### Chapter 3

“I didn't drug her. Check the security footage……”

Cold sweat soaked through my back. My voice came out weak, shaking, begging Otto to get me out of the basement, but he cut me off cold.

“Shut up!”

Finding the truth would have been effortless. But every word out of Wendy's mouth, he chose to believe without question.

He loved her. Loved her past the point of caring what was true.

A bitter laugh died somewhere behind my ribs. Otto lifted his chin, and the bodyguards moved in. Fists and boots came down like a storm.

Before the pain swallowed me whole, the last thing I heard was the dull crack of my own bones.

When I opened my eyes again, all I saw was the dead-white ceiling of a hospital room.

Otto sat beside the bed, peeling an apple with slow, unhurried strokes. His tone was flat, threaded with warning.

“The baby's fine. Lucky you. Don't touch Wendy again, unless you haven't learned your lesson.”

I said nothing.

Two years ago, when the cheating started and the hitting followed, I had left him.

After the remarriage, he decided I'd suffered enough on my own to never leave again, so he stopped holding back entirely.

But all I was doing was enduring to the end, so he could pay back every last thing a hundred times over.

Otto's gaze caught the bruising on my face, the dark purple spreading along my arms. Something flickered in his eyes, barely there. He started to speak, but his phone rang.

The moment he saw the screen, a smile curved his lips. When he answered, his voice went impossibly soft.

“……The baby kicked? Don't move. I've arranged the best medical team. They're already on the way.”

That tenderness. Otto had given it to me once.

He'd lost his mother young. After he was brought into the Delgado household, all he ever faced was cruelty.

His older half-brother was the worst of it, always inventing new ways to break him.

One time, the brother's men cornered Otto in a back alley and beat him half to death. I happened to pass by, called the police, and pulled him out. After that, I became the only light in his world.

Later, his brother retaliated by having me kidnapped.

Otto stormed into that pitch-black warehouse alone, let the clubs land on his own body, and carried me out on his back.

In the hospital, he gripped my hand so tight nothing could have pried it loose, murmuring over and over：

“Don't be scared, Zara. I'd die before I let anything happen to you.”

Later, he took control of the Delgado Group.

The first thing he did was throw me the most extravagant wedding Harbor City had ever seen. Everyone said I was the luckiest woman alive.

We became the couple the whole city envied, the sweethearts who'd survived everything together. The press said our story was better than a fairy tale.

Too bad fairy tales are lies. On our wedding night, he was already in our bed with someone else.

And why did it have to be Wendy?

My heart felt like it was being sawed apart with a dull blade.

Wendy had once been a rich man's daughter too. A car accident killed her entire family; her inheritance was stolen, and she was dumped in an orphanage where she was bullied relentlessly.

After we met, I visited her constantly, brought her pretty dresses, carried birthday cakes to her door, begged Otto to pay for her schooling.

I smiled and told her：“Everything I have, I'll split with you.”

Half my snacks, half my fun……

I just forgot to say: not the man I loved.

The memories twisted through me like a knife, and I forced the tears back before they could fall.

Otto stood, gave me one disinterested glance. “If you're fine, I'm leaving. Wendy needs me.”

He didn't come back once during the three days I was hospitalized.

Wendy's social media, though, updated in real time with their love on full display：

He lit sky lanterns at an auction just to make her laugh, then bid on Marie Antoinette's necklace.

He spent hundreds of millions on a private island, all to give her a wedding that would eclipse the one he'd given me.

My phone buzzed. Otto's assistant had sent over a long string of expense receipts.

I saved every black-and-white charge slip, one by one, then called the assistant. “Two million. It's in your account.”

Almost instantly, the phone vibrated again.

Wendy had sent a photo, dripping with the same old malice. It was a picture of a tombstone. My unborn child's tombstone.

“Ten years ago someone stabbed you, and you lost the baby. Your womb was destroyed. Want to know the truth?”

### Chapter 4

My mind went blank, wiped clean by a single detonation of understanding. Then the terrible guess surfaced.

“Wendy, what did you do?!”

Ten years ago, I had accompanied Old Mr. Delgado to an important meeting. We were ambushed on the way.

After I lost the baby, Otto bought the ocean-view cemetery plot with the most beautiful view for our child. He held me in the pouring rain, shaking so hard he could barely stand, crying until he was barely recognizable—

“It's my fault. I didn't protect you or our baby. Zara, I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”

He hunted down those “enemies” himself, sent every last one of them to hell. I thought he was the boy who slew dragons for me. I never knew he had already become the dragon that was killing me.

On the other end of the line, Wendy's voice dripped with undisguised venom—

“You saw me and him going at it in the car, and you still had the nerve to crawl back and remarry him. God, you're pathetic.”

“I was so close to being the one he married. I'm the one who deserves to be Mrs. Delgado!”

“You destroyed my biggest dream. What made you think I'd ever let you live in peace?”

She hung up before I could answer.

The rage in my chest nearly split me open. I bit down hard, ripped the IV needle from the back of my hand, and threw myself off the hospital bed, almost knocking over a nurse coming through the door.

“Miss Gilbert? You can't leave yet!”

I couldn't hear anything. I ran straight out of the hospital.

I took a cab back to the house. Wendy was lounging on the sofa, sipping the prenatal tea her nutritionist had blended for her.

I stormed up to her, my voice raw—

“Wendy, it was you. That attack had nothing to do with the Delgados' enemies. You arranged the whole thing!”

“You vile bitch. I was nothing but good to you. Why would you do this to me?”

She lifted her gaze, nothing in it but contempt and cruelty.

“Because you were always better than me at everything. Why should the best things in the world just fall into your lap while I had to claw for scraps?”

“So I decided to take it all. And look at you now. A hen that can't lay eggs. What are you going to fight me with?”

