens when you defy him and refuse to obey. If you’re willing to apologize to Miss White and agree to personally care for her during her pregnancy, he’ll have me take you home.”
I turned a deaf ear, simply started walking step by step toward home.
Blood dripped down my thighs onto the asphalt road, drawing sideways glances from passersby.
But I was completely numb, walking step by step until darkness fell and I finally reached my front door.
The brightly lit room drove away the cold of the deep night.
I raised my already frozen fingers and entered the passcode, but was met with an error beep.
I gritted my teeth and entered the code again and again, the system repeatedly telling me it was wrong.
Finally, the maid, annoyed beyond patience, strode over and opened the door, saying coldly:
“Ma’am, stop trying. Until you apologize to sir, you can’t use anything sir bought.”
“This house was bought by sir. If you don’t apologize, you can’t come in.”
She looked me up and down and sneered:
“If you ask me, just apologize already. What kind of status does Mr. Turner have? There are plenty of women out there waiting to take your place. Look at yourself—no family background, no looks. Over thirty and now you can’t even have children…”
“He has another woman pregnant outside, and he still hasn’t divorced you. He’s already being good to you. What are you making a fuss about…”
I interrupted her softly:
“I won’t go in. I just need to get one thing.”
The maid choked, then said sarcastically:
“Everything you own was bought by Mr. Turner. What could possibly belong to you? You’re not planning to steal Mr. Turner’s jewelry and bags to sell, are you?”
I said calmly:
“I just want to get my medical test results. Is that not allowed?”
The maid rolled her eyes, went upstairs, and threw down a manila envelope at me.
I picked up the envelope and looked at the azoospermia report with Ethan’s name on it, smiling silently.
This was the pre-marital medical examination report from when Ethan and I got married ten years ago.
The moment I received the test results, my feelings were mixed. I didn’t know how to tell Ethan about this.
Proud as he was, how could he accept being a defective man?
How would his peers use this to suppress him?
But fortunately, the doctor told me a secret—my physiology was special. I could activate Ethan’s inactive sperm and conceive.
“Miss Cole, Mr. Turner is truly blessed to marry you. You’re the only person with such a special constitution I’ve ever encountered…”
I had thought I would bury this secret in my heart forever and never let Ethan know.
But I never imagined that one day, I would have to reveal this secret myself.
I took out the little change in my pocket, made more than a dozen copies of this document, and handed them to a courier.
Each copy had the address of a company hostile to Ethan and the private contact information of those CEOs.
I said softly:
“Please deliver these as quickly as possible. Just tell them this is a gift from Mrs. Turner. They’ll definitely give you a generous tip.”
Ethan, this is my final gift to you before I leave.
I hope you like it.
Leaving the marital home Ethan and I shared, I returned to the small studio apartment where we lived when we started our business ten years ago.
Back then we were dirt poor, living only in the most run-down rental in the urban village.
The environment was terrible, but we were happy then.
Too poor to afford anything but instant noodles, Ethan would lie and say he’d eaten well at business dinners, dumping both portions into my bowl.
And late at night I’d see him standing at the sink, drinking glass after glass of tap water to fill his stomach.
Our wedding ceremony was held in that shabby rental too.
No banquet, just a plain silver ring that cost less than a thousand dollars.
This place meant everything to me.
So even after we moved to a luxury villa worth a hundred thousand per square meter, I secretly bought that rental property, fantasizing that when Ethan and I grew old, we’d move back there to live.
I never imagined that one day, when my marriage to Ethan ended, I would return to where we first began.
I turned the doorknob and pushed open the door to see two intertwined figures on the sofa.
And the matching couple’s pajamas I had treasured in the closet—the ones Ethan and I once wore—were now on Ethan and Nina.
My mind went blank. I couldn’t control my questioning:
“Ethan! How could you bring her here! You know this is our—”
Before I could finish, Nina had already efficiently slapped herself across the face.
With a swollen face, she stood in front of Ethan, glaring at me with tears:
“Mrs. Turner, I just wanted to understand Ethan’s past life, so I begged him to bring me here.”
“If you’re unhappy, I can kneel and apologize to you. Just please stop hurting him.”
Ethan was heartbroken. He cupped her face, blowing on it repeatedly.
He looked coldly at the bodyguard.
The bodyguard behind me immediately grabbed my arms. His hand like a fan slapped my face hard.
Over and over, my ears rang.
I don’t know how long it lasted before they finally stopped and released me.
I fell to the floor. Ethan looked at me with an expressionless face:
“Sophia, why do you insist on making yourself miserable? If you’re not feeling well, just go home and rest. Why did you have to follow us here to cause trouble?”
I smiled bitterly:
“Go home? Do I still have a home? Is it even my home anymore?”
I looked at him with red eyes, tears mixing with nosebleed dripping on the floor:
“Ethan, why did you bring her here…”
“You can fool around with her anywhere you want! Why did you have to defile this place!”
“The thirty-year-old Ethan is already rotten to the core. Why do you have to destroy the only memory the twenty-year-old Ethan left me?”
Ethan’s eyes flickered for a moment, but then turned to anger:
“I’m rotten to the core? How am I rotten? Sophia, don’t forget—if it weren’t for me, you’d be stuck in this cramped rental for life!”
“Don’t forget, the money you used to buy this place came from my account! This place belongs to me too! I can do whatever I want with it!”
He laughed bitterly in anger:
“You say I’m defiling this place by coming here?! Forget defiling it—even if I blow up this dump, it’s none of your business.”
He had his men drag me out and placed several pounds of explosives outside the shabby building.
With one command, the house that held our only happy memories together was reduced to rubble.
In the flames filling the sky, my tears wouldn’t stop falling.
Ethan stared at the tears on my face.
His anger dissipated somewhat, his tone cold:
“Sophia, what do I have to say to make you understand?”
“I gave you the status of Mrs. Turner. I let you live in the best villa. I let you carry bags worth hundreds of thousands. Even the clothes you’re wearing now are haute couture that ordinary people could never afford in their lifetime. Haven’t I been good enough to you?!”
“You’re already thirty years old. You’re not young anymore. Do you really expect me to still love an aging you?”
“I give you the dignity of being my wife, I give you a comfortable life. All you need to do is turn a blind eye and accept Nina and the child. Is that so hard?”
I met his gaze and said word by word:
“I’m not willing.”
“Ethan, you’ve erased everything we had with your own hands.”
“Let’s divorce.”
Anger and irritation flashed in Ethan’s eyes.
He looked at me and said flatly:
“Divorce? Impossible. Even if I don’t love you anymore, you’re still my most important person. I won’t divorce you.”
He looked at me, saying each word clearly:
“Sophia, I’ve never wronged you. If anyone’s been wronged, it’s Nina—I couldn’t give her a proper status, making her stay with me without name or title in her best years.”
“I was going to give you some dignity, but I didn’t expect you to be so unreasonable, making things this ugly.”
