"Sorry," Aveline said coyly, swaying over to Thayer with feigned weakness. "Mr. Alcott doesn’t like using protection with me."

Her low-cut dress exposed her chest, covered in kiss marks. Thayer smiled and pulled her into his arms, indulging in a long, passionate kiss.

"I thought your legs were too weak to walk. What are you doing sneaking over here?"

"I missed you, Mr. Alcott..."

Seeing him getting intimate with different women had become so common that I was numb to them.

But I never imagined that even during a hospital visit for me, he’d still find time to sneak in a quick session with another woman without protection—something even I, his legal wife, had never experienced.

Just then, three knocks sounded at the door. A man wearing gold-rimmed glasses stepped in, interrupting their shameless display.

“Mr. Merrick," I said, my voice weak and pale.

"Lucien, why are you here?" Thayer’s expression turned cold, a flash of displeasure in his eyes.

"I’ve come to deliver the divorce papers."

Lucien lifted the documents in his hand, his voice indifferent. “Divorce papers.”

Divorce?

Thayer let out a cold chuckle, his eyes slicing toward the man like frost-tipped blades.

I took the divorce papers from Lucien and smiled lightly. “Thank you. I’ll buy you a coffee sometime.”

“Althea, do you really need to thank me?” Lucien pretended to be offended and, with a firm gesture, re-save my number after I had previously deleted him.

“If you need anything, just call. Divorce lawsuits happen to be my specialty.”

As soon as he walked out, the man in front of me gripped my wrist tightly. Disgust dripped from the corners of his eyes. “What? Already climbed into Lucien’s bed, huh? No wonder you're so defiant today. Turns out you spent the night with another man!”

“How much for one night? Say it!”

I stared wide-eyed at the man, furious, stunned by his senseless rage.

“One grand? Two? Don’t tell me it was for free. You’re cheaper than a hostess at a club.”

My dignity was ground underfoot like trash. I finally went cold, face expressionless and handed him the divorce agreement. “Sign it. I’m too cheap for the Alcott Family anyway.”

My patience and pleading had only fueled his escalating cruelty and humiliation.

For the past five years, I had been like a gambler putting everything on the line, always thinking we could return to how things once were.

But love had long since become unrecognizable, overgrown with twisted thorns that cut deeper the closer I got.

Then, to my surprise, Thayer’s expression froze for a split second. But instead of signing, he raised his hand and tore the divorce agreement to shreds, flinging the pieces in my face.

“Althea,” he sneered, “You’re nothing but a dog under my feet. What right do you have to choose?”

A doctor called out for the patient’s family and Thayer hurried out of the room.

Only Aveline and I remained.

“Althea, did you know?” Aveline said with a soft, fragile smile. “I told Thayer I wanted a baby, and from that moment on, he never used protection again.”

“Last time, when you ran through the rain late at night to bring him an umbrella and almost got hit by a car, that umbrella was for me. I was completely worn out after all that and Thayer was just worried I might hurt my body.”

Smiling, she handed me a glass of water, but just as I reached for it, she spilled it all over herself.

“Althea, I kindly brought you water and you threw it on me?”

Thayer's smile vanished the moment he looked over. He yanked me off the bed and helped Aveline up, his gaze vicious.

“Throw it back at her. I’ll protect you.”

He took Aveline and splashed ten full glasses of water onto my face, each one like a slap across my cheeks.

My heart turned bitter and I stopped trying to explain.

After all, it was always like this. No matter what happened, he never believed me.

The first mistress said I made her kneel and kowtow. He forced me to kneel with her, banging my head against the ground until it bled.

The second one said I tore her dress. He ripped my dress with her, leaving me naked in the villa for ten days.

The third one accused me of stealing her research. He signed my technical work—something I stayed up nights for over a month to complete—under her name and let others scold me as a plagiarist.

And the list went on.

Perhaps... he never needed my explanation at all.

I didn’t react. My expression remained so calm that even Thayer’s movements faltered for a moment. Then came a woman’s sharp cry.

“Thayer, it hurts… the baby… is something wrong with the baby?”

The baby?

My eyes drifted to my stomach and I froze in a daze.

Thayer immediately swept her into his arms protectively. When his gaze fell on the blood beneath me, he paused, but only for a second. His face turned cold as ever.

“Kneel here and reflect on yourself. Otherwise, that thing in your belly doesn’t need to stay.”

The bodyguard stood up and pinned me down. Feeling the pain of the needle in my stomach, I struggled and begged.