Her lips curled. She stood and looked down at me.

“Get on your knees and lick my shoes, and maybe I'll have Otto let you keep a corner to live in. Otherwise, I'll have someone dig up your brat's grave.”

I couldn't listen to another word. My hand flew up—*crack*—

The slap landed full across her pampered face.

“Ahhh!”

Wendy screamed and crumpled to the floor, then clutched her stomach and burst into sobs—“Otto! Otto! Help! Zara's trying to kill our baby!”

A figure swept past like a gust of wind.

Otto rushed in and pulled her into his arms, then turned and glared at me with eyes that could have burned through steel—

“Wendy was young back then. She didn't know any better. She's been eaten alive by guilt since—she tried to kill herself more than once! If I hadn't been there for her, she'd be dead!”

“Why are you so petty? It's been years. Can't you just let it go?”

Every drop of blood in my body froze.

He had always known. Known it was Wendy who killed our child, who destroyed my life.

All those years of agony I suffered day and night, and he looked right through it.

But the “guilt” of the woman who caused all of it—that earned his pity, his tenderness, his protection.

“The only thing I regret in this life is ever meeting the two of you monsters!”

I screamed it with everything I had left. The room went dark at the edges, and I nearly choked on the blood rising in my throat.

Something like pain flickered across Otto's face. His mouth opened. But Wendy let out a piercing wail from his arms—

“My stomach—it hurts so much! The baby……Otto, is our baby gone?!”

Otto panicked instantly, twisting around to shout—

“Doctor! Where the hell is the doctor? Get over here!”

Medical staff rushed in and helped her onto the sofa to examine her.

That brief flicker of hesitation on Otto's face vanished. When he turned back to me, all that was left was disgust—

“You got hurt because you insisted on playing hero, throwing yourself in front of the old man! Who else is there to blame?!”

Listening to accusations this insane, this shameless defense of her, I laughed. Tears spilled down my face as I laughed.

I lunged forward and ripped the cord from Wendy's neck. The cross necklace hit the floor and shattered.

“What's mine—I'd rather destroy it than let you have it!”

Before the tears could break me completely, I turned and ran out the door.

Behind me, Otto's roar of fury chased me out.

### Chapter 5

The wounds hadn't finished healing before the fever hit.

Back in the storage room, I held on to consciousness long enough to dial my father and tell him what I'd learned about ten years ago：

“Dad, Old Mr. Delgado's security has always been airtight. There's no way a lone orphan like Wendy could have arranged that assassination by herself. Please look into it for me.”

His voice dropped instantly：“I'll get on it right now. Zara, your voice sounds wrong. Are you……”

“I'm fine.” I cut him off. “I'll wait for your call.”

The line went dead, and the last of my strength went with it. I collapsed onto the cot, consciousness drifting at the edge of darkness.

Dawn had barely broken when the door slammed open.

Otto's tall frame filled the doorway, radiating fury, and he hauled me off the bed.

“This is your fault. Wendy's having nightmares every single night now. If this keeps up, she could lose the baby.”

“Go apologize to her.”

I stared at him in disbelief：“Apologize to the woman who butchered my child? Not a chance.”

“Stubborn as always.”

A cold smirk crossed his face. He took out his phone, dialed, and turned the screen toward me.

The moment I saw what was on it, my whole body went rigid.

The camera showed the ground beside my child's headstone. Several of Otto's men stood there with shovels and pickaxes, and one of them spoke into the lens：“Boss, want us to start? Everything's ready.”

I stared at the screen, nails biting into my palms. That was his child buried there too.

But the look in Otto's eyes was nothing but ice：

“Refuse, and you can say goodbye to your child forever.”

I knew he meant it. I just never imagined he could be this cruel to me.

In the end, swallowing hatred so hot it scalded, I nodded.

The master bedroom had once been mine. Now it was repainted in the soft pink Wendy loved best, every trace of me erased, the room as unrecognizable as the first half of my life.

Wendy lounged on the bed looking thoroughly pleased with herself, and I forced the words out through clenched teeth：

“……I'm sorry.”

Wendy pouted, unsatisfied：“One little 'sorry' is supposed to make up for what I've been through? If sorry was enough, what would we even need cops for?”

My nails dug deeper into my palms. Behind me, Otto's cold voice came again：

“Kneel. Bow to Wendy and beg her forgiveness.”

He raised his phone again. The screen still showed the live feed from the grave.

My knees hit the floor hard. Then my forehead cracked against the tile.

Once, twice, three times……I couldn't feel the pain anymore. I kept going until I'd struck my head against the ground more than a dozen times.

“I'm sorry. I shouldn't have provoked you.”

“I'm sorry. I'll step aside for you two……”

“Enough!”

A hand clamped around my arm and Otto yanked me to my feet.

He saw the blood seeping from my forehead and frowned.

“If you'd been this obedient from the start, you could've saved yourself the suffering. Go. Have a doctor put something on that.”

“Mm.”

I lowered my eyes, fighting the dizziness, and walked back to the storage room in silence.

The door opened again. Otto had followed me in. He tossed a bottle of antiseptic and a roll of gauze into my arms, his tone flat：“I'm throwing Wendy a baby shower the day after tomorrow. Behave yourself, and I'll give you a reward.”

He turned to leave, and I called after him before he could.

“I promise I won't cause any more trouble.” I lifted my head, voice meek. “I want a car. Will you get me one?”

His steps faltered. He turned back, a flicker of surprise in his eyes.

In all these years, I had never once asked him for anything.

His gaze lingered on my face for a few seconds, scrutinizing, before the familiar need to control won out.

“Fine.”

I pulled the documents from my bag immediately, flipped to the signature page, and held them out.

“I've already picked the car. Just sign and pay.”