He turned around, knelt on one knee, pulled out a huge pigeon-egg diamond ring from his pocket, and said affectionately to Nina:
“Nina, I regret meeting you so late.”
“I can’t give you a proper status in this lifetime, but I want to give you the grandest wedding and let everyone know you’re the one I love most.”
Nina covered her mouth, her eyes reddening, but she still turned her head away, looking dejected:
“I can’t accept! I love you, so I’m willing to put aside my self-respect and degrade myself to be your mistress, but I don’t want everyone to know I’m your mistress!”
“Unless…”
She turned to look at me:
“Unless Mrs. Turner witnesses our wedding and admits in front of everyone that the unloved one is the real mistress, that she’s the third wheel!”
I looked expressionlessly at the malice in the young woman’s eyes.
Seeing my silence, Ethan said coldly:
“Sophia, don’t forget—your parents’ ashes are buried in the cemetery I bought.”
“You wouldn’t want them to end up like this house… would you?”
My heart felt like a huge chunk had been carved out with a knife. Even breathing tasted like blood.
I slowly nodded.
“Fine. I’ll go.”
Nina broke into a smile and threw herself into Ethan’s arms.
He took Nina to order wedding dresses and book the venue.
Before leaving, he paused.
Rarely, he explained to me peacefully:
“Sophia, it’s just a wedding. It won’t shake your position as Mrs. Turner.”
I said calmly:
“Okay.”
He looked at me deeply, finally showing a smile:
“You don’t need to take care of Nina during this time. Rest well in the hospital. After the baby is born, we’ll take the child on a family trip. Consider it my compensation to you.”
I still calmly said okay.
Only then did Ethan leave satisfied.
On the wedding day, Ethan was afraid I’d cause trouble, so he had bodyguards take me to the dressing room early to watch over me.
Nina acted coquettishly, saying her wedding dress was too heavy and she couldn’t put on her shoes.
“Mrs. Turner, help me out.”
Ethan frowned slightly, instinctively looking at me.
I lowered my eyes, knelt down, lifted the wedding dress, and helped her put on her shoes.
Ethan looked at me with a complicated expression, pursing his lips as if wanting to say something, but Nina pushed him.
“Honey, I’m thirsty. Go get me some orange juice.”
Hearing this, Ethan smiled and ruffled her hair, then turned and walked out.
As soon as he left, Nina kicked me in the chest.
She looked at me mockingly and said:
“Sophia, you don’t think I’m some gold digger clinging to a rich man, do you?”
“You probably don’t know—Ethan and I have been in love for nearly ten years too.”
Seeing the shock in my eyes, she smiled viciously:
“Ethan said I was too young and shouldn’t suffer with him, so he only dated me while marrying you.”
“He was afraid of wronging me. The first money he earned, he told you was taken by debt collectors, but actually he bought me designer bags. Every time I felt wronged, he’d have those people come to your house and stage debt collection scenes, taking the money to buy me bags.”
“One million eight hundred thousand in total. Oh, and there was a worthless bracelet that I threw away.”
My whole body trembled uncontrollably.
One million eight hundred thousand—that was the money I earned over those years to pay off Ethan’s debts.
At my most exhausted, I even collapsed on the assembly line and nearly got pulled into the machinery.
When Ethan found out, he held me trembling, saying it was his fault.
How ridiculous that I comforted him then, smiling and saying I didn’t blame him…
It was all fake!
He’d been lying to me all along!
Nina kept chattering:
“Later when you got pregnant, I was so angry I wouldn’t let him touch me. So he staged a scene with business partners, getting you so drunk you miscarried. You don’t even know—when you were unconscious in the operating room, he was calling me, begging me not to be angry at him.”
These words hit me like a bludgeon. Everything went dark before my eyes.
Nina’s face suddenly turned vicious, full of resentment as she looked at me:
“But he loves me so much, yet still won’t divorce you and marry me!”
“You’re just relying on Ethan’s soft heart and sentimentality, relying on the fact that you suffered through his startup days with him to suppress me.”
She suddenly laughed:
“Tell me—if Ethan knew you hurt the child in my belly, would he still care about that bit of history between you two?”
All my hair stood on end. I immediately turned to run out.
Behind me, Nina grabbed a champagne bottle and smashed it hard against her own belly, screaming.
“Ethan! Save me!”
The dressing room door was kicked open by Ethan. He grabbed my wrist and threw me to the floor.
His eyes were bloodshot as he looked at Nina collapsed on the ground, blood spreading from under her dress.
“It wasn’t me…”
My explanation was choked off by Ethan’s hand around my throat.
His eyes blood-red, he roared at me:
“Sophia! You won’t even spare a child! You disgust me!!”
“You caused Nina to lose her child. Don’t blame me for going after your dead parents.”
Through my terrified, agonized tears, he directly ordered:
“Dig up Sophia’s parents’ graves. Grind their bones to dust and flush them down the sewers.”
“No!”
I screamed:
“Ethan! You maniac! The dressing room has surveillance cameras! Go check them! It wasn’t me!!”
Sophia trembled as she stood up, turned and ran toward the window:
“Without the child, what’s the point of living? I might as well die!”
“Mrs. Turner, frame me however you want!”
Ethan’s face changed drastically. He shoved me aside and rushed over to grab Sophia.
He looked at me with a cold expression, saying each word clearly:
“Sophia, you’ve exhausted the last bit of affection I had for you. For hurting my love and my child, I won’t let you off.”
He said coldly:
“Send her to prison. Tell the people inside to take good care of her.”
“I don’t want her to have a single good day in there.”
…
Ethan ran red lights all the way to the hospital.
He carried Nina and rushed directly into the emergency room:
“Save my love and my child! If you can save my child, I’ll donate ten million to your hospital!”
The on-duty doctor was startled and stared at Ethan in shock:
“Mr. Turner?”
He frowned, looking at Ethan, then at Nina lying pale and fragile on the bed.
He asked in confusion:
“Your child? Mr. Turner, you have azoospermia and are infertile. How could you have a child?”
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I was sitting in first class on my flight home when a blanket suddenly hit my leg, thrown from the seat in front of me.
A flight attendant hurried over and crouched down, her face full of apology:
“I’m so sorry, ma’am. Miss Foster says she prefers quiet and can’t stand having any noise around her.”
“She’s willing to add $100 to have you move to economy. Would that work for you?”
I set down my water glass and smiled slightly, throwing the blanket back with force:
“I’ll add $101 for her to move instead.”
The blanket hit the person in front square in the face. The woman shot up, pointing at me furiously:
“Who do you think you are, refusing my offer? Do you know who I am? My boyfriend Peyton owns this entire airline!”
“Let me make this clear—if you don’t move, I’ll have the whole airline blacklist you. You’ll never set foot on a plane again in your life!”
I raised an eyebrow, amused.
Peyton? Wasn’t that my childhood friend I’m engaged to?
So this was the spoiled little homewrecker that Aunt Caroline kept telling me to come back and deal with?
0
“Are you deaf? I told you to go to economy. Did you hear me?”
