My husband's childhood sweetheart is a fake heiress.

She and I are abducted at the same time. But when my husband, a doctor, arrives at the scene of the abduction with a medical team, he chooses to save her first.

My legs have been broken, and I struggle to stay afloat in the ocean. I'm on the brink of death, and I beg him to save me and the child in my belly.

He merely looks at me. Before leaving, he almost generously helps me call 911. Then, he says, "It's disgusting that you're lying about being pregnant just to save yourself. I've repaid you for saving my life—come to the hospital later today to sign the divorce papers."

After listening to his words, I remove the hearing aid from my right ear with a trembling hand.

I never imagined that someone like me, who always cared about how I looked, would die in such a wretched, hideous way.

After the kidnappers brutally tortured me, they tossed me by the seaside, letting the freezing waves wash over my body again and again.

Blood gushed from my wounds, staining the water around me.

Sven Guerrero was completely consumed with Alina Leclair. He didn't spare a single thought about me.

By the time I was brought to the hospital, all the blood had drained from my body, and my legs were shattered like those of a broken doll.

The doctors and nurses looked at me as if they'd never seen such a tragic patient. Faced with my ravaged body, they didn't even know where to begin.

One nurse quietly suggested, "Should we call Dr. Guerrero? He's a brilliant surgeon. Maybe the patient can still be saved."

Another nurse immediately countered, "Dr. Guerrero is busy saving his childhood sweetheart. How could he leave the woman he loves to help a stranger?"

But I wasn't a stranger. I was his wife.

Perhaps due to resentment, my soul floated above and drifted in the air, unable to move on.

I stared at my disfigured body and was unsure of what to do.

Then, I heard a familiar voice. A powerful force yanked my soul away, and I was suddenly standing in the treatment room, watching Sven and Alina.

Alina lay on the bed, while Sven, dressed in a white coat, was carefully stitching up her wound. The injury wasn't even that serious. Sven was overreacting.

But in his eyes, I saw worry and fear.

"Alina, don't be afraid. I promise you won't have any scars," he reassured her.

After bandaging Alina up, Sven transferred her to a regular ward. When they were alone, he gently kissed her forehead with a tenderness I had never seen before.

A nurse came in to disinfect Alina's wound. She glanced at Sven as she worked.

"It's so unfair, really. Both were kidnapped, yet Ms. Leclair was lucky to survive thanks to your care, whereas that other woman who came in around the same time—"

Sven cut her off sharply. "Don't talk about the kidnapping in front of Alina. It'll affect her recovery."

He knew the nurse was talking about me, but he didn't want to hear about it.

The nurse looked at Alina, who was still sound asleep, and nodded.

I couldn't help but laugh bitterly. Sven cared for Alina so deeply. He was worried that a scar would ruin her modeling career and afraid she'd have lasting trauma from the kidnapping.

Conversely, he couldn't care less about what happened to me.

Of course, it made sense. He despised me after all.

When Sven had arrived with the ransom to save Alina, I had crawled toward him with every bit of strength I had left and begged him to save me and the baby in my womb.

He had merely cast a disgusted glance my way and, with mercy, called 911.

"Tracy Leclair, you're rotten to the core. You'd even make up a pregnancy to try and survive. It's sickening. You're the reason Alina got kidnapped in the first place. I'll never forgive you.

"I've repaid my debt to you for saving my life. Come by the hospital later to sign the divorce papers."

After that, Sven had held the terrified, sobbing Alina in his arms, climbed into the ambulance, and insisted they take her to the hospital first.

As the ambulance doors were about to close, I had still been desperately crawling toward the shore.

The wind at the seaside had been freezing, and blood poured from my body. The rising tide had been moments away from swallowing me whole.

Anyone with an ounce of sympathy would have helped me upon seeing my pitiful state.

My broken limbs had trembled with pain, and my tears had streamed down my face onto the ground. A sharp pain had torn through my abdomen, and the sea around me had turned crimson with my blood.

I had thought, "My baby, I'm so sorry. It's my fault for holding onto someone who never belonged to me. And now you won't get the chance to open your eyes and see the world."

...

The moment Alina opened her eyes, she panicked and immediately called out for Sven. She wouldn't let the nurses come near her but clung tightly to Sven and kept crying.

Sven gently comforted her as though he'd just recovered a precious treasure he thought he'd lost forever. His hands shook slightly as he soothingly patted her back over and over.

"You're okay now. You have no idea how worried I was. I was so afraid of losing you again."

Alina looked pale and frightened. She clutched his shirt and said with a quivering voice, "Sven, I thought I was going to die and never see you again. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be alive right now."

She then lifted her head to gaze at him, her eyes glistening with tears.

"Sven, I was always worried that my presence would cause problems between you and Tracy. That was why I kept pushing you away. But after all that happened... I won't push you away anymore."

Sniffling, Alina buried her head against his chest and continued, "I don't blame Tracy at all. If she hadn't invited me out that day, I wouldn't have been kidnapped, and I wouldn't have had the courage to face my feelings for you."

Sven's expression darkened, but he held back his anger. "Alina, don't mention her name again. I promise I'll make this right for you. This time, no one is going to keep us apart."

I lowered my head with a bitter smile.

The real reason Sven and Alina couldn't be together from the start wasn't because of me but Alina.

Sven and Alina had grown up together. They were childhood sweethearts destined to marry one day.

I was 16 when I found out I was the real daughter of the Leclair family. The family nanny had switched me with Alina at birth, and the latter was actually the nanny's daughter.

