"What are you talking about, Yvonne?" Janet's voice was full of concern. "York works hard all day, so it's understandable if he's a bit irritable. If he said something hurtful, I'll apologize on his behalf."

She then grabbed York's sleeve.

"York, you know she's my only sister. She's young and doesn't know any better. Don't hold it against her. If you're angry, take it out on me. But it's not fair to let a girl move out on her own..."

"She doesn't know any better? I think she's grown quite defiant, completely disregarding me. And you, Janet, since when do you call the shots in this house? Did I agree to let your sister live here?"

York's rant was escalating, so Janet quickly pulled him into their room.

From behind the closed door, I could hear their heated argument, with words like "infertile," "disgrace," and "waste" being thrown around.

I took a deep breath and started packing my things.

I could never understand how things got this bad.

York had once begged my parents to let Janet marry him, promising to treat her well for the rest of his life.

The second year after their marriage, his parents were in a car accident, and Janet quit her job to take care of them.

She looked after them well, but York changed completely.

Over the years, he constantly belittled and mocked her for not having children.

Meanwhile, his career flourished. He led thousands of employees, drove one luxury car after another, and recently even got himself a chauffeur...

But he never moved houses.

This house was a wedding gift from our parents to Janet, as York had married into our family...

That was right. York had married into our family.

But since our parents passed away, no one ever brought it up again.

In recent years, York's parents had even taken to openly and secretly blaming Janet for not having children, calling her a curse that would end their family line...

My thoughts were interrupted by a loud shout from the other room.

"You eat my food, use my money, and I even support your sister. What right do you have to argue with me?"

Then came the sound of a door slamming heavily.

3

York had left.

I breathed a sigh of relief, went to the kitchen to pour a glass of water, and pushed open the door to Janet's room.

She sat alone on the floor, her head buried in her knees, her frail shoulders shaking slightly.

The room was a mess, with wet clothes, broken glass, and some white pills scattered around...

"Janet, are you okay?" I handed her the glass of water.

Janet looked up, her eyes red.

When she saw me, she quickly turned away, wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes.

"Yvonne, I'm sorry we disturbed you."

I had suggested divorce to her before. Over the years, Janet had endured so much pain and humiliation because of the issue of having children. I saw it all.

But every time I mentioned divorce, tears welled up in her eyes.

After all, it had been almost ten years. During their toughest times, York had once held her and cried, promising that he would make her life better someday.

Life had gotten better, but York had completely changed.

Still, Janet persisted, always believing that if she just tried a little harder, things would get better, especially if they had a child.

I didn't say anything. I just bent down to pick up the clothes and the pills from the floor. The white pills had gray letters on them, the same ones I had seen at my friend's house that morning.

"Yvonne, you should get some rest. You have that business trip tomorrow, right? Go to bed early; I'll handle this myself," Janet said, nudging me.

"What's this medicine?" I stared at the pills for a while before finally asking.

"It's for preconception. York brought it back from abroad. He said the many people use this for preconception," Janet explained, taking out a bottle and carefully packing the pills inside.

I glanced at the bottle, and indeed, the words on the packaging were related to preconception.

But this medicine was exactly the same as the one I saw at Queena's place this morning.

Queena had just gotten married last month. The newlyweds wanted to enjoy some time alone together before having children, so they planned to wait a couple of years before starting a family.

The medicine was something Queena had brought back from abroad, claiming it was a contraceptive.

4.

I secretly pocketed some pills while Janet wasn't looking.

Early the next morning, I headed over to Queena's place.

In the meantime, Jimmy Leacock called, asking where I was since we had agreed to go on a business trip together today.

I suddenly remembered that Jimmy had asked me to accompany him to meet a client in the city yesterday.

After saying goodbye to Queena, I took a cab straight to the office, where Jimmy was waiting and immediately began scolding me.

"Yvonne, you're getting bolder! You're late even for a business trip with the boss."

I rolled my eyes at him.

"If you keep nagging, we'll really be late."

Jimmy and I had known each other since we were young. After graduating high school, he went abroad and only recently returned to take over his family business.