Seeing I hadn’t moved, Chloe Foster pointed at me angrily.
I smiled.
“Miss, I was sitting here minding my own business when you threw a blanket at me and tried to insult me with $100. Why should I move?”
“Besides, I added a dollar more than you. Why don’t you move?”
Hearing my words, the flight attendant beside us drew a sharp breath.
“Ma’am, Mr. Reeves specifically instructed us to accommodate Miss Foster’s requests. How about you name a compensation, and we’ll make it happen.”
Chloe looked utterly smug:
“You hear that? I’m carrying the Reeves family heir right now. The entire Reeves family has to cater to me!”
I sat down and pulled the blanket over my legs, putting my earphones back on.
“This is my seat. I’m not going anywhere.”
Chloe turned angrily to the flight attendant:
“Are you all blind? Every other seat in first class is empty! Use your brain—obviously Peyton booked the whole cabin for me!”
“Strip her and throw her out! Let her learn what happens when you trespass in first class!”
The flight attendant looked troubled. Even though Mr. Reeves had given instructions, this demand was unreasonable.
I looked up, staring at Chloe with a hint of challenge:
“What makes you think only you can have Peyton book tickets?”
Chloe’s eyes paused for a moment.
“You… what do you mean?”
She turned to the flight attendant:
“Check her ticket! If she’s not supposed to be here, call the police and have her arrested!”
The flight attendant quickly opened the system panel and typed my name rapidly.
Then she replied with some awkwardness:
“Miss Foster, Ms. Williams’s seat is valid. It also shows it was booked through the Reeves family internally.”
I smiled inwardly. Caroline had booked this ticket for me long ago.
Chloe’s eyes filled with panic.
“Are you Peyton’s… new mistress?”
“Shameless! Trying to seduce Peyton while I’m pregnant! I just got rid of one, and now another shows up!”
“This time I’ll make sure you homewreckers learn your lesson!”
Her hand rose in the air, about to strike down.
I grabbed her wrist:
“Peyton’s engagement next month isn’t to you, is it?”
“You’d better figure out your own position before you speak!”
I twisted her wrist and returned the favor with a sharp slap.
The sound echoed throughout the first-class cabin.
Chloe covered her face in disbelief. No one had ever dared treat her this way.
“So what if Peyton has a fiancée? The unloved one is the real mistress!”
“Even if his fiancée were standing right here, I’d say the same thing!”
Her face flushed red as she tried to think of a comeback.
Just then, the flight attendant stepped forward to support her:
“Miss Foster, there’s turbulence—you can’t move around. You’re pregnant. Please sit down safely.”
“There’s a rest area in the cockpit. Let me help you there.”
The flight attendant knew she couldn’t offend either party, so she simply separated us.
Chloe left cursing under her breath.
First class was finally mine alone. My ears could finally have some peace.
When the plane landed, I was pushing my luggage through the VIP corridor when I was suddenly surrounded by a group of tall, burly men in black.
“That’s her! She slapped me on the plane! Lock her in a room!”
Chloe appeared with this group of men.
At her command, the men in black immediately pressed down hard on my shoulders. I couldn’t break free.
Chloe sneered:
“These are all personal bodyguards Peyton assigned to me. Every one of them is an expert. Think you can move now?”
“Today I’m going to teach you homewreckers a lesson myself. I’ll slap you a hundred times, then tear your mouth apart so you’ll remember!”
Her face was full of vindictive satisfaction as she raised her hand high.
Just then, a male voice rang out:
“Stop!”
It was Peyton.
0
“Baby, what’s going on? Why are you doing this yourself?”
Peyton walked to Chloe’s side with a concerned expression. “You’re pregnant. Don’t upset yourself.”
He glanced at me surrounded by the men in black and suddenly froze.
“Vivian, what are you doing back?”
Chloe asked in confusion:
“Baby, who is she?”
She stamped her foot, about to throw a tantrum, but Peyton quickly soothed her.
“Baby, she’s just a childhood friend. She’s been abroad for three years. We barely keep in touch anymore. Don’t misunderstand.”
He then looked at me.
“Vivian, perfect timing. Let me introduce you—this is my girlfriend, Chloe Foster.”
I looked at him incredulously.
“Your girlfriend Chloe Foster? Then what am I to you?”
“Have you forgotten we’re getting engaged next month?”
A contemptuous smile flashed across Peyton’s face.
“Vivian, we both know this is a business arrangement. Since when do business marriages involve real feelings?”
“Chloe is already carrying my child. She’s mine now. From now on, we each do our own thing. On the surface, we’re still one family. Isn’t that fine?”
I laughed at his words. Everyone knew the Williams family maintained strict standards and would never tolerate such behavior from their descendants.
“Peyton, has your brain been eaten by pigs during the years I’ve been gone?”
With Peyton backing her, Chloe’s face grew more arrogant.
“No wonder you were so bold. You’re just an arranged match, not someone truly loved.”
“Baby, you know what? She hit me on the plane. Look, my face is still red.”
Chloe pouted like she’d suffered a great injustice.
“How dare she?” Peyton frowned.
Chloe glared at me viciously. “Baby, stand up for me. I want to slap her back!”
She raised her hand high, but Peyton stopped her again.
“She’s still the Williams family’s eldest daughter. We can’t hit her. Besides, what if you hurt yourself and the baby?”
Chloe’s eyes shifted.
“Fine, for your sake, I won’t hit her.”
“Just make her kneel and apologize to me. Then I’ll forgive her. Let her know who the real mistress of the Reeves family is.”
Peyton’s expression darkened as he nodded.
“Vivian, it seems there’s been some misunderstanding between you and Chloe.”
“Just do as Chloe says. Once you clear up the misunderstanding, our engagement next week will proceed as planned.”
I laughed coldly.
“How about this—I’ll give her one chance. If she kneels and apologizes to me, I’ll consider letting her go.”
Before I came back, Caroline told me how she planned to handle Chloe. That method was far harsher than anything I could imagine.
Peyton’s voice turned stern:
“Vivian Williams, don’t push it. Chloe is pregnant, and you hit her. You’re the one at fault.”
“Chloe has already been reasonable and made concessions. You should be grateful, not ungrateful.”
I shook my head.
“Seems you really have lost your mind. Forget about me apologizing.”
Peyton’s face grew serious.
“Vivian Williams, if you insist, then I’ll have to cancel the engagement.”
His tone carried an unquestionable authority.
Hearing this, Chloe’s eyes flashed with secret delight.
I sneered inwardly. Business marriages weren’t so easily canceled.
I said coldly:
“Peyton, have you forgotten? If you don’t marry me, you can’t inherit the family business.”
0
“Baby, is this true?”
Chloe’s face flashed with unease as she quickly looked up at Peyton.
Peyton scoffed, his voice dripping with disdain:
“Vivian Williams, don’t think you can threaten me with that.”
“Recently, my own company has already turned millions in profit. At this rate, within ten years, my assets will match the entire Reeves family.”
