It was my daughter's birthday, and Ferris Delgado rushed out the door again to take care of his deranged sister-in-law.

I'd spent five hours cooking. He didn't touch a single bite.

"Noreen Winfield, you know how Bess is. She's not right in the head, and I'm worried something might happen to her. I'll make it up to you and Joy tomorrow, okay? We'll do the birthday then."

After his older brother died, Bess Summers had latched onto Ferris, calling him "honey" day and night, convinced he was her late husband.

She'd even had a child with him.

When I was in a car accident, Ferris abandoned me without a second thought, claiming he needed to help Bess with her breast engorgement.

We'd divorced seven times. Every single time, he got on his knees and begged me to take him back.

But this time, I was done forgiving.

I looked at my daughter Joy Abbott's disappointed little face, pulled out the divorce papers, and stepped in front of him.

"You can leave. But sign these first."

Ferris snatched the papers from my hand, his eyes bloodshot. Without so much as a glance at the terms, he scrawled his name and hurled the document at my face.

"How many times are we going to do this? You think it's funny? Still using divorce to threaten me? You're pathetic enough that you'll come crawling back in a few days begging me to remarry you anyway!"

I'd given him eight chances. All I had to show for it were eight divorce certificates.

But he didn't know.

This time, I meant it.

He also hadn't noticed that the agreement he'd just signed gave him nothing. Every asset, every cent, gone.

……

Pages of A4 paper scattered through the air. Joy hid behind the table, trembling.

Ferris didn't spare her a shred of sympathy. He looked at us both with undisguised contempt.

"I've told you a thousand times. Our family wronged Bess. I owe it to my brother to make it up to her."

"Can you stop being so paranoid for one damn day?"

I stared at him, my expression hollow.

"Is that so? And her having your baby counts as making it up to her too?"

His hand shot up, palm open, ready to strike. But at the last second, his fingers curled into a fist that shook at his side.

"For our daughter's sake, I won't hit you."

"But if you say one more word against Bess, I swear to God I won't hold back."

Three-year-old Joy didn't understand what was happening between us.

All she knew was that her father was leaving on her birthday without looking back. She ran after him and grabbed the hem of his pants, her small fingers white-knuckled.

Ferris kicked her away without hesitation.

"You're just like your mother. I said I'd make it up to you. Are you too stupid to understand?"

Seconds ago, he'd claimed he was sparing me for our daughter's sake. Now he was the one hurting her.

His phone rang.

The hardness in his face melted instantly, replaced by something soft.

On the other end, Bess's voice came through, fragile and frantic between sobs.

"Honey! Honey! Where are you?!"

"I'm so scared. The baby won't stop crying. Please come home. Please?"

Ferris shook his head, anxious and helpless at once.

"Shh, it's okay, sweetheart. I'm right here. I'm coming home now."

Every gentle word was a knife twisting deeper into my chest, carving me open until there was nothing left but a raw, bleeding wound.

The door slammed shut. The sound echoed through the empty room.

He was gone.

He used to talk to me that way.

If he was even an hour late getting home from work, he'd worry I was upset.

"Hey, sweetheart, I had to stay late, but I picked up a little cake for you. Wait for me, okay?"

Whenever he traveled for business, he'd call me and we'd talk for hours about nothing. On stormy nights when thunder rattled the windows, he'd stay on the line telling me fairy tales until I fell asleep.

Until the day of my accident.

Ferris ran seven red lights racing to get to me.

But the moment he lifted me into the car, Bess's breasts became engorged.

Her voice on the phone, calling him "honey" over and over, made him itch to go to her.

He set me back down on the ground without a moment's hesitation.

"Bess is in pain from the engorgement. I'm the only one who can relieve it."

"If you come with me, she'll lose it and throw a jealous fit. I already called you an ambulance. Just stop making a scene."

I lay there watching the blood pool between my legs and his retreating silhouette, crying so hard I couldn't breathe.

That day, we lost our first child.

That same day, I learned that woman was carrying his baby for me—a boy. The Delgado family treated him like a treasure.

So when I gave birth to Joy later, no one in his family even wanted to look at her.

Every memory sharpened into a thorn buried deep in my chest.

I stared at the divorce papers in my hands and felt nothing but relief.

If Ferris had moved on, then I wished them well.

I picked up my phone and placed a delivery order to their door. Twenty boxes of condoms. Seven flavors.

That should be enough.

A second later, a text came in from my mysterious contact.

"Done?"

I sent him a photo of the signed divorce agreement.

"Walked away with nothing—except the majority stake in Delgado Corp."

A voice message came back. Through the voice distorter, the man's tone was cold and ruthless.

"Well done. And as I promised—I'll make sure you and your daughter want for nothing overseas. And I'll make sure Ferris Delgado's reputation is destroyed."

That night, Joy spiked a high fever.

When Ferris kicked her, her forehead had struck the corner of the table. There'd been no symptoms at first, but gradually, blood began seeping through.

I named her Joy because I wanted her to grow up happy.

But all I'd ever brought her was pain.

Before she lost consciousness, she was still clutching the hem of my shirt. "Mommy, is Joy a bad girl? Why won't Daddy celebrate Joy's birthday?"

Even now, my little girl believed it was her fault that her father had stormed out.

I choked back tears and called Ferris. He hung up. Again and again.

I couldn't wait for him. I scooped Joy into my arms and rushed toward the garage, but the bodyguards closed in around me.

