While my husband, Gerald Brown, was abroad negotiating a business deal, he was drugged and spent the night with a female secretary from a rival company.

The drug’s side effects scrambled his memory so badly that he forgot who I was.

He kicked me out of the master bedroom and let the secretary smash my grandmother’s heirloom.

I told myself he was sick and stayed silently by his side.

But when I suggested taking him for a medical checkup, he hit me for the first time.

“Who do you think you are? Only Ailey is allowed to touch me. If she gets jealous, you’ll regret it.”

When the secretary framed me, he pushed me down the stairs, and I suffered a miscarriage.

Late one night, when my heart condition flared up, I went to his study for medicine but overheard him talking to his friend outside the door.

“Faking amnesia to bring Ailey home is one thing, but why replace your wife’s heart medication? Now, she’ll never return to the hospital for surgery.”

Gerald just chuckled. “If I don’t keep her weak, she’ll go to the hospital and check the hospital records and find out I was never drugged. Ailey’s been timid since childhood and even went undercover for me in a rival company. I can’t betray her.”

I slumped down in the corner. Behind the wall that stood between my husband, Gerald Brown, and me, tears streamed down my face.

The pain in my chest made breathing difficult. To survive, I turned and fled to the guest bedroom.

The tiny guest room had no heating, yet Gerald had forced me to live there throughout the entirety of winter.

I frantically poured pills from the bottle and shoved them into my mouth. Fortunately, Gerald had only substituted my original pills with weaker heart medication. Otherwise, I would not have survived the night.

I had just returned from the hospital. My injuries still throbbed with dull pain.

Tears welled up when my fingers brushed against my flat stomach.

I still remembered the vicious oath he had sworn when he defied all gossip to marry me. “Hailey, you’re the only one for me. If I ever betray you, may I die a wretched death.”

Yet he brought his first love into our home.

The cold wind stung, but not as much as this heart-wrenching pain.

For a moment, I lost my strength and collapsed to the floor. Hearing the noise, my maid, Penny, rushed upstairs to help me up.

“Ms. Hailey, is your heart acting up again? I’ll call Mr. Brown at once!”

I shook my head firmly and forced myself to stand.

“It’s fine. I’ll go find him myself.”

The last time my heart condition flared up, Penny went to get Gerald for me.

She accidentally interrupted his intimate moment with Aileen Smith, the secretary from Gerald’s rival company. Aileen then slapped her repeatedly before sending her back.

Penny was also banished from the main house, and that was because of me. She endured the cold with me in the guest room while suffering frequent humiliation from Aileen.

I already owed her too much. I could not let her suffer more on my account.

I looked at the medicine in my hand and felt a numbness spread through my chest.

Would seeking his help even matter?

I smiled bitterly. Gerald had long since replaced the medicine with far less effective substitutes.

No amount of this medicine could stop the pain. It only barely kept me alive.

A cold draft crept through the door gap. The moment I stood up, dizziness overwhelmed me. Penny screamed in panic beside me.

“Ms. Hailey! Are you okay?

“Help! Somebody, help!”

In my daze, I heard someone kick the door open.

Gerald appeared. His face flashed with panic when he saw me. Aileen stood nearby. Her frown deepened as if she were fighting back tears.

“Hailey, what’s wrong? Are you feeling sick after returning from the hospital? Or are you upset because Gerrie transferred all his assets to me?”

Gerald’s expression darkened instantly. His earlier concern twisted into contempt.

“What’s all the screaming about? People would think someone had died.

“What heart condition? You’re just clinging to my money!”

Aileen rushed over. “Gerrie! How can you say that?

“Hailey, what’s wrong? Is your heart hurting again?”

I opened my mouth, but the pain left me speechless. This only elicited Gerald’s mockery.

“Who are you trying to fool with this pitiful act? Everyone knows your illness is fake. That minor heart condition never bothered you for years, yet suddenly it flares up now that I’ve brought Ailey home?

“Don’t think faking a heart attack will earn my sympathy. Stop deluding yourself. You won’t get a single cent from me.”

A sharp pain pierced my chest. Bitter amusement welled up inside me as tears blurred my vision.

Just days earlier, when my heart condition had worsened, I went for a hospital checkup, and Gerald confronted me the moment I returned.

“So eager to transfer the assets, are you? Listen carefully, even after bringing Ailey home, I won’t divorce you. Did you really think I’d let you profit from my wealth?

“Give it up. Not a single penny will ever be yours.”

I had only taken the money to see a doctor. I had not done anything unforgivable.

I could not fathom why he was so furious, or why he even brought up divorce.

Later, when he deliberately transferred all the family’s properties and bank cards to Aileen right in front of me, I finally understood.