When I returned to the Leclair household, Mom and Dad couldn't bear to send Alina away after raising her over the years.

From that moment on, I became the Leclair family's heiress, while Alina became the second daughter.

On my first birthday back with my family, Mom and Dad invited Sven and his parents to the celebration.

Sven's mother, Denise Barlow, couldn't stop praising me. She would call me sweet and beautiful, holding my hand affectionately as we talked.

I never expected it would spark Alina's hostility.

While the adults were in the living room, Alina had approached me with a cup of scalding hot water.

She had stared at me, her lips curling into a knowing smile as she said, "If I got burned by the hot water because of you, do you think anyone would still feel like celebrating your birthday?"

Before I could react, Alina had tilted the cup to pour the water onto her hand.

My mind had gone blank, but my body reacted instinctively. I had lunged forward to stop her, and the boiling water spilled onto my arm instead.

The searing pain had spread through me instantly, and I couldn't help but scream. My skin had bubbled and turned red, the burn grotesque and painful.

Denise had been the first to rush in, hastily pulling me to the sink and running cold water over my arm.

Mom and Dad had demanded to know what had happened.

Alina had stood there with her head down and whimpered, "I was just trying to get some water for everyone, but Tracy..."

Before she could finish her vague explanation, Mom and Dad had shot me a look of disappointment.

Ever since I had reunited with my family, Alina had repeatedly framed me. And each time, they would believe her lies.

That had been my first birthday back with my family, and I hadn't wanted to ruin it or destroy the fragile bond I had just begun to form with them.

Despite the burning pain in my arm, I had held back my tears and apologized. "I'm sorry. I wasn't careful."

Denise had glanced at Alina and then given me a long, thoughtful look. "Tracy, you're a good kid."

Alina went pale at Denise’s words, her tears stopping altogether.

Sven's father, Magnus Guerrero, looked at Alina with a troubled expression.

My parents were sharp businesspeople, and they had quickly understood the implications behind Denise's comment.

When the Guerrero family was about to leave, Dad had suggested a marriage engagement between Sven and me. Denise had nodded approvingly.

Although filled with visible disgust and disdain toward me, Sven uncharacteristically hadn't refused.

I had told Mom and Dad I didn't want the engagement, but they had insisted it was the only value I brought to the family.

Over time, I had learned to love Sven.

I had always tiptoed around him, hoping that my kindness would one day warm his heart.

However, seeing the way he now cherished and cared for Alina, holding her like she was the most delicate treasure, tore at my soul.

Sven was by Alina's bedside at this moment, carefully crafting a meal plan for her, one that would help her heal and prevent scars.

He then had his assistant bring in a scar-removal cream.

As I stared at its packaging, a wave of bitterness welled up in my throat, suffocating me.

Years ago, when I had burned my arm, the scar never fully faded despite all the treatments. I had bought countless brands of scar removal creams, none of which worked.

The Guerreros owned a hospital that had developed a special cream to ensure Alina's skin would remain flawless, but it was never made available to the public.

After the burn, I had begged Sven for just one tube of that cream.

Yet, he had glanced at the scar on my arm and coldly replied, "You're not a model or a celebrity. A little scar on your arm doesn't matter.

"Besides, isn't that scar a reminder of the lie you told to frame Alina? Just keep it. Let it remind you of the despicable lengths you went to in order to take her place and marry me.

"That scar will be the mark of your viciousness. Let it stay with you for the rest of your life."

Sven seemed to finally remember that I, too, was a patient at this hospital.

After tending to Alina's needs, he was now on his way to find me, ready to lash out and shove the divorce papers in my face so that he could be with Alina.

Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to sign those papers.

As Sven walked down the hallway, two nurses passed by him, deep in conversation.

One clutched her chest, her face pale with shock. "You wouldn't believe how badly that woman was injured—her limbs were broken, and she had a ruptured uterus which was bleeding out.

"She was over two months pregnant, but by the time they got her here, she had lost almost all her blood. She was hanging on by a thread."

"God, that's horrible. Can you imagine what her family must feel? Losing their daughter, their wife... They must be devastated."

"I know. If they had gotten her here earlier, maybe they could have saved her. Even being paralyzed would be better than this."

Sven frowned when he overheard them.

I leaned in close, my voice low and taunting. "Sven, did you know that the woman they're talking about is me? Why don't you go take a look? See for yourself if I really look as miserable as they say."

A dark satisfaction welled up inside me. I wanted him to witness the wreckage of my body.

Would he crumble under the guilt if he realized that because of the hospital resources used on Alina's minor injuries, the baby and I had missed our chance at survival?

Or would he simply accept it, thinking it was all justified?

Sven went to the nurses' station to find out which ward I was staying in.

One of the nurses passing by earlier happened to be on duty.

When Sven asked for information about the woman who had been brought in around the same time as Alina, the nurse's eyes narrowed with suspicion. "Dr. Guerrero, are you related to her?"

Sven paused, then snapped in irritation. "No, I don't know her. I'm just asking on behalf of a friend."

I stared blankly at the deep furrow in Sven's brow. His irritated expression was telling. He must have thought I was stalling to avoid signing the divorce papers.

We'd been married for two years, yet even though the hospital belonged to the Guerrero family, Sven had never once let me come here.

Whenever I felt unwell, even after discovering I was pregnant, I had to go to a different hospital.

The nurse nodded sympathetically. "She didn't make it due to the severity of her injuries. We had hoped you could help, but…