When I was eight months pregnant, my husband forced me to take care of his childhood sweetheart, who had just a miscarriage. She then spilled chicken soup on her thigh and accused me of deliberately scalding her.

Enraged, my husband had me tied up and thrown into an oversized steamer in the employee cafeteria. He determined to make me experience the pain of being burned.

"You dared to harm my child and mistreat my precious Sofia? If I don’t teach you a lesson, you’ll never learn!" he scolded.

Amidst the suffocating heat, I pleaded with him and begged for mercy for the sake of our unborn child. I swore I would never fight for him against Sofia Gonzales again.

He just smirked as he said, "Don’t use the child to gain sympathy. I had done my research, it said that pregnant women experiencing some stress before labor actually leads to healthier mothers."

His tone was ice-cold. "Rest assured, I won’t divorce you. However, for the pain you caused Sofia, I’ll make sure you'll suffer a thousand times worse."

To make me scared, he deliberately cranked up the temperature to its maximum setting.

I was so scared it sent me into premature labor and I could hear the baby's faint cry under me. My baby was born.

Desperately, I begged them to take my child to safety. However, my husband thought I was faking and ordered his men to lock the steamer with heavy iron chains then ordered, "No one opens this without my permission."

That night, while he served food to Sofia, my husband frowned in displeasure. "Did Chiara still not want to admit that she’s wrong? If she keeps being stubborn, who will take care of you, Sofia?"

"You tell her that I give her a chance and that as long as she knells, begs Sofia, admits her mistakes and promises to cook food for Sofia for a week, I'll let her go to the hospital to get birth."

His subordinates were all afraid to say anything.

——

Finally, one of them stepped forward and said with a pale face, " Mr. Johnson … it seems, Madam … has lost her consciousness. She hasn’t made a sound for an hour and when we called her, she didn’t respond."

My husband scoffed. "Don't be afraid, I know her too well better than you. She is very good at pretending. She must have realized that using the baby to trick me is useless and now she is acting as if she died. If she doesn’t suffer enough, she’ll keep bullying my Sofia."

His subordinate wiped the cold sweat. His face had gone pale. "Sir … we really heard the sound of a baby crying inside, but it only cried for a few seconds, then it stopped."

"She must be faking it," my husband said with certainty. Although his subordinate wanted to say more, Sebastian Johnson waved his hand impatiently to cut his words. "Enough. Nowadays, the home appliances are smart. They will automatically shut off the power if it detects people inside. Just let her stew there for a while. She’s not that fragile."

His subordinate was afraid to say anything anymore and with his face drained with color, he left the room.

Meanwhile, Sebastian brought dinner into the master bedroom. In Sebastian's master bedroom, Sofia lay on the bed. She was wearing my pajamas and leaning on the bed while playing with her cell phone. Occasionally, she even let out sweet smiles.

"Sofia, what are you watching? What's making you so happy?" he asked.

Seeing that she had stopped crying, Sebastian’s mood improved. He stepped forward, leaned in, cradled the back of her head and fed her a spoonful of chicken soup. "You need to nurture your body properly so I as your brother, can feel at ease."

Sofia gave him a guilty smile before she suddenly threw herself into his arms as her tears welled up. "My best friend is worried about me. She keeps telling me to leave you. However, whenever I think about how nice you treat me, I just can’t bring myself to let go. That’s why I was smiling stupidly."

"This is all my fault," she said sadly, "I couldn’t control my feelings for you. That night when you were drugged with the herbal medicine, I was determined to give myself to you then leave silently with our baby and never disturb your happiness again and yet …. "

Her voice broke. "I lost the baby. If I lose you too, I won’t be able to go on."

"I know I’m selfish," she cried. "So no matter how Chiara punishes me, I accept it. It was just a little burn, nothing serious and it only hurt a bit. Even if she stabbed me, I’d endure it, as long as you don’t make me leave you!"

Her words shattered Sebastian's heart. He held her tightly and blew the little burn mark on her thigh gently, even though it was only as big as a fingernail. "Sofia, you are too kind. It's because you love me so much and love me so humbly that this evil woman, Chiara, dares to treat you so badly. You don’t know how much it breaks my heart to see you cry.”

“You’ve given me everything. You’ve saved me time and time again. You are both my savior and my love. I won’t allow anyone to hurt you, not even Chiara, my wife, who is carrying my child," he promised.

A flicker of unease flashed across Sofia’s face. Then, she blushed and said coyly, “Brother, actually, I was burned in more places than just this one, but ... I was too embarrassed to ask the doctor to check.”

Sebastian's eyes instantly darkened with desire. He immediately pushed her down. “Then let me see personally if my Sofia is all red and tender.”

Sofia lay beneath him. She was wearing the couple’s pajamas that Sebastian had personally designed for me for our wedding night. She rolled on the silk sheets I had chosen so carefully and had intercourse with my husband.

When Sofia was almost at her climax, Sebastian grabbed her leg and as a result Sofia's leg swayed and she accidentally kicked off the framed photo on the bedside table.

It was a picture taken by a passerby the day Sebastian and I registered our marriage. It was a photo that was supposed to symbolize our happiness on that day. Now that the shattered glass had divided us both into two.

It was impossible to fix a broken glass so it could be whole again and yet I still foolishly hoped that if I gave birth to our child, maybe Sebastian would come back to me and our child. It turned out, that even after my death, I could still feel heartbroken.

As I listened to Sofia cooing to Sebastian asking to have another baby from him, a fresh wave of agony gripped my soul.

