Eight months pregnant, Claire Bennett had come to the hospital for a prenatal checkup, only to see her husband, Daniel Carter, gently kissing another woman's baby bump.

A terminal diagnosis report was clutched tightly in her hand as she watched the two of them celebrating the upcoming birth of an illegitimate child.

Emily Morgan leaned against Daniel with practiced fragility and said softly, "Honey, what if your wife finds out you came with me today? She's pregnant too. What if she..."

Daniel let out a dismissive chuckle. "You're what matters right now. I won't let her hurt you. If she wants to make a scene, then we'll get divorced."

Claire lowered her gaze and gently touched her stomach. "Baby, he doesn't deserve to be your father."

......

Claire gripped the diagnosis report so hard that the paper had begun to wrinkle beneath her fingers. At the bottom of the page, the conclusion was brutally simple—Cancer.

She was eight months pregnant. She should have been waiting joyfully for her baby's arrival. Instead, fate had handed her a death sentence first.

Just then, her phone rang. It was Margaret Bennett, her mother.

Claire answered quietly, and her mother's steady voice came through the receiver. "Claire, we've already discussed it as a family. This marriage isn't worth saving anymore. Divorce him. Once the baby's born, the child will carry the Bennett name. Our family will raise them ourselves."

Claire's throat tightened painfully. "Okay," she whispered. "I'll listen to you, Mom."

With that single sentence, five years of marriage came to an end.

After ending the call, Claire looked toward the obstetrics department entrance again.

So this was the "important business" Daniel had been too busy with. Accompanying his mistress to her prenatal appointment.

She had come alone again today. Throughout the entire eight months of her pregnancy, from her earliest prenatal screenings to the late-stage fetal monitoring appointments, she had gone through dozens of checkups by herself. Not once had Daniel accompanied her.

Whenever she tried to coax him into making time for just one visit, his answer never changed. "The company's too busy. I can't get away."

So she kept understanding him. She understood how exhausting it was to build a business from the ground up. She understood how overwhelming his work was. Again and again, she chose compromise, swallowing every hardship and discomfort of pregnancy alone.

But now, watching Daniel kiss Emily's stomach with such tenderness, Claire felt like a complete fool.

Emily was pregnant too, her slight baby bump suggesting she was only three or four months along. She leaned delicately against Daniel's side, fragile and dependent, like someone who needed to be treasured and protected at all costs.

Claire stared at them without blinking. The pressure in her chest became so suffocating she could barely breathe.

Only a few yards separated them, close enough for every word of their conversation to drift clearly into her ears like knives carving straight into her heart.

Daniel lowered his head and spoke to Emily with painstaking care.

"Your body's too delicate, so absolutely no rich soups or herbal tonics. They're too strong for you and could trigger allergies or bleeding. Don't touch them at all. The baby's still unstable during the first trimester, so no staying up late. You need to be in bed by ten every night, and stop spending so much time on your phone too. Walk slower. And no climbing stairs alone, not even one flight. If you trip or hit something, the consequences could be disastrous. And from now on, don't eat outside food anymore. Too greasy, too unhealthy. I've already asked a nutritionist to prepare personalized meals for you every day. No junk food either."

Every careful reminder, every tiny detail of concern... was tenderness Daniel had never once given Claire.

Emily nestled against him, her eyes curving with a sweet smile. "Daniel, you worry about my body more than I do. I feel so lucky."

Daniel raised a hand and gently stroked her hair, the tenderness in his eyes impossible to hide. "You're carrying my child. Of course I'm going to take good care of you."

Claire stood rooted to the spot, cold all over, her hands and feet trembling beyond her control.

No one knew that the soup Daniel had just warned Emily not to drink was not some random piece of information he had looked up.

When Claire had been five months pregnant, Daniel had specifically instructed the housekeeper to make rich soup for her every day, saying it would nourish her body.

She had obediently drunk it for an entire week. In the end, she had suffered a sudden severe allergic reaction, vomiting and having diarrhea until she began bleeding heavily. She had nearly lost the five-month-old baby and had spent the entire night in the hospital fighting for both their lives.

After that, Daniel had learned every pregnancy precaution inside out. He knew what pregnant women should eat, what they needed to avoid, and every tiny detail that required attention.

So all his tenderness, all his careful knowledge about pregnancy, had been learned through trial and error on Claire.

He had taken the experience gained from Claire's pain and turned around to use it with painstaking care on another woman and her child.

Just then, a flicker of worry crossed Emily's eyes. She lifted her head and asked softly, "Daniel, what if Claire finds out about us? She's pregnant too, even further along than I am. What if she makes a scene..."

Daniel soothed the woman in his arms with gentle patience. "Don't be scared. I'll keep hiding it from her. Claire has always been soft-hearted and sensible. Even if she notices something is wrong, she won't make a big fuss. And even if she really does cause trouble, I'll protect you no matter what. Worst case, I'll just divorce her. With how far along she is, even if this gets out, people will only think she's being emotional and unreasonable. They won't blame us."