When I graduated from college, he came to our school for recruitment and lured me in under the pretense of an internship, but I needed to do all kinds of labor.

We arrived at the client's location, and with Jimmy there, the negotiations went smoothly.

Afterward, I took out the pills from my bag and showed them to him.

"Jimmy, you know a lot of people. Can you help me find out what's in these pills?"

Although Queena insisted they were contraceptives and showed me the purchase receipt, I couldn't bring myself to believe it.

This was something York bought, and Janet had been using it for years.

"What is this, a magical elixir? Yvonne, when did you develop an interest in immortality?" Jimmy teased.

"Stop joking! This is what York bought for my sister, supposedly for preconception, but it doesn't look like it."

Jimmy knew Janet well and was familiar with our family's matters, so I wasn't trying to hide anything from him.

Fortunately, Jimmy didn't ask further and carefully put the pills away.

I turned my head toward the window, and suddenly, a familiar figure caught my eye.

Was that York?

He was dressed casually, with a beautiful woman with curly hair in his arms. They were chatting and laughing as they passed by our car, looking very intimate.

I was startled, thinking I must be mistaken. I rubbed my eyes and looked again, but they had already entered a nearby restaurant.

Without thinking too much, I opened the car door and chased after them.

4

But it was too late.

Pushing open the restaurant door, York was nowhere to be seen.

"This restaurant is just the entrance; the mall is huge," Jimmy caught up and reminded me.

"Did you see them?" I asked.

"My eyesight is better than yours."

I refused to give up and dragged Jimmy around the mall, but we still didn't find any sign of York.

"Scumbag!"

I punched the glass door of the mall and cursed.

Passersby looked at us with curiosity.

Jimmy, looking somewhat innocent, pulled me away.

Back home, I took out the luggage I had packed the night before, piece by piece.

I tentatively chatted with Janet about examples of cheating and mistresses...

Janet listened attentively, and at the end, she asked with concern, "Yvonne, is Jimmy giving you a hard time? If he dares to bully you, tell me, and I'll deal with him."

See? That was my sister—her own life may be a mess, but she still worried that I was mistreated.

"Not at all! Wait, he's my boss now, so there's no such thing as bullying."

Jimmy was only a few years older than me, and our families had always liked to tease us. Since I saw his mother dressing him up in a skirt, I couldn't see him as a potential romantic interest.

What should have been a heartwarming tale of childhood friends turned into something quite different in my mind.

Janet looked at me with a smile but didn't say anything.

I went to my room, opened my computer, and checked on the recent performance of the hotel, but I found an updated post from that day.

It was a photo.

The poster claimed that his sister-in-law had refused him, but his secretary was obedient and convenient for a casual fling.

The picture was of a woman in an office outfit, her wavy hair particularly striking.

The back of the woman seemed familiar, but I couldn't immediately place her.

I instinctively checked the poster's profile.

The poster had shared many posts before, showing off houses, cars, and family photos.

When I saw the little girl with pigtails, I shook my head.

People would really make up anything for attention these days.

His kid was at the age of kindergarten.

I was about to close the window when something caught my eye—the car he had posted was identical to the one York drove.

5

My palms started to sweat.

I looked back at the photos of his wife and kid.

The wife was just a vague outline, making it hard to identify her.

But the little girl, with her lovely features, bore no resemblance to York.

I scrolled through the poster's other posts, mostly mundane daily matters, with no apparent anomalies.

It must be a coincidence, I told myself.

I returned to the previous page and saw the secretary's back again.

It suddenly struck me. This was the same woman York had been holding in the street during the day!

Was this account York's?

Had he been cheating and had a child?

The thought made me immediately get up. I wanted to tell Janet. But I stopped halfway to the door.

No.

These few photos alone couldn't prove anything. If I told Janet now, she would surely confront York immediately.

By then, he could deny everything and cover up the obvious clues, making it difficult to uncover his faults.

If he could make such disgusting remarks about Janet's inability to have children while already having a child himself, his intentions were truly malevolent.

He was such a beast!

I seethed with anger, returned to the computer, saved the photos from the post, and then called a friend in the tech department to help me investigate the poster's information.