He had never once stopped for my child. But for Serafina and her child, he was willing to give up the lifelong dream he had once valued above everything.

So what were my child and I?

A joke.

A cruel, humiliating joke.

And the child now in my womb only made that joke even more unbearable.

After scheduling the procedure, I walked out of the hospital and got into my car. The driver Theo Marlowe had assigned me was off duty. I was alone. But before I could pull away, I saw Luca and Serafina in the parking lot.

Their voices drifted over clearly.

"Luca," Serafina said, "if you really want to marry me, you have two choices."

"Either cancel your engagement, or make Bianca my ceremonial attendant."

My hand froze on the steering wheel.

Luca's voice came after a short pause. His thumb dragged once along the scar at his jaw.

"Canceling the arrangement isn't appropriate. I don't want people talking about you. The families would lose face."

Serafina immediately said, "Then make Bianca my attendant."

I slowly eased my foot off the accelerator.

A strange curiosity rose in me. I wanted to know whether Luca, the man who had always claimed to be upright, honorable, a man of his word, would agree to such a ridiculous demand.

The next second, he laughed.

"Alright, you little troublemaker. Now you can rest easy and marry me, right?"

My heart sank completely.

Serafina was still not satisfied.

"But you have to tell her on the wedding day. If she runs away, I won't have an attendant."

Luca's tone was calm, even indulgent.

"Don't worry. She owes me her life."

"She has been under my protection for ten years. Now that I've finally found someone I want to protect for the rest of my life, asking her for this small favor will preserve her dignity. She'll agree."

She owes me her life.

A small favor.

Preserve her dignity.

Every word struck me like a slap.

So in his eyes, ten years of my waiting, my love, my devotion, and my sacrifices were nothing more than a debt I owed him. A blood debt, the kind this world never let you forget. He thought I should stand at his alliance ceremony as Serafina's attendant. He thought I should watch him marry the woman he truly loved and still smile as if I were grateful.

They leaned against the pillar and kissed, lost in each other as if the entire world had disappeared.

And with that kiss, the last fragile piece of my heart was torn apart.

I pulled the key from the ignition and sat there in silence.

For a long time, I could not move. My body felt hollow, as if all strength had been drained from me. The parking garage was cold and smelled of concrete and exhaust. Somewhere deeper in the structure a car door closed, the sound echoing off stone walls like a gunshot in a chapel.

They kissed all the way to their car. Then they drove away.

Only after their car disappeared did I finally force myself to breathe.

With trembling hands, I called my uncle.

The moment the call connected, I said, "Marlowe, does your company still hire useless people?"

My voice was hoarse.

"I need you to take me in."

Theo Marlowe was surprised at first, then delighted.

"You finally don't want to keep waiting for that man anymore?"

I lowered my eyes and looked at the pile of herbal prescriptions beside me. For months, I had taken those bitter medicines to prepare my body for pregnancy. Every bowl had been hard to swallow. But I had endured it because I thought I was preparing for our future.

Now, every prescription looked like a mockery.

My chest tightened with grief.

"Marriage and children aren't everything," I said softly. "Building a career and staying with family are what truly matter."

My uncle had witnessed my ten-year marathon of love. He knew better than anyone how stubbornly I had waited. So he teased me, but his voice carried warmth.

"Then I'll arrange for you to go abroad. Once you arrive, I'll keep you so busy with the front operations you won't even have time to think about him."

Then his tone turned serious. I heard the faint sound of him removing his glasses, and the slow, deliberate friction of cloth on a single lens.

"The man you waited ten years for, the man who promised to give you a home, how much could he really love you?"

"You were only ever his backup plan."

"With us by your side, there's no obstacle you can't get through."

If I had not seen those love messages, I might have defended Luca without hesitation. I might have told my uncle with absolute certainty that Luca was my soulmate. That he loved me. That he was only slow to express it. That our ten years had meaning.

But the truth was, those ten years of love had been nothing but a cruel joke.

On my way to the hospital earlier, I still could not understand why he had betrayed me. I could not understand why the man who was supposed to marry me had hidden so much longing for another woman. But the moment I saw him proposing to Serafina, everything suddenly made sense.

He had not come home from service to marry me.

He had come home to marry her.

For years, I had feared that the distance between us might change him. I had feared that during those long separations, he might fall in love with someone else. But I never imagined that person would be Serafina.

And to win her over, he had even agreed to humiliate me at their ceremony.

The thoughts tangled violently in my mind. My vision blurred. I could not focus on the road.

By the time I snapped back to reality, it was already too late.

I slammed on the brakes.

A harsh crash sounded behind me.

My car was rear-ended. My body jolted forward, and I gripped the steering wheel tightly, my heart pounding so fast it felt like it might tear through my chest.

Just then, my phone rang.

The screen showed Luca's name.