Pain twisted through Claire's heart in sharp waves. Her eyes reddened in an instant as countless grievances and old wounds surged up inside her.

She could not help thinking back on everything that had happened before.

Ever since Emily had divorced her ex-husband and returned to the country, she had kept clinging to Daniel, always using her poor health and pregnancy discomfort as excuses to ask him for help. Back then, Claire had been deeply uncomfortable with it and had told Daniel plainly that it bothered her.

But every time, Daniel brushed her off with righteous-sounding excuses. Emily had just gone through a divorce. She was alone and unwell. As a friend, he should look after her.

He kept saying he was only taking care of a pregnant woman. Yet he had completely forgotten that Claire was pregnant too, further along, heavier, more exhausted, and far more in need of companionship and care.

She had understood him, forgiven him, and compromised again and again. In return, they had betrayed her so thoroughly that they had even conceived a child behind her back.

After hearing Daniel say he was willing to divorce Claire for her, Emily's eyes instantly turned red. "Daniel, I don't want to ruin your marriage with Claire. I just want to give birth to this baby safely. That's enough for me. I'm not asking for a title..."

She claimed she did not want a title, but the triumph in her eyes could not be hidden at all.

When Daniel saw her tears, his heart ached even more. He pulled her tightly into his arms and comforted her in a low, tender voice.

At the end of the hallway, Claire tightened her grip on the terminal diagnosis report in her hand.

The moment Daniel walked away to collect the prenatal test results, the gentle expression on Emily's face vanished instantly. "I saw you a long time ago," she said coldly. "You can come out now."

Claire stepped out slowly, her expression calm and distant.

Seeing Claire remain silent, Emily stopped pretending altogether. "Are you curious why I chose this public hospital when there are so many high-end private clinics in Riverton? I wanted you to see it with your own eyes. I wanted you to see how much Daniel loves me and protects me. You've been pregnant for eight months, yet he's never accompanied you once. I'm only a little over three months along, and he personally comes with me every single time. He never leaves my side."

So from beginning to end, every bit of this had been deliberate. Emily had staged the entire encounter purely to provoke her.

Claire said nothing. She merely watched Emily's ridiculous performance with quiet indifference.

But the calmer Claire appeared, the more irritated Emily became. All the humiliation she had carefully prepared felt like punches landing in empty air.

Emily finally sneered impatiently, "So what if you have the title of Mrs. Carter? Daniel never loved you. Once I give birth to this baby, he'll divorce you immediately."

Claire finally spoke, her voice icy calm. "What's there to be proud of about stealing someone else's husband? Everything you're showing off right now is trash I already threw away."

Emily's expression stiffened instantly. "You're just jealous of me!"

As she spoke, her eyes suddenly landed on the report clenched in Claire's hand. Without hesitation, she snatched it away.

Emily skimmed through the diagnosis. The moment she saw the word "cancer," she burst into shrill laughter. "Hahaha... Claire, you're pathetic."

Clutching the report, she laughed so hard her shoulders trembled. "You have terminal cancer? God is really helping me this time. You won't live much longer anyway, so why don't you and that baby in your stomach just die together and make room for me and my child?"

That sentence completely shattered Claire's restraint.

She could endure betrayal directed at herself. But she would never tolerate anyone cursing her unborn child.

Claire raised her hand and slapped Emily across the face without hesitation.

The sharp crack echoed clearly through the hallway.

Emily's head snapped to the side from the force. A red slap mark instantly bloomed across her cheek. She froze for two seconds before her eyes quickly turned red, her body swaying weakly as if she might collapse at any moment.

At that exact moment, Daniel returned with the prenatal results. The second he saw the scene, he rushed forward immediately, shielding Emily behind him before violently yanking Claire backward.

Claire was already eight months pregnant. The force of the pull nearly sent her crashing to the floor, and a painful tightness instantly spread across her stomach.

Yet Daniel did not notice her discomfort at all. He glared at her furiously. "Claire, have you lost your mind? Emily is pregnant, and you actually hit her? How can you be this vicious?"

Emily leaned weakly against his chest, looking utterly wronged. "Daniel, it's all my fault. If Claire feels upset and wants to hit me to vent her anger, then just let her..."

Hearing that only made Daniel ache for Emily even more. He looked at Claire with icy disgust. "Did you hear her? Emily is being understanding enough already, yet you keep pushing her. Apologize to Emily right now."

Daniel's blatant favoritism and coldness finally pushed Claire past her limit. Every grievance she had suppressed for years erupted all at once.

She hurled the diagnosis report directly at him. "Daniel, open your damn eyes and look carefully! Do you really think I still have the energy to waste on you people?"

She had thought that this terminal diagnosis would at least make him look at her properly for once. She had thought it might stir even the slightest bit of concern in him.