“I negotiated every business deal myself, without using any family resources or connections.”
“I can make my own decisions now. I don’t need to depend on anyone anymore.”
He lifted his head, his face full of arrogance.
I remembered one night last year when Caroline suddenly contacted me.
She said Peyton was insisting on starting a business. Worried he’d lose confidence if his first venture failed, she specifically reached out to me, his fiancée.
She repeatedly instructed me not to reveal any connection to the Reeves family.
I contacted my classmates abroad, and my father also asked some distant business partners to work with Peyton.
That’s how we helped Peyton earn his company’s first bucket of gold.
Thinking about it now was laughable.
“Peyton, does Caroline know about all this?”
Anger flashed in Peyton’s eyes.
“Vivian Williams, trying to use my mother to pressure me again!”
“That’s been your only move since childhood. Besides this, what else can you do?”
“I’ve been controlled by my mother and lectured by you since I was young. I’ve had enough!”
“From now on, Reeves family matters are none of your business. I decide who becomes the mistress of the Reeves family!”
Chloe’s eyes lit up like stars.
“Baby, you’re a real man!”
She looked at me provocatively.
“My baby is the Reeves family’s only heir. Who else would control the Reeves family if not him?”
I lowered my eyes. Uncle Reeves died young, and Caroline had struggled alone to support the business all these years. I’d seen it all.
The Williams and Reeves families had intermarried for generations. Several generations of my family’s relationships and interests were deeply intertwined with the Reeves family.
If this marriage fell apart because of me, my conscience couldn’t bear it.
“Peyton, I’m giving you one last chance.”
“Not only must Chloe Foster kneel and apologize to me, you must kneel and apologize too. Not just to me, but to my entire family.”
“As long as you apologize, I’ll pretend today never happened. Otherwise, don’t blame me for not warning you about the consequences.”
Peyton looked contemptuous.
“I’ve seen through you since childhood. Besides threatening with family, what else can you do?”
I looked calmly at them both and took out my phone, asking one last time:
“Will you kneel or not?”
Chloe laughed out loud. “You’re just humiliating yourself.”
She turned to Peyton. “Baby, she’s like a mad dog. Let’s go.”
I didn’t hesitate and made the call.
I said calmly to the person on the other end:
“Chloe Foster is indeed a fool, just as you said.”
Chloe stopped in her tracks.
“She’s rude and brainless, completely unfit for any elite family.”
Chloe’s eyes widened in disbelief as she stared at me.
“As you suggested, we should cut her tendons, exile her to River City, make her undocumented, so she can never come back.”
Chloe flew into a rage and rushed forward to snatch my phone.
She screamed at the person on the line:
“Who the hell do you think you are?!”
“Do you dare tell me your name? I’ll have someone deal with you tonight, kick you out of River City forever! You won’t even have a place for your ashes when you die!”
Peyton rushed forward to hold her. “Baby, don’t get upset. She’s just scaring you. As long as I’m here, no one can touch you.”
I took my phone back and put it on speaker.
The voice on the other end exploded like firecrackers:
“Peyton! This is the little homewrecker you found!”
Peyton’s pupils dilated, and after a long moment, his throat produced a sound:
“…Mom?!”
0
Hearing Peyton’s words, Chloe’s face went pale, her panic visible to the naked eye.
“What? That was… your mother?”
“I… I just cursed at her. What do I do now?”
She frantically reached for the phone, stammering incoherently:
“No, Caroline, that’s not what I meant… Please let me explain…”
But I’d already hung up the call, leaving her no chance to explain.
Peyton quickly supported the trembling Chloe, speaking gently:
“Chloe, don’t blame yourself. I know you didn’t mean it.”
His tone shifted as he looked at me with fury:
“Vivian Williams, you’re so scheming! You deliberately provoked her into saying those things.”
“Your words were so vicious—cutting tendons and all that. Anyone would have reacted. This isn’t Chloe’s fault at all.”
He turned back to comfort Chloe:
“Baby, don’t worry. I’ll explain everything to my mother. She’ll understand.”
I sneered coldly:
“She said those words herself. No one forced her.”
“Besides, what makes you so sure your mother will forgive her?”
Peyton looked like his pride had been wounded, furious:
“Vivian Williams, you think making Chloe look bad will make me look at you? Dream on!”
Just then, a rumbling sound came from the sky, and a gust of wind made everyone squint.
A helicopter slowly descended.
Caroline, wearing sunglasses and high heels, stepped off the aircraft with commanding presence.
She walked straight to Peyton and without a word delivered a resounding slap.
“Apologize to Vivian!”
Peyton was knocked to the ground.
Next, Caroline’s expression turned cold as she approached Chloe.
Chloe trembled all over, nearly curling into a ball.
Caroline raised her hand high.
“Mom!”
Peyton rushed forward to intervene.
“Chloe is carrying my child. You can’t hit her!”
“Pregnant?”
Caroline seemed to laugh in anger, her eyes contemptuous:
“Little homewrecker, you think you can enter the Reeves family with such tactics?”
“I’ve seen plenty of calculating climbers like you when I was young.”
Peyton gripped Caroline’s hand tightly, explaining urgently:
“Mom, it’s not what you think.”
“Chloe is gentle by nature. She only misspoke because Vivian Williams set her up. When she visited you before, wasn’t she always polite?”
Caroline glanced at Chloe, who was pretending to be pitiful, and gestured dismissively to her assistant.
The assistant immediately stepped forward with a tablet, playing surveillance footage from the first-class cabin.
The screen showed Chloe ordering the flight attendant around arrogantly, acting completely unreasonable and saying outrageous things to me.
Caroline said coldly:
“The Reeves family has always been low-key and courteous, never mistreating others. We have a good reputation in our circles.”
“But here she is, a mistress with no status, already using the Reeves name to throw her weight around. She didn’t even know Vivian’s identity and dared to be so presumptuous, trampling all over the rightful heir. If she actually gained any connection to the Reeves family, who knows what trouble she’d cause!”
She crossed her arms, her tone brooking no argument:
“Peyton, I don’t care about your past entanglements.”
“Choose now—either marry Vivian and inherit the family business, or take her and get out of the Reeves family.”
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My best friend Sophia was schemed against by her scumbag ex-husband and forced to leave the marriage with nothing.
I took her into my own home.
I took her traveling everywhere, got drunk with her, and even gave her a credit card to spend freely.
My boyfriend Ethan kept frowning about it:
“Charlotte, are you Sophia’s lapdog? You love serving her that much? She’s so dramatic—no wonder men dump her.”
I rarely got angry:
“She’s my best friend. Without her, I wouldn’t be where I am today. So please show her some respect.”
Later, I went to England for business. I video-called Sophia every day,
watching her gradually emerge from her depression and start a new job and life.
Until three months later, when I came home with my luggage,
I saw Sophia lying on the couch while Ethan skillfully fed her strawberries.
The room fell into a moment of deathly silence.
Only the laughter from a variety show on TV filled the air.
