His face went cold on the spot.

"She's a sweet, innocent girl. Don't go scaring her."

It felt like someone had shoved an old, filthy rag down my throat.

The nausea rose until I couldn't stop my face from going gray.

Zane frowned, like he wanted to smooth something over.

He grabbed a necklace from the cabinet and tossed it down in front of me.

"Here, this is for you. Just clear out for a few days, and once things settle down—"

I could barely hear what he was saying.

The two words stamped on the necklace box, "Promotional Gift," stabbed at my eyes until they ached, until my voice cracked.

"I'll leave."

I turned and walked into the other room to dig out my papers.

Cara followed at my side, the necklace box in her hands, prettily pressing it into my arms again and again.

"Don't feel bad about taking it. This necklace is expensive, sure, but my family has plenty of money."

"And I don't even like it, so giving it to a servant is no big deal."

"It's my wedding gift, after all. I hope you'll find a man someday who loves you as much as mine loves me."

She smiled, bright and guileless, the very picture of a kind and generous lady of the house.

All I felt was the irony of it. I lifted my head and looked toward the doorway.

At the man who used to light up just looking into my eyes, who once said he loved me to the bone.

Zane's brow only knit tighter.

Even his expression had soured.

He motioned for Cara to step out first.

Once the door closed.

Zane came over, his hand clamping down hard around my wrist.

He sighed, his tone weary, like he was coaxing a child who didn't know any better.

"Crystal, I know this hurts you."

"But a man worth what I'm worth—what's wrong with keeping a few women around?"

His voice dropped low, threaded with that coaxing lilt.

"Besides, Cara's a simple girl. It took me ages to win her over. She's stood by me for seven years. A man has to take responsibility."

"You've always been so understanding, so considerate. You'll see where I'm coming from, won't you?"

His voice wasn't loud, yet every word landed like a hammer, pounding until my chest bled.

I lowered my head and pulled my hand free of his.

I didn't want to say a single word to him.

I grabbed my suitcase and turned to leave.

My silence set Zane off.

His face twisted, and he kicked my suitcase.

"Crystal Donaldson, don't you dare throw my generosity back in my face!"

The case flew across the room, slammed into the wall, and split open.

He stared down at me, his eyes cold and cutting.

"I kept you. I never cut off your cards, let you live in a mansion, drive a luxury car—and that's still not enough?"

"If you want to blame someone, blame your own useless womb!"

His gaze swept over my stomach like it was a patch of dead, worthless ground.

"You expect me to stay with you and die without an heir?"

Every word drove straight into me, every one cut to the bone.

I froze where I stood, the blood in my veins turning to ice.

My first child with him had come by accident, back when Zane was at his poorest.

Back then he couldn't even afford to take on a single project. We were so broke the two of us split one boxed meal.

Next month's rent depended on my odd shifts at the convenience store.

We didn't even have the money for a proper clinic procedure.

All I could do was buy the cheapest pills and force it through at home.

It was long, and it was brutal.

The whole night, I curled up on the bed, the pain dragging me in and out of consciousness, blood soaking the sheets until I nearly passed out.

Zane knelt by the bed, his eyes red, his hands shaking as he fed me sips of warm sugar water, his voice choking with sobs.

"Crystal, I'm so sorry."

"I swear, I'll spend my whole life making it up to you."

"I'll work myself to death before I ever let you suffer like this again."

The vow still burned in my ears.

The man standing before me was a stranger now.

All at once, I felt bone-tired.

I remembered how I'd cried and begged my father, who'd been dead set against this marriage, to give me one chance to prove Zane Swanson was worth it.

To prove he wasn't some good-for-nothing pauper, that he'd never love me and leave me the way my father warned he would.

In the end, the only thing I proved was my own stupidity.

Maybe a small, stubborn part of me still couldn't let it go.

So I made myself ask. "She gave you seven years, so you owe her. And what about the twelve years I gave you, fighting for everything you have?"

Zane crossed his arms and let out a contemptuous snort.

"That was your choice. Nobody forced you."

I couldn't hold it back anymore. I bolted into the bathroom and retched until there was nothing left.

Zane panicked and reached for me on instinct.

His broad palm spread across my back, pulling me into his chest.

"Is it your stomach acting up again?"

Back when I'd helped him chase deals to build his company, I'd downed bottle after bottle of liquor and wrecked my stomach for good.

For years afterward, the sudden cramps would twist through me until death seemed kinder than living.

The smell of antiseptic in the hospital, and the sight of Zane's back as he rushed to take a number in line.

In that hazy moment, it all blurred together with a memory from twelve years ago.

Back then he didn't even own a car. He'd carried me on his back, running three blocks in the dead of night.

My hand drifted to the swell of my belly without thinking.

If the father of this little one knew he existed...

But in the next second, someone shoved me hard from behind.

My whole body slammed into the cold, hard wall, and the pain shot through me as if every bone had shattered.

Cara stood in front of me, tears welling, fury and grievance pouring out of her voice.

"You knew we were married, so why are you still throwing yourself at my husband?"

The words dropped, and in an instant every pair of eyes in the room swung toward me.

The whispers came at me thick and fast, hammering from all sides.

