In the ninth year of our marriage, I got a Labrador from my husband.

I was frightened and had a miscarriage.

After coming out of the hospital, I calmly proposed a divorce to him.

In the video, his female assistant cried piteously.

"Joan, it's all my fault for not understanding the situation well. Please don't blame Louis."

Louis caressed her head and said impatiently, "Mistress's daughters are petty."

——

When I saw him again, it was half a month later.

"Make me a salad."

Louis returned home early in the morning with the smell of alcohol, only to find that I didn't prepare any refreshing dishes as usual. I didn't even leave him a light in the living room.

He raised his eyebrows and instructed me. Then, he took a cup of bubble water from the water dispenser.

When he came out of the dressing room and changed into his pajamas, I was still reading in the study.

He narrowed his eyes and ordered the butler to bring up the box in the back seat of the car.

After the butler left, he opened the box and said, "This is for you. Try it on."

There were patterns on the fine roots, and sparkling crystal flowers on the naked shoes. High heels from VG had always been popular among elites.

I didn't take it.

In the past, he didn't sleep for three days and nights just to take me places and take photos.

He knew very well that I had never worn this kind of shoe when I traveled through the mountain forest in the valley.

Obviously, the shoes were for someone else, so I wouldn't take them.

I didn't want to waste any more time with him and asked bluntly,

"Since you're back. When do you have time to divorce?"

This was a question. After all, Louis was so busy that even the gift for the wedding anniversary was bought by his female assistant.

I was sensible enough to do that.

"Don't be dramatic. Jenny broke off all ties with her family because of me. She is like a sister to me."

"She doesn't know that you are scared of dogs. There won't be a next time."

Louis's expression was displeased as he slammed the cup on the table.

Jenny was the daughter of the boss of Louis's business rival. She came from a noble family, but to pursue true love, she did not hesitate to cut off contact with her parents.

As soon as she graduated from the University of Georgia, she came to Louis as his assistant. She accompanied him silently for ten years without asking for anything.

Anyone would be moved by her devotion.

I would too if I wasn't Louis' wife.

There was no response from me for a long time. Louis's expression softened. He thought that I had finally learned to stop.

He changed the topic. "Our daughter won the flute competition. Did you buy a gift?"

I shook my head. "I don't know. No one informed me about this."

I didn't want to quarrel with him.

I really don't know.

Since my daughter was born, the Laurent family took her away, saying I was too humble to take care of her.

"It's ridiculous that my daughter, who has been pregnant for ten months, doesn't see me as often as the nanny every year."

"For this reason, I went to war with the Laurent family, but no one cared about my opinion.

Some people even accused me indignantly.

"It's all for your own good. The mistress's daughter doesn't deserve to be taught."

In their eyes, my marrying into the Laurent family was already an insult to the threshold of the Laurent family.

It was impossible for me to raise a child.

Louis frowned and warned me with an unclear meaning.

"If this continues, I won't even be able to tell who's the mother."

I knew what he meant.

Yesterday, there was a parents' meeting. This is the only chance for me to see my daughter every month.

I went there an hour earlier but was stopped outside the door.

Through the glass window, I saw Jenny elegantly sitting next to my daughter and listening to the teacher's speech.

After that, she told my parents that the school had informed them in advance and bound her mobile phone with a text message. She was afraid that it was too late, so she came on my behalf.

She had discussed with Louis that she wouldn't need to attend the parents' meeting in the future.

When my thoughts returned to the present, I sneered and said him, "That's great. I'll leave, and you and Jenny will have a happy ending."

She didn't know which word had provoked Louis, but his face instantly darkened.

"I don't have time to play with you here."

"Joan, don't be ungrateful."

Louis threw the glass of water on the carpet. Just as he was about to walk out, I said in a calm tone,

"I had a miscarriage."

Half a month ago, I asked Louis to accompany me to a prenatal examination.

He excused himself from work and accompanied Jenny to the hot springs.

It was our wedding anniversary that day.

As soon as I stepped into the house with the gift I was going to give to Louis, a black Labrador pushed me to the ground.

I was frightened and felt a sharp pain in my abdomen.

I had a sign of miscarriage.

I took medicine and took a quiet rest for a week, but I still failed to keep the baby.

The baby boy had already taken shape.

Her pink body grew hands and feet, but she would no longer move mischievously.

I didn't shed a single tear.

When I came out of the hospital alone, I thought it was time to end everything.

In the living room, Louis took out his lighter with trembling hands and lit a cigarette.

The smoke covered the pain in his eyes.

He didn't ask me why I didn't call.

He knew very well that I had called him countless times like crazy that day.

But no one answered the phone.

"We will have children in the future. You can't be a good mother now."

I laughed.

"I won't have children in the future."

With a cold face, Louis slammed the door and left.

He didn't know that I was telling the truth.

The surgeon told me that my womb was damaged, and I would never have children again.

