Byron didn't know I was pregnant too.

With the very child he'd once longed for, prayed for, night after night.

The next morning, we went to the courthouse together and filed our divorce application.

The thirty-day cooling-off period had to pass before the divorce would be final.

Walking out of the courthouse, I saw Byron's car parked at the curb.

Dora was in the passenger seat, cradling a bouquet of bright red roses.

She pushed the door open and bounded toward him like a giddy bird, roses clutched to her chest as she threw herself into his arms.

“Happy divorce day!”

“Don't run like that. You've still got a baby in there.”

Dora gave a little hum of a laugh：“You worry too much. Our baby's tough. I've taken him rock climbing, skiing, everything since I got pregnant. He's perfectly fine.”

Byron played along, good-natured as ever：“True. The baby takes after you. Full of life.”

I stood there cold-eyed, watching them carry on—all the touching, the teasing.

Two minutes later, my ride pulled up.

I was about to get in when Dora called after me.

“Vera.”

I didn't turn around. I only stopped.

Behind me, Dora raised her voice：“I just want you to know, love doesn't follow a first-come-first-served rule. I have nothing to apologize to you for.”

People streamed in and out of the courthouse doors. I didn't argue. I kept my voice flat：“Noted.”

I pulled the back door open and got in.

In the rearview mirror, Byron and Dora grew smaller, blurring into nothing.

I don't know how long the drive took. The car stopped in front of a hospital.

I looked down at the faint swell of my belly, then paid the fare and stepped out.

I'd spent all night thinking it through, and I still didn't want this child.

Even though part of me had wanted him to come.

In the end, reason won.

Byron's assets were enormous. My share of the settlement was enough to live comfortably for several lifetimes, and raising a child wouldn't be a problem. It might even have been something good.

But I didn't want to.

All I had left for Byron was hate. No love.

If this child came into the world, every time I looked at him I would think of what Byron did to me.

I couldn't betray myself.

The procedure was quick. I could feel the child leaving my body, bit by bit.

I didn't cry.

I didn't even feel sad.

Recovery after a termination still required proper rest. I didn't rush home. I checked into the best private room the hospital had and hired two nurses to look after me around the clock, day and night.

I slept through the afternoon.

When I woke, I saw that David James, Byron's closest friend, had called me over and over.

I called him back.

He picked up almost immediately.

“Vera, why aren't you doing something about Byron? Dora's reckless, fine, but he's going right along with her. Do you even know where they're headed? The southern Himalayas!”

“Byron and I are getting divorced.”

Silence on the other end. Then：“I know. He told me. But the thirty-day cooling-off period isn't up yet, is it? Technically you two are still married.”

I was fed up. I held the phone away from my ear.

“Vera, I wouldn't be calling you if I had any other option. I've checked the weather in the southern Himalayas. Conditions are terrible right now. If Byron and Dora go up that mountain, they might not come back.”

“None of us can talk him out of it. He says he's hired the best local guide, plus a full medical team and a rescue team. Says nothing will go wrong.”

“Vera, they're already at the airport waiting to board. I'm begging you. Find a way to stop him. If something really happens to him, what about his company? What about the thousands of people who work for him?”

David hadn't even finished talking before my mother-in-law's messages came flooding in.

【Vera Sullivan, what kind of wife are you? You just let that little fox Dora Fox walk all over you?】

【I don't care what you have to do. I want my son back safe and sound. Otherwise I'm coming for Dora Fox first, and you second.】

【Who are you on the phone with? Why is the line always busy? Vera Sullivan, answer me. Do you even have an ounce of respect for me as your mother-in-law!】

My head was splitting. I turned the phone off.

Just like last time, Byron and Dora had been caught in a massive avalanche.

In conditions that extreme, the guide had vanished and the rescue and medical teams couldn't move an inch.

Byron thought he'd prepared for everything, that the tragedy from his previous life wouldn't repeat itself.

But he'd forgotten: no one wins against nature.

Refuse to respect it, and you'd better be ready to be swallowed whole.

The day after Byron and Dora went missing, the rescue team contacted both me and my mother-in-law.

The moment Mabel heard something had happened to Byron, she stormed into the hospital and demanded I prostrate myself every three steps all the way to the holiest church she could find and pray for his safety.

I refused. Mabel, who had always been so careful about appearances in public, jabbed her finger at my face and called me a venomous woman.

“How did the Whitney family end up married to a curse like you? A disgrace to this house. An absolute disgrace.”

“No father, no mother, raised in a children's home. I said from the start you had no business setting foot in the Whitney household. But my son knelt in the family hall for three days and three nights, not a drop of water, not a grain of rice, and I loved him too much to say no.”

“Now my son could be dead for all we know, and you don't lift a finger. Heaven won't forgive this. You'll pay for it.”

No matter how she raged, I felt nothing.

And the things she said weren't exaggerations.

In the beginning, Byron loved me deeply.

Even when the whole world stood against us, he still chose me without hesitation.

Once, when he was overseas on business, I caught a cold and a fever, took medicine, and fell asleep before I could pick up his call. When he couldn't reach me, he panicked so badly he abandoned a deal worth hundreds of millions and flew back.

When my cramps were bad during my period, his eyes went red with worry, and he'd stay up the entire night rubbing my back and my stomach.

There had been so many beautiful, precious memories between us.

None of that stopped him from changing.

By the third year of our marriage, he started saying I wasn't presentable enough. Other men's wives could hold their own at a dinner table and still run a household, he said. They were worth showing off.

He picked me apart until I felt worthless. I suggested getting a job, easing myself back into the world. He immediately backtracked and said that wasn't what he meant.

By year six, he was barely coming home.

Friends around me warned me that a man acting the way Byron was acting would almost certainly end up cheating. I hired a private investigator. Nothing turned up.

Byron didn't have another woman.

He just didn't love me anymore.

In year ten, Byron met Dora Fox.

Dora was the artsy type. Melancholy and brightness lived side by side in her, fragility braided with strength, and it drew Byron's gaze effortlessly.

But her most striking quality was her hunger for extremes, for risk. She was nothing like me, dull and uninteresting, whose entire world revolved around Byron.

I watched the man I loved fall for someone else.

And there was nothing I could do.

A ringing phone shattered the memory.

It was David.

Mabel saw the caller ID and snatched the phone out of my hand before I could answer.

“Is there news about Byron?”

Wind and snow howled through the phone. David was gasping for breath, his voice distorted by exhaustion.

“Mrs. Whitney? Here's the situation — conditions are brutal out here, and we still haven't found Byron. But there's good news: Dora and the baby are both fine.”

Mabel's eyes went venomous, spit flying as she shrieked. ：“Why is that slut Dora Fox still alive? She did this to my son — she deserves to rot in the deepest pit of hell!”

“Mrs. Whitney, please calm down——”

David's voice cut off. A few seconds later he erupted into a shout of wild, disbelieving joy. ：“Mrs. Whitney, they found Byron! The rescue team is carrying him over right now.”

“Thank the Lord, thank God!”

Mabel was shaking so badly she nearly dropped the phone.

The call was still connected.

Half a minute passed before David's voice came back. ：“Mrs. Whitney, you and Vera need to prepare yourselves. Byron, he……”