"Mrs. Delgado—no, I'm sorry, Ms. Winfield. You're no longer a member of the Delgado family. You don't have vehicle access."

Joy was burning hotter in my arms. The wound on her forehead throbbed visibly.

She was only three. 103.5 degrees. I was terrified the fever would cause permanent damage.

Finally, on the tenth call, Ferris picked up. His voice was lazy, dripping with the satisfaction of a man freshly sated.

"What, crawling back to me already? Regretting it?"

"You animal! Joy has a fever! If anything happens to our daughter, I will hate you for the rest of my life!"

Glass shattered on his end. But his composure returned almost instantly.

"A fever? You'd use our own daughter just to trick me into coming home? You're out of your mind."

He hung up without mercy.

So that was what I was to him.

Ten years of love, and it couldn't compete with a woman who waltzed in halfway through.

I had no choice. I held my daughter and ran.

The nearest hospital was five miles away.

By the time I tasted blood in the back of my throat, I'd made it. I placed Joy in the doctor's arms.

Only when her temperature came down did I let myself collapse into sleep.

The next morning, before I even opened my eyes, a bucket of ice-cold water crashed over my head.

Someone seized me by the collar and slammed me against the wall.

"Noreen! What the hell did you do to Bess?!"

My back cracked against the concrete, and the taste of copper flooded my mouth again.

"You knew Bess was allergic to strawberries, and you deliberately sent us strawberry-flavored condoms! She used one last night and had a reaction!"

I almost laughed. The absurdity of it was staggering.

There was a time when the Delgado family was on the verge of bankruptcy. I'd ridden on the back of his bicycle. I'd shared cold bread rolls with him for dinner. At our poorest, two grown adults squeezed onto a four-foot bed together.

And through all of it, I never once thought about leaving him.

He used to hold me at night, tears falling because his heart ached for me.

"Noreen, why are you so good to me? I will never let you down. Not in this lifetime."

I looked into his eyes now. There was nothing left of the affection he'd once had for me.

So that's how cheap his love had been all along.

I burst out laughing, tears leaking from the corners of my eyes.

"That's right! I did it on purpose! What are you going to do about it?!"

Ferris's hand clamped around my throat, squeezing hard. His eyes were bloodshot.

"Last night, to punish you, I cut off Joy's medical resources. It was Bess who begged me to restore them."

"She saved your daughter's life, and instead of thanking her, you use something this vile to frame her?!"

"You're going to apologize to Bess right now. This entire hospital belongs to the Delgado family. If you don't apologize, I can't guarantee what kind of medication Joy will be getting."

Ferris dragged me to Bess's room. He was about to force me to my knees when a doctor walked in through the door.

"These top-performing antiallergy medications are newly developed. They haven't been fully vetted for safety. We may need human trials."

Ferris glanced at me, his gaze cold and flat. "Use this woman for the trials."

"On what grounds?!"

The doctor turned back to Ferris. "However, these medications are applied to intimate areas. For accurate efficacy results, the best method is direct human application."

A dozen vagrants filed into the room. The stench rolling off them was overwhelming. They looked eager.

Ferris knew I was a germaphobe. He was doing this to break me.

I shrank into the corner, trembling so hard my teeth chattered.

His voice was ice. No mercy. "All of you. Go ahead."

"Ferris, you're out of your goddamn mind!"

I tried to fight back. The next second, his assistant shoved a phone screen in my face—a live security feed.

On the monitor, a doctor held a syringe of HIV-contaminated blood inches from Joy's IV line.

"Don't touch my daughter!"

"Fine! I'll do it... Are you satisfied now, Ferris?"

They cleared the room. The vagrants pulled down their pants one by one, exposing themselves. The smell was unbearable.

They smeared the medication on themselves and lunged at me.

I struggled. I fought. In the end, they pried my legs apart and took what they wanted.

They rocked and thrust on top of me. The pain hollowed out my vision. Blood ran freely between my thighs and wouldn't stop.

I didn't know how much time passed before a voice came from the doorway.

"Mr. Delgado, we have results. This antiallergy medication is the most effective."

The men finally withdrew. Some unknowable stretch of time later, Bess strolled into the room.

She stood over me, looking down.

"I was never mentally ill. And I was never allergic to anything. Too bad your body couldn't hold on to a baby, huh?"

"Ferris and I are getting married soon. Make sure you come as the maid of honor!"

When I didn't respond, she crouched down and seized my face, her nails digging into my cheeks. "Aw, and what a shame about your little girl. She was so hard to come by, and now she's not going to make it. I really do pity you."

I glared at her with every ounce of hatred I had left.

"What do you mean?"

She held up a video. The doctor hadn't spared Joy at all.

A full syringe of liquid was pushed into my daughter's IV line. Joy's scream ripped through the speakers—raw, agonized, inhuman for a child so small.

"HIV. She won't last long. Better go say your goodbyes!"

"You animal! I'll kill you!"

I snatched a syringe off the bedside table and lunged at her. A brutal grip caught my wrist mid-swing.

Then a backhand cracked across my face.

"You're going after Bess again?!"

"You love me this much? You'd hurt her over and over just to win me back?"

Bess collapsed to the floor and scrambled behind Ferris, cowering, her voice a pitiful whimper.

"Honey, I just invited her to our wedding. She hates me so much she tried to destroy my face!"

Ferris wore the expression of a man who'd already figured everything out.

"I know you're jealous. The wedding is just a formality. I'll withdraw the divorce application before the cooling-off period ends."