So, when Susan told Grandma to her face that she was taking me out to help me clear my head, I got into the car. However, my chest felt so tight I could barely breathe, so I rolled down the window halfway.

“Susan, you are despicable.”

She gently brushed aside the stray hairs blowing across my face.

“Myles, I posted those photos on social media on purpose just so you would see them. I don’t want you to leave me.”

A bout of nausea hit me again, and I turned my face away from her.

"I’ll go to the party. Just have someone take Grandma back home right now.”

Susan agreed without hesitation.

The ballroom was massive, but the first thing I spotted was the baby right in the center. The clothes, the link baby socks, and even the name belonged to the child Susan and I had lost years ago.

I clenched my fists, forcing myself to stay calm as I said, “Susan, you could have easily bought new things.”

However, she just frowned. “Don’t be so petty, Myles. Owen said babies grow fast anyway. The kid will only wear them for two days at most.”

I couldn’t help but snort. “Susan, I meticulously picked out every single one of those items for our child. How could you give them away to someone else?”

On the day our baby died, I had intended to cremate those clothes with her. However, Susan had stopped me, saying she couldn’t bear to let them go, and that she wanted to keep them as a memory. Now, she was using those precious memories to humiliate both our dead child and me.

Susan was losing her patience. “Fine. Once the party is over, I’ll have them taken off and given back to you. Happy?”

Apparently done explaining herself to me, she walked away. She took the baby from the nanny’s arms, expertly burping the child and calming her down.

This was a scene I had envisioned a thousand times in my dreams. I remembered that on the day Susan found out she was pregnant, I was so excited that I had rushed to pick her up. Instead, I found her on her knees in the pouring rain, sobbing hysterically and begging for an abortion.

“Myles, our startup lost everything this year, and my mother is critically ill in the hospital. The pressure is suffocating me. We can’t afford a baby right now. We’ll have more children in the future, I promise.”

We really were dirt poor back then, so poor that we could barely scrape together the money for an abortion. Looking at the premature gray hairs on Susan’s head, I bit down and walked with her into a cheap, run-down clinic down the street. Susan’s eyes had been red and swollen for an entire day. She told me then that she didn’t even like children anyway and that a family of just the two of us was more than enough.

My eyes grew watery at the memory. Just as I turned to leave, a hand clamped down on my arm. It was Owen Fisher. He was beaming with a bright smile, holding a beautifully wrapped gift box in his hands.

“Mr. Myles, thank you so much for coming to the celebration for Ms. Susan’s and my baby. Please, accept this small token of appreciation.”

He opened the box, but his eyes took on a defiant look.

“Ms. Susan has been producing way too much breast milk, and our little Juni can’t drink it all. So, I had the extra made into custom breast milk soap. I absolutely love it. I use it every single night when we take our baths together.”

I didn’t reach out to take it.

“The scent is repulsive. I don’t want it.”

Owen shoved the gift box straight into my chest, his tone turning demanding. “Myles Thompson, you have to accept it, no matter how much you look down on it, just like Juni. Even if she makes you sick to your stomach, you have no choice but to accept her.”

“Who said I’ll accept her? As long as I don’t sign those divorce papers, you will always be nothing more than a homewrecker, and your child will always be illegitimate.”

Feeling humiliated, Owen instantly teared up. “Mr. Myles, I can live without a legal title, but you have no right to insult Juni!”

Before I knew it, Susan had walked over. She glared at me and warned me, “Myles, don’t you dare bully him.”

Owen immediately threw his arms around Susan.

“Ms. Susan, Mr. Myles is just in a bad mood because he just had his surgery. As long as it makes him feel better, I’m willing to take the blame. You shouldn’t be angry with him. He just had a vasectomy. He’s no different from an old man now. What a poor thing. Ms. Susan, I’m actually a little scared. I won’t end up like him in the future, will I?”

“You never will,” Susan whispered into his ear. “If you’re scared, we can get you whatever treatments you want. Is a million dollars enough to make it better, hm?”

