We had just walked out of the hospital after my prenatal checkup when Zane Gilbert handed me a card for a back-alley clinic.

“Paige, I went with you for the checkup, so that's done. Now find some time to get rid of the baby.”

I froze. My brain couldn't catch up to his words.

Then I saw him smile as he pulled out a red marriage certificate.

“The girl was making too much of a fuss, so I went ahead and got the license with her first.”

“As for yours? I paid someone to forge it.”

“You wouldn't want the kid to end up an illegitimate child, same as you, right?”

“Be good. Get rid of it. Better for everyone.”

A high-pitched ringing flooded my ears. I heard my own voice, hollow with disbelief.

“What girl?”

“The one you brought back from your volunteer teaching trip. On her eighteenth birthday, she slipped something into your drink and climbed into my bed.”

“I couldn't resist, so I went along with it.”

Zane shrugged it off with a careless smile, then kept going.

“Your mother was the other woman, so you've got experience with this, don't you?”

“A mistress's daughter becomes a mistress. Beautiful tradition, isn't it?”

——

Standing outside the hospital, I felt every drop of blood in my body turn to ice.

I searched his familiar face, desperate to find some trace that this was a joke.

But then.

The cruel curve of his lips stretched wider.

“Paige, I'll send you five hundred bucks for the abortion.”

“I hear that's how mistresses handle it. Find some back-alley clinic, pop a few pills, and it's done.”

“Spend whatever's left on those strawberries you love so much.”

“Just don't bring them home. The girl can't stand the smell of strawberries, and I don't want my wife to be uncomfortable in any way.”

He bit down hard on the word wife.

I listened to him speak and felt my mind go blank.

Last night, when I told him I was pregnant, giddy with happiness.

He had held me in his arms, scrolling through his phone, picking out baby names.

How had today become this?

The absurdity of it filled my chest. Instinctively, I convinced myself there had to be some misunderstanding.

I forced a smile and grabbed his hand, frantic.

“Zane, you're joking, right?”

“Is there some kind of misunderstanding? Just tell me. Please.”

But I didn't even finish.

He covered his mouth and tipped his head back, laughing.

“Paige Swanson, what kind of innocent act are you putting on?”

“Your mother was my father's mistress. She caused my mother's car accident. Left her in a vegetative state.”

“You didn't actually think I'd marry you for real, did you?”

“The thing I hate most in this life is a homewrecker.”

The venom drained from his voice. Then, gently, he straightened my collar.

“Go to the address on that card. Get it taken care of. I'll be waiting for you at home.”

“The girl's coming home tonight. Get back early and make that sweet-and-sour fish she likes.”

Still smiling, giving instructions, he reached into his bag and pulled out a few hundred-dollar bills.

“Oh, and the condoms at home? I used them all last night with the girl back at school.”

“Pick up a few more boxes. We'll need them tonight.”

Every word sliced deeper than the last. I stood there shaking.

In that instant, I felt my blood stop moving.

Five years together. Zane had cut ties with his own father just to be with me.

He'd grown up pampered, handed everything. But to spare me any hardship,

he went to classes during the day and delivered food and hauled bricks on construction sites at night.

After graduation, just to rent an apartment near my office,

he forced down an entire bottle of liquor despite being deathly allergic to alcohol, and ended up rushed to the ER.

In his sleep, he would murmur my name over and over, carefully pulling the blanket up over my shoulders.

Was all of that a lie?

My stomach lurched beyond my control. I clamped a hand over my mouth, retching violently as I staggered toward Zane.

But he'd already climbed into the Maybach and pulled the door shut.

I ran to the front of the car. The black Maybach surged forward without warning.

“Bang! ”

The car clipped my arm and sped away.

I hit the ground hard, a stabbing pain tearing through my abdomen.

Before I could even process what had happened, the phone in my bag started buzzing like mad.

【Holy crap! Zane actually played the devoted boyfriend with the mistress's kid for FIVE YEARS!】

【I lost ten million dollars fair and square!】

Five years? Playing a role?

My fingers trembled. I forced myself to breathe through the pain clawing at my belly.

I'd been added to a group chat with Zane's old friends.

【Same here, lost and I can't even complain!】

【Zane really is built different. Keeping that act up for YEARS!】

【Gotta say though, the mistress's kid really did love him!】

【Remember when we fed Zane that idea? Got the hospital to tell her he'd been in a car accident and needed an organ transplant.】

【And she actually went through with it!】

【Hahaha, I remember that too!】

【Zane set up a lottery to pick which body part to take from her. I wrote down "eyes." Her eyes really were gorgeous!】

【I put down "kidney"!】

【I went harder. I wrote "heart"!】

The chat scrolled in a frenzy, message after message flooding the screen.

My mind went blank. I read every word, numb.

My finger hovered over the screen, shaking.

【So what body part did the lottery land on?】

【Zane picked it himself, I think. He hated that she "seduced" his dad, so he wrote……left ear!】

Left ear.

My stomach seized. My hand moved on its own, reaching up to touch the place hidden beneath my hair.

The place that would never be whole again.

All this time, I'd believed I gave it up to save Zane. Willingly. Gladly.

