I shut my eyes and did not want to look at him anymore.

“Richard, where are you? Ruby is crying and wants to see you. Can’t you come back and keep us company?”

A delicate voice sounded from the phone, and Richard immediately became uncertain of what he should be doing.

In the end, he looked at me. “I’m going back to check on Ruby, then I’ll come back.”

After Richard left, I took my phone out of my handbag.

I had dozens of missed calls.

I called the person back, and he answered immediately.

“Anna, you finally turned your phone on. I was so worried! What happened? Are you regretting your decision?”

“No. Something unexpected happened, and I had surgery. I’ll come over after I rest for a few days.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? I seriously want to come and pick you up right now. Wait for me.”

I was just about to refuse when the call ended.

At night, Lily sent me texts to boast about her victory.

Aside from a voice recording of Richard promising that he would definitely take care of her and Ruby forever, she sent me pictures of her in Richard’s arms.

The pose was suggestive, and I could smell the intention from the pictures.

I could not be bothered looking through them all and turned off my phone.

I was exhausted and fell into a deep sleep.

When I woke up, it was the next day.

I completed the discharge procedure on my own and went back home, only to find that someone had already occupied my room.

Ruby thrashed my room, and she was fiddling with something.

My breath caught in my throat.

She was holding the locket I had prepared for my aborted baby.

I rushed over and grabbed it. Ruby glared at me. In the next second, she started wailing.

When he heard the racket from my room, Richard rushed in.

Without a word, he threw an expensive necklace at me.

“Enough! Take this as compensation!

“That locket isn’t anything valuable, anyway. Since Ruby likes it, let her play with it for a few days.”

At that, pain filled my heart.

Richard had gotten an old artisan to craft the locket, and our photo was inside. We even got a priest to bless it.

At that time, he said that he would protect our baby, just like he claimed he loved me so much.

In truth, he had given his love away to someone else.

I laughed at myself and smashed the locket into pieces.

“Since the locket didn’t manage to protect my baby, that means this thing is cursed. It’s better to destroy it.

“You don’t want any bad luck on Ruby, do you?”

For some reason, Richard felt frustrated when he heard that, but he could not find any reason to yell at me, so he left with a slam of the door.

Soon, someone opened my door again.

This time, it was not Richard who walked in. It was Lily.

She watched me with a smug look on her face and a victorious grin on her lips.

“Anna, seeing you act like this brings me joy.”

I just glanced at her and could not be bothered to talk to her.

“I can’t help it. Richard loves me. He can set aside everything else for me. Not only did he kill his own baby, but he also abandoned you.”

As if she were sure that I had already seen her Instagram post, she spoke with the intention to provoke. “Richard has never treated you as affectionately as he does me, right? That makes sense. He always told me that you’re like a dead fish in bed. You’re really boring.

“I pity you for having married a man who didn’t love you for five years.”

Then, she pointed at her own neck as she grinned smugly.

She popped off her collar button and revealed more skin. It was covered in hickies.

Did she think I would break down, cry, and rage?

But I just raised my eyes to look at her with no emotion.

“I hope you enjoy it, then.”

When she saw that she had failed to get a reaction out of me, Lily got angry. She glared at me. “Anna, I’m sure you don’t know this, but I’m the one who suggested to Richard to abort your baby.

“So long as Ruby is around, you will never give birth to a baby!”

Those words were the last straw.

I looked up with bloodshot eyes and grabbed the vase beside me to throw it at Lily.

Even though I did not manage to hit her, she still screamed in shock. “Ah!!!”

Richard opened the door, and Lily collapsed to the floor while crying.

The moment she saw Richard, Lily held onto his sleeve tightly. Her face was pale, and her voice was weak.

“Richard, I’m so scared. Why would Anna do this to me? I didn’t even do anything…”

Richard rushed over and pushed me aside to help Anna up.

I stumbled and fell to the floor.

The shards pierced into my palm, and tiny droplets of blood oozed out.

But Richard did not see them. Instead, his face was dark, and he was looking at me with disgust.

“Anna, are you even human?! Lily is already so weak, and you’re still hurting her?!”

Ruby rushed in to hit me too.

I struggled to my feet. I was in so much pain that I could hardly breathe.

“I hurt her? Are you blind, Richard?! Can’t you tell that she’s the one who has been hurting me?!”

“Enough! Anna, you’re just trying to ruin her reputation! I’ve never realized you were such a horrible person!”

Richard flew into a rage and grabbed another vase to throw at me.

In the next second, there was a loud crash. Blood flowed from my forehead.