Enlivened by her coddling, Owen flashed a playful, mischievous smile. “You always know exactly how to spoil me, Ms. Susan. Do you want another baby with me? Oh dear, I forgot Mr. Myles was still standing right here! Mr. Myles, please don’t mind us. My baby will still call you Daddy in the future.”

With that, he forcefully dragged me toward the baby.

“Look, Mr. Myles. Doesn’t Juni look exactly like Ms. Susan?”

The moment the words left his mouth, he gave the baby a vicious pinch. The sleeping baby instantly burst into a frantic, agonizing wail.

“Mr. Myles! You can hate me all you want, but why would you hurt an innocent child? She’s so young…” Owen sobbed hysterically.

Before I could even process what was happening, a violent shove from Susan sent me crashing onto the floor, and an agonizing pain shot through my lower body. With my post-surgery stitches torn open, blood soaked through my trousers.

The commotion drew the attention of everyone in the hall. Guests began pointing and whispering at me.

“What kind of man is that? He can’t even keep his own wife, so he takes his anger out on a helpless baby.”

“If I were Susan, I would have slapped him across the face by now.”

She screamed at me, her face dark with rage. “Myles Thompson, you are a malicious, cruel monster! You don’t deserve to be this child’s father. Get out of here!”

However, the pain was so excruciating that I couldn’t even stand up.

“Susan, please, take me to the hos–”

“What, are you planning to lie there and kick up a fuss now?” Susan’s voice turned dangerously cold.

She then turned to her security detail and ordered them to drag me out of the venue.

I managed to pull out my phone to call 911, but a barrage of automated text alerts popped up first. Susan had frozen every single one of my credit cards. With no money, I couldn’t pay for medical care or get a taxi. Susan was doing this deliberately to punish me, forcing me to walk the three miles back home on foot in this condition.

I clung tightly to the street railing until the agonizing pain slowly turned into a dull numbness. By the time the night wind dried the very last tear on my face, only one thought remained in my mind: leave Susan.

I would take my child’s memorial plaque, and I would leave. Anywhere would be better than here. Life without Susan would be much better.

Dragging my weak, unsteady feet, I finally made it back home after dark. However, the moment I pushed the door open, I was met with the sight of Owen naked and Susan pleasuring him.

Even when she heard the door open, she didn’t bother to look up. She just continued what she was doing with absolute focus. It wasn’t until Owen let out a satisfied groan that she finally stood up, wiping her face with total indifference.

“Owen has been holding back and suffering for a long time. He’s moving in starting today, so it’s easier for me to take care of him. You will act as his servant until you realize what you did wrong.”

I didn’t even bother to say anything. I simply turned around and walked toward the stairs.

My heart had long since grown numb. All I wanted was to grab my late child’s memorial plaque and leave this house—a place where I had lived for five years yet always felt like a total stranger. However, the table that used to hold my late Juni’s memorial plaque and teddy bear was gone. In its place, the table was piled high with baby supplies.

I searched every corner of the room, but there was still no sign of it. A sharp, agonizing pain flared from my stitches again, but I couldn’t care less. Driven by panic, I rushed back downstairs and demanded answers from Susan like a madman.

“Where is our child’s memorial plaque?”

Susan looked slightly startled. “Myles, why is your face so pale…”

My voice shook as I asked her the same question again.

“I threw it out,” Owen smirked from the couch, acting completely nonchalant. “I tossed it right into the fire pit, burned it to ashes, and scattered it. Look, your stillborn baby had the same name as my child. Keeping that around is basically a curse on my baby, isn’t it? I was just protecting my own flesh and blood. If you have a problem with that–”

Before he could finish his sentence, I slapped him across the face with everything I had.

“Myles!”

Susan rushed forward, shoving me out of the way to shield Owen behind her back.

“Owen isn’t wrong. That memorial plaque shouldn’t be kept in this house anyway.”