Sebastian had been right, though. In that scalding and excruciating pain, my baby had been born in a very fast way.

I just hope my child could have stayed in my womb a little longer. Just for a little while so, I as his mother could endure the pain of the high fever for him and I could give him a slim chance of survival.

However, my child was too obedient. Within minutes, he was born.

I used all my strength to push open a crack in the steamer and begged the people who were waiting outside. “I’ve just given birth! My baby isn’t crying and he’s barely breathing! Please, I beg you, just take him to the hospital, save him, even if you don’t save me!”

The guards outside looked horrified. One of them reached out his hand toward the power switch.

However, before he could act, a wailing voice rang out from the cafeteria entrance. “Sebastian, how could she use her own child’s life to gain your sympathy? Does she not realize that saying bad things might actually harm the baby?” Sofia sobbed.

“She was lucky enough to conceive your child and give birth safely, yet she doesn’t cherish it at all. Instead, she’s cursing her own baby!”

“She knows how much I long for a child. Is she saying this on purpose? Is she trying to rub salt into my wounds?”

When he watched Sofia wept pitifully in his arms, Sebastian's anger flamed into another high.

“So, my punishment wasn’t harsh enough. Do you still have the energy to use your child to provoke Sofia? Bring me that iron chain! Tie up the steamer! I don’t want her to have the chance to shout!" he roared.

None of the subordinates dared to move. Sebastian became so angry that grabbed the chain and personally bound the steamer shut with the chain as tight as he could.

As he tied the steamer, he heard a faint sound of the baby crying. Its kitten-like cry echoed from within the steamer and for a moment Sebastian struggled with doubt.

However, then Sofia whispered in his ear, “Chiara is really good at imitating voices. It reminds me of that night ... how it was supposed to be our first time together. Then the next morning, she faked my voice and tricked you into believing it was her instead ...”

Sebastian's expression twisted and his eyes were full of disgust as he ordered, “All of you, get out. Don't let that wretched woman, Chiara, deceive you any longer. Lock her in."

"She'll be released only when Sofia's wounds no longer hurt. I’ll personally release her when that happens."

He drove all staff out and left me trapped inside the scorching steam chamber. Without care of my wailing cry, he closed the cafeteria door and sealed my fate.

My baby, my poor, fragile baby, cried only a few times before his tiny body stiffened in my arms. His skin had lost its elasticity, his breath had faded into nothingness.

I sobbed but my cries of agony eventually swallowed by the searing heat. My body slowly disintegrated and turned into boiling water.

While my flesh melted away, Sebastian was busy making grand gestures of love for Sofia to compensate for the six months of being pregnant alone. Sebastian would orchestrate a grand proposal that shook the entire city.

Even without a marriage certificate, he swore to give her the honor of being his wife.

As my lifeless body turned into a bloody mess, he dominated the top ten trending searches with headlines celebrating his love for Sofia. Every major city’s billboard broadcasted his vows to Sofia in an endless loop.

As I took my last breath, he stood aboard a helicopter and showered the city with rose petals in a publicized, extravagant proposal that was broadcast live to millions of netizens.

Now, I watched them spend their wedding night while lying on what was once my marital bed.

Sebastian held Sofia lovingly in his arms and said, "I'm sorry, Sofia. Chiara tricked me back then. She claimed she willingly gave herself to me that night to save me from the effects of the herbal medicine that I took. I married her because I felt responsible to her, after all, we had already done it and I was not the kind of person that abandons someone after having sex."

"You don’t have to worry though. She owes you too much. This time, I made sure she paid for everything. From now on, she’ll have to behave. She won’t dare interfere with our life again. Once you're fully recovered, we'll have another child. The three of us will become a family and ..." He hesitated for a moment. "Since Chiara already has a child, she and her baby can live with us. The five of us will coexist peacefully."

Sofia’s smile faltered, a flicker of unease and malice flashed in her eyes. "What?"

"Don’t worry," Sebastian reassured her. "She may still be my legal wife, but to the world, you're my true partner. Just think of her as a live-in nanny. She will help you to cook and clean for us. Besides, our child will have a playmate."

When she heard this, Sofia's eyes flashed with a hint of viciousness and satisfaction that she quickly masked it with a soft smile. "Of course, I agree. I'll get along with her."

I laughed bitterly at the absurdity of it all.

After everything he had done, he still did not want to let me leave. He truly believed I would willingly watch him showering Sofia with love while serving as a maid in my own home.

I took a deep breath but my tears were now nothing but an invisible memory.

I understood why he was so confident that he thought I would never leave, no matter how much he hurt me. It was because I had endured everything in silence.

A month ago, Sofia, Sebastian's first love collapsed at my doorstep. Out of compassion, I rushed her to the hospital. However, when she woke up, she cried to Sebastian and accused me of pushing her down and causing her to lose her child.

Shocked, I tried to explain to him that I did not do anything to her except take her to the hospital.

Sebastian's eyes turned icy as he stared at me.

Seeing the doubt in his eyes, I pulled out her medical report to prove that she had lost the baby long before I ever found her. However, before I could show him, Sofia burst into tears and sobbed pitifully in his arms.

With a cold glare, Sebastian struck me across the face and sent me sprawling to the floor.

"Enough! You’ve gone too far! Sofia has already forgiven you, yet you still refuse to admit your wrongdoing! “He ordered the guards to take me home and lock me up while demanding that I reflect on my actions.

I foolishly believed that once he calmed down, he would listen to reason. However, after half a month of imprisonment, when I finally saw him again, his gaze held nothing but seething hatred and he looked at me as if I were his greatest enemy.