“Thayer, that’s your own child…”

But Thayer didn’t turn back. He just let out a cold, dismissive laugh.

"Althea, do you really think you're worthy of giving birth to my child? If you kneel until Aveline is satisfied, I might allow you to keep that baby..."

Ever since he started hating me, he insisted on using protection every time we were intimate, except that one time last month, after a huge fight.

I was the wife he legally married, yet to have his child, I needed the approval of a mistress?

My heart felt like it had been pierced, tottering on the edge of collapse, when I suddenly fell into an embrace that carried the scent of herbs and greenery.

It was Lucien.

The bodyguards he brought subdued the men around me. He looked at my bloodstained white dress, worry etched across his face.

“I’m taking you to a doctor right now.”

On the way, I received a rushed call from my mother’s attending physician. His voice was urgent.

“Miss Quinnell, why hasn’t the surgery payment come through? Don’t you understand how critical the patient’s condition is?”

It didn’t go through?

How could that be? The day I passed out, I had clearly instructed the finance team to transfer my bonus directly into my mother’s medical card.

“Lucien, don’t worry about me. Please, take me to my mom’s hospital, quick!”

Lucien suppressed his concern and took me straight there. He’s still trying to soothe me along the way. “Don’t worry. I’ve already paid the fees for now.”

“Okay. Thank you… really… thank you…”

I was panicked and incoherent. The moment we arrived at the hospital, I ran like a madwoman to my mother’s room. But it was too late. She had already stopped breathing.

Even in death, her eyes were still open, gazing in the direction of the hospital entrance.

She had been waiting for me.

I touched her body, which was gradually turning cold and couldn’t stop trembling. My tears fell like rain.

Choking back sobs, I called the finance department. They told me that there was no bonus at all.

I immediately called Thayer to confront him, but it was Aveline who picked up the phone.

“Bonus? Oh, I held that back,” she said sweetly. “Haven’t you pissed off Mr. Alcott quite a few times recently?”

“There had to be some punishment, right?” The woman giggled flirtatiously.

“Do you… do you even know that was my mother’s surgery money?” I screamed into the phone.

On the other end, Aveline lowered her voice. “Oh, I know. When I pulled out her oxygen tube, she struggled so hard… kept calling your name.”

I was trembling all over from fury.

She actually laughed in delight. “Well, what can I say? Every time I bully you, Thayer always dotes on me more. Haha…”

Then I heard Thayer’s voice. “Aveline, who’s on the phone?”

“Althea,” Aveline replied sweetly. “She called about the bonus. I told her she’s had a bad attitude lately, so I held it back for now.”

Thayer kissed her. “Aveline, you did perfectly! Tell her, if she doesn’t kneel all night and sincerely apologize to you, then forget the bonus and her mother’s medical fees will be cut off too.”

Their passionate kissing and tangled moans echoed through the phone, the rising and falling gasps making me utterly nauseous.

I held my mother’s hand tightly, tears blurring my vision and whispered over and over.

“I’m sorry, Mom… I’m so sorry.”

Just before I passed out from crying, I received a scheduled message from my mom.

Only one short sentence.

“Althea, my sweet girl… Mommy is no longer your burden. Mommy will watch over you from the sky.”

Mom… you were never a burden to me…

It felt like my heart had been split open. I completely blacked out.

For three days, Thayer didn’t see me. No one answered his calls and the hospital had no trace of me either.

Instead, what he received was a court summons for divorce proceedings.

Storming into the law firm with Aveline in his arms and fury on his face, Thayer glared sharply and shouted at Lucien.

“Speak! Where did you hide Althea?”

Lucien pinched the bridge of his nose, his face cold as frost. “She went home three days ago to arrange her mother’s funeral.”

Thayer snapped back immediately, furious. “Does lying to me amuse you? Her mother’s medical expenses were being covered by me. Her condition had already stabilized! Now even her sickly mother is being used as a pawn by her? Does she really think this will make me let her give birth to my child? If Aveline isn’t happy then…"

"Enough, Thayer!" Lucien snapped. "If you don’t believe me, call the hospital yourself."

Seeing the expression on Lucien’s face, Thayer sensed something was off. His heart sank as he immediately dialed the hospital.

"Tell me," he said coldly, "Was Althea’s mother already recovering?"

There was a pause on the other end of the line before the person replied, grief heavy in their voice.

"Sir, Althea’s mother passed away four days ago due to a missed critical surgery..."