"Look at her, all sweet and innocent, and she knows she's the other woman. Shameless!"

"They've already signed the papers and she's still clinging on. She'd better watch out, or karma will leave her babies bald as eggs!"

The pain left me weak all over, and my back slid down the icy wall.

People came and went around me, but not one of them reached out to help.

Every last one of them saw me as the homewrecker tearing apart someone else's marriage.

A flicker of triumph crossed Cara's eyes, and she raised her hand to strike my face.

Forcing down the pain ripping through me, I caught her wrist.

My eyes had gone cold as ice.

"Whether I'm the other woman, you know perfectly well in your heart!"

Cara flinched on instinct, a trace of unease passing over her face.

Then, in the very next breath, the tears poured down. She clutched her belly and cringed back, her face a mask of terror.

The picture-perfect victim, beaten down by my cruelty.

"Let me go, don't hurt my baby, my stomach hurts so much..."

Zane had just finished getting his number in line, and he came tearing over almost at a sprint.

One look at the scene before him, and without a single word, he drew his arm back wide.

A sharp, ringing slap cracked across my face.

He hit me hard. My head snapped sideways, half my cheek instantly swelling, raw and stinging, my ear ringing in a long, dull buzz.

My whole body staggered and crumpled to the freezing floor.

I lifted my eyes to Zane, unable to believe it.

He stared at the angry red mark blazing on my face, his fingertips trembling faintly, something like panic flashing through his eyes for a heartbeat.

But only for a heartbeat. Then he wrapped himself tight around the tear-streaked Cara, shielding her like some precious, fragile jewel.

He turned back to me, grinding the words out through clenched teeth.

"Crystal Donaldson, when did you turn this vicious?"

“If my wife or my child suffers so much as a scratch today, I will never let you walk away from this!”

“Now get down on your knees and apologize to Cara, right now!”

A bitter, mocking smile tugged at my lips.

Twelve years of a heart laid bare, and what had it bought me……

The crowd kept swelling.

“Just apologize already. A mistress getting smacked around? She had it coming.”

“Of all the things she could do with her life, she picks wrecking someone else's marriage.”

Every word was a blade, carving into my chest.

I braced myself against the wall and rose slowly, too worn out to keep feeding Zane's little circus.

I turned to leave, but his grip clamped down on my wrist.

The force of it felt like it would crush the bones in my hand.

He dragged me back like a dead dog hauled across the floor.

He bent to my ear, the corner of his mouth curling into something cruel, his voice dropping low.

“Didn't you tell me your old man from that backwater town just came to Harborton to see you?”

“Imagine if every street in the city was plastered with private photos of his daughter……”

“Think those old bones of his could take it?”

My whole body went rigid, my pupils shrinking to pinpoints.

Blood caught in my throat, too thick to swallow, too lodged to spit out.

The man in front of me looked like a monster I'd never known.

Watching my face go paper-white, he tipped up the corner of his mouth and gave his phone a little wave.

“Crystal Donaldson, don't go thinking you're tough enough to flip the table on me.”

Those photos were taken when our love ran deepest.

Zane had said he wanted to capture me at my most beautiful.

So I'd handed myself over to him, whole and complete, full of love and trust.

I never imagined they'd become the leash he'd use to break me.

I met his eyes：“You……”

Zane straightened up.

“From the moment we lost the first child, I swore I'd never let a child of mine come to any harm again.”

“Anyone who dares hurt my child, I'll make her wish she were dead!”

My eyes stung and swelled.

I honestly couldn't tell whether I should cry or laugh.

He was paying off the debt he owed my child by lavishing it on someone else's.

How absurd. How pitiful.

I watched him pull up the photo album, thumb hovering over send.

I squeezed my eyes shut and dropped to my knees in front of Cara with a dull thud.

My knees slammed into the marble floor with a heavy crack.

“I'm sorry.”

The excitement in Cara's eyes nearly spilled over as she directed me, savoring every second.

“Say you had no business being a mistress, seducing another woman's husband.”

“If you've got the nerve to be the other woman, you'd better have the nerve to pay for it.”

Zane stood off to the side, his brow knitting on reflex.

But in the end he said nothing.

I stared up at the man before me in despair, jaw clenched so hard my tongue pressed out a mouthful of metallic sweetness.

I forced the words out through gritted teeth：“I had no business being a mistress, seducing another woman's husband!”

Thud, thud, thud. Three kowtows.

A dead silence settled behind my eyes.

“Satisfied now?”

I held my back straight against the waves of insults and condemnation breaking over me from the crowd.

A magnanimous little smile bloomed on Cara's face as she bent down and reached out to help me up.

“Good that you know you were wrong. Come on, get up. I can forgive you now.”

But the instant her fingers brushed my sleeve, she yanked with sudden, vicious force, dragging me forward so I pitched straight down.

Instinct told me to dodge, but my body wouldn't obey.

Cara's grip hauled me with her, and I was forced to crash to the floor alongside her.

She clutched her stomach, tears flooding out in an instant.

“Ah! It hurts so much!”

“Zane, she's not apologizing for real at all! She's still trying to use this to hurt our baby!”

The stares around me stabbed into me like knives.