Liam walked in with a gloomy expression. He glanced at my pale face and the IV drip on the back of my hand, his brows furrowed, his tone revealing undisguised annoyance and impatience: "Clara, how long are you going to keep this up? You think I'd believe such a clumsy trick as faking illness and fainting? I've said it before, as long as you listen to me, you'll still be Mrs. Foster. What are you arguing about with a secretary?"

His gaze was still filled with disgust and coldness as he looked at me, seemingly completely unaware that Vanessa had made me sign the divorce papers and the organ donation agreement.

It seems Vanessa is keeping it from him.

Looking at him, I suddenly felt incredibly ironic.

This man, my husband in name only, the one I've loved for seven years, now appears to me like a clueless, self-righteous clown.

I've wanted to divorce him for a long time. That divorce agreement, in which I would leave with nothing, was, for me, a relief.

What I care about is that organ donation agreement that wanted to kill me!

"I'm not making a scene." I lowered my eyelashes, concealing all the emotions in my eyes, my voice weak but calm, "I'm just... too tired."

My submissiveness and weakness seemed to please him, or rather, made him feel that I was still under his control.

He snorted coldly, "Since you're not dead, hurry up and get well. Vanessa needs someone to take care of her during her pregnancy, so don't even think about slacking off. As for your sister and that dog..."

He paused, his tone carrying a condescending warning: "I can allow them to stay in the hospital temporarily. But Clara, you'd better remember, don't test my patience again."

After he finished speaking, as if he felt it was dirty to stay even a second longer, he turned around and left the ward.

...

Not long after, Liam brought a bowl of porridge into the ward and pretended to feed me: "Are you hungry? Have some porridge."

I frowned, my voice still a little hoarse: "I can do it myself."

I took the bowl of porridge and took a sip. The porridge was cold, and it contained lotus seeds—I'm allergic to lotus seeds; ever since I was a child, eating lotus seeds has made my whole body itchy.

Liam knew perfectly well that this was the case, but he still brought me this bowl of porridge.

I suddenly remembered that when I used to make porridge for Liam, I would always remember that he didn't like scallions, so I would warm the porridge until it was no longer too hot to eat before serving it to him.

He never cared about my preferences.

Seeing that I was quiet, Liam suddenly asked, "Is anything bothering you?"

I looked up and replied, seemingly out of the blue, "Could you please give me my phone?"

Perhaps my tone was too distant, because Liam paused for a moment before taking out his phone and handing it to me.

There were over a dozen missed calls on the screen, all from Gregory. Liam saw them and frowned: "Who called?"

He never asked me these things before; he didn't even know my phone password.

A hint of annoyance flashed across my eyes, and I said indifferently, "You don't know him."

Liam's face darkened. He unbuttoned the top button of his shirt, leaned down to look at me, and said in a threatening tone, "Clara, how long are you going to keep throwing your tantrums? You think you can take advantage of me?"

In the past, when Liam was angry, I would apologize immediately and try my best to make him happy.

But now, I simply pointed to his vibrating phone in his pocket and said expressionlessly, "Vanessa is looking for you."

Liam's expression softened instantly. He took out his phone, glanced at the screen, immediately stood up, avoided me, and quickly walked into the hallway to answer the call.

He spoke very softly, and I could vaguely hear things like "Vanessa, don't worry" and "I'll be right back."

My phone rang as soon as the man left.

It was Gregory calling.

I answered the phone, and before I could even speak, Gregory's anxious voice came through: "Clara, what's wrong? Didn't you say you were leaving yesterday? Why didn't you contact me? Are you having second thoughts?"

"I have no regrets, it's just that something unexpected happened..." My voice choked up a little.

"An accident? What happened to you? Are you injured?" Gregory's voice became more urgent. "No, I have to go back to the country myself..."

"Don't come back." I interrupted him, lowering my eyes and pursing my lips. "Give me a few more days, and I will definitely leave here and come find you."

"Who are you going to find? You want to leave me? Who gave you permission to leave me?" Liam overheard the last sentence when he returned to the ward.

I turned my head and said, "It's nothing, I just went on a trip to relax."

After hanging up the phone, he gave Liam a perfunctory reply.

Liam: "Are you going to visit your cousin? It'll be good for you to relax."

I looked at the sky outside the window, a warm feeling welled up in my heart, and casually hummed in agreement.

Gregory is my neighbor's older brother, and he's always protected me since I was little.

When the Shen family fell on hard times, he was the only one willing to help me.

When I was wronged by the Foster family, he was the only one who would listen to my complaints.

He was the only light in my dark life.

Liam was momentarily dazed.

That was a smile he hadn't seen in a long time—not a fawning one, not one of resentment, but a genuine sense of ease.

He inexplicably felt a tightness in his chest, as if something was blocking it.