Sophia was the first to react.
She scrambled up from the couch and walked toward me, her face pale.
“Charlotte… when did you get back? Why didn’t you tell us ahead of time? I… I could have picked you up.”
Ethan stood quietly behind her, saying nothing.
Sophia’s smile looked forced.
“You must be tired. Let me get you some water.”
She turned around frantically, grabbed a glass from the coffee table,
and in her flustered state, knocked over the water pitcher, spilling water all over the floor.
Ethan frowned and pulled out tissues to clean up.
“Stop making things worse. You don’t know how to do this kind of thing anyway.”
Though his tone was scolding, the intimacy in his words was unmistakable.
The last trace of hope in my heart vanished completely.
My hand gripped the handle of my bag unconsciously, leaving a deep mark on my palm.
“When did this start?”
Sophia froze and instinctively turned to look at Ethan.
He remained calm, sweeping his arm to shield her behind him.
“It has nothing to do with her. It’s my fault.”
His tone was flat, as if he were talking about the weather.
Ethan had an aloof personality—decisive and cold in business, composed and self-controlled.
People always said he was unapproachable, that only with Charlotte Smith would he ever show emotion.
I used to think I was his only exception.
Until this moment, when he stood on the opposite side from me,
using the calmest, coldest words to completely shut me out.
Sophia looked panicked.
“No… Charlotte, let me explain. We’re not…”
I stood there quietly as she stammered but couldn’t come up with any explanation.
I couldn’t help but laugh bitterly.
“Can’t even come up with a decent excuse?”
Sophia’s face went even paler.
Ethan held her trembling hands and said in a low voice,
“It’s okay. I’ll handle this, all right?”
He stepped forward and took my luggage.
“Charlotte, let’s go outside and talk.”
I looked at his face. In just three months, it had become so unfamiliar.
Fighting back the sting in my eyes, my voice trembled slightly.
“Ethan, this is my home. You’re telling me to leave?”
He fell silent for a moment, his voice carrying a hint of pleading.
“Charlotte, I’m asking you as a favor. She caught a cold yesterday and isn’t feeling well. Let her rest early, okay?”
I pressed my hand hard against my chest.
There was no visible wound, yet the pain felt fatal.
Ethan picked up his coat from the back of the chair and spoke gently to Sophia.
“Be good and go to sleep. Leave the rest to me. I’ll bring you pizza when I come back.”
I rushed out the door before they could see the tears streaming down my face.
In the hotel suite,
Ethan sat politely and distantly on the far couch.
He quietly smoked two cigarettes before speaking in a low voice.
“This is my fault. Whatever compensation you want, I’ll give it to you.”
“I was the one who fell first. Don’t blame her.”
I dug my fingers into my palm and took a deep breath.
“Why?”
Ethan lit another cigarette and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Charlotte, you’re smart, calm, and capable. But Sophia is different. Without me, she can’t survive.”
Through the dim red glow of his cigarette, I saw his face and found it utterly ridiculous.
Before, as my best friend, Sophia was someone Ethan looked down on completely.
He said she was dramatic and out of touch with society, a parasite living off others at home, a clinging vine that could only survive by latching onto someone else.
Three months ago, when I had to go to England for business,
I begged him repeatedly before he reluctantly agreed to help her occasionally when she needed it.
Back then, he had been unusually childish, biting my face fiercely.
“Charlotte, I’m not even married to you yet, and I already have to deal with your family affairs. You’re leaving me with this mess—you’d better compensate me well.”
I stood on my tiptoes and kissed his lips, promising him
that once I finished the project in England, we would get married.
Now, in just three months, everything had changed.
Ethan stood up, pressed his lips together, and his expression grew complex.
“I’ve wronged you. For the projects we’ve collaborated on before, I’ll give you 20% of the profits. If you need my help in the future, just ask.”
“I only have one request—you’re very important to Sophia. She doesn’t want to lose you as a friend.”
I looked up at him as if I’d heard the biggest joke in the world.
Even my tears came out from laughing.
Three months ago, I had used this very reason to ask him to take care of my best friend.
Three months later, I had become the one being asked.
I heard my voice trembling slightly.
“Ethan, don’t you two think you’ve gone too far?”
“What makes you think I, Charlotte, deserve to be trampled on by you? I’ll expose everything you’ve done to the public. If you dare do it, you should dare own it.”
Ethan took a step back and narrowed his eyes slightly.
“Charlotte, don’t throw a tantrum. You built everything from nothing and got to where you are today through hard work. Don’t destroy yourself over a momentary impulse.”
His voice carried a hint of warning, making me shiver.
Ethan looked down at me from above, completely adopting the posture of someone in power.
People often said Ethan was cold and ruthless.
I never agreed.
But now I suddenly realized the rumors were true.
He had simply given his tenderness to me before, and now he’d given it to someone else.
“I’m going back. Without me, she won’t sleep well at night.”
“I’ll take her away tomorrow. Sorry for the inconvenience tonight.”
The door closed, and I finally collapsed onto the pillow, sobbing uncontrollably.
Outside the window was the bustling city landscape.
I had rushed home after a long journey, only to be placed in this cold hotel.
A few hundred meters away, the two most important people in my life
were being intimate in my home, in my bed.
How ironic.
The next day, I covered my swollen eyes with sunglasses
and parked my car outside a dessert shop.
Sophia wore her work uniform. When she saw me, her eyes lit up at first, then she lowered her head dejectedly.
She brought me coffee and sat down across from me.
Her smile was forced as she spoke carefully.
“Charlotte, I know you’re angry with me. I’m sorry. I know you’ve been good to me. All these years, thanks to you…”
“Look, I’m working now. Everything I owe you, I’ll definitely pay back…”
I couldn’t help but sneer as I looked at her.
She was just a baker, yet she wore jewelry worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“Pay me back? With your current job?”
Sophia froze.
She had gotten married right after graduation and became a housewife.
Her former husband had treated her decently, indulging her every whim.
Combined with my unconditional support, Sophia’s life had been smooth sailing.
Until six months ago, when her husband cheated with his secretary.
Within two months, he had divided their assets and kicked her out.
If I hadn’t arrived in time, she might have starved on the streets.
She wanted to start a new life, but years of being disconnected from society made it hard for her to handle ordinary jobs.
Fortunately, as a housewife she had enjoyed studying baking, so she applied to be a baker at this dessert shop.
I said nothing, just gestured with my hand.
The shop manager walked over respectfully and stood before me.
“Ms. Smith, you’re here.”
Sophia’s face went white, her eyes widening.
I removed my sunglasses and spoke coolly.
“After your divorce, you had a breakdown until you said you wanted to work and start a new life.”
“Sophia, you’re not stupid. Why didn’t you wonder why you kept getting rejected everywhere, but then this dessert shop just happened to hire you—a baker with zero work experience?”
“I gave you everything I had. Is this how you repay me?”
Sophia’s eyelashes trembled as tears fell. Her voice shook badly.