I used to give in to him. Every time we quarreled, I would take the lead in making concessions. Now I'm tired.

The next day, he still did not receive a call from me asking for peace.

When he got home, I was nowhere to be found.

...

Louis had once illuminated my entire youth.

No one would have thought that such an ignorant and incompetent young boy would fall in love with a bookworm from a poor family.

.

The first time we met, I had a very bad impression of him.

He was drinking and racing in front of the restaurant where I worked on weekends.

After a gust of wind, dirty water splashed over me from head to toe.

I was so angry that I immediately remembered his name.

Late at night, when I got home from work, I found that there was a faint fire on the side of the road.

When I got closer, I found that he was unconscious in the damaged car.

When I dragged him out of the car, just then, the car exploded.

From then on, he followed me everywhere

In order to add me, he pretended to organize activities and added everyone in my class on WhatsApp.

He waited on the way home every night to send me home.

No matter how I mocked him, he just wouldn't leave.

Some people mocked that the rich guy had fallen in love with a boring girl.

My good friend kindly reminded me that he was not suitable for me.

In the face of his pursuit, I remained calm.

One day my stepmother broke my bones and I was forced to drop out of school because of a high fever.

He forcefully smashed the door, picked me up, and sent me to the hospital.

When I was half-awake, I saw the young man kneeling on the ground in a mess, grabbing the doctor.

The doctor helplessly helped him up. "She is fine. She just need to stay in the hospital for observation for some time."

When I woke up again, I saw him sleeping quietly in the nursing chair.

As soon as I moved, he woke up.

Tears welled up in his crescent-shaped eyes.

"Joan, I'm begging you. Let me take care of you."

His clear voice sounded sincere.

I was lost in his beautiful eyes.

My heart was racing as if I was stepping on cotton. I replied,

"Okay, you are my boyfriend now."

That day, even the wind was blowing gently.

He asked me about my injuries and my fever.

I opened the deepest scar in my heart to him.

My father hooked up with the daughter of a rich family less than a week after my mother passed away and left me alone at home.

When I found him, he lied that the unmarried young man was going to get engaged.

To prevent me from getting in the way, he pretended to be drunk and locked me in the cage with the hungry dog.

I was lucky and didn't die even after being bitten. But I was scared of dogs from then on.

I said half-jokingly and half-heartedly to Louis,

"If you want to break up with me one day, give me a dog."

He clasped my hand tightly, and his bright eyes were like shining stars.

"Don't even think about it. We won't break up for the rest of our lives."

His 18-year-old promise was so sincere that I thought that moment would last forever.

In order to get rid of me, my dad took drastic measures.

He ' bluntly' chatted with the neighbors.

He said I was his illegitimate daughter after getting drunk. And that rich lady was his fiancee.

Soon, I became the daughter of a mistress in people's eyes.

Everyone hated me.

Louis protected me.

After beating up all the people who scolded me, he threw down a huge thunderbolt with a smile and revealed his identity.

"If you have the guts to slander my girlfriend, why don't you have the courage to scold me?"

"Everyone knows that I, Louis, am the son of a mistress."

"What's wrong? Are you afraid of the Laurent family, so you only dare to bully the weak?"

Although his mother was a mistress too, as the only son of the Laurent family, no one dared to provoke him.

Since then, the people who scolded me in front of my face disappeared.

If only time could freeze forever...

"How do you feel?"

The cold voice dissipated all the images in my mind.

It was the fourth day I left the villa.

The induced labor left a sequelae. In the middle of the night, I had a high fever of 39 degrees and fell into the hotel alone.

My eyes were blurred. While I was still awake, I casually dialed a number for help.

Larry, my psychologist, saved me.

He was my desk mate in high school. I'd drawn a clear line between us since I started dating Louis.

When I suffered from hallucination insomnia after the abortion, I met him in the hospital.

He was gentle and measured. He didn't ask me what I had experienced.

He prescribed me some medicine to treat depression, sent me to the gate of the hospital, and turned to leave.

I didn't have a good appetite, so I walked in a porridge shop near the hospital.

As soon as I sat down, I saw Jenny pushing the door open and entering.

"Mrs. Laurent, why are you here alone?"

"I'm really sorry for what happened before."

She said this loudly and then leaned closer to me and whispered,

"I didn't expect that you would lose your child. I just thought you hate dogs."

I felt nauseous and said coldly, "Stop."

Louis walked over and pulled Jenny behind him as if I was bullying her.

There was a flash of pride in Jenny's eyes.

"I just pulled out my wisdom tooth for a follow-up consultation today. Louis said that this porridge shop is delicious, so he put off the meeting at hand and insisted on bringing me here."

I couldn't be bothered to fight back against her provocation.

Louis took Jenny's hand and sat opposite me.

"Let's have dinner together since we meet."

I felt nauseous, so I got up and left.