Richard was stunned, and he instinctively blurted out, “Why didn’t you dodge…”

He looked sympathetic when he looked at me. Just when he was about to walk to me, Lily grabbed him.

“Richard, it hurts…” She leaned into Richard’s arms feebly as she cried.

Richard looked nervous. He did not even spare me another glance and left with Lily in a hurry.

As I watched them leave, my vision turned black, and I crashed against the floor.

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

Someone opened the door. It was Tyson, Richard’s assistant.

“Mr. Lorde wants you to go with him and Miss Xander to a church to ask a priest for a blessing. The car is already at the entrance.”

Grief flooded my heart, and I nodded while trying to hold back my tears.

This was fine. Once this entire ordeal was over, I could leave.

While we were on the way, Richard embraced Lily while I sat alone in the front passenger seat.

They were flirting with each other with such abandon that it was as if I did not exist.

I did not want to acknowledge them, so I looked outside.

Then, I heard a piercing screech.

It was followed quickly by a loud crash and the sound of glass breaking.

Before I fell unconscious, I saw Richard rushing over. “Don’t be scared, Anna. I’ll save you.”

But in the next second, when he heard Lily calling for help, he turned around to hold her instead.

“Richard… Richard…”

I called out to him and tried to reach out to stop him from leaving.

Richard heard me, but he continued holding Lily.

“Lily is covered in blood and needs to be taken to the hospital now. Wait a little longer. The paramedics will be here soon.”

I shut my eyes as tears blurred my vision.

One hour later, the people Richard sent over to the crash site did not find me, and he sent me a text.

[When you’re okay, send me a text. I can’t leave Lily right now. I’ll come visit you later.]

I did not reply.

That night, before I boarded the plane, Richard called.

I did not answer. I blocked all of his contacts and threw my SIM card away.

From this moment on, I would have nothing to do with Richard.

…

The next day, Richard was still staring lovingly at Lily in the ward.

“Thank goodness you’re okay. If anything happened to you, I would die.”

Lily lowered her head and cried. Then, she wiped her tears away and looked up. “I almost thought that I wouldn’t be able to see you again, too.”

Then, in a sad voice, she said, “I just wonder… how is Anna?”

He suppressed the panic in his heart and tried his best to compose himself. “Ignore her. She must have been sent to another hospital. I’ll have someone ask around later.”

Be that as it may, Richard had a bad feeling about all this.

When Lily asked about Anna, that uneasiness grew even more prominent. He picked up his phone and sent Anna a text.

In the next second, he saw a red exclamation mark appear in front of the message he sent.

An unprecedented wave of panic rushed into his heart.

He mumbled Anna’s name instinctively. That made Lily gnash her teeth in jealousy. “Richard, are you still worried about Anna?”

Her voice was filled with dissatisfaction and sadness. “Did she block you? If she has the time to block you, that means she’s okay. You don’t have to worry about her.

“She’s a woman, and I know how women act. This is just her playing hard to get…”

She was right, but Richard still felt uneasy.

Anna had never done such a thing over the years. This was a first.

She must still be angry over what happened yesterday.

At that moment, Richard regretted his decision of leaving Anna behind. She must be disappointed.

He kept thinking about the issue, so he called Tyson.

“Buy some limited-edition jewelry and send it to my place. Buy a cake from the bakery in the eastern part of the city. Anna loves that. Send it over to my place, too.”

Anna was a good-tempered person. If he did that, she would definitely forgive him.

After he hung up, Richard walked back into the ward.

Lily was playing with Ruby.

When she saw him come in, Ruby ran over and hugged his leg. “Daddy, Mommy said you’ll take us to a theme park after she gets discharged. Is that true?”

This was not the first time Ruby had called him her father. He was fine with it last time, but this time, he felt annoyed for some reason, and he yelled at her, “Don’t call me that! I’m not your father!”

Shocked, Ruby teared up.

Lily was shocked too. She quickly hugged Ruby and said in a trembling voice, “What are you doing, Richard? Ruby only called you that because she likes you…”

But the anxiety in Richard’s heart just kept growing stronger, and he knew that he would only feel at ease after he saw Anna.

He did not want to listen to what Lily wanted to say. He just wanted to go home.

He grabbed his coat and wanted to leave.

Just then, Tyson came in.

The sight of him made Richard’s heart leap to his throat, and his apprehension grew stronger.

“What’s wrong? Didn’t I ask you to buy stuff? You didn’t find them?” Richard asked.

Tyson was silent for a moment before he said in a trembling voice, “Mr. Lorde, the car that your wife was in exploded on the viaduct.

“She was still inside when it happened…”