“I didn’t know… I didn’t know…”
She suddenly grabbed my hand.
“But he’s good to me. He loves me. Charlotte, you’re so capable—you’ll be fine without anyone. But I can’t.”
“You said before that you’d share everything you have with me. I don’t want anything else anymore. I just want him, okay?”
I looked at her quietly. We’d known each other since we were three—twenty-five years of friendship.
In this moment, it became unrecognizable.
“Since childhood, I’ve given you whatever you wanted.”
“But Sophia, taking without asking—that’s stealing.”
When Ethan arrived, he saw Sophia nearly kneeling at my feet, crying hysterically.
His expression changed. He strode over quickly
and without a word pulled her up and shielded her behind him.
His face was iron as he looked at me, almost grinding his teeth.
“Charlotte, I told you if you have a problem, come at me. Don’t make things difficult for her.”
“How much has she spent of your money all these years? Name your price. I’ll settle it all at once.”
I looked at him and laughed coldly.
“Mr. Hayes, you really are wealthy and generous. Unfortunately, what you two owe me can never be repaid in this lifetime.”
Ethan’s face changed. He opened his mouth to retort,
but then Sophia suddenly shouted,
“Enough!”
Her body trembled slightly, yet she lifted her head to look at me.
“Charlotte, you owe me this. I don’t care if you resent me or hate me—I won’t give up. From now on, between you and me, we’re even.”
She took off her work apron and took Ethan’s hand.
The two of them left without looking back.
I sat by the window. Outside, two girls in school uniforms passed by sharing an ice cream cone,
laughing and chatting happily.
Something felt cool on my face. I reached up and realized I was crying without knowing when it had started.
Sophia and I met when we were three and had been inseparable from elementary school through college.
Ever since I could remember, my parents had been in constant fights.
They never divorced because they couldn’t agree on terms.
Neither wanted to be burdened with me.
Every time they smashed the house to pieces, Sophia would quietly push open the door to help me clean up the mess,
then pull me away without a word and make me sit at her family’s dinner table.
The year I graduated, Sophia sold her gold bracelet to scrape together my tuition.
She licked her ice cream carelessly.
“Hey, my grades aren’t great, but yours are so good—it’d be such a waste if you didn’t go to school.”
“Don’t cry, Charlotte. I could tell long ago that you’re exceptional. When you get rich someday, just remember to buy me ten gold bracelets.”
In my teenage years, Sophia was my first hero,
the most important person in my life.
When I got home, all traces of them were gone.
I stared at the empty house in a daze.
When I bought this place, I had set aside a room for Sophia.
Back then, Ethan had been a bit unhappy about it.
I just smiled and said it was my promise.
At her wedding, I was the only bridesmaid.
After catching the bouquet, I made her a promise:
As long as I was here, she would always have a home to return to.
But now, the one without a home was me.
Ethan’s things were still in the house, things he hadn’t taken with him.
Our competition certificates from college.
Photos from our trips together.
Matching toothbrushes in the bathroom.
The blanket left on the couch and the unfinished book on the coffee table.
When I closed my eyes, I could almost see how the two of them had rolled around on this couch together.
I covered my mouth and rushed to the bathroom to dry heave, as if trying to empty my insides.
Looking up at myself in the mirror, I looked haggard and unfamiliar.
Ethan was my college classmate and teammate in entrepreneurship competitions.
The day he confessed, his usually cold face was unusually flushed.
“Charlotte, you’re the smartest and strongest girl I’ve ever met. Give me a chance to take care of you.”
After graduation, I gained experience at a listed company, then quickly seized opportunities to start my own business.
Ethan had helped me tremendously.
He was my comrade-in-arms, my intimate lover.
Because of him, I tried hard to move past my childhood trauma
and attempted to accept and build a family.
I had truly planned to spend my life with him.
I looked at the face in the mirror and slowly clenched my fist.
They had once been my reason for living, the goal I fought for with everything I had.
Yet they had dealt me the most fatal blow.
Why?
So I took out my phone and dialed a number I hadn’t contacted in a long time.
Three days after making that call, Ethan stormed into my office in a rage.
He slammed the door with earth-shattering force.
“Charlotte, did you go to Sophia’s parents?”
“Her mother called last night and scolded her for a full hour, saying she’s ungrateful, saying she’s wronged you. Sophia cried on the phone until she nearly fainted. Are you satisfied now?”
I laughed lightly.
“You two dare to do it but are afraid of others knowing?”
Yet my heart ached sharply.
I had always remembered how good the Morrison family had been to me. Over the years, I’d earned money and paid them back ten, even a hundred times over.
Mrs. Morrison had apologized to me on the phone, her voice trembling with anxiety.
But the person who should apologize most had said nothing.
Ethan took a deep breath and suddenly calmed down.
“Charlotte, I’m giving you one last chance. Apologize to Sophia right now, and I can pretend this never happened.”
I felt like I’d heard the world’s biggest joke.
“Apologize? I’m not the one who should be apologizing.”
His face went cold.
“Starting today, I’m terminating all cooperation with you. The East District project you’re pushing forward—the partner happens to be my contact. You know that without me, that project won’t go through.”
“I’m giving you three days to think about it. Charlotte, you’ve been smart your whole life. Don’t be stupid now.”
I watched his retreating figure, and the last trace of warmth in my heart vanished without a trace.
When Ethan was good to someone, he’d offer them all the treasures in the world.
But once he turned his back, he was truly ruthless.
He did exactly what he said. Overnight, all partners withdrew their funding. The project stalled. The entire company was in turmoil.
But I didn’t beg him.
Ten years ago, I had no parents and clawed my way to success on my own.
Ten years later, I could still carve out a bloody path forward.
A month later, I received a message from Sophia.
[Charlotte, Ethan and I are getting married next month. You’re the most important person in my life. I hope to have your blessing. I know I’ve wronged you, but I’m begging you, one last time, okay?]
I glanced at it and continued with my meeting without replying.
On the wedding day, I still showed up on time.
Sophia stood beside Ethan like a delicate bird, her eyes full of sweet happiness.
When they saw me, both their faces changed color.
The hall full of guests suddenly fell silent.
My relationship with Ethan over the years had never been a secret.
In just six months, the bride had changed.
Ethan instinctively moved in front of her, his eyes guarded.
Sophia looked at me, tears shimmering in her eyes.
“Charlotte… I…”
I looked at the two of them and smiled softly.
“Don’t be nervous. I promised I wouldn’t miss each other’s most important moments.”
“So today, I came to give you a wedding gift.”
Behind me, the large screen playing sweet wedding vlogs suddenly went black.
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I was born in a perpetual haze, my mind often muddled and confused.
Three years ago, in a daze, I brought home a drunk, handsome stranger.
When he woke up, he stared at me for a moment, then suddenly said, “Let’s get married.”
Too lazy to think, I nodded.
For three years, I lived in a fog as a wealthy socialite. I could swipe my cards freely and live in mansions as I pleased.
