Shane stood rigidly in place, his face livid, his fist clenched so tightly it creaked.

"Lily, your mother is still—"

Before he could finish, Fleur cut in with a bright, ringing voice.

"Shane, how could she possibly divorce you? She's just threatening you."

That single sentence set off a chain reaction.

Shane hated being threatened more than anything. Without another word, he went through the divorce formalities.

"Lily, if you want to make trouble, I'll play along! Thirty days of the cooling-off period—that's more than enough time for you to regret this and beg me!"

He didn't look at me again. Instead, he took Fleur by the hand and strode away.

Fleur, however, peeked over his shoulder and winked at me, her tone playful as she reminded me, "Today's Thursday. No need to wait for Shane tonight! Bye-bye!"

It was almost laughable. Though I was Shane's wife, I was only allowed to have him on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights.

Because Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday were Fleur's shifts at the divorce counter.

She said she absorbed too much negativity at work during the day, and living alone at night made her prone to dark thoughts.

I had fought and screamed about it before. To keep him, I had even stepped barefoot on shattered glass, sobbing and begging.

Shane hesitated for two seconds, then raised his hand and called an ambulance for me, saying helplessly, "Lily, why are you acting like Fleur now… She's immature. Are you immature too? Sigh, I really have no choice. I can't just watch something happen to her."

He was always helpless. Always had no choice. Always so righteously self-sacrificing.

Fortunately, I no longer wanted to hear it.

When I got home and washed the filth from my body, I predictably came down with a fever.

As I rummaged through drawers for fever medicine, my phone kept chiming nonstop. A string of trending local headlines popped up.

[Most Beautiful Registrar Bravely Exposes the 'Poison King's' True Colors]

[Lily Marshall Steals Someone Else's Man and Climbs to the Top!]

The comment section was exploding with outrage.

[Trash like this should've been called out a long time ago! Fleur did great! Does this count as a public service?]

[Lily Marshall? Oh, I know her. She's the famous 'campus bicycle' at Hallstone University—always stealing her upperclassmen's boyfriends. No idea how she got voted Most Beautiful Couple. Did she sleep with every judge?]

[Disgusting. AIDS and syphilis aren't punishment enough for her. Why is she still breathing—just to pollute the air?]

[The whole family's rotten. Her parents ended up in the hospital? That's called karma.]

Reading those vicious comments, I still couldn't stop myself from trembling.

The next second, my phone and my father's phone lit up at the same time.

"Dad, I finalized the divorce."

"Lily, come home. If the sky falls, I'll hold it up for you."

The tears came before I could stop them. In that moment, I felt completely at peace.

That night, I didn't bombard Shane with calls. I didn't torture myself by staring at the ambiguous photos Fleur sent me until dawn.

I lay down and fell into a heavy sleep.

I never expected Shane to stagger home drunk in the middle of the night.

Passing through the living room, he tripped over two suitcases, and his heart skipped a beat.

But he quickly noticed they were empty and light. A knowing smile tugged at his lips.

He thought it was just another act of mine to make him coax me.

He shoved open the bedroom door and collapsed onto me like a burning mountain.

"Lily, ten years after graduating from Hallstone University, you and I are still the most popular love fairy tale… Even today, an alum left a message asking when our little baby will be born."

My hand froze as I tried to push him away.

Back then, the love story between a third-year finance prodigy and a first-year literature beauty had been blazing and intense.

Shane had poured all the romance a student could muster into courting me, writing no fewer than ten thousand handwritten love letters.

He proposed the moment I graduated and transferred shares of his startup to me outright.

Those first five sweet years turned into endless bitterness the year Fleur returned from abroad with an entire box of letters.

Only then did I realize every love letter he had written me was a copy of the ones he had once written her—only the name had been changed.

With the current public opinion raging, his words about "having a baby" were hardly a blessing.

I blinked hard, forcing back the sting in my eyes, and let out a soft laugh.

"Shane, how do you even have the nerve to say that?"

He leaned closer in a daze, rubbing my cheeks over and over.

"Don't cry, don't cry. Haven't you always wanted a child? I actually—"

The bedroom door flew open. Fleur stormed in, her face twisted with jealousy.

"Shane! You promised me you wouldn't touch her!"

Shane reacted like a drunk cat whose tail had been stepped on—startled and guilty, he toppled backward onto the floor.

Fleur kept her face tight as she hauled him up and dragged him away. When she saw that I didn't stop them this time, her smile finally bloomed, as if she had claimed total victory.

"I told you long ago—without my permission, no one gets to marry Shane."

"Oh, but I should still thank you for playing along in today's little act. Mom already said that once I'm officially promoted, she'll kick you out of the house!"

My mother-in-law had always favored Fleur, suppressing me at every turn. She even put the family heirloom bracelet on Fleur's wrist.

Only in work matters had she ever been dissatisfied—because Fleur had never managed to become a permanent employee.

"Ugh—"

The cloying scent of perfume made me gag uncontrollably.

Alarm bells rang in my head.

Fleur seemed to realize something too. Her body swayed for a moment, then she quickly forced out a smile.

"Stop pretending. You'll never give birth to Shane's child. Don't believe me? Go look at the medicine on his bedside table. See what it really is."

I tore open the vitamin wrapper. Sure enough, inside was the label for male contraceptives.

