At the dinner table, my husband's dream girl was urged to drink. Without hesitation, my husband stood in front of her and drank a kilogram of liquor for her. I can't help but frown and tug at his sleeve, but all he does is turn around and slap me across the face.

"Woman, stop meddling in a man's drinking!"

Every man there complimented him on how well he controled his wife while his dream girl looked at him with admiring eyes and leans coquettishly on his shoulder.

I covered my cheek in pain and tightly shut my mouth.

He still had no idea that he is already in the middle stage of liver cancer.

"Barry, I have no doubts about your manliness. You really know how to let the badass Ms. Kimberly be a dutiful wife."

"Bravo, Barry. Women shouldn't have to be so strong. They will never be obedient if you give them a thrashing!"

"Cheers to Barry!"

Surrounded by men's loud cheers of flattery and the hot atmosphere at the table, Barry Field is drunk and carried away, with a smug smile on his face. He is so complacent that he can't even keep his feet.

As he put his arm around Jessica Holmes' shoulders and raises his glass, he utters, "So guys, about Jessica's project..."

The men around him subconsciously turn around to look at me. Before I can say anything, however, Barry has already pulled a long face.

"What's wrong? Why are you looking at her?"

A fierce look flashes across Barry's face. He seems to want to leave a bloody wound on my face with his cold eyes.

"I have the final say in Harman Group now! We are determined to be the first investor in Jessica's designs!"

Hearing this, the other men no longer waver.

They keep praising, "Barry, what a decisive man you are!"

"Okay, we're in!"

"For Barry's sake, we Nathan Group will also make our investment!"

I sit on the sofa with an ice pack on my swelling face, staring at Barry with cold eyes as if I were looking at a lifeless corpse.

I've endured this slap, considering it as a final act of mercy to a dying man.

Just drink as you wish.

It will be a good ending for both of us when you have advanced liver cancer due to drinking.

Two hours ago, we were in the hospital for a physical examination. His cell phone kept buzzing while we were waiting for the diagnosis.

Jessica's drunken and coquettish voice came from the other side. "Barry, come and help me..."

Barry abruptly covered his phone. Seeing my vague expression, he said to me in a seemingly calm voice, "Something urgent happened at the company, I have to rush over."

I didn't expose his lame and ridiculous excuse. I know what happened in my own company way better than him, a matrilocal son-in-law.

I just don't care. In these three years of marriage, the relationship between Barry and I has turned into a farce because of Jessica.

To be honest, I was quite calm when I received the diagnosis of Barry's mid-stage liver cancer, which was not surprising.

Ever since Jessica left this country, he had been drinking so heavily that he couldn't even be sober for three days in a month.

With a solemn look, the doctor suggested me persuade Barry to be hospitalized as soon as possible. I nodded. For my mother's sake, I would not just stand by and watch Barry die even though I hate him.

I hurried to the restaurant, only to see Barry and Jessica kissing amid men's teasing cheers.

"Ms. Kimberly, Barry lost the truth or dare game, so it was just a joke. You won't mind, will you?"

"I always know Ms. Kimberly is different from those possessive women. A kiss is not a big deal for her at all."

I might believe that the men were making peace between Barry and me if I didn't see the evident provocation on their faces.

They are always inferior to me in the business world, so they love to take advantage of my marriage to the ignorant Barry to upset me.

Barry didn't realize that he was being used. He only held Jessica's waist tight and looked at me provocatively, as if he was waiting for me to explode with rage so that he could humiliate me.

I stuffed the diagnosis report into my bag, pretending nothing had happened. I watched him keep drinking desperately to talk the men into the investment in Jessica's project until he was holding his stomach with a pale face in a cold sweat. Seeing his pained look, I couldn't help giving a tug at his sleeve.

But before I could say any words of comfort, Barry slapped me in the face.

The loud slap immediately made the entire private room fall into dead silence.

"Woman, stop meddling in a man's drinking!"

Barry yelled in a hoarse voice before he turned around and continued to speak to everyone at the table. "Let's go on! Don't bother with a woman like her!"

The men tried to gloss things over while suppressing their laughter. "Ms. Kimberly, maybe you should show more respect for your husband in the presence of others."

"Barry is a true man!"

Jessica was the only one who lowered her head and asked me with concern, "Shania, are you all right?

"It's all my fault. Barry drank so much just to help me out. Go and have a rest first. I'll take care of Barry."

Hearing this, all I did was wipe the blood off my mouth without saying a word. As I went out to get an ice pack, I tore Barry's diagnosis report into pieces and flushed it down the toilet.

Three years ago, my mother brought a plain-looking man who had dropped out of high school to me and cut straight to the chase. "Shania, this is Barry Field. You should get ready and get married to him right away."

In torn clothes, Barry was casually rummaging through things in my office, squinting at me up and down.

At that time, my father had just passed away, and our company was in a mess, so I was too busy to think about my love life. Before I could say no, my mother took out her diagnosis report and looked at me coldly as if she were looking at a nobody.

"I already have advanced-stage uterine cancer. Marry Barry Field immediately if you want me to live well!"

The finality in her voice was as if I would be an unforgivable defiant daughter if I rejected what she said.

I thought she wanted to see me have a family before her death, so I did what she wanted. Out of my expectations, however, Barry was still having fun with Jessica at hotels even after we got married.

