I dug my nails into my palms until they ached, my eyes burning red：“Do you even remember why I can't have children?”

Seven years ago, right before our wedding, one of Malcolm's defeated business rivals came looking for revenge. He'd wanted to kill Rosalie to make Malcolm pay.

I'd been having afternoon tea with her at the time. I didn't hesitate. I threw myself in front of her.

The knife meant for her heart plunged into my uterus instead.

That single stab cost me my ability to ever bear children.

I knew a family like the Farleys needed an heir. So I swallowed my pain and offered to break things off.

Malcolm fought to keep me. He stood outside my apartment in a downpour all night long.

Even after he collapsed with pneumonia and slipped into delirium, he kept murmuring that he'd never need children, that all he needed was me.

That same man who'd once sworn the world to me now stood before me, his voice as calm and cold as a stranger's.

“Why bring up the past? Let's talk about the present and the future.”

“The present is that Vivian is carrying my child, and she's keeping it. As for the future, you'll raise the child. That's your duty as Mrs. Farley.”

His tone was flat, unbothered, as though this weren't betrayal at all but a business negotiation.

Something inside my chest tore open, raw and bone-deep.

Then my assistant came hurrying over, her expression conflicted, and placed Vivian's blood work report in my hands.

Positive. Just as I'd suspected.

I drew a long breath and looked Malcolm dead in the eye.

“Fine. Then let's only talk about the present and the future.”

“Right now, I'm telling you that Vivian has an STD. Your grand plans for the future? You might want to rethink those.”

Malcolm snatched the report from my hand. His face went dark.

He strode straight to Vivian, barely contained fury flickering behind his eyes：“Explain.”

“Is it the gender results……”

Vivian's gaze landed on the report. Her breath caught.

A flash of panic crossed her face before she threw herself into Malcolm's arms, her eyes reddening on cue.

“She's framing me! You know I was a virgin when we got together! I'm carrying your baby, and you'd believe her over me?”

Tears spilled down Vivian's cheeks in an unbroken stream, landing on the sharp ridges of Malcolm's knuckles, dousing his anger and suspicion in one stroke.

Malcolm wiped her tears away with his thumb, his voice dropping to a gentle murmur：“Hey, don't be such a crybaby. I believe you. Stop crying, alright?”

“No! No!”

Vivian refused to let it go. One hand pressed protectively over her belly, the other jabbed a finger at me.

“This isn't over! My stomach hurts from the stress. She started this, so she gets on her knees and apologizes!”

Malcolm's gaze faltered for a moment, but in the end, he turned to me and gave the order.

“I know you're upset, and that's why you forged the test results to scare Vivian.”

“But she's carrying my child. She can't handle that kind of shock, and she shouldn't have to suffer.”

“Just apologize.”

A deafening buzz filled my skull, and the murmurs around us erupted all at once.

“Isn't Mr. Farley supposed to be famous for doting on his wife? He actually cheated?”

“And now he wants the wife to kneel to the mistress? The world's gone upside down.”

“So what if she hasn't gotten pregnant in seven years? Dr. Thomas is still young, and she's the Miracle Surgeon. Why couldn't he just wait?”

……

A taste of rust flooded the back of my throat. I'd bitten clean through my lip.

I stretched my mouth into a smile and walked toward Vivian.

“You're right, it is my fault——”

“Slap!”

My palm cracked across her smug face.

“You slept with another woman's husband, got knocked up with a bastard child, and had the nerve to flaunt it in my face. My only mistake was not slapping you sooner. I should've put you in your place the second you walked in.”

“Smack!”

I backhanded Malcolm across the face.

“My real mistake was believing your promises. Seven wasted years.”

“It's over, Malcolm. I want a divorce.”

I swallowed the swarming ache in my chest and turned to leave.

Without warning, a shove from behind sent me crashing stomach-first into the edge of the wall.

The old wound, the one I'd gotten shielding his mother from a knife, screamed to life. The pain buckled my legs and I crumpled to the floor, cold sweat soaking through the back of my shirt.

“Seems I've spoiled you too much. That's why you act like a lunatic, slapping me and my woman. You——”

His tirade cut off the moment he saw the state I was in. He crouched down, something uncertain flickering across his face.

“I just wanted you to get on your knees. I didn't mean to hurt you. Is it your stomach?”

His palm settled over my abdomen on instinct, fingers kneading with a gentleness that was practiced, familiar.

Every time the weather turned gray and wet, the scar that had once cut down to bone would throb without mercy.

Malcolm had taught himself massage therapy just to ease my pain, because he couldn't stand to watch me suffer.

The same tenderness that once gave me warmth now made my skin crawl.

I shoved his hand away：“Worry about yourself first. I'd suggest you get a blood test too, because there's a good chance you're already infected.”

“Enough!”

Malcolm's gaze went dark：“Whether Vivian is clean or not, I know better than anyone. Shut your mouth.”

“Ugh, babe, don't waste your breath on that old hag.” Vivian clung to his arm, all doe-eyed and pouting. “If she wants a divorce, let her have it. She's the one who can't have kids. She's the one at fault. Make her leave the marriage with nothing!”

I caught the greedy spark lighting up Vivian's eyes and let out a cold laugh.

“Oh, someone's leaving with nothing, alright. According to the prenuptial agreement, the party at fault is the one who cheated. That's Malcolm. And he's the one who walks away empty-handed.”

“You wouldn't dare.”

Malcolm glared at me.

I glared right back：“Try me.”

His answer was a kick driven by pure rage.

