The trending headline about Lillian Fox's return to the States lit up my phone screen while Joe Delgado had me pinned against the floor-to-ceiling window, my body still limp against his.

I clung to his flushed neck and tested the waters with a teasing smile. “Your college sweetheart's back in the country. Aren't you going to welcome her home?”

His rhythm faltered. He caught my earlobe between his teeth, his breath ragged. “I've got zero interest in seeing her. What I am interested in is when you're giving me a daughter.”

That look in his eyes, raw and possessive, sent a tremor straight through my chest. It also let me quietly exhale.

I thought he really had left Lillian Fox in the past.

Until the next day, when I went to pick up my medical results alone.

Outside the OB-GYN clinic, I ran into Joe Delgado.

Across the corridor, he had his arm wrapped carefully around his college sweetheart, Lillian Fox.

My five-year-old son was tugging at the hem of her dress, clinging to her like she belonged to him.

“Aunt Lillian, when do I get to be a big brother?”

Joe looked down at the slight swell of her belly and laughed softly：“Soon.”

In that moment, I knew my seven-year marriage to Joe Delgado was over. I dialed my best friend Jordan Avery. “Besides the divorce, I need you to help me dump my ten percent founding stake in Delgado Group.”

Two seconds of silence on the other end. “Sarah Henson, Delgado Group is on the rise right now. You offload that ten percent and Joe could lose absolute control of the company for good.”

My gaze went cold. “That's exactly the point. I want to drag him from the clouds straight into the dirt.”

“Are you sure about this?” Jordan sighed. “Once those shares are gone, there's no coming back for you and Joe. Ever.”

I let out a hollow laugh：“He never loved me. There was never any 'ever' to begin with.”

All I could do now was take back everything I'd ever given him before he realized what was happening.

As for the love he never gave me, the bond my own son never felt for me, I was done wanting any of it.

——

“If I can get Joe's signature on a divorce agreement, can the marriage be dissolved within a week?”

Jordan's voice pitched high on the other end of the video call. “You're getting a divorce? What about Sunny Abbott? You're not even going to fight for custody?”

Facing her bewildered stare, I managed only a bitter smile. “That father and son. I don't want either of them.”

I'd gone to the hospital today to pick up my test results. Instead, I walked into Joe holding my son's hand.

Just when my whole heart believed the two of them had come for me, Joe stepped forward and wrapped his arm around the woman walking out of the OB-GYN clinic.

My own son was calling her Aunt Lillian, his voice warm and familiar.

The woman was no stranger to me.

She was the very same Lillian Fox who had dumped Joe years ago and left him lovesick ever since.

Once Jordan confirmed everything could be handled, I hung up.

Seven more days. I just had to survive seven more days, and I could rip myself clean out of Joe Delgado's world.

With the same reckless conviction I'd had the day I threw everything away to run toward him.

........

Rain tapped against the glass in a thin, restless rhythm. I stared at the freshly printed divorce agreement on the table and thought how these seven years of marriage were nothing but a joke.

The summer before my senior year of high school, I'd been cornered by a group of lowlifes. In my most desperate moment, Joe Delgado happened to pass by and saved me.

He dropped me off at the hospital and left without a word. I asked around everywhere until a few scraps of information from the police told me he was a student at Stanford.

So when it came time to apply to colleges, I chose Stanford without a second thought.

On the first day of school, I spotted him at a welcome event.

I was gathering every ounce of courage to walk up and ask for his number when I froze mid-step. Joe was gently wiping the sweat off another girl's forehead.

I learned soon enough that Joe Delgado was Stanford's golden boy, but what he was known for even more than his looks or his grades was the way he adored his girlfriend, Lillian Fox.

He'd ride his bike across half the city just because she mentioned wanting pastries from the west side. He'd strip off his own coat in a blizzard to bundle her up because she hated the cold. He'd finish the half-eaten bowl of soup she pushed away without blinking.

I lived like a shadow that couldn't stand the light, burying my feelings so deep they'd never see the surface.

Then, after graduation, Lillian decided Joe couldn't give her the life she wanted and left to study abroad.

The day I heard the news, I was on my way to meet an arranged match my family had set up. I bought a plane ticket to Joe's city on the spot and bolted from that picture-perfect setup without looking back.