Therefore, my mother paid a special visit to Jessica, hence Jessica's departure to Artrone the next day.

Barry had a breakdown like a madman at the airport, and he had given me silent treatment for over a month after he returned.

In the past three years, Jessica had beefed up her resume by going on to art school abroad with my money. She confidently took up designing after returning home but had no success at all.

She was unwilling to give up, so she tried to swallow her pride and entertain potential investors at the dining table. She felt so humiliated that she couldn't help but call Barry in tears.

Then, today's farce was on stage.

In the past, we would whitewash our marriage and pretend to be respectful for each other, but as Barry's say in Harman Group became greater and greater, his ferocious ambition soon showed.

His tyranny made the company's staff complain. Every time I intended to make any moves, my mother would hold my hand and persuade me while coughing, "You are Barry's woman. All you need to do is to support him. A woman is not supposed to manage a company. It's time for you to gradually hand the company over to him."

"But Mom, it was Dad who left this company to me. It only belongs to the Kimberly family. "

My mother's eyes widened, her bony hand holding me so tight that it left a long red mark on my arm. She said, "It's all my fault for not giving birth to a son for your father... In this world, it's not right to let a woman run a company. Barry has swallowed his pride to become our matrilocal son-in-law for you, so it's only fair that you feel guilty towards him for the rest of your life, do you understand?"

I'm lost in memories of the past few years with my head down and haven't noticed that the dinner has ended.

Barry knits his brows and spares a vicious glance at me, asking, "Why are you still sitting there? Drive me back to the company."

I come back to my senses and raise my head. I obediently take the car key from Barry and say, "Mom misses you."

"I'm busy."

Barry tugs at his tie with a frown.

I say in a calm voice, "The doctor said Mom is almost at her last gasp. Please go back and take a look at her."

"Fuck it, I said I'm busy! Is it that you didn't get it?" Barry roars impatiently and is about to storm off, but I only utter in a cold voice with a light smile.

"Barry, do you think I'm showing you too much respect today or not?"

He halts at the door, his chest rising and falling rapidly as his eyes are gnawing at me like a fierce ghost.

I walk up to him slowly and straighten his collar. "I've shown enough respect for you and Jessica, but you should also show me some respect when it comes to my mother's matter."

"Barry, come to me."

My mother tries her best to stretch out her arms on the hospital bed with joy glistening in her eyes. She holds Barry's hand tightly, unwilling to let go. "I always know you are a good boy. I feel much better the moment I see you..."

She is so attentive to the conversation with Barry that she even doesn't glance at me, who has been silently standing by her side.

My mother is talking sincerely to Barry with great concern, while his impatience is apparently written on his face.

However, my mother acts as if she doesn't notice and tells me without turning her head, "Go and prepare a cup of coffee for Barry."

I lean against the door and pretend not to hear it. My mother snapped, "Why do you not listen to me at all? So this is how you serve your man?"

Barry gives me a sarcastic look and says, "How dare I let her serve me?"

He withdraws his arm mercilessly and continues, "Alright, I still have things to do in the company."

"Okay, don't let me keep you," My mother responds quickly, "Don't worry about me. I feel much better after drinking the coffee you gave me last time."

Hearing this, I can hardly restrain my laughter, but my smiling eyes soon become misty.

During these three years, every time she had a flare-up of her illness, I took care of her by her bedside day and night in every possible way even when she was incontinent. My arms were covered with bloody scratches from her.

By contrast, Barry would only come and see Mom with apparent unwillingness on his face once a month even if I urged him.

I've done so much for my mother, yet she seems to notice nothing and never cares about me. However, she has been praising Barry for the coffee, a giveaway that Barry casually regifted to her a year ago.

Even when she was suffering from cancer pain, she would repeat Barry's name over and over again in unconsciousness, burning my heart in a painful way.

There are moments that I truly wish Barry was her son, for I would feel the whole thing is much fairer in this way.

Unfortunately, it's just my unrealistic fantasy.

When my mother abnormally compelled me to marry Barry and lavished most of her attention on him, I did a maternity test, which verified that Barry had no blood ties with my mother or me.

The ardent smile on my mother's face soon fades after Barry left the hospital. Seeing her cover her chest with several coughs, I habitually hand her a glass of warm water and help her drink it.

"Shania."

Mom grabs my wrist and fixes her eyes on my face, afraid to miss a single change in my expression. "You and Barry have been married for three years, but why do you still have no child?"

I say with indifference on my face, "Mom, I can't get pregnant by myself."

She is silent for a while before she says firmly as if she has made a great decision, "I will go and tell Barry that I don't have much time left, so you must have a child right away.

"I've already prepared a name for the child, no matter if it is a boy or a girl, the child's name will be Danis Field."

I pause for a moment before I put the glass on the bedside table, pretending nothing has happened. I ask her with a smile, "Mom, are you kidding? If the child's surname is Field, then who will inherit our Harman Group?"

"A child surnamed Field is still your child, so why can't he inherit the Harman Group?" My mother's face suddenly darkens. She looks at me unhappily and retorts, "How can a child take his mother's surname? Do you want him to grow up and be taunted by others because of his surname?"

"No one will laugh at him for this." The smile on my lips gradually turns cold as my heart becomes as cold as ice.

"Mom, Harman Group was founded by Dad. I will never hand it over to an outsider. You should give up on this idea."