After the investigation, the police confirmed that the fire had been set on purpose.

Lorenzo’s mistress, the one he kept outside his marriage, wanted to replace me and become Mrs. Clark. She had gone to the hospital to confront Grandma Ursula while pregnant. The confrontation upset Grandma so much that she had a heart attack and died on the spot.

Afraid of being exposed, the mistress set the hospital on fire and fled.

I was the “mistress” mentioned in the news.

Only Grandma Ursula’s ashes were recovered from the scene. With me missing, Lorenzo became convinced I was behind everything.

Tabitha secretly took what she believed were my ashes and had them made into a ring, which she wore to her engagement with Lorenzo.

He was overjoyed when he received it.

Back then, he believed I had killed Grandma Ursula. Grief consumed him. That ring, Tabitha claimed she handcrafted, brought him comfort.

“Tabitha, I’m so lucky to have you.”

He kissed the ring solemnly and promised her he would take care of her forever while also swearing he would find me and grind my bones to dust to avenge his grandmother.

What he didn’t know was that the woman he hated most was now literally on his finger.

“Lorenzo, where did you go?” Tabitha asked with a soft whine, half-complaining and half-flirting.

Nova, the dog, ran up to Lorenzo, excitedly licking his hand, or more accurately, the ring on his hand.

Lorenzo gently patted its head and said, “Yana, that poisonous woman, still hasn’t turned up. Her mother even claimed she’s dead, just to protect her.”

He paused and pulled his hand back to stop Nova from licking. “Nova really seems to like this ring.”

The smile on Tabitha’s face stiffened. Her fingers tightened slightly before she forced a reply, “Of course he does. I gave it to you.”

“Lorenzo, if Yana really is dead—”

Before she could finish, Lorenzo cut her off sharply.

“She can’t be dead! A woman like her should live and pay for what she’s done. How could she die so easily?!”

There was a flicker of nervousness in his voice. Even he couldn’t tell whether he was angry that I might’ve died too easily or afraid that I truly had.

He didn’t notice how pale Tabitha had become. Just as he was about to speak again, his phone rang.

“President Clark, there’s news about Miss Yana Collins.”

That one sentence stunned not only Lorenzo but Tabitha, too.

I had been declared dead for almost five years; how could there suddenly be any news?

Without saying much, Lorenzo replied, “On my way,” and hung up. He turned to Tabitha.

“Once I bring her back, I’ll make her pay for what happened to Grandma.”

He rubbed the ring on his finger again, a habit he picked up after the fire, something he always did when tense.

Tabitha forced another smile, but before she could speak, Lorenzo had already rushed off to the café the assistant mentioned.

“President Clark, this is Dr. Aquino,” the assistant said, making the introduction.

Lorenzo nodded. He recognized the man; it was Grandma Ursula’s attending doctor, one of the few who had survived the fire.

“Where is Yana? Tell her to come see me.”

Dr. Aquino didn’t respond. Instead, he handed Lorenzo a small box.

“President Clark, I managed to save this from the old lady’s hospital room.”

A strange sense of unease rose in Lorenzo’s chest as he took the box and opened it. Inside were just two things: a pregnancy report and a diamond bracelet.

His heart skipped a beat. That bracelet was the one Grandma Ursula had prepared for her future grandchild. Why was it here?

Lorenzo took a deep breath, eyes lowering to the report and froze.

The report showed that Yana had been three months pregnant. And the date matched the months just before the fire.

Lorenzo’s eyes filled with disbelief. He had always assumed Francesca was a child I had with another man after escaping the fire.

“Whose... child is she?” Lorenzo’s voice was hoarse, barely audible.

Back then, before the fire, I was still his fiancée and had never been involved with any other man.

Lorenzo’s body trembled slightly. For the first time, he started to question Francesca’s identity.

The doctor shook his head.

“Miss Collins always came to her prenatal appointments alone. Aside from Mrs. Ursula, only one other woman visited her often.”

“But that woman didn’t seem to care about her at all. She constantly yelled at her, hit her, taking advantage of her weak condition.”

Suddenly, I remembered that I had told Lorenzo about the pregnancy. But he had laughed it off, thinking I was just trying to trap him into marriage.

He never believed me. The only one who showed up was Tabitha.

She stormed into the hospital, tore up my prenatal report and nearly pushed me off the rooftop.

If it hadn’t been for Grandma Ursula protecting me, both Francesca and I would’ve died at Tabitha’s hands.

Once Tabitha found out I was pregnant, she did everything she could to cling to Lorenzo, begging, crying and manipulating until she finally stopped him from visiting me altogether.

During the entire ten months of my pregnancy, he never once came to the hospital.

It wasn’t until the fire that he suddenly remembered his so-called “enemy” and went crazy trying to force my mom to reveal where I was.