My father was livid. He swore he'd disown me, cut me off as his daughter entirely.

I didn't flinch.

Everyone deserves to go mad for love once, even if it means crashing headfirst into a wall.

The day I knocked on the door of that cramped apartment, Joe was sprawled across the couch reeking of liquor.

His stubble was a mess. His eyes were dead.

I cleaned up the vomit without a word, left a bowl of hot porridge on the nightstand, and held him together while he screamed Lillian's name like it was tearing him apart, swallowing my own heartbreak so he wouldn't hear it crack.

Slowly, quietly, my steady presence pulled him out of that wreckage.

Three months into dating, Joe proposed.

The ring was a soda-can tab. There were no witnesses. I said yes through tears anyway.

Because I believed, truly believed, that if I gave him enough of my heart, the day would come when he'd make room for me in his.

For seven years after the wedding, I swallowed my pride and begged investors on his behalf, survived countless client dinners, drank until my stomach bled, and dragged him from a nobody people sneered at into the Joe Delgado that every player in finance respected.

His attitude toward me shifted, too, from stiff politeness at the start to something that gradually softened.

He'd serve food onto my plate in front of guests, introduce me to his partners with a smile and the words "my wife."

I thought the bitter years had finally turned sweet. Until today at the hospital, when I watched him cradle Lillian Fox against his chest and tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear with a tenderness I recognized. What cut even deeper was my own son, the boy I'd carried for ten months, the boy I'd nearly bled to death delivering.

Faced with his father's affair, he hadn't just kept the secret from me. He was calling her Aunt Lillian like she was family.

It hit me all at once——

These seven years of marriage were nothing but a stolen dream.

The dream was over. It was time for me to go.

Then my phone rang. Joe Delgado's name pulsed across the screen.

A name that used to taste like honey. Now all it left was revulsion.

For the first time, I didn't pick up immediately.

The phone rang and went silent, rang and went silent again. After the third time, I steadied myself and answered.

I still couldn't bring myself to speak. Joe's voice came through the line, low and detached. “Sarah, did your test results come back? What did the doctor say?”

An hour ago, those words would have melted me. I would have been so grateful I wouldn't have known what to say. Now, all I felt was how cheap his concern really was.

I'd been throwing up everything I ate for weeks. In just one month, I'd lost over ten pounds.

Terrified it was something serious, I'd asked Joe to take time off and come with me to the hospital. He agreed, then told me that morning something had come up at the office and I should go alone.

I was disappointed, but I understood. What I never could have imagined was that Joe's idea of "busy" meant accompanying Lillian Fox to her prenatal checkup.

When I still didn't respond, his voice rose slightly on the other end.

I actually heard a note of urgency in it.

I closed my eyes, forcing down the wave of nausea clawing up from my stomach.

“Nothing serious. Just my stomach acting up again.”

Back when Joe was first starting out, I'd wined and dined investors on his behalf until I drank myself into a gastric hemorrhage. Even after years of careful treatment, the pain still flared up without warning. But the stomach excuse was just something I tossed out to get him off the phone.

After walking in on what looked like one happy little family of three at the hospital. No, four, to be precise.

I'd fled in a blind panic without even picking up my test results. Where was I supposed to find the presence of mind to see a doctor?

“Good. The merger deal at the office still isn't wrapped up, so I'll be home late.”

“Oh, and I already sent someone to pick up Sunny. Just get some rest.”

Right on cue, a text arrived from the secretary I'd once sponsored. 【There was a merger meeting today, but Mr. Delgado never showed. The VP handled it.】

Of course. Joe was lying to me again.

A bitter smile tugged at my lips.

Back then, he'd been so tight with money he wouldn't even give me a wedding.

Now he was willing to blow off a multimillion-dollar meeting just to hold his college sweetheart's hand at her ultrasound.

He hung up almost before I could respond.

Outside the window, the rain came down harder. I felt cold straight through, like ice had settled into my bones.

I stood slowly and walked to the safe in the study, punching in the combination from memory.

Click. The door swung open.

I left the gold bars untouched. The only thing I took was the stock transfer agreement for Delgado Group.