It was a joke to them?

A joke cost me my ear?

Tears spilled down my face, hot and unstoppable.

I remembered the way Zane held me after the surgery, his voice cracking with guilt.

“Paige, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault.”

“If I'd been more careful, if the accident never happened, you wouldn't have lost your ear because of me.”

“I swear I'll love you for the rest of my life.”

Every vow he'd made, every word spoken with such conviction, was a lie.

“Ngh……”

A wave of cold washed through me. I doubled over, clutching my stomach as my muscles cramped and seized.

Blood pooled at my feet, spreading.

Someone pulled me upright and half-carried me toward the hospital entrance.

The security guard at the door blocked our way.

“Mr. Gilbert's orders. No hospital under the Gilbert Group is allowed to admit you.”

The guard said it without a flicker of expression, then shoved me back.

Another bolt of pain drove through my abdomen, sharp as a blade.

Every breath felt like swallowing needles.

“How can you do this?”

“Even a private hospital can't treat people this way!”

“Can't you see this girl is dying?!”

The woman holding me up screamed at them.

The guard didn't flinch.

He stood his ground in the doorway and held out a flimsy card, the same kind Zane had given me. A card for a back-alley clinic.

“Mr. Gilbert said if you want to get rid of it, you can go here……”

I stared at the cheap, crudely printed card.

I didn't say a word. I turned to leave.

Then I heard a voice I recognized.

“Zane, babe, my tummy's just a little upset. I'm already at the hospital.”

“What did you say? You're sending the director to meet me?”

Bonnie Galloway's sugary voice floated up from behind me.

I froze, unable to move.

The guard's face melted into a groveling smile as he turned around.

A middle-aged man rushed out of the hospital.

“Mrs. Gilbert?”

“I'm the hospital director. Is something bothering you?”

“Mr. Gilbert gave strict instructions that you're to receive a full examination!”

Bonnie was ushered inside by the director himself. As she passed me, I couldn't see a single trace of the girl she'd once been. The helpless girl who'd begged me to take her out of those mountains.

Who'd begged me to help her go to school.

I remembered what Zane had said. That on the night she turned eighteen, she'd drugged me and crawled into his bed.

My throat convulsed, and I coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Before I blacked out, I saw the black Maybach. It hadn't left. It was parked not far away.

When I woke again, I was lying on a surgical table that reeked of rust and filth.

Zane's voice reached my ears, ice-cold.

“Get rid of the thing in her stomach.”

“Make it quick. I need to get back to my wife tonight……”

I was terrified. I struggled, tried to resist.

But I felt something yank hard at my abdomen.

“Well, I'll be damned. First time I've seen someone pull up in a luxury car to get an abortion at our place!”

“The guy said she's the other woman. Said she only deserves a place like this!”

The two people operating on me let out contemptuous laughs.

A sharp, wrenching pain tore through my stomach.

“God, I hate homewreckers!”

“So she's the mistress, huh?”

“And here I was feeling sorry for her. Go harder! Teach this little homewrecker a lesson she won't forget!”

The numbness in my abdomen gave way to mounting, unbearable pain. I couldn't hold back a scream.

Someone shoved a wad of foul-smelling cloth into my mouth.

“Shut up! Filthy homewrecker!”

“You think you get to scream?!”

The woman spat the words and dug her fingers into my chest, pinching hard.

I flinched from the pain, then turned my head toward the sound of Bonnie arguing outside the operating room.

“Zane, this time you've gone too far!”

“How could you send Paige to a place like this for an abortion?!”

“Back then, I was the one who couldn't control my feelings for you. I seduced you on purpose.”

“But I never wanted to hurt Paige. I just wanted you once, that's all……”

Bonnie sobbed, beating weakly against Zane's shoulder.

Then she turned to walk into the makeshift operating room.

Zane caught her arm and pulled her back, bowing his head to coax her softly.

“Be good, Bonnie. You're my wife. Paige is just the other woman.”

“The other woman only deserves a place like this.”

“Don't throw a tantrum. I don't like women who make too much noise……”

That last line carried a note of warning.

Bonnie stopped in her tracks, turned around, and rose on her toes to kiss him.

“Don't be mad, Zane. It was my fault.”

“Tonight, whatever you want to do, I'm all yours……”

Through the glass, I saw every second of their kiss with perfect clarity.

It felt like someone had punched a hole clean through my heart. The pain made it impossible to breathe.

My body grew colder and colder.

My consciousness began to drift.

“What's happening?!”

“I think she's hemorrhaging!”

“Quick, quick! Get that guy back in here!”

Frantic voices shouted somewhere near me.

I turned my head and looked through the glass one more time.

Zane was already gone.

“Where'd he go?!”

“The bleeding won't stop! Call 911, now!”

Inside the operating room, monitors shrieked and beeped in wild alarm.

Fragments flashed behind my eyes. Memories, images, all at once.

I didn't know how long it had been before I heard the ambulance siren.

“Go, go, go! Get her on the stretcher!”

“Who the hell gets an abortion at a place like this?! Are you trying to die?!”

The paramedic cursed under his breath, hands pumping against my chest without stopping.

“Who's your emergency contact?!”