I clenched my stinging hand, my eyes burning red. “Susan, that was your child, too! Do you not care at all?”

A flash of hesitation crossed Susan’s face, and she reached out as if to grab my hand. “I–”

Right at that moment, Owen clutched his swollen cheek, his expression grim. “Susan, my face hurts so much.”

Susan immediately snapped her hand back and cupped Owen’s face in her hands, her eyes overflowing with worry.

“Myles, no matter what, it’s not right to hit someone! Owen went a bit too far this time, I admit, so I’ll apologize on his behalf.”

“I don’t want your apology! I want him to get down on his knees and beg God for forgiveness!”

“In your dreams,” Susan replied, her eyes growing cold. She looked at me as if I were a lunatic.

Behind her back, Owen shot me a deeply provocative smirk.

Fine.

I let out a bitter laugh and whipped out my phone. “Isn’t Owen a popular livestreamer? Why don’t you both repeat everything you just said live to the internet? Let’s see if Owen gets banned by tomorrow, and let’s see if your precious reputation gets ruined!”

“Myles, you are out of your mind!”

Susan snatched the phone out of my hands. Losing my balance from the force, my lower body hit the sharp corner of the table. A sharp cry of pain escaped my lips, but she acted deaf to it, focusing entirely on shutting down the livestream.

Owen began to cry miserably. “Mr. Myles, by ruining my career, are you trying to force me to kill myself?”

Susan’s face sank as she ordered, “Security! Lock him in the basement! If you refuse to admit your mistake, don’t ever think about coming out.”

She turned her back to me, missing the trail of blood dragging behind me on the floor.

With a harsh click, the door to the basement locked. An agonizing pain spread from my surgical wound, each bout more excruciating than the last. I curled up on the cold floor and gave up on struggling.

Just as I was quietly waiting for death to claim me, my phone suddenly rang. It was a call from Grandma. However, it wasn’t her voice on the other end.

“Hello, is this Mr. Myles Thompson? Your grandmother has suffered a massive shock. She’s currently in critical condition and requires emergency surgery. We are at…”

A loud ringing filled my ears, and I couldn’t quite make out what was said after that. So, Grandma was never sent away to that peaceful retirement home. Susan had lied to me again. She had never cared about a single word I said.

I desperately asked the doctor what could have shocked Grandma so badly. There was a heavy silence on the other end of the line for two long seconds.

“Someone came to the hospital and told her that her granddaughter-in-law had a secret child with another man.”

My phone crashed onto the floor, along with my tears and then my fist.

“Susan, let me go! I need to save Grandma!”

It wasn’t until I finally admitted my wrongs that Susan finally saw me.

“Grandma is in critical condition. I beg you, please unfreeze my bank cards.”

Susan’s expression was slightly solemn. However, standing right beside her, Owen suddenly let out a mocking sneer.

“A perfectly healthy person wouldn’t fall critically ill so suddenly.”

Susan snapped out of her brief hesitation and looked at me with disapproval. “Grandma has always been so good to you, Myles, yet you’re faking an emergency about her life just to escape your punishment? How did you become so twisted and deceitful? If you want the money, apologize to Owen. When he is satisfied, I’ll unfreeze your bank cards.”

There was absolutely no time to explain. Grandma was at death’s door, waiting for me to save her life.

Casting my pride aside, I lowered my head and begged Owen frantically, entirely at his mercy.

“I am incredibly sorry, Mr. Owen. Please, I beg you to forgive me.”

Susan was stunned. She reached for a tissue, wanting to wipe the blood running down my forehead. However, Owen quickly stopped her, and her eyes welled with tears.

“Can a simple apology ever make up for the hurt you’ve caused me? I have my pride, too.”

Susan stopped in her tracks.

“Myles, start a livestream right now. Clarify everything to the public and admit that everything you said before was nothing but malicious lies born from your own jealousy.”

I didn’t make a scene. Under Susan’s utterly bewildered gaze, I started a livestream. I read every single word from the script Owen had prepared for me without skipping a beat.