But he had just promised Vanessa that he would go back and massage her lower abdomen, so he didn't have time to ask. He just picked up the documents and said without turning his head, "Clara, I have something to do at the company. I'll come back tomorrow."

But he didn't come tomorrow. He didn't come the day after tomorrow either. And he still didn't come the day after that.

I kept receiving videos of him and Vanessa from mutual friends. In the videos, he took Vanessa to parties and peeled shrimp for her by hand, something he had never done for me; he took Vanessa to the beach and took beach wedding photos for her, forgetting that I had always been looking forward to a beach wedding; he even posted a nine-grid photo collage on his WeChat Moments, all of which were photos of Vanessa, with the caption "My girl," forgetting that he had once said it was childish and boring.

The day I was discharged from the hospital, Liam posted another message on WeChat Moments.

In the photo, under the dazzling aurora, he holds Vanessa's face and kisses her passionately, looking incredibly sweet.

I looked at the photo and laughed until tears streamed down my face. My finger hovered over the screen for a long time before I posted a comment: "Wishing you both a baby soon and a long and happy life together."

Ten minutes later, Liam called. I looked at the name flashing on the screen and rejected the call without hesitation.

Half an hour later, after I finished the discharge procedures by myself and walked out of the hospital, I saw Liam and Vanessa at the entrance of the obstetrics and gynecology department.

Vanessa nestled in Liam's arms, a shy smile on her face. A nurse nearby said to Vanessa with envy, "Mrs. Xie, your husband really dotes on you. He comes to stay with you every night while you're in the hospital. Last time you said you wanted to eat the porridge from that old-established restaurant in the west of the city, he actually drove across half the city in the pouring rain to buy it for you. He's so considerate!"

Hearing this, the other patients around Vanessa all looked at her with envy in their eyes.

I instinctively touched my stomach, which ached slightly from prolonged irregular eating habits. I remembered that rainy night when I had a persistent high fever and was lying in bed too weak to even get up. I struggled to pull out my phone and made a video call to Liam in a hoarse voice, just wanting him to bring me a bowl of hot porridge when he came home.

The moment the call connected, I didn't see Liam, but Vanessa, who was leisurely sipping her porridge. She held Liam's phone, pointed the camera at the takeout bag from my favorite porridge shop on the table, and said with a hint of pride, "Mrs. Xie, are you looking for Liam? He's running my bathwater. Oh, this porridge? Liam specially bought it for me as a late-night snack. Isn't that a coincidence? It's from the very place you wanted to drink it."

A spasm-like pain shot through my stomach, my burning forehead pressed against the cold bedside table, and I couldn't utter a word.

Less than a minute later, Liam called back. He appeared on the screen with a displeased expression, the background filled with the steam of the bathroom. His first words were a scolding: "Clara, what kind of self-inflicted pain are you playing now? If you have a fever, take your medicine and stop bothering me and Vanessa! Want some porridge? Don't you have legs of your own?"

He added, "You're such a useless piece of trash who can't even take care of yourself. Besides playing the victim to gain sympathy, what else can you do? Seeing your sickly appearance makes me want to vomit!"

Those words, like knives, are still stuck in my heart.

I snapped out of my thoughts and turned to leave, but Liam called out to me, "What are you standing there for? Hurry up and get in the car and go home!"

I frowned instinctively.

"Wait." Liam frowned and walked over quickly. Vanessa watched his back, a hint of jealousy flashing in her eyes. She tightened her grip on Liam's arm and said in a sweet voice, "Brother Liam, don't be so mean to Clara. She didn't mean it."

Then, she looked at me with a fake smile: "Clara, I'm so grateful to you for giving me a blood transfusion last time. If it weren't for you, I'd still be dizzy right now. Brother Liam, why don't we let Clara come home with us?"

Liam affectionately pinched Vanessa's little nose: "My baby is so kind, whatever you say goes."

I didn't refuse; I did need to go back to get my passport and other documents, which were the only proof that I could leave this place.

The atmosphere inside the spacious black sedan was oppressive and suffocating.

Vanessa suddenly pointed to the corner of the back seat and exclaimed, "Oh my, what's this?" She bent down and picked up a faded amulet, which my mother had obtained for me by bowing and prostrating herself at the temple before she passed away. I had carefully hung it in Liam's car, praying for his safety.

"Why is this filthy thing still in the car?" Vanessa pinched the tassel of the lucky charm, pouted in disgust, then snuggled into Liam's arms, complaining sweetly, "Brother Liam, didn't you promise me you'd clean up all traces of her in the car?"

Liam hugged Vanessa and soothed her gently, "It's my fault, I should have thrown it away a long time ago. Don't be angry, Vanessa, I'll get rid of it right away."

As he spoke, he rolled down the car window and made a gesture as if to throw the amulet out.