Louis's face darkened.

"Joan, why are you so rude?"

As he spoke, he grabbed my hand.

As I tugged, the bag of medicine in my hand scattered.

He bent down to pick up the medicine box on the ground.

He narrowed his eyes and said in a deep voice,

"When did you get sick?"

He looked agitated, as if something had gone wrong.

He shook off Jenny's hand and let her go home by herself. He would send me home to cook for me.

But I shook my head.

"Don't bother. I'll go home by myself."

I wanted to go home.

I rented my own apartment with the money I had earned from filming all over the country over the years.

Watching me leave, Louis frowned and was about to stop me.

Jenny's head slammed into the table.

She covered her slightly red forehead and apologized that she was fine, but her teeth and head were a little dizzy.

Louis hesitated for a moment, apologized to me, and turned to accompany her to see the doctor again.

The next day, as soon as I printed the divorce agreement at the copy office, Louis called.

He told me that my daughter had nightmares in the middle of the night and asked me to go back to the old house to accompany her at night.

I took the divorce agreement and went to the Laurent's house with ease.

I walked to the private garden in front of Laurent's house and saw Jenny lighting a cigarette skillfully with her back to me.

A moment later, I saw my daughter run behind her and hug her.

"Auntie Jenny, I miss you so much. Sleep with me tonight."

When she turned around and saw the child, she quickly put out the cigarette and said softly,

"Well, don't smell cigarettes. It's not good for kids."

I thought that she did treat my daughter as her own, as Louis had said. She was like a real mother.

I followed them like a thief.

I watched as she took my daughter's hand and went to the open-air dinner party in the center of the garden.

After she left, I finally went to my daughter, trying to hug her.

My mother-in-law said in disgust, "I heard from Jenny that you are mentally ill. Stay away from my granddaughter. Don't affect the child."

Back then, my mother-in-law had successfully angered the legal wife to death and married into the Laurent family with her son.

She claimed to be the wife of a rich and powerful family. She hated family background the most and had always hated me.

She had always addressed Jenny as her daughter-in-law.

As a real daughter-in-law, I was like a mistress who had been kept in the dark.

In the past, I loved Louis and didn't want to make things difficult for him, so I tolerated my mother-in-law again and again.

I didn't care about anyone now. I ignored her and walked past her to my daughter.

My daughter was wearing a red dress with her hands on her hips. She looked at me arrogantly and disdainfully.

"I don't want a mistress's daughter to be a mother. Go away."

My heart felt as if it had been stabbed by a knife, and I felt cold all over.

"Who told you that?"

Jenny, who was walking over with Louis, changed her expression.

She hurried forward to hold my daughter's hand.

"Good girl, don't talk to your mom like that."

My daughter instantly became obedient. "Got it, Auntie."

A trace of gratification flashed in Louis's eyes, and he praised Jenny for taking good care of my daughter.

The three of them looked like a real family.

They comforted each other and soon solved the problem. No one cared about my feelings.

All these years, I gave up everything for Louis.

I used to be a top student at Yale University, but now I was reduced to a housewife who occasionally photographed.

My mother-in-law disliked me. My child was taken away, and the mistress stayed by my husband's side openly.

I clenched my fists and slammed them on the table.

"Did anyone ask for my opinion? Who told the child that I am the daughter of a mistress?"

Panic flashed across Jenny's eyes. Just as she was about to speak, I interrupted her.

"Shame on you to frame me for being a mistress. Ms. Adams. You are really well-educated!"

Jenny's face was pale, and she looked like she was on the verge of collapse.

Louis supported her with distress and looked at me with a stern face.

"Joan, what do you mean!"

"Your reputation is tarnished. It's Jenny who maintained your reputation as Mrs. Laurent. You don't have to take care of the child, nor do you have to worry about food and clothing. Why are you angry?"

Seeing that Louis did not defend her, my mother-in-law sneered.

"Even if she hooked up with the Laurents, she's still despicable. What an unruly lunatic!"

I forced a smile.

"Okay, I'll show you what mental illness is now!"

I picked up a bouquet of roses and ignited the bouquet from the bonfire.

Under the horrified gaze of the maid, I threw the bouquet on the table.

The roses in the fire burned wildly, and the fierce fire made the people on both sides of the table run away in a panic.

No one had expected that Mrs. Laurent, who used to be docile and polite, would go crazy today.

My calm demeanor was a stark contrast to my deranged behavior.

For a moment, no one came to stop me.

Jenny's eyes widened. "Joan, there's really something wrong with your mind..."

Louis frowned at her and scolded sternly, "Shut up!"

I sighed in my heart. Some people still didn't know what mental illness was.

I looked up at Jenny and smiled, "Okay, now I'll show you mental illness!"

Step by step, I walked forward.

Jenny was shocked when she saw my fierce look: "You...you...what do you want to do?"