“Who was that woman?”

Just as the doctor was about to answer, Tabitha walked in. The doctor paused for a moment, then leaned in and whispered to Lorenzo,

“It’s her.”

“That young woman is truly cruel. She nearly tormented a pregnant woman to death.”

“If Mrs. Ursula hadn’t stepped in, Miss Collins’s baby wouldn’t have survived. That woman almost caused her to miscarry.”

Lorenzo froze, then slowly turned to stare at Tabitha in disbelief.

“Lorenzo, aren’t we going to try on wedding clothes?” Tabitha chirped as she clung to his arm, unaware of the change in his expression.

Yes, three days from now was their wedding. No wonder she had looked so panicked when she heard my name earlier.

On the way, Lorenzo seemed distracted, quietly fiddling with the ring on his finger.

“Lorenzo, aren’t you happy to marry me?” Tabitha asked, sounding uncertain.

After a long silence, Lorenzo finally asked what had been weighing on his mind.

“Tabitha… did you already know Yana was pregnant?”

Her face stiffened. She hesitated, then forced a smile.

“Why are you suddenly thinking about her?”

Lorenzo said nothing. Her gaze flickered with unease before she quickly added in a soft, tearful tone,

“Lorenzo, I only did what I did because I saw her meeting another man in secret. I got angry. I just wanted to teach her a lesson… for your sake.”

“Secretly meeting someone?” Lorenzo frowned.

He knew that all those years, I had only ever cared about him. Maybe I had set the fire out of desperation or even to force him into marriage, but betrayal? That was something he couldn't believe.

He started to question Tabitha's story.

“I saw it with my own eyes. A man came to the hospital to see her and he even said things like ‘our child’…”

“Lorenzo, I just felt so bad for you. That’s why I tried to teach her a lesson.”

Tabitha’s tearful, emotional words made Lorenzo waver. She clung tightly to his hand.

“Lorenzo, our wedding is in just three days. Don’t let a murderer ruin it for us, okay?”

At that moment, Lorenzo felt a wave of sympathy. He gently patted her head and said, “Alright, I believe you.”

But despite his words, he spent the next three days quietly looking into my pregnancy.

He even stopped Francesca on her way home from school and secretly took a hair sample for a DNA test.

Back then, there had been a man who visited me at the hospital. He was my senior at university and we had been working together to support an orphaned student.

Lorenzo had known about this, too, but he had only scoffed at me.

“You can barely feed yourself and you still want to play the Good Samaritan? Pathetic.”

But that senior had long been married. He had never once said the kind of things Tabitha had claimed.

On the day of the wedding, Lorenzo finally showed up, his face pale and eyes tired.

“Lorenzo, are you alright?” Tabitha asked, concerned.

He gave a slight shake of his head. For the past few nights, his dreams had been haunted by the fire from five years ago, but this time, the one burning inside wasn’t Grandma Ursula. It was me.

“Let’s go,” he said quietly, rubbing his aching forehead as he walked out, hand in hand with Tabitha.

Back then, he had promised to marry me once I gave birth. We had even cuddled together, picking out wedding venues and imagining our future.

But ever since Tabitha came back from abroad, Lorenzo had thrown away every promise he made to me.

Now, even the role of bride belonged to her.

During the ring exchange at the wedding, Lorenzo’s phone suddenly rang.

The smile on Tabitha’s face froze. She looked at him, helpless.

Lorenzo instantly recognized the ringtone; it was the special one he had set himself.

He raised his hand to stop the officiant.

“Sorry, Tabitha. I have something important to handle.”

He took a deep breath and answered the call.

“President Clark, the paternity test results are back.”

“Francesca is your biological daughter.”

Lorenzo stood there like he’d been struck by lightning. The phone slipped from his hand and shattered on the floor.

“Lorenzo, what’s wrong?”

Seeing him frozen, Tabitha began to panic. This was her only chance to become Mrs. Clark. She couldn’t let it slip away.

“Lorenzo, let’s just finish the ring exchange,” she said, tugging on his sleeve.

But Lorenzo suddenly shoved her aside like a madman and stumbled out the door.

After my death, he had convinced himself Francesca was a child I had with someone else. For five years, he poured all his hatred onto her.

He had bribed her kindergarten teachers, starting with something as small as not letting her nap and then it escalated into outright physical abuse.

Francesca was a thoughtful child. She knew my mother was old and weak, so she never said a word.

But she was only five. How could she possibly bear it all?

Every time Lorenzo saw her, he would either hit her or scream at her.

What he never realized was that the child he was hurting was his own daughter.

Now, dressed in a wedding suit, he stood outside my house and locked eyes with Francesca, who had just stepped outside.