Yet she walked away as if I were invisible.

The way she'd thrown herself under Grandma's cane without hesitation, shielding Noel behind her—it made every word of comfort she'd offered me moments ago feel like a cruel joke.

"Grandma! It was my idea, and I did it for the family! Don't hurt innocent people!"

Evelyn froze, her gaze instinctively drifting toward me.

When she saw the white bandages on my arm soaking through with fresh blood, her expression twisted with frustrated anger.

"You wretched girl! He just had over a hundred acupuncture needles yesterday—can't you see the wounds all over his body?"

Panic and regret flickered in Greta's eyes. She started to rush toward me—

But Noel collapsed behind her.

She whipped around in alarm, and despite her own injuries, wrapped her arms around him to help him leave.

Grandma Evelyn planted herself in her path.

"You're not going anywhere! You just gave birth—do you have a death wish?"

"Your husband is still in there! Do you even want this family anymore?"

Hesitation clouded Greta's eyes.

"I do! But you hurt Noel—I can't just abandon him! Bob... he has you. He'll be fine!"

Once upon a time, she would have moved mountains for me like that.

Once upon a time, I was never the one she chose to leave behind.

I looked at her, my gaze hollow.

"Grandma, let her go."

She seemed startled by my magnanimity.

After all, there was a time I'd thrown tantrums, groveled, even hurt myself to keep her from leaving—shredding every last scrap of my dignity as a man.

Something complicated passed through her eyes. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but in the end, she left.

The nurse re-dressed my wounds.

The baby was soothed to sleep.

Then my phone buzzed with her message.

[Sorry. I just didn't want to cause a scene at the hospital and damage the Jenner family's reputation.]

[Noel is still unconscious and needs someone with him, so I won't be coming over. We're recovering together. Don't worry.]

I stared at the screen for a long time.

Once, when I learned she'd been injured on a business trip, I flew eleven hours to be by her side. I went with her to every examination, never leaving for a moment.

She'd been so moved she could barely speak. She told me she would never let me down—not in this lifetime.

Seeing me sigh, Grandma Evelyn snatched the phone from my hand.

She read the cold words on the screen and let out a scornful huff.

"That wretched girl! Just wait until she gets back—I'll deal with her then. Bob, don't worry. Grandma will—"

I cut her off with a quiet laugh, meeting her eyes with a calm I no longer had to fake.

"You allowed all of this, didn't you?"

"I've stopped caring what she does. You promised me once this child was safely born, you'd help me get the divorce. I hope you intend to keep your word."

Her expression faltered, guilt pooling in her eyes.

"I've failed you, child."

"I've already tricked her into signing the divorce papers. Focus on recovering. Once she's finished her postpartum confinement, you can leave."

Grandma Evelyn took the baby into her own care, personally arranging for someone to look after him.

I quietly returned to the apartment I'd lived in before the marriage, staying out of the public eye.

But that night, the gossip still tore through the business world: Jenner Group heiress defies matriarch for her brother-in-law, risking her postpartum health to protect him.

The Jenner family's stock plummeted. Greta was drowning in damage control.

Noel's lifestyle influencer account was swarmed by furious netizens. The scandal I'd once personally exposed—him seducing his own brother's wife—the one Greta had buried, resurfaced and spread like wildfire.

The platform was flooded with condemnation. If Greta hadn't intervened, his account would have been terminated and he'd be facing breach-of-contract penalties.

Seven days passed before I saw her again.

The moment she laid eyes on me, disappointment carved itself into her features.

"Bob, does destroying us like this really make you happy?"

I blinked, then understood.

She was pinning the leaked gossip on me.

Well, of course I could. After all, I used to work in media—stirring up public opinion was my specialty.

Too bad the first time I went crazy and exposed her affair with Noel, she threatened the company into firing me, citing privacy violations and defamation.

These days, finding someone willing to help wasn't easy.

I shot her a sideways glance, long past feeling any grievance over being misunderstood.

I continued wrapping the memorial gift for John's anniversary.

"You should know your dirty laundry doesn't end with what's already public. If I wanted to expose more, you'd be hemorrhaging again."

She stood frozen in the doorway for a long moment.

Her voice came out almost resigned.

"After this, I'll cut things off with him. But promise me—we'll live properly from now on, okay? Once the baby comes, we'll be a happy family."

Words like these—she'd said them nearly every day during her pregnancy.

Didn't stop her from staying tangled up with Noel.

One day it was pity for his illegitimate status. The next, sympathy for how alone he was without family.

There was always a reason—a million reasons—for her "helpless" attraction to him, for helping his career take off.

She stayed planted in the doorway, as if she wouldn't leave until I answered.

Watching her block out the sunlight, I gave a half-hearted agreement just to be done with it.

It wasn't until the next morning—when an uncensored video of me "cheating" went viral—that I understood what she'd meant by after this.

Greta released a clarification video.

In it, she wept for the cameras, telling the media that her brother-in-law had caught me cheating during her pregnancy. That I'd lashed out first, spreading false rumors about her to cover my own sins.

Noel chimed in, grief-stricken, claiming he'd only tried to stop me from hurting Greta's feelings—but I'd assumed he would expose my affair and sought revenge.

