He'd given the main stone to Nora Brennan, got down on his knees to pamper her, then tossed me the leftover chips like charity.

My chest seized before I could stop it.

I took out the earrings and dropped them into the trash.

James's smile froze. His brows drew together as he snapped at me：

“That was your birthday present! You're just going to throw it away?”

I pulled my gaze away from Nora's hand and said flatly：

“I don't want someone else's leftovers.”

There was no panic on his face at being caught in a lie. He just shot Nora a look of mild annoyance：

“What's between you and me, don't go telling outsiders.”

Right. I was the outsider.

Nora didn't miss the bleakness in my eyes. She slipped the pink diamond off her finger and pressed it toward me on purpose.

“Madge, I'm so sorry!”

I didn't take it. The ring hit the floor.

Nora burst into tears on cue, the picture of wounded innocence：

“James, what do I do? She won't forgive me……”

Then, as if a thought had just struck her, she rummaged through her purse and pulled out a black card：

“James gave me this unlimited black card as a reward for getting pregnant. You want diamonds? Go ahead and swipe it, buy as many as you like!”

She stood there with the ease of a woman who already owned this house, graciously offering me her apology.

My hand slid into my bag on its own and closed around my supplementary card, fingers white-knuckled.

James had given it to me after I lost three babies and his tests came back showing the problem was his. Compensation.

Five thousand dollars a month. That was the limit.

And Nora, barely pregnant, already had an unlimited black card.

So his love for me had always come with a price tag.

I pulled my hand out of my bag.

I wanted to give the card back to James. It had never really been mine.

But he slapped my half-open hand away, his face cold.

“Madge!”

“Haven't I given you enough nice things? How can you have the nerve to fight Nora for hers?”

The glass behind him caught my reflection.

The woman in it wore nothing on her ears, her neck, her wrists, her fingers. Bare.

Because every piece of jewelry he'd ever given me had been sold the year before to fund his company's expansion.

He'd held me tight back then, swearing he'd repay me ten times over, a hundred times over, once the money rolled in.

The ring, he'd said, would be at least a one-carat pink diamond.

He landed the deal. And the first pink diamond he bought went to his childhood sweetheart.

He bent down and picked the ring up off the floor.

Carefully wiped it clean with a wet cloth, then placed it back on Nora's finger with a tenderness that bordered on reverence.

More tenderness than the day he'd proposed to me.

“Nora, what I give you stays yours. Don't ever give it to someone else.”

He turned to me, his eyes cold, the warning in them unmistakable.

I raised my hand and flung the supplementary card into James's face.

He went still for a second. Then it registered that I'd been reaching for the card in my bag, not for Nora's black card, and his expression turned awkward：

“I… I didn't know you were……”

Only in that moment did a flicker of guilt cross his face.

He handed the card back to me and changed the limit on his phone right in front of me.

From five thousand to ten.

“If that's not enough, come ask me for more.”

A cold laugh slipped out of me before I could help it.

His guilt had never been worth much.

James seemed to realize that himself. He lifted his phone to raise the limit again, but Nora looped her arm through his and cut in with a pout：

“James, I don't want the black card.”

“Having this baby for you two is just me repaying a debt. I don't want to make Madge unhappy.”

The words visibly moved James. His eyes went red：

“A gift I've given stays given. I'm not taking it back.”

Only then did Nora reluctantly accept the card.

“James, let me go tidy up the couch. If the staff see it later, they'll tease me again and make me buy everyone boba!”

My heart, already numb, clenched without warning.

No wonder the employees had been shouting ‘Mrs. Gilbert is here!’ every time I showed up at the company lately.

They weren't welcoming me. They were tipping James off.

All those years of building this company together, and our bond couldn't compete with a cup of boba Nora bought the staff.

But I couldn't blame them. James set the tone, and everyone else followed his lead.

I'd stepped away from management long ago to focus on IVF.

If only I hadn't……

My phone buzzed.

A reply from my best friend, Belinda Simmons：

【Actually, the sperm your husband provided two months ago was all dead. Natural conception is impossible.】

【I was afraid you two couldn't handle it, so I've been keeping it from you.】

Things just got interesting.

The next second, we both received a system notification from the hospital.

【Mr. Gilbert / Ms. Rowe, your embryo transfer is scheduled for 3:00 PM today. Please arrive 15 minutes early.】

James glanced at it once and let out a contemptuous scoff.

The look he gave me was laced with disappointment.

“Nora was right. You've been refusing to have my baby because you're afraid of the pain and losing your figure. Peter, you even conspired with Belinda to make the IVF fail every single time!”

“Now that Nora's pregnant, you're finally willing to let the procedure succeed after three years of sabotage!”

“But I. Don't. Need. It. Anymore!”

The moment the words left his mouth, he called the hospital：

“Cancel the embryo transfer for Madge Rowe this afternoon. Her frozen eggs and embryos can be thrown out.”

Meeting the smile in James's eyes, cold and completely devoid of warmth, I finally understood. He'd confessed to the affair and the baby on purpose. This was punishment for not giving him a child.

That was what I thought, and that was exactly what I asked him.

He nodded, a thin smile on his lips：

“But I'm generous. For old times' sake, I won't divorce you. If you know what's good for you, you should learn a thing or two from Nora!”

Learn what?

