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.

During the first year of our marriage, he was already begging me desperately for a child.

At the time, my career was flourishing. Yet he deliberately undermined it. He forced me to quit and become a housewife so I could focus on getting pregnant.

But after three years of trying, we still had not conceived.

I had been so foolish back then. I had been trapped in his honey-coated lies, living what I thought was love but was really a nightmare.

Then he brought Aileen home. This happened just as I discovered I was pregnant.

The day I returned home with the test results, Aileen cornered me on the staircase. Leaning in with a sneer, she said, “You can’t even have a child. I don’t know how you dare to keep living in this house.

“Do you know why Gerald went through so much trouble to bring me back? That’s because I’m carrying his child.”

My heart lurched, and the medical report slipped from my fingers.

Aileen swiftly grabbed it. Her expression hardened, and without hesitation, she pushed me down the stairs.

Then she crumpled the report and threw it into the garbage.

That night, my lower body was drenched in blood. I crawled to Gerald’s door, begging him to save our baby.

But through the half-open door, I saw a pregnant Aileen inside, being intimate with Gerald.

“Be careful, you’re pregnant now.”

“Do you only care about the baby and not me?”

“Don’t be silly, I’m crazy about you.”

As their intimate murmurs filled the room, I felt an excruciating pain surge through my abdomen. It was as if my unborn child had realized his father did not want him.

Soon after, I passed out. Penny was the one who took my unconscious body to the hospital.

When my thoughts cleared, I noticed the growing contempt in Gerald’s eyes.

“Cut the act! Everyone knows you’re infertile. A miscarriage? Who do you think you’re fooling?”

A doctor’s voice came from the hallway. He said, “Is the family of Ms. Aileen here? She had an allergic reaction to a medication overdose. She’s stable now.”

“What about the baby? How’s the baby?” Gerald asked the doctor urgently.

The doctor shook his head in confusion. “Baby? What baby? Ms. Aileen wasn’t pregnant. There is no baby.”

Gerald was devastated. He clutched the doctor’s hand and asked the same question repeatedly, only to get the same answer every time.

When the doctor ignored him, he turned his fury toward me and grabbed my collar. His eyes burned with malice.

“It was you! You killed my baby! You’re ruthless. How did I never see how vicious you are?”

“An overdose? What drug did you give her?”

I closed my eyes briefly in exasperation, then looked at him with pure disgust.

He was not even pretending anymore.

“I told you, the only one who killed your child was you.”

The doctor could not stand it any longer and pulled Gerald aside.

“Mr. Brown, Ms. Aileen took contraceptive pills herself. This has nothing to do with this young lady.

“And stop hounding her about the baby. She had a miscarriage here last week. Do you realize how painful this is for her?”

Gerald stopped struggling. He froze, staring at the doctor in disbelief.

“What did you say? Who miscarried?”