When I opened my eyes again, I found myself in a hospital bed.

Recalling the events before I lost consciousness, I suddenly sat up.

Just then, a doctor entered the room, saw my anxious face and smiled. "Don’t worry, the baby’s fine. But next time, be more careful with your stomach."

Hearing this, I let out a sigh of relief and gently stroked my belly.

Because of Daniel, I had lost my first child.

This time, I had to protect this one.

After leaving the hospital, I took a taxi straight to City Hall. Since I had decided to leave, I needed to get the divorce done quickly.

I handed my papers to the staff. She typed for a moment, then looked up at me. "Ma'am, you already filed for divorce a month ago."

I froze. That couldn’t be right. "That's impossible! I wasn’t even here a month ago. How could I have filed for divorce?"

The staff checked again and his expression turned odd. "The system shows your divorce was filed a month ago. A man named Daniel Chalamet handled it for you..."

He hesitated. "His current spouse is already listed as another woman, Jennifer. Do you know her?"

My mind went blank. The room spun and a sharp ringing filled my ears.

A month ago, it was my birthday.

Daniel gave me five hundred twenty thousand dollars to spend however I wanted and said he’d celebrate with me after work.

But just as I was about to head home from shopping, a group of drunk men appeared and dragged me into an alley.

I kept trying to call Daniel, but every time I dialed, he ended the call.

If a passerby hadn’t seen me and stepped in, who knows what would’ve happened.

Afterwards, Daniel tried to calm me down, saying he was in a meeting and his phone had been on silent.

I believed him.

But now I knew: he had divorced me on my birthday and given Jennifer his name.

That was exactly what I wanted. After leaving City Hall, I decided to walk to clear my head.

But heavy rain poured down and I couldn’t escape it. I was soaked through.

The wind and rain were so strong that no taxi was in sight.

My umbrella broke and I walked alone through the storm, tears mixing with the rain as they fell to the ground.

By the time I reached the villa, I was a mess.

I pushed open the door. Warm air from the living room wrapped around me and I heard Daniel's gentle voice.

"It's pouring outside. Drink some ginger soup, or you might catch a cold."

My heart stirred for a moment, but then I saw Jennifer and Rihanna. Daniel wasn't talking to me. His words were for them.

When he noticed me standing silently at the door, a flash of panic crossed his face. "Rihanna has heart problems. If anything happens, I can help right away. Jennifer is staying here to take care of her."

I sneered. "Rescue? You think you’re more qualified than a doctor? Living here with heart problems instead of going to a hospital, are you out of your mind?"

Daniel’s expression darkened in an instant. "How dare you speak like that? This is my house. If you disagree, I have plenty of ways to take your name off the deed."

When we got married, he said he wanted me to feel secure, so he added my name to the deed.

But now, for Jennifer, he had forgotten it all.

Since that was how things stood, I would throw away everything between me and him, too.

After he finished speaking, Daniel took Jennifer and Rihanna upstairs without even looking at me.

My head felt heavy from the rain, so after a shower, I went straight to bed.

I wasn’t sure how long I had slept, but my throat felt like it had been cut with a knife.

"Daniel..." I called out several times, but all I could hear was the sound of someone telling a story from the next room.

"Daniel, Rihanna is so much like you," Jennifer said with a happy smile. "Even when she's upset, she copies you and tries to comfort me."

"Of course," Daniel replied proudly. "I raised her. It’s good that she’s thoughtful, so she can look after you even when I’m not there."

Even through the wall, I could imagine the smile on Jennifer’s face

Daniel gently patted Rihanna’s back. "Alright, get some sleep. I'll tell you and your daughter a bedtime story."

After some rustling, Daniel’s soft voice came through. “In a distant land, there lived a king and queen…”

Staring at the plain white ceiling, I couldn’t help but smile bitterly.

Daniel and I had been married for three years, but he and Jennifer felt like the real couple, sharing sweet dreams with their three-year-old.

I tried to sit up in bed to reach my water glass, but knocked over a photo frame on the table.

The glass shattered and the photo of Daniel and me got scratched.

I got out of bed to pick it up, but the room was too dark and I stepped on the broken glass.

Fighting through the pain, I limped to the light switch, cleaned up the mess and poured myself a glass of water.

The whole time, I could still hear Daniel’s gentle storytelling from the next room.

After bandaging myself and getting back into bed, a memory suddenly came to me: how long ago, I had only been caught in a light rain, yet Daniel had canceled all his meetings to stay with me for a week, afraid I might catch a fever.

Back then, he had said, “Natalie, don’t worry, I’m here with you because you’re sick, I feel even worse than you do.”

But now, after I walked through the heavy rain to come home, he gave the bowl of ginger soup to Jennifer.

As soon as I closed my eyes, tears slid silently down my cheeks.

The next morning, loud laughter from downstairs woke me up.

I opened the bedroom door and saw Jennifer chatting cheerfully with Daniel’s mother.

Before I could say a word, Jennifer noticed me. She gave me a smug look, then said sweetly to my mother-in-law, "Auntie, don’t overthink it. Daniel is only letting us stay here for a few days because of Rihanna’s heart. Once her surgery is done, we’ll leave. Otherwise, Natalie might get upset."

My mother-in-law held Rihanna in her arms and said coldly, "Why should she be upset? They've been married for three years and still have no children. Our little Rihanna is the best. Call me Grandma."

Rihanna looked up at her and said sweetly, "Grandma."

"Ah!" My mother-in-law's face lit up with joy. She patted Jennifer’s hand. "Jennifer, one daughter isn’t enough. Once you have a son, I’ll make Daniel marry you!"