But Daniel only looked annoyed. Without even reading it properly, he tore the report into pieces. "Claire, can you stop pulling these childish stunts? Waving around some fake medical report for sympathy? I'm sick of these tricks."

The instant the report was torn apart, Claire's eyes turned completely red. A crushing pain spread through her chest, sharp and endless.

For a brief second, guilt flickered through Daniel's heart as he looked at Claire's reddened eyes and pale, miserable state.

But the moment Emily sniffled softly in his arms, that tiny trace of sympathy disappeared instantly.

Daniel reached out and shoved Claire forward again. His voice was cold and merciless. "I'll say this one last time. Apologize to Emily."

Claire steadied herself and forced back her tears. "I won't apologize. From beginning to end, the ones who betrayed me were the two of you. I did nothing wrong."

After returning from the hospital, Claire lowered herself heavily onto the couch in the marital home, exhaustion weighing down every part of her body.

She forced herself not to dwell on what had happened at the hospital and calmly began drafting the divorce agreement.

She had already made up her mind. She would keep the child and cut the father out completely. From this moment on, neither she nor her baby would have anything to do with Daniel ever again.

This house had been their marital home after the wedding. Back then, Claire had personally handled every part of the decorating and furnishing. Every piece of furniture, every decoration in the house, had been carefully chosen by her.

Especially the master bedroom. While pregnant, she had spent countless hours arranging it little by little, happily waiting for her baby's arrival. That room held all of her hopes and expectations.

Just as she stared blankly at the divorce papers, the sound of keys turning in the front door suddenly echoed through the house.

Claire looked up. Her heart dropped instantly.

Daniel walked in first. And right beside him was Emily.

Dressed in a soft flowing dress, her slight baby bump visible beneath the fabric, Emily clung timidly to Daniel's arm as she stepped into the home that belonged to Claire and Daniel.

Claire watched the scene in silence, her eyes turning completely cold.

Daniel showed no guilt whatsoever. Instead, he sounded completely justified, even mildly accusatory. "You humiliated Emily at the hospital today. She got frightened, and she's not feeling well. I didn't have a choice, so I brought her here to stay. The house is quiet and more comfortable than a hotel. Emily will stay here for a while so I can take care of her properly."

Claire looked at the couple standing before her. Then she looked around the home she had lovingly built over five years, the home that had once carried all her hopes for their future. And now, it was about to shelter another woman and another child. It felt as though a blade was repeatedly carving through her chest, leaving her entire body numb with pain.

Claire let out a faint, humorless laugh. There was no grievance left on her face anymore, only indifference. "Whatever."

Daniel froze briefly when he heard her answer. Instinctively, he assumed Claire had finally become reasonable and stopped causing trouble.

What he did not know was that she was not compromising anymore. She simply no longer cared.

Claire did not want to remain there for another second. Even the air in the house felt suffocating. She stood up, intending to leave and finalize the divorce agreement with a lawyer.

But the moment she took a step forward, Daniel reached out and stopped her.

His brows were tightly furrowed, impatience written all over his face. "Where are you going now? Claire, can you act a little more mature? Every time we argue, you try to run away from home. It's childish and exhausting."

Claire stopped walking and slowly lifted her eyes to look at him.

At that moment, she finally understood completely. No matter how much pain she endured or how badly she had been wronged, Daniel would always believe it was her fault.

To him, his precious Emily was fragile and innocent. Everything she did had an excuse.

Meanwhile, Claire was eight months pregnant, yet the moment she showed even the slightest emotion after being hurt, she became unreasonable and troublesome in his eyes.

Neither she nor the baby she carried had ever truly mattered to him.

Claire looked at him coldly. "So now I don't even have the freedom to leave the house?"

Before Daniel could answer, Emily immediately spoke in a soft, spoiled tone. "Daniel, my feet hurt so much. I'm exhausted from walking."

That single sentence instantly stole all of Daniel's attention.

He did not spare Claire another glance. His entire focus was on Emily alone. "Good girl, I'll carry you to the bedroom so you can rest."

As soon as he finished speaking, Daniel bent down and carefully swept Emily into his arms before carrying her quickly toward the bedroom.

The sight before her was both absurd and painfully blinding. The last trace of warmth in Claire's eyes vanished completely. Without another word, she turned around, left the house, and took a cab straight to a law firm.

After reviewing the divorce agreement Claire had prepared, the lawyer quickly completed the notarization process. "Ms. Bennett, the agreement has already been notarized. Once Mr. Carter signs it, it will immediately take effect. All clauses will be legally binding, including child custody and property division."

Claire nodded softly and thanked him in a low voice.

After finishing everything, Claire returned once again to the house that no longer felt like home.

She walked toward the master bedroom. But the moment she pushed open the door, her entire body froze.

Every decoration in the room, every piece of bedding, every small ornament had originally been chosen by Claire herself in soft light colors. The space had once felt warm, gentle, and filled with all the love she had for her child.

But now, everything had been replaced.

Emily had shamelessly taken over everything Claire had prepared for her own baby.