Charlotte was pregnant?

She was actually carrying Abraham's child?!

A terrible thought rose up inside me.

I stared at her, my voice trembling.

Charlotte spread her hands, smiling radiantly.

My chest heaved violently, the pain so sharp it felt like it might split me open.

The pathetic part was, I couldn't argue with a single word she said.

Abraham's neglect of May, his coldness toward her, I had always been able to see it.

When May was three, I'd been in a car accident.

Afraid the nanny wouldn't take proper care of her, I'd written out a long, detailed list and begged Abraham again and again to watch over our daughter.

Instead, he used work as an excuse, said he was too busy to cook, and fed May nothing but instant ramen.

By the time I was discharged, May was skin and bones, and she'd developed a severe stomach condition.

I was so furious I had a screaming fight with Abraham, and for the first time, I brought up divorce.

He groveled, apologizing over and over.

He kept insisting the child was too young to grow up without a father.

For the sake of giving her a whole family.

For the sake of letting May grow up in a stable, healthy home.

Angry as I was, I forgave him.

But that peace lasted only five years.

And now, for the sake of a woman like this one, Abraham had put his own child in the hospital with his own hands.

The ache in my chest swelled past anything I could bear.

I leaned against the wall, gasping for breath in great heaving gulps.

Charlotte let out a long, satisfied sigh.

Then, with the air of a victor, she slid on her sunglasses.

When? I couldn't remember.

The memories ran too deep, the years too tangled.

The slightest thought of it drove a spike straight through my heart.

I sank down onto the bench in the hallway.

The pain left half my body numb, frozen, unable to move.

Until a small hand tugged at my sleeve.

She gently wiped the tears from my face, her voice soft and certain.

Her thin little body gave off a warm breath of heat.

In that moment, I finally let my guard down.

And I couldn't hold it back. I broke down sobbing.

For my daughter's sake, I pulled myself back together.

Once I had my emotions under control, I marched straight to Abraham's company, alone.

He was in the middle of a meeting with his staff.

When he saw me come in, he looked displeased.

I slapped the folder in his hands shut with a sharp snap.

I didn't bother protecting his image in front of others the way I had before.

I went straight to the point.

For once, a flicker of panic crossed Abraham's face.

But he composed himself almost at once.

“If you're sick, go to a hospital. Don't come here making trouble!”

The answer I'd expected. I nodded.

“So you won't say it? Fine. I'm calling the police right now, and I'll have them treat it as poisoning.”

“Let's see whether your little lover can really stay out of it once the cops show up.”

The moment he heard Charlotte might be dragged in, Abraham panicked.

He cleared everyone out of the room and let out a sigh.

“It wasn't anything serious.”

“It was just… just some chili extract.”

“May saw a prank video and got curious, so I used her to test it out.”

Test it out.

So casual, so light.

The daughter I'd nearly died bringing into the world, the daughter I cradled in my hands.

And in Abraham's mind she was nothing but a toy to test poison on, for a laugh?

The rage I'd been holding down broke loose.

My palm cracked across Abraham's face.

His head snapped to the side.

He clearly hadn't expected me to hit him; his expression shifted from shock to fury.

“Cindy, are you done yet?”

“It's not like anything happened to May. Do you have to blow it up into some federal case?”

“I already apologized. What more do you want!”

Even now, he didn't think he'd done anything wrong.

Even now, he hadn't asked a single time whether May was all right.

My daughter, like my words.

In Abraham's heart, both were just that meaningless.

My eyes burned before I could stop them.

“May is your daughter too. Your blood runs in her veins!”

“You watched her suffer, watched her in pain, watched her sick in a hospital bed, and you don't feel even a shred of guilt?”

“What kind of poison did that bitch pour into your ear, to make you turn on your own daughter like this!”

Abraham's temper flared too.

He shot it right back at me, without mercy.

“What are you screaming about? I'm not the one who told you to have the kid.”

“Back then you were the one who threw yourself at me and crawled into my bed. Then you had the gall to come waddling in pregnant, insisting on marrying me.”

“A shameless mother like you, what kind of decent daughter could she possibly raise?”

“May's so sickly, maybe it's because you were sleeping around years ago and caught some dirty disease!”

In an instant, all the blood in me ran backward.

I felt like I'd been struck by lightning.

I stood frozen in place, unable to make a sound.

Ten years of marriage, and I'd thought the worst of it was that Abraham simply didn't love me enough.

It had never once crossed my mind that this was how he truly saw me.

No wonder he never took a word I said to heart.

No wonder he never cared when my mood changed.

So all along, in his eyes, I was nothing but a shameless burden who cost him money.

Back then I'd married him without asking for a single betrothal gift.

I'd sold the house in my hometown just to back his start-up.

And none of it, in his eyes, was love.

It was throwing myself at him.

It was shameless groveling.

Ten years.

For a man like this, I'd buried the best ten years of my life.

The tears fell, one after another.

Every feeling I had tangled into a knot lodged in my throat.

Sickening, and impossible to swallow down.

After words like these, there was nothing left to salvage.

I shook my head, trembling, and spoke slowly.

“Let's divorce, Abraham. We're getting divorced.”