I had just found out I was pregnant and hadn’t had the chance to tell him when he handed me divorce papers:
“I’m bankrupt. This is the last of my money. Take it and go.”
Just then, several floating comments suddenly appeared before my eyes:
[Whoa! Leonardo’s first love, Prescott, is back in the country!]
[I bet Leonardo is faking bankruptcy just to dump Lawrence so he can win Prescott back!]
[Leonardo got drunk three years ago because Prescott went abroad. Lawrence is just a substitute!]
Huh? So I was just a replacement?
I slowly nodded. “Oh, okay. Let’s divorce then.”
The light in his eyes instantly extinguished.
Looking at him, I felt like there was something I’d forgotten to mention.
Whatever. I’ll tell him when I remember.
Leonardo pressed his lips tightly together, pushing the agreement and pen toward me.
His eyes were slightly red, his fingers tapping lightly twice on the edge of the table. It was his nervous habit.
I looked at the agreement but didn’t rush to take the pen. Instead, I reached out and touched the back of his hand resting on the table.
“Your hand is so cold.”
Leonardo trembled slightly but didn’t pull away.
Without even glancing at the content, I picked up the pen to sign.
Leonardo pressed down on my hand. “Wait! Read it carefully before signing.”
He explained each clause of the agreement to me.
The villa would remain mine, the savings would go to me, and all debts under his name had nothing to do with me.
He had even purchased a substantial trust fund for me to ensure my future would be secure.
Comments floated before my eyes:
[Holy crap, this divorce agreement is all in Lawrence’s favor?]
[What an incredible man! But I feel like Leonardo really is bankrupt!]
[Wait, in the original story, Leonardo ends up filthy rich later…]
After hearing his explanation, I just felt stars swimming before my eyes.
“Don’t understand. So I just need to sign, right?”
I moved to sign again, and Leonardo stopped me once more.
His Adam’s apple bobbed, his voice somewhat hoarse:
“There’s one last clause. Divorce doesn’t mean we’re strangers. If you ever need my help in the future, just ask.”
I looked at him oddly. “You’re drowning in debt. What could you possibly help me with?”
Leonardo was at a loss for words and lowered his head.
I thought about these past three years—how no matter how busy he was, he always replied to my goodnight messages.
Any dessert I mentioned in passing would appear in the fridge the next day.
Every time I came home tipsy, the living room light was always on.
My heart suddenly softened. I said seriously:
“If you really end up too poor to survive, come find me. I’ll take care of you.”
Leonardo’s head snapped up.
His eyes grew even redder. His Adam’s apple bobbed several times before he finally said in a low voice, “…Okay.”
More comments floated by:
[What kind of attitude is this? He just gave you everything he had!]
[Poor Leonardo! He still thinks he’s not worthy!]
[Prescott, come out and comfort him!]
[Lawrence is really so oblivious…]
Leonardo said he’d found work hauling bricks at a construction site.
The pay was good, with room and board included. He was leaving right away.
He stood in the living room with a suitcase, glancing back at me.
His lips moved, but in the end, he said nothing. He pulled open the door and left.
The moment the door closed, the comments exploded:
[Hauling bricks? Is he serious?]
[A CEO going to haul bricks… I kind of want to laugh, what’s wrong with me]
[Stop laughing, this is tragic]
[Wait, he really is bankrupt? Otherwise why would he actually haul bricks?]
I returned to the bedroom. Traces of Leonardo were everywhere.
In the closet, his shirts hung neatly in rows.
On the nightstand sat the business magazines he read every night.
In the bathroom, his toothbrush stood beside mine.
I lay on the bed, thinking about these three years.
He’d stayed up late fixing my broken music box.
Whenever I woke up hungover, there was always warm water and hangover medicine by the bed.
After business dinners, no matter how late, he’d always wash up in the guest room first so the smell of alcohol wouldn’t bother me.
Lost in thought, a sudden wave of nausea hit me. I rushed to the bathroom and dry-heaved.
After recovering, I remembered.
Oh right, I forgot to tell him I was pregnant.
Comments suddenly flashed frantically:
[Leonardo’s first love Prescott is here! Right at the villa gate!]
I walked to the window.
I saw a woman in a white dress with elaborate makeup standing outside the iron gate.
I opened the door. Prescott looked me up and down and gave a knowing smile.
“So you’re Leonardo’s wife?” She paused. “No, ex-wife now.”
I leaned against the doorframe and yawned.
“Who are you?”
Prescott tucked her hair behind her ear and began introducing herself. Between the lines, she hinted that she and Leonardo were childhood sweethearts.
Three years ago, Leonardo had gotten blind drunk because she went abroad.
Now that she was back, naturally Leonardo wanted a divorce.
Comments floated past:
[Leonardo’s first love is so pretty!]
[Lawrence! Feel inferior!]
[Get your eyes checked. Lawrence is clearly prettier]
[No catfighting allowed! Also, I don’t think they look alike at all?]
[I agree, they don’t look alike. Is Lawrence really Prescott’s substitute?]
Prescott pulled a photograph from her handbag.
It was a picture of her and Leonardo from high school.
Standing together, though Leonardo wasn’t smiling, his eyes were noticeably softer.
Prescott’s tone was gentle, but her gaze carried barbs:
“He never loved you. You were just a substitute.”
I stared at the photo for three seconds.
“He was a bit heavier then, his face rounder.”
Prescott froze.
I continued, “Thanks for telling me this. Otherwise I wouldn’t have known what he looked like in high school.”
“Can I keep the photo? I’d like a memento.”
The comments livened up:
[??? Is that the point here]
[I can never follow Lawrence’s train of thought]
[But somehow this is satisfying]
[Prescott is speechless]
Prescott’s expression shifted. She said coldly:
“You’re quite the oddball. But it doesn’t matter—he’s already chosen me.”
“You know why he left you the villa? Because he’s about to move into my house.”
I tilted my head, thinking.
“Oh, that’s good. He won’t have to sleep at the construction site then. Hauling bricks is exhausting.”
My tone was sincere, without a trace of jealousy. Prescott was completely speechless.
As she turned to leave, she threw out, “Someone like you deserves to be dumped.”
The door closed. I leaned against it and slowly slid down to a squat.
It wasn’t that I wasn’t sad—my sadness just came half a beat slower than everyone else’s.
I touched my still-flat stomach.
“Baby,” I said softly, “your dad seems to be going off to be someone else’s dad.”
After spacing out for a while, I picked up my phone.
I wanted to message Leonardo to tell him I was pregnant.
Just as I unlocked the screen, comments suddenly scrolled:
[Oh my god! Leonardo really is hauling bricks!]
[His hands have blood blisters… But I looked ahead and Leonardo really does become ridiculously rich! Can someone explain what’s going on?]
[Can’t explain it, I want to know too]
[Prescott called Leonardo asking for his address and is now driving to the construction site!]
I stared at the comments, forgetting what I was about to do, but feeling somehow empty inside.
So I walked to the wine cabinet, wanting to pour myself a drink.