I clenched the bottle, my thoughts in turmoil.

After the miscarriage, I hadn't conceived again for a long time. I had always believed the problem was mine and endured countless injections because of it.

If I had discovered the truth earlier, I would have been in unbearable pain.

But now, there was only relief left in my heart.

That night, I slept deeply.

When I woke in the morning, I still had a slight fever. I didn't want to wait anymore. I packed only the essentials and prepared to leave.

Shane pushed the door open just as I tossed the fertility charm into the trash.

My heart jumped.

Fortunately, he was in a hurry and didn't think much of it. He grabbed my wrist and dragged me outside.

In the rush, my lower abdomen slammed into the doorframe. A sharp, knife-like pain tore through me.

Shane didn't notice at all. He kept pulling me forward at a run, speaking rapidly as we went.

"Fleur has been exposing a lot of couples' private information lately to win that 'righteous whistleblower' commendation. The people involved are making a scene…

"She's just a young girl. She's thin-skinned. I'm a man—I don't know how to apologize and coax people into forgiving her. Lily, you're always the most careful and steady. Before this reaches higher authorities, go help her apologize!"

My steps faltered. I couldn't keep up with his pace and stumbled to the ground.

Only then did Shane seem to notice how pale I was. He hurried to lift me up. "A-Are you okay?"

The pain in my abdomen grew more savage. I thought of my period, which still hadn't come.

Weakly, I said, "Take me… to the hospital…"

Just as Shane bent to pick me up, Fleur suddenly wrapped herself tightly around his arm, her face twisted with jealousy.

"I told you she was just pretending to be kind! Look—something happens to me, and she fakes being sick!"

"Enough! Do you even want your job anymore?"

For the first time, Shane snapped at her. Then he turned back to me, his eyes full of pleading.

"Fleur is outspoken. This time, she's angered all her coworkers. Take the blame for her. Say it was your idea, that she didn't mean it. You don't even work at that unit anymore—this won't affect you at all, right?

"I'm begging you, okay? Just help her this one more time. I promise she'll remember your kindness and won't—"

I couldn't listen anymore.

I raised my hand and slapped him hard across the face.

The slap landed weakly, with almost no force.

Yet, it seemed to deal Shane a crushing blow. His whole body went rigid.

"Shane, do you even know what her filthy rumors have caused? Three newlywed couples have already demanded their money for the wedding back. One woman has undergone an abortion. Her husband is threatening suicide! And now you want me to go apologize—have you thought about what they'll do to me?"

Shane closed his eyes and let out a long sigh.

"I know, I know… but I have no choice. Fleur is pregnant. How could she bear that kind of danger?

"It's me who wronged you… but in the end, this is also your fault. If you had stopped me earlier from staying at her place on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, none of this would have happened!"

I stared at him in disbelief, my heart still aching despite myself.

I had stepped barefoot on shattered glass and left a scar as big as a bowl, and still I couldn't stop him from going to Fleur's side on those days.

And now he was turning the blame on me.

"Lily, if you hadn't always outshone her, she wouldn't have been under so much pressure, and she wouldn't have made such mistakes! Just help her this once. I'll never bring up the past again!"

"As for the baby—once it's born, it will be registered under our household. It'll call you 'Mom' and call Fleur 'Aunt'. That should be enough, right?"

Fleur still stood there arrogantly, her face full of displeasure.

"This is my child. Why should it call someone else Mom?"

I laughed bitterly, tears spilling from my eyes.

On what grounds did they think I would treasure the product of an affair like a precious jewel?

The moment I started to refuse, furious shouting from the neighboring mediation room nearly tore through the ceiling.

"Where's that foul-mouthed little slut hiding? Drag her out here! I want her to pay for my son's life!"

Only then did Fleur finally feel fear. She dropped to her knees with a thud and cried out to me, "Lily, save me!"

But as she drew close, she whispered with savage excitement, "I gave them your mother's address. If you don't go in there and take the beating, it'll be your dying mother instead!"

My mind reeled. After Shane stopped me from calling the police twice, I knelt on the floor and begged him for the first time, tears and snot streaking my face.

"My mom is in danger! Please don't be so cruel. She's always treated you and Fleur well!"

Shane still didn't believe me—just as he hadn't for the past ten years.

"Why are you dragging your mom into this? She's in the hospital. What could possibly happen to her?

"Hurry and go in. Don't be afraid. You're just apologizing. This is a public place—they won't dare do anything to you."

When I was pushed into the mediation room, like being shoved into a grave, I suddenly laughed in a strange way.

"I'm pregnant too. If I die, it'll be two lives lost."

In the moment Shane froze in shock, Fleur suddenly shoved me inside.

"There you go, playing the victim again! You haven't been pregnant for years since your miscarriage. Besides, I already switched—"

The door slammed shut with a bang, swallowing my fate whole.

For some reason, Shane grew restless and panicked outside. He didn't even hear what Fleur kept muttering until a shrill ring made cold sweat break out all over him.

"Mr. Galingston? Your mother-in-law's condition is critical. Please come to the operating room immediately to sign the consent form!"

Shane's breathing hitched. He lifted his foot, about to rush toward the hospital.

But before he could take a single step, a scream of unimaginable agony rose from behind him and nailed him to the spot.