Jennifer's face turned red right away.

For a moment, I felt incredibly sick.

Just as I turned to open the bedroom door, I heard my mother-in-law snap, "Stop right there!"

The next second, two servants suddenly appeared and grabbed my wrists, not letting me move.

"It's been a while and you’ve gotten ruder! You don’t even come down to serve me tea? You two, bring her down here."

Right after she spoke, they grabbed my arms and dragged me down from the second floor.

I fought back, but they were too strong.

Seeing me being humiliated, my mother-in-law said proudly, "Go make me a cup of tea with 99-degree water."

I stood still, pretending not to hear.

Seeing this, Jennifer spoke up gently, “Auntie, let me handle it. I’m used to doing this kind of heavy work.”

My mother-in-law took Jennifer’s hand and said, "You're the future daughter-in-law of the Chalamet Family. How could you do such chores? Let her do it."

I watched them act out their little scenes. Jennifer tried to walk away, but my stare made her freeze. She looked annoyed.

"What do we need her for? She can’t have kids and now she won’t even serve tea. You two, lock her up. I don’t want to see her around!"

The two men gripped my shoulders, ready to take me away.

Just then, Daniel came out of the study, frowning. "Mom, that’s enough!"

He glared at his mother, anger in his eyes. "Stop it! Natalie is my wife. How could you lock her up like that?"

His mother stared at him in disbelief. “Daniel, you’re really defending an outsider over your own mother? Am I wrong? You and Natalie have been married for three years and still have no children. Even hens can lay eggs, she’s not even as good as a hen!”

Daniel blurted out, “That’s because…”

He didn’t finish, but I already knew because he and Jennifer had killed my child.

"No matter what, you can’t treat her like this."

He walked over and gently took my hand.

But I pushed him away. "Since you like someone that can give birth, you should’ve married one from the start!"

Without looking at his mother’s face, I turned and went upstairs.

Daniel hesitated for a moment, then lifted his foot to follow me. But just then, Rihanna let out a cry of pain.

Jennifer quickly pulled her into her arms, panic on her face. "Rihanna, what’s wrong? Is your heart hurting again?"

"Daniel, I think Rihanna got scared by Natalie. Can you come check on her?"

Daniel immediately turned and walked over to them, eyes full of worry as he looked at Rihanna. He pulled out his phone and called the family doctor.

Jennifer hesitated. "But if you don’t follow her, won’t Natalie be upset?"

Daniel frowned. "She spoke to my mother like that. What right does she have to be angry? Don’t mind her."

But I had seen it clearly, with my own eyes. When Daniel turned to chase after me, Jennifer secretly pinched Rihanna.

Her cry wasn’t from heart pain. But even if I told him, he wouldn’t believe me.

Standing on the stairs, I saw the concern in Daniel’s eyes as he looked at Rihanna.

Back in the bedroom, I closed the door and threw out everything related to Daniel. He had already destroyed every photo we took over the past three years.

I didn’t want a man like him anymore.

Just as I finished cleaning and was about to sit down, Daniel pushed open the door from outside.

Seeing the empty shelves, confusion filled his eyes. "Natalie, what did you lose?"

I shook my head, voice calm. "Nothing. Just some things that didn’t matter."

Daniel didn’t seem to care or want to know what had gone wrong.

He nodded. "Go downstairs and apologize to my mother. I’ve made tea, just bring it to her."

Without a word, he led me downstairs and pushed me toward the table.

I looked at the steaming tea and, despite the heat, picked it up. Just as I was about to hand it to my mother-in-law, Jennifer walked over.

"Natalie, why don’t you let me do it?"

Jennifer looked at me with a smug smile, but acted like she was doing it for my sake. “Get out of here!”

Seeing her hand reaching for the teacup, I quickly swung my arm to push her away.

But she held on tight and fought me for it.

The cup fell to the floor and Jennifer let out a loud scream. “Daniel, my arm hurts!”

Her eyes turned red right away and she held out her shaking arm to him.

Even though there wasn’t a single scratch on her, Daniel’s eyes were full of anger and pain.

“Natalie, you’ve gone too far. Jennifer was just trying to help you and you hurt her!”

His voice got louder and then he raised his hand and slapped me.

Seeing the state I was in, my mother-in-law laughed proudly. “Daniel, I told you before, this woman should’ve been locked up. Otherwise, she'd end up doing something disgraceful. And now look, it’s happening, isn’t it?”

She pointed at the same two men who had locked me up before. “You two, lock her up! Don’t let her hurt my daughter-in-law again.”

The men grabbed my arms and tried to drag me toward the basement storage room.

This time, Daniel said nothing to stop them.

Looking at him with a mix of pain and disbelief, I asked, “Daniel, you know I’m afraid of the dark. Are you really letting her lock me up?”

He hesitated for just a moment, then looked at me with cold indifference.

“You shouldn’t have hurt Jennifer. You know how much she means to me. Natalie, locking you up is just a small punishment—to stop you from doing anything worse.”

The door shut and the storage room went completely dark. I pounded on it in panic and shouted, "Daniel, let me out!"

One second passed. Then two. Then three. Everything stayed silent.

I stumbled back a few steps and curled up in the corner, completely helpless.

With my head buried in my arms, I suddenly remembered the day Daniel found out I was afraid of the dark and how he promised he’d never leave me alone in it again.

But this time, he knew.

And still, because of Jennifer, he locked me in anyway. As the tears fell, something inside me finally broke.