Comments floated past again:
[??? If Lawrence doesn’t want to keep Leonardo’s child she can terminate it, no need to deliberately drink alcohol! Poisonous woman]
[Right, Lawrence is pregnant but Leonardo doesn’t know yet. In the later plot Leonardo has no children, so this baby definitely won’t survive]
I froze mid-motion, silently put the wine back, and locked the wine cabinet.
Sitting on the sofa, I contemplated what to do about this child.
My phone suddenly vibrated. Leonardo sent a message:
“Remember to eat dinner. Don’t drink on an empty stomach. Don’t play with your phone with the lights off. And don’t stay up too late.”
I stared at it for a while, suddenly reluctant to terminate this pregnancy.
A week later, I received a bank notification.
Leonardo had transferred money to me. The note read: “Half month’s wages, use it for now.”
The amount wasn’t large, with odd cents included.
I stared at the message, spacing out.
Comments instantly flooded the screen:
[Leonardo literally only kept enough for himself to eat bread every day!]
[His hands are covered in blisters but he’s still thinking about his ex-wife]
I climbed up from the sofa.
Touching my still-flat belly, I said slowly, “Baby, your dad seems about to starve to death.”
Then I walked into the kitchen—a place I’d barely entered in three years.
Leonardo used to make me all sorts of elaborate dishes.
I could only cook instant noodles, and I often burned them.
I looked up recipes, nearly cut my finger, forgot to add seasoning. After two hours of struggling, I finally made a pot of soup.
I also went to the pharmacy for iodine and band-aids.
Based on the scattered comments mentioning “southern new development zone,” I took a cab there.
The construction site was dusty. Standing at the entrance in my soft house dress and slippers, carrying a thermos, I looked completely out of place.
Comments laughed at me:
[Lawrence in this outfit is somehow adorable]
I was looking around when I saw a white car pull up.
Prescott got out. She was carrying an elegant lunch box.
She saw me too. Her smile stiffened momentarily before recovering its elegance.
“Miss Lawrence?” She walked over. “What brings you to a place like this?”
She eyed my thermos and laughed lightly.
“Bringing Leonardo food? He has a sensitive stomach, can’t handle anything too greasy.”
I seriously examined the soup I’d made.
“It’s chicken soup. Not greasy. I skimmed the fat.”
Prescott stepped closer and lowered her voice.
“Miss Lawrence, there are some things you might not understand.”
“Leonardo is at his lowest point right now. What he needs is someone who can help him make a comeback, not a princess who only knows how to make soup.”
I thought for three seconds.
“But he’s hauling bricks right now. Hauling bricks requires strength, not a comeback.”
I paused, then added:
“And I’m not a princess. I can earn my own money… though I haven’t figured out how yet.”
Comments were dumbfounded:
[Prescott is rendered speechless]
[Lawrence’s logic is always so bizarre yet irrefutable]
The awkward moment was broken when Leonardo emerged from the construction site.
He wore dust-covered work clothes, band-aids on his hands, sweat on his forehead.
Seeing us, he visibly froze.
Prescott immediately rushed over. “Leonardo, I brought you food…”
But Leonardo walked straight toward me.
His brow furrowed. “Why did you come here? It’s dusty.”
I held up the thermos and medicine bag. “I brought you soup. And medicine.”
Leonardo’s eyes showed emotion. When he took the items, his fingers trembled slightly.
Prescott’s face went pale. “Leonardo, I specially…”
Leonardo turned to her, his tone polite but distant:
“Miss Prescott, thank you for your kindness. But I don’t need it. Don’t come here anymore.”
Then he said to me in a low voice, “I’ll take you home.”
He completely ignored Prescott, frozen in place.
In the taxi, both were silent. Looking at the band-aids on his hands, I suddenly said:
“The wounds on your hands got dust in them. They’ll get infected.”
Leonardo pulled his hands back.
“It’s fine.”
I said slowly, “Prescott said you two are moving in together.”
Leonardo’s head whipped around. “She’s talking nonsense!”
His voice was urgent, with rare anger.
Then, realizing he’d lost composure, he explained in a low voice:
“I have nothing to do with her. I’m living in the workers’ dormitory now.”
I said “Oh” and fell silent again.
Comments floated by:
[Wait, why Leonardo ends up so rich later is still a mystery?]
[What kind of CEO is as miserable as Leonardo, I’m speechless!]
The car arrived at the villa.
Before I got out, Leonardo suddenly said, “Don’t worry about money. If you need more, tell me.”
His eyes were bloodshot, but his gaze was serious.
I nodded, remembering tomorrow was my prenatal checkup. After taking two steps, I turned back.
“Will you still be hauling bricks tomorrow?”
Leonardo: “Yes.”
“Okay, then you do your thing.”
With that, I walked straight into the villa.
Before bed, I received a text from an unknown number.
“Leave Leonardo. You’re not worthy of him.”
I looked at it for a while, then slowly replied:
“Are you Prescott? You texted the wrong person. I’m his ex-wife.”
Then I blocked the number, turned off my phone, and went to sleep.
Early the next morning, I went to the hospital alone.
Registration, waiting in line, waiting to be called.
The pregnancy symptoms were severe. My face went pale during the blood draw.
After the ultrasound, the doctor said I was slightly anemic and prescribed iron supplements.
Coming out of the examination room with my report envelope, I felt extremely dizzy.
Looking for somewhere to sit, I glanced up and saw a crowd gathered near the emergency room.
In the crowd, I saw Leonardo.
He sat in a chair in the emergency room, his left hand wrapped in bandages.
Prescott stood beside him, bending down to say something to him.
She held a cotton swab, trying to treat the scrape on his face. Leonardo turned his head away.
Prescott persisted, reaching out to support his shoulder in an intimate gesture that drew attention.
I stood there, watching.
Comments scrolled frantically:
[Holy crap! Drama incoming!]
[Leonardo got injured at the construction site saving a coworker!]
[Prescott’s information network is really something, already here]
[Wait! I know! I know why Leonardo gets rich later!]
I was about to see what the comment revealed when Leonardo’s voice came from behind me.
“Lawrence!”
I turned my head and saw him break free from Prescott, walking toward me. Prescott tried to hold him back, but he shook her off.
He walked quickly, reaching me in a few strides. He looked down and saw the report envelope in my hand.
It clearly read “Obstetrics Department.”
Then he saw my pale face, my weakened state.
Leonardo froze completely. He stared at the report envelope, then looked up at my face.
His eyes gradually reddened, bloodshot veins filling the whites. His Adam’s apple bobbed violently.
His voice was so hoarse he could barely speak:
“You’re… pregnant?”
I blinked, trying to recall if I’d forgotten to tell him about this.
I clearly wanted him to come with me to the checkup today, but he had to haul bricks.
Seeing my silence, his lips began to tremble.
His left hand lifted, fingers shaking badly, but he didn’t dare touch me.
His voice shattered, carrying desperate tremors:
“…Did you terminate our baby?”
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