A barrage of cyberbullying came my way, but I didn’t even bat an eye at it.

“Is this enough now?” I asked.

Yet, Owen was far from appeased.

“Mr. Myles, a real apology requires genuine sincerity. Why don’t you do what the netizens are suggesting? Broadcast yourself acting as my personal servant. Just because you belong to a powerful, high-society family, does that mean ordinary people like us deserve to be trampled on?” he said, with pure malice in his eyes.

Losing the last of my patience, I turned to the woman who had remained silent throughout his performance.

“Susan, Grandma is running out of time!”

The woman merely spat out, “Continue.”

The very last shred of hope I held for her disintegrated into despair.

Owen ordered me to get down on my hands and knees to clean the entire mansion. Because of the physical strain, the closed wounds from my recent surgery tore open and started to bleed again.

Meanwhile, Susan lounged comfortably in Owen’s embrace, actively interacting with the viewers on the livestream.

“Mr. Myles smells fishy. Who knows if he’s just desperate for attention?”

Mopping floors, doing mountains of laundry, preparing baby formula… They even forced me to hand them their condom.

It wasn’t until Owen finally let out a wide yawn that Susan flicked the credit card straight at my face and said, “Get out.”

The drive to the hospital usually took thirty minutes, but I made it in ten. The moment I handed out the bank card, the doctor looked deeply apologetic.

“The patient has passed away. I am so sorry for your loss.” She hesitated before she said, “In fact, your grandmother’s condition had stabilized. But someone showed her the livestream of you being humiliated as a servant, and she literally suffocated to death by sheer rage.”

I burst out laughing. I laughed so hard that tears streamed down my face.

After the adrenaline faded, exhaustion took over. I desperately wanted to walk to the morgue to see Grandma one last time, but the moment I took my first step forward, I collapsed onto the floor.

Every single screen in the hospital lobby was broadcasting that livestream. As every passerby whispered and jeered at me, my vision blurred, and ringing filled my ears. In an instant, I lost all consciousness.

Ever since I left, Susan had been plagued by an inexplicable, gnawing sense of unease. She was distracted all day. When preparing the baby’s bottle, she absentmindedly added only half a scoop of formula and failed to notice the child crying loudly right next to her.

As if possessed by a sudden whim, her feet carried her over to the heavy door of the basement. I was absolutely terrified of the dark, yet she had locked me down there anyway, believing I needed to be taught a lesson for being so arrogant.

She flipped the light switch, hoping the brightness would somehow dispel the growing guilt in her chest. However, the moment the lights came on, a massive pool of bright red liquid came into view.

Susan’s eyes widened in sheer horror. She stumbled and staggered out of the basement, screaming frantically at the servants to turn on every single light fixture across the entire house.

It was a bleak, rainy day outside, and the sky was exceptionally gloomy. By the time Susan’s eyes fully adjusted to the indoor lights, her heart sank. The grand staircase, the polished handrails, and every single inch of the floor where I had walked was tracked with streaks of blood.

Susan couldn’t believe it. How could it be blood when I had recovered and been discharged from the hospital? Furthermore, I had been right under her nose the entire time. How could I be severely injured?

Susan’s immediate reaction was that I must have spilled a bottle of ketchup as some sick joke. However, reality crashed in quickly. The household ketchup bottles had been emptied and thrown out yesterday.

With trembling hands, she dialed my number. The second the call finally connected, Susan let out a sigh of relief.

“Myles! What on earth is all this red liquid all over the house? Is it an animal’s blood? This prank isn’t funny at all! I won’t hold it against you this time. It’s pouring rain outside right now. Where are you? I’ll pick you up…”

She rattled on and on, saying everything she could think of to suppress the panic. However, the voice that answered from the other end of the line was a stranger’s.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but this phone has been ringing on the pavement, so I just picked it up. A gentleman passed out cold right here and was just taken away for emergency care. The ground is covered in blood. I heard the nurse saying that he might not pull through.”