“What are you saying? I could forget anyone, but never my little darling.”

“I flew all the way to New York just to buy you this necklace. It suits your fair skin.”

“Alright, go play by yourself for a while. I need to accompany my wife to her prenatal checkup.”

“I’ll come find you after.”

He patted Lily’s backside as he finished speaking.

Looking at the dazzling necklace, I nearly laughed out loud.

Men who claw their way up from nothing are indeed shrewd and calculating.

One set of jewelry, broken apart and handed to so many women.

The earring in my ear burned into my heart.

I casually removed it and tossed it into the trash.

As I turned around, I accidentally overheard a few passersby whispering.

They were curious about the relationship between the three of us.

One leaned in to listen, but was pulled back by a companion.

“Are you crazy? Didn’t you see the woman beside him?”

“That’s… the gambling king’s daughter.”

The gambling king’s daughter.

I hadn’t heard that title in a long time.

Before I could respond, Lily snorted first.

She looked at me with disdain, her face filled with contempt.

“What gambling king’s daughter? She’s just a useless woman kicked out of her family, clinging to the Blackwood household.”

“An old, worn-out hag, only able to keep her husband because of the child in her belly.”

“What’s there to fear? I despise these parasitic old women the most!”

A parasite.

Then what is Seb, who rose to power relying on me?

What is Lily, living off Seb’s support?

When did the thug and the mistress get together?

Was it after my first miscarriage?

Was it when I drank until I had stomach bleeding to help Seb secure deals?

Or when Seb was hunted by enemies, and I was shot protecting him, left unconscious?

It’s been too long. I can’t remember.

I only remember Seb getting together with this seductive nurse while I was hospitalized.

They were like dry wood meeting raging fire, blindingly passionate.

During that time, Lily sent me messages constantly.

I lay alone in my hospital bed, my face deathly pale.

No one was there.

Lily lay in another bed, cheeks flushed.

My husband was holding her.

So many years have passed, and Lily is still so arrogant.

It’s easy to imagine how much Seb indulged her.

But it doesn’t matter.

After I leave, they can be together openly.

What I need to do now is remove the burden in my womb.

Ignoring the two lovers flirting beside me, I walked into the operating room.

Dr. Harper already knew I was pregnant.

Before he could congratulate me, I handed him the report.

“I want an abortion.”

Dr. Harper froze.

After reading the report, his expression grew heavier.

“Mrs. Blackwood, are you truly certain?”

“The baby is healthy. You’ve tried for so many years—this finally happened…”

My first miscarriage was when I was twenty.

We had just come to the city, poor and struggling.

We lived in a basement in Harbin, unable to afford even a thick winter coat.

I was used to New York’s damp heat and couldn’t endure the bitter cold.

I collapsed from the cold while delivering food to Seb.

When I woke up, the child was gone.

My body was damaged as well.

Back then, I was young. With proper care, I could have recovered.

But we were too poor.

Busy making money. Busy staying alive.

Just when my career was finally starting to improve,

I was busy catching my husband cheating, busy dealing with his mistress.

Before and after that, everything dragged on until now.

In the beginning, Seb was penniless. He knelt beside my bed and said to me,

“Charlie, I’ll make something of myself and repay all the suffering you’ve endured.”

Later, Seb rose to success. Holding his mistress, he looked at me and said,

“Charlie, I know everything you’ve done for me.”

“I promise no woman will replace you, and none of them will have a child before you.”

“Everything I have will belong to our child.”

Now…

I look out the window at the two people clinging tightly to each other.

I shake my head and smile bitterly.

“Let’s get rid of it. I’m returning to New York soon, and a child would be inconvenient.”

“Besides, Seb smokes, drinks, and lives a chaotic life.”

“How could a child born under such circumstances be healthy?”

My father built his fortune on my mother’s connections.

After becoming successful, he kept countless mistresses.

That’s why I longed so desperately for genuine love.

But the first time I caught Seb in bed, he showed no remorse.

Instead, he scolded me self-righteously.

“Charlie, what’s wrong with you?”

“Your father had more than one mistress. What’s wrong with me having some fun?”

“Think about what your mother endured!”

“You grew up watching all this. Why haven’t you learned how to be a proper, wealthy wife?”