Learn how to be a shameless mistress?

Learn how to pass off another man's baby as his?

The doctor on the other end of the line, having heard our entire exchange, sounded visibly uncomfortable.

But he still asked to confirm with me directly.

I swallowed the nausea and the grief rising in my chest and answered the doctor：

“You heard him. Toss them in the trash.”

James saw the mocking curve on my face and something flickered behind his eyes. Unease.

When he spoke, it came out as a demand：

“You'd really throw them away? Just like that?”

“Why wouldn't I?”

That flicker of unease hardened into anger.

I had no interest in analyzing why he was angry. I turned to leave for the lawyer's office.

He grabbed my arm and pressed the intercom：

“Bring the things in for my wife.”

Peter Sullivan pushed through the door, one hand hidden behind his back, head bowed, unable to look at me.

“Mr. Gilbert, maybe I should just do it myself……”

James clicked his tongue in irritation：

“Nora doesn't like other men touching her things. My wife's always been good at this sort of task.”

He shoved me into the private lounge, then pulled Nora aside and sat her down.

“You're pregnant now. You need to rest!”

Then he turned, took whatever Peter was holding, and dumped it into my arms：

“I've got a meeting. Change the sheets and take the old ones home to wash.”

I looked down at the sheets in my arms, then at the wrecked sofa bed, its covers twisted and tangled. My heart sank like a plum dropped into ice water, sour and bitter all at once.

That bed meant something to James and me.

When we first started the company, we shared a basement apartment barely a hundred square feet. The most valuable thing we owned was that sofa bed, the one we sat on by day and slept on at night.

Our first three babies were conceived on that bed.

But because of his sperm quality, none of them survived.

Later, when the money came and we could afford a real house, he still refused to get rid of it.

He'd carried it up to the office lounge himself.

He used to say that whenever he was tired, all he had to do was lie down on this couch and every memory of our life together would come flooding back.

He wouldn't even let his own mother sit on it.

But now, he and Nora had been tangled up on it together.

And he wanted me to deal with the dirty sheets.

Because I was good at it.

When he saw me standing there frozen, he urged：

“Nora's a neat freak. She can't stand the smell.”

The lingering scent hit me before it could fully dissipate, and my stomach turned.

“James, what exactly do you think I am?”

He paused mid-step and answered without a shred of shame：

“My wife, obviously!”

I hurled the sheets at his face.

Then I sent the prenup and the video of him admitting to the affair straight to my lawyer.

“James, I want a divorce!”

He frowned and sighed, then started changing the sheets himself.

“This divorce talk is getting old.”

A man who couldn't figure out a fitted sheet at home had the sofa bed re-made in minutes.

More practiced than I'd ever been.

“Oh, right. I signed you up for a premium nanny training course so you can take care of Nora through the birth!”

“Don't let me down.”

So that was why he wouldn't agree to a divorce. He wanted a free servant.

I was speechless, but he was already heading for the conference room.

Peter caught up with him, his voice low and worried：

“Mr. Gilbert, treating your wife this way, what if she makes a scene?”

“A scene?”

“She'd rather take hundreds of injections than give me a child. What right does she have to make a scene?”

“Besides, a woman who refuses to have kids? Without me, who'd want her?”

His voice was pitched just right, loud enough for every employee nearby to hear.

The looks they gave me ranged from contempt to amusement to pity……

Nora sidled up to me, oozing fake concern：

“Madge, James still remembers everything you went through for him. Why not quit while you're ahead?”

Oh, he remembered what I'd endured, all right.

He was punishing me for it.

I ignored Nora and walked to the print room.

She trailed behind me and caught sight of the words DIVORCE AGREEMENT. Shock and delight flickered across her face.

Two seconds of reading, and her voice dropped to a hiss：

“Madge Rowe! What makes you think you can force James to leave with nothing?”

“His affair. That's what.”

A sharp crack echoed through the room.

Nora slapped herself across the face, twice, and in the process knocked over a bottle of red ink.

Then she dropped to the floor, sitting in the spreading pool of crimson：

“You won't even give James a child! You're the one who should leave with nothing! If I weren't so generous, you'd never have been Mrs. Gilbert in the first place!”

Generous. Again.

She and James really were a perfect match.

The next second, she scrambled out of the print room on her hands and knees, face twisted in terror, and screamed：

“Madge, I already agreed to terminate the pregnancy! Why are you still hitting me?”

Her screams brought James running.

He took one look at Nora's wrecked state, then rounded on me, roaring：

“Madge Rowe! I trusted you, and you lay hands on Nora and my son?”

Nora clutched her stomach, tears streaming down her face：

“James, it's my fault for being so naive. I thought Madge was just afraid of the pain and didn't want to have a baby herself, so I offered to carry one for her as a way of repaying her kindness. I never imagined she'd use it as an excuse to make you leave with nothing……”

“I told her that marriage means something, that she shouldn't let me come between you two, and she slapped me and said the bastard in my belly deserved to die……”

I'd expected Nora to pull something. My phone had been recording the whole time.

I was about to show James the video when he saw the words "leaving with nothing" on the divorce agreement and backhanded me across the face.

My phone hit the floor and the screen went black.

“If I didn't want to give you a painless path to motherhood, I'd have kept Nora and the baby hidden from you forever!”