Midnight in Mayrelle City. Snow filled the sky.

I clutched the divorce agreement in my palm and didn't feel cold at all.

A message popped up on my phone—from my sister.

Just as expected. He had rushed off again to be with her.

Maisie: [Adele, your husband and I have run out of condoms. Can you bring some over for us?]

Maisie: [Carthorpe Hotel, Room 1206. Make sure they're ultra-thin.]

I stared at the photo she sent. Lucius's eyes were heavy with desire.

My heart felt as though a thorn had been driven straight into it.

I went back home and listed every piece of jewelry he'd given me over the years on an auction site.

While sorting through them, I realized that the sapphire necklace from today—he had given me an identical one before.

How perfunctory, Lucius.

After everything was listed, Lucius called.

"Come to the hotel," he said. "There are a lot of reporters downstairs. I don't want to get photographed."

After all these years of marriage, he had always been extremely cautious with his affairs—for the sake of appearances. So cautious that most of his mistresses even resembled me a little.

The last time he was nearly exposed, he'd dragged me in to clean up the mess.

It seemed my compliance today had pleased him—pleased him enough to push his luck.

Lost in thought, I heard him add, "Oh, and pick up some food on the way. Maisie's hungry."

Before I could respond, he hung up.

I laughed bitterly.

The faint trace of expectation I'd felt when I answered the call now seemed utterly ridiculous.

After some hesitation, I still headed for the hotel.

There was no other reason—the legal process wasn't finished yet.

If public opinion spiraled out of control, his losses would become my losses.

Besides, what I wanted went far beyond this.

When I knocked on the hotel room door, Lucius yanked it open and pulled me inside.

In the luxurious presidential suite, my sister sat naked at the edge of the bed, her body covered in countless kiss marks. She displayed herself openly, looking at me with blatant provocation.

Lucius glanced at my empty hands and frowned. "Where's the food?"

"I forgot," I said coldly.

The temperature in the room dropped instantly.

It wasn't until my sister spoke that the silence broke.

"Lucius, don't bully my precious little sister. Just making her come all this way is enough to make her cry for three days."

Lucius raised a brow and lightly pinched her nose. "You're right, sweetheart."

They showed affection openly, right in front of me.

My heart, already numb, still ached fiercely at that moment.

"How much longer?" My voice was icy. "If you keep flirting, the reporters will be gone."

Maisie suddenly burst out laughing.

"They've already left. Oh, no—actually, they were never here to begin with."

I froze, my voice trembling. "What… what do you mean?"

Only then did Lucius look at me, sounding almost helpless.

"Maisie wanted something exciting, so she teased you a bit. What, are you mad?"

Anger surged wildly in my chest, but I forced myself to suppress it.

"Lucius, don't you think you've gone too far?"

He curled his lips. "Too far? I thought after a hundred times, you'd be used to it by now."

He said it so lightly, as if it were nothing at all. Yet it had been a nightmare that wrapped around me for three full years.

I let out a self-mocking laugh. Then I slammed the door and left.

At some point, the blizzard outside had already stopped.

I looked up at the hotel windows above.

Lucius stood there smoking, watching me as I stood by the roadside.

I must have looked like a stray dog.

I wandered across the crosswalk, hollow and dazed.

Suddenly, a car sped straight toward me.

"Adele!"

As my consciousness blurred, I seemed to see him sprinting downstairs like a madman.

When I woke up again, Lucius was sitting beside me.

There was none of the smug satisfaction he'd worn when he toyed with me before.

He looked weighed down by worry.

"Why…" His voice was unsteady. "Why didn't you tell me you were pregnant? If you'd told me earlier, I wouldn't have done this… I'm sorry…"

For a moment, I thought I'd misheard him.

I lowered my gaze to my flat stomach.

Pregnant?

I had once tried to use pregnancy to make Lucius come back to me. No matter how many times I clung to him, no matter how many doctors I saw, it never worked.

Now, when I had finally decided to leave, it came.

Lucius was just as stunned. He gripped my hand tightly.

For the first time, I saw unmistakable guilt on his face.

"The doctor said the baby almost didn't make it," he said hoarsely. "I'm sorry… this is all my fault… Don't worry. I swear I'll never do this again."

"Do what?" I looked at him calmly. "Stop cheating, or stop toying with me?"

A flash of conflict crossed his face. In the end, it seemed to take all his strength to force out two words.

"The latter."

Before I could speak, he continued, "Maisie is very fragile. If I suddenly break up with her, she'll collapse. She is your sister, after all. You wouldn't want her to get hurt, would you? And if she makes a scene, it'll damage both our families' reputations."

I had countless ways to argue back. But seeing how anxious he looked, I suddenly lost all desire to speak.

"You should leave," I said quietly. "I'm tired."

Lucius looked at me deeply.

Then, as he passed a doctor in the hallway, he issued a cold warning.

"Take good care of her. If anything happens to her or the child, I'll shut this hospital down."

This child seemed to have changed how Lucius looked at me. But it couldn't change how he felt. And it couldn't change my decision to leave.

Nine days left… then everything would end.

Over the next five days, Lucius came to the hospital to see me from time to time.

To my surprise, I even saw in him a sense of responsibility—as a husband, and as a father.

In three years of marriage, those five days were the only time we resembled a normal couple.

That illusion lasted until the night before my discharge, when he walked into the ward with Maisie's hand looped through his arm.

"Adele, I heard you're pregnant. Congratulations," she said.

Her tone was light, but her pupils flickered sharply.

I knew that look.

Every time she planned to hurt me, she wore that same expression.

Instinctively, I covered my stomach and spoke in an icy voice. "What are you doing here?"

Hearing the hostility in my tone, Lucius sighed.

"Maisie is just worried about you. Adele, why are you being so aggressive?"

"Shouldn't I be?" I let out a cold laugh. "She's bullied me since we were children. And now, she's even stolen my husband."

"Adele!" Lucius raised his voice. "Stop talking nonsense. Maisie already told me everything. She never tried to bully you. You've been jealous all along—jealous that she's prettier and more popular—so you made up these lies!"

I stared at him in disbelief. "You… what did you just say?"

The next second, I yanked up my sleeve, exposing the ugly scar on my arm.

"Then what about this? Is this fake too?!"

Lucius froze.

Maisie let out a soft laugh.

"I remember that scar. You got it back in school when you went out fighting with some street thugs. And now you want to pin it on me?"

It was as if Lucius had finally found something to cling to.

"Adele! Stop treating Maisie so badly. I'll let the previous rumors slide for the baby's sake," he said, "but from now on, you'd better—"

"Get out! Get out of here!"

I screamed until my throat tore, hurling a vase at Lucius.

Shards slashed his forehead. He covered his bleeding face and muttered under his breath, "Crazy."

That single word struck my heart like a blunt weapon.

After they left, I curled into myself, my abdomen wracked with pain.

When the medical staff rushed in and saw the blood-soaked bed, they turned pale.

"What on earth did Mr. Martin do? He warned us to take good care of his wife, yet he tortured her like this himself."

"Honestly… I even envied her before…"

Amid their murmurs, I was wheeled into the operating room once again.

In that moment, I suddenly wished the baby wouldn't survive.

That way, it would never have to know it had such a terrible father.

When I opened my eyes again, I was met with the radiant smiles of the medical staff.

They excitedly told me the baby was still alive and strong.

But I couldn't bring myself to smile.