I hit the floor, arms curling around my stomach, face drained of color. Not a trace of pity remained on his. He only snarled：“I never knew you were this calculating. Have you been scheming to take my assets this whole time?”

A bitter, broken laugh scraped out of my throat：“You're the one who insisted on signing the prenup. You said it was my safety net. If you hadn't cheated, who could have used it against you?”

Time really was a cruel magician, twisting love beyond recognition.

Vivian seized the moment, stepping forward and raising her stiletto over my lower abdomen, ready to bring it down.

At the last possible second, a figure threw herself toward me.

A sharp voice rang out：“All of you, stop! Nobody lays a hand on a member of the Farley family!”

It was my mother-in-law. The woman who had loved me like her own daughter.

Vivian yanked her foot back in fright.

The wire-taut tension inside me snapped, and the tears I'd been holding back for so long finally fell.

But Rosalie Farley didn't so much as glance at me. She stepped right over my body, took Vivian's hands in hers.

“Vivian, sweetheart, you texted me that someone was bullying you, so I rushed right over to back you up. Now, who's the one with a death wish?”

Vivian's smugness returned in an instant. She pointed down at me, crumpled on the floor：“Her!”

I lifted my head, a wrecked mess, and through the blur of tears met my mother-in-law's ice-cold stare.

That was when it hit me. Malcolm's affair. She'd known all along.

The "Farley family member" she meant was Vivian.

It felt like cotton had been stuffed down my throat. When I finally spoke, my voice was barely a rasp：“……Why?”

I had saved Rosalie's life twice.

The first time, it was late-stage recurrent ovarian cancer. The surgery was so high-risk that I was the only surgeon in the world who could perform it. I stood at that operating table for sixteen straight hours before I pulled her back from the brink.

That was how Malcolm and I met. He fell for me at first sight, pursued me relentlessly, and his mother pushed for us at every turn.

I didn't say yes just because he was handsome, polished, and magnetic. I said yes because from the very beginning, Rosalie treated me like her own daughter.

I was an orphan. Having a family was something I'd dreamed about my entire life.

After I saved her the second time and lost my fertility in the process, Rosalie cried until she nearly passed out. She held my hands and told me I was her daughter-in-law, her daughter, and her savior.

As long as she had breath in her body, she swore, no one would ever hurt me.

She even worried that people might gossip, so she quietly spread the story that the reason we had no children was Malcolm's problem, not mine.

But now, the only thing left in her eyes when she looked at me was disgust.

“What are you glaring at me for? I never asked you to save me! If I hadn't been afraid my condition would relapse and needed to keep the only surgeon who could operate on me close, do you think an orphan like you could've set foot in the Farley family? Seven years have passed. I'm fully recovered. And you, sitting on the wife's throne, can't even produce an heir. The Farley family has no room for you anymore!”

So all the love Rosalie had given me was nothing but a mirage.

So I had never truly had a family at all.

With my medical assistant propping me up, I stood on legs that barely held：“A two-faced mother-in-law, a husband riddled with disease, and his infected mistress. You're right. I don't belong in a family like this!”

“What disease?” Rosalie's eyes went wide, her voice shrill.

But a calculating gleam flickered through Malcolm's gaze. He turned to me：“I'll take the blood test. But let's raise the stakes. If I come back clean, then you're the liar, and you leave this marriage with nothing. Do you dare take that bet?”

As a doctor, I knew perfectly well that Malcolm and Vivian had been sleeping together constantly. The odds of him being infected were almost certain.

But almost wasn't absolute.

My hesitation gave Malcolm all the confidence he needed. He declared, brazen as a street hustler：“Silence means consent. The bet takes effect immediately!”

He handed the vial of blood he'd had drawn to his assistant and ordered him to personally oversee every step of the testing.

Everyone waited, curious about the result. But Vivian couldn't sit still.

“Ow, it hurts!”

She clutched her stomach, her voice breaking into a whimper：“Earlier, when that old hag was examining me, she pressed on my belly a couple of times. I felt uncomfortable right then, and now it's getting worse and worse!”

“That's a lie!” my medical assistant shot back. “You started provoking us the moment you walked in. Dr. Thomas never even touched you!”

Vivian rolled her eyes：“You're her lackey, of course you'd cover for her. Liars get what's coming to them, you know. Better watch yourself out there. Wouldn't want to get hit by a car.”

Watching her twist the truth so shamelessly, so viciously, my assistant was shaking with rage.

I patted her hand to steady her and spoke calmly：“Since we can't agree on what happened, let's check the security cameras.”

I pointed to the camera in the corner, still running.

Three years ago, after a patient harassed me, Malcolm had stepped in immediately. He'd handled everything, and then he'd insisted on having cameras installed.

He'd told me that this way, I'd never again be stuck in a situation where my word was all I had.

Malcolm clearly remembered too. Something uncertain passed through his eyes.

“Fine, let's check……”

“Sure, go ahead and check!”

Vivian cut him off with a piercing wail.

“I've been falsely accused of having some disgusting disease, my stomach is killing me and I'm being blamed for that too, and you don't even believe me?”

“Malcolm, I've suffered so much, and all I wanted was an apology. Is that really so hard? Forget it. I was blind to fall for the wrong man. I deserve this. I don't want to live anymore!”

Vivian clutched her stomach and lunged toward the wall.

Rosalie scrambled to catch her, then whipped around and snapped：“Malcolm, what are you still hesitating for? Some worthless woman or your own flesh and blood. How is this even a choice?”