The internet screamed for Greta to divorce this "gold-digger" immediately.

But she played the devoted wife.

"No matter what mistakes Bob makes in this lifetime, I can't stop loving him."

Watching her sickening performance, I couldn't hold it back. I threw up.

Greta heard from outside and rushed in.

"What's wrong?"

I frowned, watching Noel trail in behind her, and shook off her hand.

"Nothing. Just disgusted by you." My voice was flat. "Willing to destroy your husband's reputation to protect your affair. Greta, your love really is something."

Her face went chalk-white. She opened her mouth to explain.

But Noel suddenly dropped to his knees.

"I'm sorry, Bob—it's all my fault! She only made you the scapegoat to protect me. But she's still recovering from childbirth, and she was so worried you'd be angry that she came to explain despite her health. Please don't blame her."

Greta's eyes filled with tender concern—for him. She turned an accusing glare on me.

"I came to tell you about this. That video was AI-generated. When it comes down to it, he's your brother—sacrificing yourself to help him is only right. And me helping him? That's helping you maintain your blood ties. Why do you have to be so aggressive toward him?"

She wasn't finished.

"Besides, you're unemployed. Reputation means nothing to you. Strangers can talk all they want—it won't change how I feel about you. I know the video is fake, and that's enough. But he's different. He has no one. His entire livelihood depends on media work. If his image is ruined, he loses everything."

Listening to her self-righteous justifications, all I felt was revulsion.

Unemployed. And whose fault was that?

Back then, she hadn't just pressured the company into firing me. She'd put the word out across the entire industry: anyone who hired me was making an enemy of her.

Interview after interview, I hit walls. When I finally landed a position at a small private studio, she filed malicious reports against us.

In the end, every single one of my media credentials was revoked. Just like that, I became the industry pariah everyone loved to hate.

I couldn't be bothered to argue with her. In half a month, I'd be free of all this.

Grandma had promised to clear my name when the time came. What they thought of me no longer mattered.

I stared at her, expression blank, then let out a long breath and rolled over onto the bed.

"Do whatever you want."

She thought I was about to beat Noel like I used to. She tensed up, planting herself in front of him like a shield.

But when I simply turned my back and lay down, every trace of her panic evaporated.

After a long silence, she asked in disbelief, "You're... you're not angry?"

My voice was flat. "Isn't this what you've always wanted? For me to get along with him?"

She relaxed, a laugh escaping her. "You've finally learned. I knew you weren't that heartless. I'll make it up to you, I promise."

I didn't respond. I didn't look at her once, not even as they left.

A long time later, I pressed my hand to my chest.

Nothing. Not even a flutter.

So this is what letting go feels like.

Over the following days, guilt seemed to gnaw at her. She brought me gifts every few days, undeterred by my indifference, rambling about the wonderful life we'd have together.

Then she brought up the baby's one-month celebration, and her tone turned careful.

"Noel will never be able to acknowledge his own child. So I was thinking... while the baby's still too young to understand, he could attend the celebration openly. As the father."

She paused. "It would give him closure. Don't you think?"

I didn't stop what I was doing. Didn't even look up.

"I told you—do what you want. It's not my child. None of this has anything to do with me."

Her breath caught. Red crept into her eyes, fury simmering beneath. She snatched the offerings I'd prepared for John's memorial.

"Why have you been like this lately? Do you even understand what it means if he attends? It means you're accepting him as a son-in-law of the Jenner family. You never would have allowed that before."

I paused, glancing at her with mild disinterest.

"And that's a bad thing? Two months ago, when you were taking care of his needs, weren't you the one saying it was such a shame you could never give him a proper title?"

She went white. Frozen. Like a statue carved from ice.

I took the offerings back, my composure unbroken, as if nothing had happened.

She hovered at my ear, babbling excuses—how she didn't love him, how she only slept with him because she felt responsible—

My silence crushed every word.

After that day, she stopped visiting.

But Noel's social media told the whole story. Photos flooded his feed—family portraits in every style imaginable. Him, her, the baby. A perfect little unit.

The day she finished her postpartum confinement, the Jenner family threw a grand celebration for that bastard child.

Grandma told me the divorce papers would be ready tomorrow.

I went home to collect my things.

The apartment—our apartment, once warm, once ours—had been remade in Noel's taste.

Even the photo that used to sit by the TV, the one of me cradling her pregnant belly, had been replaced. Now it was her, Noel, and the baby. A new family portrait.

In the photo, Greta was smiling.

Brighter than she'd smiled on our wedding day.

In the bedroom, I started packing the clothes I'd had before the marriage.

But no matter how I searched, I couldn't find it—the suit my mother had sewn for me by hand before she passed.

I was about to call and ask when I saw it.

Noel's latest post.

He was wearing it. My mother's suit. At the celebration.

Rage erupted through me like a wave of fire.

I grabbed a cab and stormed into the banquet hall.

There he was—arm around Greta, the two of them laughing, basking in the crowd's admiration.

When Greta spotted me, guilt flickered across her face.

And beneath it, a gleam of triumph she couldn't quite hide.