He used my deepest wounds to stab me.

At that moment, I knew.

Our love was already over.

But because of that ten-year promise, I couldn’t leave Seb.

I could only watch as he humiliated my dignity and trampled my feelings.

The wedding I fought for over many years became a prison.

Love once engraved in my heart became his weapon.

I’ve suffered enough from family and love.

Rather than let this child repeat my fate,

I chose to end this irreparable marriage myself.

When I opened my eyes again, the surgery was over.

The child I had longed for for so many years, along with our love,

turned into a pool of blood, flushed away.

Watching the city sink into darkness, I suddenly wondered.

How did Seb and I end up like this?

Was it because of Lily?

Or because of… that incident?

It no longer mattered.

Whatever the reason.

Betrayal and hurt were undeniable.

I hailed a taxi, planning to go back and pack my things.

While waiting, I saw Seb at the intersection. He and Lily walked hand in hand through the crowd.

Their sweet intimacy looked like a young couple deeply in love.

Lily kissed Seb on the cheek and smiled.

“I had my checkup today. The baby is healthy.”

“The doctor says it’s a boy. You’ll have a son in five months!”

Seb smiled.

He gently took off his coat and placed it over Lily.

“You silly girl, you don’t even know how to take care of yourself while pregnant.”

“I bought a villa in the south. Let’s move there together.”

“The winters in Harbin are too cold. I’m afraid you won’t manage.”

Then Seb kept talking.

He talked about precautions during pregnancy.

He talked about postpartum care.

He said he would do everything possible to protect the child.

Those words, carried by the cold winter wind,

slowly, slowly tore at my heart.

At last, Seb took Lily’s hand.

He hung the Love locket I had prayed for step by step around Lily’s neck.

“I’ve named our child Evie Blackwood.”

“Reunion, happiness, fulfillment.”

Evie… Evie…

That was the name I gave my first child.

The deepest pain of my life.

Back then, guilt from the miscarriage left me unable to eat or sleep.

To help me move on, Seb prayed with me at St. Cecilia Chapel for this name.

I hoped the child would ascend peacefully.

I hoped he would remember he was born of our love.

I hoped he would remember that Seb and I once truly loved each other.

But now, Seb gave that name to another woman.

He repaid the debt he owed me and our child by raising a mistress’s child.

How absurd. How pitiful.

I took a deep breath, forcing myself to look indifferent.

But Lily’s sharp eyes caught me.

“Seb, your auntie is here to check on you again.”

“Some people really shouldn’t be trying to get attention here, don’t you think?”

She toyed with the love locket, speaking with disdain.

“That useless child of yours—does it even deserve to be compared to the baby in my belly?”

“Instead of crying and making a scene, you should go home and rest.”

“At your age, even if you conceive again, there’s no guarantee you’ll deliver.”

“If you lose this child, Seb won’t even look at you again!”

She was provoking me.

Hoping I would miscarry again and lose the child.

But what she didn’t know was…

The child was already gone.

I no longer needed Seb’s love.

After dawn, I would leave the city.

Then Seb and I would return to our original paths.

He would become that penniless hoodlum again.

I gave Seb one last look, without a trace of regret.

“Seb, you’ll regret this.”

“Because you’ve forgotten who you owe everything to.”

Seb wanted to speak, but Lily stopped him.

He looked again and again, but in the end, didn’t follow.

Moonlight spilled like water, casting a silver-gray sheen over the ground.

I dragged my exhausted body alone to the harbor mouth.

In the final hours,

I settled the nanny’s wages and had her dispose of my and Seb’s old belongings.

Then I waited alone at the harbor for dawn.

As the sun rose, a private jet landed before me.

“Miss, I’ve come to take you home.”

The plane flew over the city, freezing all past memories into nothing.

From that moment on, Seb and I were separated by opposite sides of the strait, never to meet again.

…Seb jolted awake from a nightmare.

He remembered the sorrow in her eyes last night, unease flooding his heart.

He grabbed his phone, intending to call.

But his gaze froze on the trending headlines—

“Gambling King’s Daughter Marries Shipping Tycoon.”

“New York Business Leaders Withdraw Investment, Blackwood Group Faces Heavy Losses.”