"If you know all that, then why are you still being so heartless?"

"Get some rest. And when you're feeling better, apologize to Grace. She's a simple, kind-hearted person. She won't hold it against you."

He stood and walked out without a shred of hesitation.

I stared at the closed door, a suffocating ache pressing against my chest.

I curled up on the hospital bed and broke down crying.

I didn't know how long it lasted before my phone alarm went off.

I'd promised Jeanette I would come to the children's hospital tonight to stay with her.

I had barely sat up when the door swung open.

Grace walked in wearing a loose maternity dress, her steps slow and deliberate.

"Miss Harding, where are you rushing off to? Why not rest a little longer?"

There was a smile on her face, but her eyes were ice cold.

"I hope you understand—Julian is my husband now. You can stop with the desperate little stunts."

She paused, then lowered her voice.

"After all, children are innocent. Aren't they?"

Every nerve in my body seized. My head snapped up, and I glared at her with bloodshot eyes.

"Grace, what are you trying to do?"

"I'm warning you—if you lay a single finger on my daughter, I will make you pay with your life."

She steadied herself against the edge of the bed and settled into the chair, her gaze dropping to her swollen belly, her expression melting into tenderness.

"Miss Harding, please, calm down. We're both mothers. I don't want to make things difficult for you."

She reached into her bag, pulled out a bank card, and set it on the bed.

"There's a million dollars on this card. More than enough to cover Jeanette's surgery."

"My only condition is that Julian never finds out she exists."

A million dollars. Enough for the surgery and the medication.

The refusal climbed to the tip of my tongue, but I forced it back down.

Between a life without a father and a life at all, I would always choose her life.

So I swallowed the bitterness burning in my throat.

"Fine. I agree."

A smug smile spread across Grace's face. She rose slowly to her feet.

She took two steps, then frowned and turned back to me with a helpless look.

"Miss Harding, would you mind tying my shoelace for me? I really can't bend down."

I hesitated, suspicion flickering through me. But in the end, I knelt down.

That was when Julian's voice cut through the room, sharp and urgent.

"Grace, what are you doing in here?"

Before I could react, Grace let out a cry and her body pitched backward.

Julian rushed in and caught her just before she hit the ground. His pupils contracted to pinpoints.

"Gertrude, you've gone too far!"

"I didn't—"

His hand cracked across my face before I could finish, the force so brutal it whipped my head to the side.

Grace sagged against Julian's chest, her face drained of color, her voice choked with tears.

"Julian, don't blame Miss Harding. She just wanted a million dollars for her child."

"I told her that's our joint marital assets, and I don't have the authority to give it away. That's why she got upset and pushed me."

"She didn't mean it..."

Julian stared at me, disbelief flooding his eyes.

"A child? When did you have a child?"

"I actually thought you were sincere. Turns out this whole time, I was nothing but an ATM to you."

I opened my mouth to explain, but Grace beat me to it.

"Julian, let it go."

"We wronged Miss Harding first, after all. We can't take away her right to find happiness."

Julian's face went dark as iron, his eyes filled with nothing but disgust.

"Gertrude, you're really something else."

He pulled out his phone.

"Security? There's someone here trying to hurt my wife."

Several guards burst into the room within minutes. They seized me by the arms and hauled me off to the police station.

The next morning, I walked out of the station, but Julian's men were already waiting. They shoved me into a car and drove me to the villa.

Julian sat on the sofa, reading a picture book to Grace's belly. The moment he saw me forced to my knees on the floor, every trace of tenderness drained from his face.

"Gertrude, you should count yourself lucky. Grace and the baby are both fine."

He set the book aside and walked toward me, then ground his heel into the back of my hand.

"Apologize to Grace."

I had no time to fight him. Not now. I clenched my teeth and forced the words out.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Weiss."

Then I lifted my head and looked at Julian, my gaze flat and empty.

"Are we done, Mr. Weiss?"

He raised an eyebrow, amusement pooling in his eyes.

"Grace really enjoyed the dishes you cooked the other day. How about you stay and wait on her through her postpartum recovery?"

"Don't you dare—"

My phone erupted in my pocket, vibrating so hard I felt it in my ribs.

I fumbled it out with shaking hands. The nurse's voice on the other end was frantic.

"Ms. Harding, Jeanette's gone into cardiac failure. You need to get here—"

Before she could finish, Julian snatched the phone from my hand.

"One night apart and you're already this desperate to call your man, Gertrude?"

I stared at the phone in his grip. Something inside me snapped. A raw, guttural scream tore from my throat as I grabbed the fruit knife off the table and pressed it to my own neck.

"Julian!"

"If anything happens to Jeanette, I swear to God I will make every last one of you pay with your lives!"

The color drained from his face. He shoved the phone back at me.

I ran. I ran like a woman possessed, all the way to the hospital. But the second I burst through the doors, they were already wheeling her out, a white sheet pulled over her small body.

The pain hit so hard it locked every muscle in place. I couldn't move. I couldn't scream. I couldn't make a single sound.

In the message thread he'd never once replied to in four years, a notification appeared.

Julian: Don't do anything stupid.

Julian: I just transferred two million dollars to your account. Get the child into surgery now.

I didn't reply.

I gathered my daughter's body into my arms, held her close, and stepped off the windowsill.

Julian was already racing toward the hospital when his phone rang. His assistant's voice cracked through the speaker.

"Sir, it's bad. Ms. Harding jumped."