Years ago, to help him start his company, I'd sold the jewelry my mother left me behind my father's back. I'd even used the Henson name to co-sign more guarantees than I could count.

He'd held my hands that day, his eyes shining. “Sarah, when this company goes public, I'm making you the largest shareholder. You deserve that.”

Then the company did go public. And he gave me ten percent, hiding behind excuses about avoiding conflicts of interest and protecting the ownership structure.

I'd been too blinded by love to care about the numbers back then. Now I was just grateful I hadn't been foolish enough to give those shares back.

I called Jordan again. “On top of the divorce, I need you to help me sell off my ten percent of the original shares.”

Two seconds of silence. “Sarah, Delgado Group is on the rise. You dump that ten percent and Joe could lose absolute control of his own company.”

My eyes were glacial. “That's exactly the point. I want to drag him down from the clouds and bury him in the dirt.”

“Are you sure about this?” Jordan sighed. “Once those shares are gone, there's no coming back. Not for you and him. Ever.”

I let out a hollow laugh. ：“He never loved me. There was never a 'you and him' to come back to.”

All I could do now was take back everything I'd given him before he realized what was happening.

As for the love that was never mine, the bond with a son who'd been turned against me, I was done wanting any of it.

It was eleven at night when I heard the front door open.

Joe paused mid-step when he saw me still sitting on the couch. “Why are you still up? I told you to get some rest.”

He walked over, and a faint trace of perfume drifted with him.

Not his usual woody cologne. Something sweet, cloying, soft. A woman's floral fragrance.

My stomach cramped again.

“Stomach acting up again?” Joe frowned and reached for my forehead.

I turned my head, dodging his hand without making it obvious. “I'm fine. Had some warm water. Feeling better.”

My voice was too flat. Flat enough that Joe's hand froze in midair and a flicker of surprise crossed his face.

Before all this, I would have leaned into his shoulder and whined about my stomach hurting too much to sleep, waiting for him to comfort me.

But now the smell of another woman clung to him, and even breathing the same air made me sick.

“Sunny asleep?” Joe pulled his hand back and loosened his tie like nothing had happened.

“Yeah.” I watched how composed he looked, and something inside me almost laughed.

He must have checked himself over before coming home. Scanned for lipstick stains, stray hairs, even smoothed the creases in his collar.

Otherwise I wouldn't have been stupid enough to only find out now that Joe was cheating.

Lillian's belly looked four or five months along. Their little reunion had been going on for at least half a year.

Or maybe longer than I guessed.

“Was the hospital busy today? Long wait?” Joe asked casually while pouring himself a glass of water.

I stared at his back, keeping my voice light. “Not really. But I did see someone who looked a lot like you from behind.”

Joe's body went rigid. The glass stopped just short of his lips for a fraction of a second, a pause so brief most people would never have caught it.

But I'd spent three years pining for Joe Delgado and seven years living with him. I could read his guilt like a book.

“Someone you know?”

Joe turned around. His jaw was tight, and something guarded surfaced behind his eyes.

I lowered my gaze and fiddled with the remote on the coffee table.

“No idea who it was. He was holding a kid's hand, walking a woman into the OB-GYN wing.”

The air in the living room froze solid.

Joe's throat moved as he swallowed. “Oh, really? Are you accusing me of something?”

“I was at the office all day. Obviously wasn't me.”

I looked up and held his gaze, then let out a quiet laugh. ：“I never said it was you. Why so jumpy?”

The moment the words left my mouth, I pulled the papers I'd prepared from under the coffee table and slid them toward him.

Joe glanced down. A small crease formed between his brows.

“What's this?”

I leaned back into the couch, keeping my tone easy. “Prescription forms from the hospital. They need a family member's signature before they'll release the medication.”

The top sheet was a printout of my old medical records.

But underneath, at the very bottom, was the divorce agreement I'd already signed.

Joe took the stack. His eyes landed on the first page, the prescription form.

His fingers kept going, the pages whispering against each other, and the corner of the second sheet peeked out.

My heartbeat spiked. I gripped the remote tighter without realizing it.

In that moment, I couldn't tell whether I wanted him to sign without looking or discover that I wanted out.

But just as Joe was about to reach the last page, a tiny voice called out from the top of the stairs.

“Daddy!”