He was not being stingy. He just did not want to waste a cent on me.

My heart ached so badly that I could barely breathe. When I gasped for air, he called me disgusting.

Aileen did not bother pretending anymore. Her face, which was full of scorn and provocation, mirrored Gerald’s expression behind her.

They were truly birds of a feather.

He was right. I was wrong.

I checked my pulse. My heartbeat was growing weaker.

I could not die yet; not like this.

I turned to Gerald, who stood coldly to the side, and begged, “Gerald, my heart is failing. I’m dying. Please… take me to the hospital.”

...

At almost the same moment, Aileen suddenly clutched her stomach and collapsed beside me. Her face was twisted in agony.

Gerald, who stood nearby, rushed over and scooped her into his arms. “Quick! Call an ambulance!”

Aileen lay in his arms, sobbing. “Gerrie, don’t blame Hailey. It’s all my fault for insisting on drinking the ginger tea she made. Otherwise, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“Hailey!”

Without hesitation, Gerald turned and yelled at me. His eyes were burning with even more disgust than before.

“You witch! If anything happens to Ailey, you won’t live to see another day.”

He ignored my desperate pleas but caught every subtle gesture Aileen made.

I closed my eyes in despair and braced myself for the slow torture of death.

When I opened my eyes again, I was in a hospital room. Penny was slumped in her chair beside me. Her eyes were red from crying.

“Why the tears? I’m not dead yet.”

I patted her head reassuringly, but she took my joke seriously.

“Don’t jinx yourself by talking about death! Hailey, you’ll live a long, healthy life!”

Warmth flooded my chest, and tears welled in my eyes. “Am I really that important?”

Ever since my parents died when I was ten, I was convinced that no one in the world truly cared about me anymore.

When I finally met Gerald, he ignored all the gossip and even turned against his own family to give me a home.

I gave him everything.

I gave him my time, my youth, and my love.

Years ago, when he faced bankruptcy, I was the one who accompanied him day and night to networking events. I drank until I vomited blood just to help save his company.

Yet despite everything, we still ended up unable to bear the sight of each other.

Perhaps the saying, “Some endings were simply unavoidable,” had truth in it, after all.

But I never imagined that after all these years, from childhood to girlhood to where I am now, someone would still cry over my suffering.

At this thought, Penny suddenly hugged me. Her sobs grew louder.

“Hailey, stop overthinking! You matter a great deal to me!

“After my parents died in that crash years ago, I stayed to take care of you. But really, you’ve taken care of me far more. You’ve always been like a sister to me.

“So even if it’s just for me, take care of yourself, okay?”

I nodded, stunned into silence.

When she first came to me, she was just a small child. I never expected her to do much work, but our similar backgrounds made me pity her.

I still remember those days after my miscarriage. The doctor told me I could never have children again.

Looking back, it did not seem so unbearable anymore.

If I could not grasp the future, I might as well hold onto the present.

“Alright, I promise. From now on, you’re my little sister!”

A mocking laugh came from the doorway. It sounded sharp and grating.

Gerald pushed the door open carelessly. He looked her over with judgment in his eyes.

“Hailey, oh Hailey. Have you really fallen this low? Are you so desperate that you’d call a maid your sister now?”

I frowned. “That’s enough!”

He sneered. “Hailey, I suggest you show some respect to me, especially when I’m your savior. If I hadn’t called the ambulance to bring you here, you would have died in that house.”

Penny, who had been wiping her tears nearby, retorted, “That’s a lie! You left with Aileen’s ambulance. If the medical staff hadn’t found Hailey, she would’ve—”

Gerald stepped forward and slapped her across the face. “Since when do you get a say?”

Seeing his relentless aggression, I pulled myself up from the hospital bed and shielded Penny.

“You killed my child. Was that not enough? Now, you want to kill my sister, too?”

...

Gerald froze momentarily before quickly composing himself.

“You lunatic, I don’t know what nonsense you’re spouting!

“Whether in the past, present, or future, there’s only ever been Ailey for me. And frankly, I’m annoyed. I don’t even know how you ended up becoming my wife after I returned from the hospital.

“Let me make this absolutely clear, I could never love someone like you. All you do is spew lies and poison Ailey. You’re despicable.”

Penny stepped forward to argue on my behalf, but I pulled her back.

Those words I had overheard haunted me. “If I don’t keep her weak, she’ll go to the hospital and check the hospital records and find out I was never drugged. Ailey’s been timid since childhood and even went undercover for me in a rival company. I can’t betray her.”

He knew the truth. He was just deceiving himself.

A single moment was all it took.

The brief hesitation in Gerald’s eyes when I mentioned the child remained vivid in my head. No one understood better than I how desperately he wanted a child.