I pressed my thumb to the pulse inside my wrist until my breathing steadied, then stared at it for a few seconds before answering.

His voice came through, calm and familiar, as if nothing had happened.

"Bianca, the doctor said you've already picked up the checkup report."

He paused.

"Where are you?"

Car horns blared from every direction, sharp and chaotic, dragging me violently back from my thoughts.

Only then did I realize my hands were trembling.

I clutched my stomach instinctively, my fingers digging into the fabric of my clothes. Fear spread through me in waves, cold and suffocating, leaving me unable to speak.

On the other end of the phone, Luca seemed to notice something was wrong. His voice tightened immediately.

"Bianca, that doesn't sound right. Did you get into an accident?"

The concern in his tone was unmistakable.

Once, that kind of worry would have made my heart soften. I would have believed it meant he cared about me, that somewhere beneath his restraint and silence, he still loved me.

But now, I knew better.

Luca was simply that kind of person. He was righteous by nature. He could not ignore anyone in danger. His concern had nothing to do with love.

I lowered my eyes and said quietly, "I was in a car accident."

His breathing changed at once.

"Don't be scared. Where are you? I'm coming right now!"

His voice was urgent, filled with anxiety.

But by the time he arrived, stepping out of the black sedan with Serafina beside him, the traffic cops had already finished handling everything.

When Luca saw that I was not injured, the relief on his face was obvious.

But my gaze did not stay on him.

It landed on Serafina.

She was sitting beside him so naturally, as if that seat had always belonged to her. One of his soldiers held the door for her the way they held doors for family.

A dull ache spread through my chest.

I looked at Luca and asked calmly, "When did the two of you become so close?"

He knew exactly what Serafina had done to me. He knew how deeply she had ruined my life. And yet now, she was standing beside him, appearing at my accident scene like someone with the right to be at his side.

Had he already decided to make me her ceremonial attendant? Was that why he no longer even bothered to hide their closeness?

Luca's expression stiffened for a moment. A trace of guilt flashed across his face. His thumb dragged once along the scar at his jaw before he looked away.

"Bianca, I went to the family clinic to pick up our medical clearance and happened to run into Serafina."

He paused, then explained, "When she heard you had been in an accident, she insisted on coming to check on you."

I looked at the two of them coldly, forcing down the emotions surging in my chest. Then I asked, word by word, "Is she here to check whether I'm dead?"

Luca's face darkened instantly.

"Bianca!" His voice turned harsh. "Watch your words. Apologize to Serafina."

Apologize?

I almost laughed.

Before I could speak, Serafina's eyes filled with tears. She reached toward my hand hesitantly, her expression fragile and remorseful. Her fingers smoothed the front seam of her dress three quick times before she spoke.

"Bianca," she said softly, "I've regretted what happened for the past two years."

Her voice trembled perfectly.

"I know I ruined your dream of playing the piano. It was my fault. Can you forgive me?"

The moment those words left her mouth, my fingers curled tightly.

The old pain in my hands seemed to awaken all at once. The severed tendons. The blood. The despair of realizing I would never again touch the piano keys the way I once had. The dream I had spent half my life chasing had been destroyed by her hands.

And now she stood before me, weeping beautifully, asking for forgiveness as if a few tears could erase everything.

After she finished speaking, Luca nudged me gently.

That tiny movement was like a knife pressed against my heart.

He was signaling me to say something. He wanted me to forgive her.

I turned to look at him.

My voice was soft, but every word was cold.

"Do you think I should forgive her?"

For a brief second, guilt flickered across Luca's face.

But it disappeared too quickly.

He lowered his eyes and said, "Back then, Serafina made a mistake in a moment of impulse."

A moment of impulse.

Those four words struck me so hard that I nearly forgot how to breathe.

Was that all it was to him? My ruined hands. My destroyed future. The pain that returned every time it rained. The dream I could never touch again. All of it was just a moment of impulse?

Luca continued, "She answered for it. The sit-down was held, restitution was paid. She's been remorseful for years. Now she's apologizing to you. Why keep holding on to the past?"

Why keep holding on to the past?

So if I refused to forgive the person who nearly killed me, I was the one being petty.

I stared at him, and memories from that year rushed back like a tide.

Back then, Luca had stood beside me in the clinic. He had held my hand while my entire body trembled from pain. He had looked at Serafina with hatred in his eyes and promised me that he would never forgive her.

But now, he was asking me to let it go. He was asking me to reconcile with the woman who had destroyed me.

When he reached for my hand, as if trying to guide me toward some forced peace offering, I slapped it away.

The sound was crisp and sharp. One of his soldiers shifted at the edge of my vision. Nobody moved after that.

I looked at him, my voice trembling with bitterness.

"Luca, you weren't the one whose tendons were severed."

"You weren't the one who lost the ability to play the piano."

"You weren't the one whose dream was destroyed overnight."

My eyes burned, but I refused to cry.