At that moment, I finally lost my composure and reached out to stop them; it was the last thing my mother left me.

Seeing my reaction, Liam's lips curled into a smug smile.

He stopped what he was doing, fiddling with the amulet, and deliberately asked me, "What? You can't bear to part with it?"

Looking at the mockery in his eyes, I suddenly lost all the strength to fight.

If the mother were alive, how heartbroken she would be to see that the amulet she so earnestly sought has now become a tool for him to harm her daughter.

"Throw it away." I leaned back against the car window, my voice calm and even. "Some things, once they're dirty, shouldn't be kept."

Liam was stunned; he probably hadn't expected me to react this way.

Upon seeing this, Vanessa snatched the amulet and threw it out the window without hesitation.

At that moment, Liam felt a strange sense of irritation rising within him. It was like punching cotton, with nowhere to vent his frustration.

He was used to my care and my attention, and now my indifference made him very uncomfortable.

“Clara, you’ve been looking at your phone ever since you got in the car.” Liam’s tone turned unfriendly, with a hint of barely perceptible jealousy. “Were you chatting with your cousin, or someone else I don’t know?”

He remembered that after I married him, my social circle consisted only of female relatives. Apart from my cousin who would occasionally visit, I had almost no other friends. He thought that my world revolved around him.

I had just booked my flight to the UK. When I heard what he said, I turned off my phone screen and said casually, "Just browsing the news."

Liam frowned even more deeply. Taking advantage of my inattention, he suddenly snatched my phone: "What's the password?"

"It's my birthday," I said.

We've been married for seven years, and I've told him my simple six-digit birthday countless times. But Liam held the phone, entered the password again and again, and it always said wrong. He couldn't unlock the phone until the screen locked completely.

His face turned very pale.

He suddenly realized that he had never really understood me, and he couldn't even remember my birthday code.

The car arrived at the Foster family villa in silence. Liam got out first and carefully helped Vanessa, who was feeling unwell due to pregnancy nausea, out of the car. He asked softly, "Would you like to go back to your room and rest for a while? I'll have the cook make you your favorite sweet and sour pork ribs."

Vanessa nodded, leaned against him, and walked into the villa.

Liam only remembered me after he had settled Vanessa in.

As he came downstairs, he saw me dragging my suitcase toward the guest room.

That figure looked forlorn, yet it carried a hint of resolute determination.

He suddenly felt a pang of unease and said to the cook, "Make two more dishes that Madam often eats, and prepare three sets of bowls and chopsticks for dinner."

The cook paused for a moment, then nodded. It had been a long time since she had heard Liam call her "Madam".

I went into the guest room, grabbed my ID, and before I could even leave, Vanessa blocked me inside.

Vanessa stood at the door, her eyes full of disdain.

She looked me up and down as if I were a loser: "Clara, I didn't expect you to be so patient. Even after I've made my way into their home and become the laughingstock of the entire upper class, you still stubbornly cling to the Foster family and refuse to leave."

“That’s right. Anyway, you can’t have children. How can a woman without children stand firm in a wealthy family? So she has to shamelessly cling to Brother Liam, right?” Vanessa’s tone was full of sarcasm.

I also had a child once. That time, Liam forced me to donate blood to his friend. I was so weak that I had a massive hemorrhage and fell in the middle of the night, resulting in a miscarriage. When I called Liam, he said, "Vanessa is not feeling well, I have to stay with her." In the end, Gregory took me to the hospital.

Seeing that I didn't speak, Vanessa smiled smugly again: "Clara, guess what? If Liam knew you set fire to the house to kill me and his child, would he kick you out?"

Suddenly, she smashed the wine in her hand and set the curtains on fire, and a great fire broke out.

I had just been discharged from the hospital and was still very weak. I was quickly overcome by the fumes and collapsed to the ground. My hair was slightly singed and smelled burnt.

Just when I thought I was going to die here, I faintly heard the voices of rescuers outside, and a frantic male voice that I knew by heart—

"Let me go! My lover is still inside!"

"Sir, the fire inside is too big, it's too dangerous! You can't go in!"

It's Liam!

The next moment, Liam rushed in through the thick smoke and flames, disregarding everything.

His gaze searched eagerly, then settled on Vanessa.

Without hesitation, he rushed over, scooped Vanessa up in his arms, and said in a tone of relief and lingering fear at having her back: "Vanessa! Don't be afraid, I'm here!"

Throughout the entire ordeal, his gaze never fell upon me, who was not far from Vanessa and was also on the verge of death.

He held Vanessa in his arms and turned to leave.

As I watched his resolute back, an overwhelming sense of coldness and despair spread through me. Finally, I mustered all my strength and sent a message to Gregory.

However, Liam had only taken two steps when Vanessa weakly whispered something in his ear.

Liam paused, hesitated for a moment, and then turned back!