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.

“That woman is rotten to the core!”

“She’s on her knees and still pulling tricks—has she no shame at all?”

Zane moved almost on instinct.

He shoved me hard, sending me crashing to the floor.

“Crystal Donaldson, you are beyond saving!”

Then he turned, bent down, and scooped Cara into his arms, his voice gone unbearably tender.

“Don’t be scared, Cara. I’ll take you to the doctor. The baby will be fine.”

My back and stomach slammed against the public hospital bench, and pain ripped through me until my whole body shook.

Something deep in my battered abdomen felt like it was dragging downward.

The cramps came in waves, like a dull blade twisting inside me.

In that instant, panic clamped around my heart.

Trembling, I reached up and clutched at the hem of Zane’s trousers.

“Zane… my stomach hurts… it hurts so much…”

He glanced down at me, his eyes full of disgust.

“Stop faking. A stomachache won’t kill you. Don’t embarrass yourself here.”

Cold sweat poured out of me, soaking through every layer of my clothes in seconds. I curled on the floor, hands pressed to my belly, forcing the words out.

“It’s not my stomach… it’s lower…”

Zane looked down on me from his full height, one corner of his mouth lifting into an icy sneer dripping with contempt.

“Watching someone else get pregnant, are you jealous? Want to put on a show and beg for sympathy too?”

“All these years, with that useless body of yours, did you ever once carry a child?”

Every word was a poisoned needle, driving straight into my deepest wound.

Some people you should never have hoped for, not from the very start.

Clinging to my last shred of strength, I fumbled for my phone, desperate to call my father.

I wanted to go home.

I had to get out of here, right now.

Cara nestled against him, the picture of selfless concern for Zane, and laid the blame on me.

“Do you have to make a scene in front of everyone and humiliate Zane?”

Those words lit the fuse on his fury.

He stepped forward, ripped the phone from my hand, threw it to the floor, and ground it under his heel until it shattered.

Nothing left in his eyes but pure revulsion.

“Crystal Donaldson! Haven’t you had enough?”

The nurse on duty noticed how bad I looked and realized something was wrong.

She hurried over, trying to lift me and get me to the emergency room.

But Zane blocked her.

“Leave her.”

“It’s a bad habit we’ve spoiled into her.”

“Let her sit in that room and reflect on how vicious she is!”

The nurse hesitated. “But she really doesn’t look well.”

Zane simply called in his connections at the hospital, his face cold as he leaned on them.

He gave an explicit order: no staff was to treat me.

Then he turned and carried Cara into the VIP room.

Three hours later, after he’d stayed by her side through a full examination and confirmed Cara was perfectly fine—

he finally remembered to come check on me.

Zane stood in the doorway, arms crossed, leaning against the frame.

He let out a sigh, as if making some great concession.

“Cara’s young, she can’t handle being upset. Getting the marriage certificate was just to put her at ease—it’s only a piece of paper.”

“You’ve been with me all these years. So what if there’s no paper? You should know you matter most to me.”

“Stop making trouble. I bought you a ticket to the Maldives. Go clear your head.”

“And when your dad comes to Harborton, he can work at the company too. I’ll arrange a job for him as a security guard.”

But no one in the room answered him. There wasn’t even the sound of breathing.

Zane frowned, sensing something was off.

He crossed to the bedside in two quick strides and yanked back the blanket.

Zane froze.

The vast spread of crimson stung his eyes until they ached.