After my father-in-law, Oswald Leyton, is diagnosed with a complicated form of heart disease, I rush to Germasia for an intensive training on the most advanced medical technique just so that I can operate on him and treat his condition.

When I return home after the training three months later, I gleefully find my husband, Nicholas Leyton, to tell him about the good news that I have mastered the technique.

The plane lands. However, the luxury car that should have come for me turns out to be a broken-down van instead.

Someone throws a sack over my head, and I can hear Nicholas' cold laughter next to me.

"Did you have lots of fun with your boytoy overseas for the last three months, Victoria Rosewood?"

After he and a few other men force themselves on me multiple times, Nicholas slides open the door, planning to abandon me in the wilderness.

"Nicholas! You can't do this to me! I'm pregnant…"

I try to explain myself, throwing myself at him despite all the cuts and bruises on my body. However, Nicholas gets even angrier after hearing that and forcefully shoves me aside.

I feel an excruciating pain coming from my lower abdomen. Warm, sticky blood starts flowing down my thighs.

Then, my vision blacks out, and I lose consciousness altogether.

When I woke up again, I realized that I was in a hospital bed.

My abdomen was still in great pain, the agony crashing onto me like a tidal wave, telling me that my baby was no longer alive.

My husband, Nicholas Leyton, leaned against the chair while tapping his leather shoes against the floor every once in a while.

"You're such a bitch, Victoria Rosewood! How dare you bring back some random bastard's baby after your three months of 'intensive courses' overseas?"

I gripped my sheets tightly until my knuckles turned white.

"This was our child! You knew that I went to Germasia for an intensive course on the latest cardiac surgery technique—"

"Intensive course?"

Nicholas suddenly yanked my hair and flung his phone in my face.

The screen displayed a photo of me and my medical assistant, Dean Houston. The photo had been taken from the back, so only our backs were visible.

"You lived with him for three months! Did you think I was blind?"

Evelyn Richardson, who was standing by the window, began fanning the fire.

"Nick, did you know? When I video-called her the last time, I even saw her assistant drape his coat over her shoulders."

I felt cold dread coursing through my body. Dean had only covered me with my doctor's coat because I had nearly fainted on the floor after a gruelling surgery for a patient who was already knocking on death's door.

Nicholas then slapped the hospital bills in my face and said, "That assistant of yours was also present in your sick father's room the entire time before he died! I see that he's behaving even more like your husband than I am!"

Evelyn pretended to defend me and said, "Don't get mad anymore, Nick. You'll get sick…"

My doctor suddenly coughed awkwardly as he knocked on the door before walking in. Then, he gave me a rather embarrassed look.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Rosewood. We understand that you are very passionate about your lover, but since you're also a doctor yourself, you should have been aware that having intimacy in the first trimester of your pregnancy would have caused a miscarriage. We've done all we could."

I felt my heart sink to the bottom of my stomach.

Yet, Evelyn just burst out in laughter.

"What a relief that it wasn't Nick's baby after all!"

That line spoke mass, and also packed a punch.

The doctor looked confused at first. Then, probably worried that he would soon hear some things he'd rather not know of, he quietly excused himself and left the ward.

Nicholas lost his temper with me when he saw that I was looking very upset.

"Victoria Rosewood! You should be happy and grateful that I got rid of that bastard's baby for you!"

I shake my head fervently with tears in my eyes. "No, you have to believe me. It was our baby! It wasn't—"

I kept wanting to defend myself, but Evelyn interrupted me first.

"You went behind your own husband's back and flew overseas for three months with a random guy. And yet, you're still hoping that Nick would forgive you? What kind of a delusion is that?"

There were still other patients in the shared ward. When they heard what Evelyn said, everyone immediately cast dirty, disdainful looks at me.

"If I were her husband, I'd have divorced her a long time ago."

"And to think that she's a doctor too! Why couldn't she have held herself back?"

"Exactly. What a shameless bitch."

I turn to look at Nicholas with beseeching eyes.

However, Nicholas killed all of my last hopes with a single cold, heartless line.

"You deserved to have lost the baby."

My heart throbbed in pain. Tears wouldn't stop streaming down my face. Yet, Evelyn got even more ecstatic when she watched me like this.

I shook my head weakly, still trying to deny it. "It's not like that. I really didn't—"

"You didn't? Then stay in the hospital for however long you want. Come back only after you've reflected on yourself and what you've just done!"

After that, Nicholas turned and left with Evelyn.

…

I returned home three days later. As soon as I stepped into the house, I saw Nicholas' father, Oswald Leyton, and Evelyn, both sitting on the couch.

When Oswald caught sight of me, the smile immediately stopped on his face. He then spoke in a sarcastic tone, "Done playing with your boytoys? Or did you finally remember that you had a family to come home to?"

Evelyn draped herself over Oswald's arm like she had a very close relationship with him, behaving as though she were the madam of the house.

"Didn't you know that, Oswald? She traveled overseas by herself with another man for three whole months!"

As soon as Oswald heard that, he flew into a huge rage and began yelling at me.

Oswald hollered, "Victoria Rosewood! How dare you sleep with another man behind my son's back?"

Then, he picked up the coffee mug on the table and hurled it in my face. I couldn't manage to duck in time, and the mug hit me squarely on the shoulder.

"Oswald, you shouldn't get too agitated since you have a heart condition. It's bad for your health," I said.

Oswald just got even angrier at that.

"Who did you just say had a heart condition? Nick already explained that the hospital made a mistake with the diagnosis! What, you think that you can curse me to die of a heart attack just because your own father died of that?"

I felt a pang of pain in my chest when he brought up my dad, Alfred Rosewood.

Dad had suddenly passed away due to a heart attack, and back then, the medicines and technology had still been quite limited. This was also the main reason why I had wanted to be a heart surgeon since then.

"I didn't mean it that way, Oswald," I said.

Evelyn just kept fanning the fire to provoke him even more. "Don't get mad at Victoria anymore, Oswald. She probably didn't mean to leave the country for three months and get pregnant with someone else's baby. But hey, at least the baby's dead now. Still…"

Oswald's eyes doubled in pure shock and disbelief. He then rushed over to me to hit me.

"Victoria! You shameless bitch! How dare you!"

He just kept getting angrier by the second. Suddenly, his face turned purple, and he clutched at his heart before suddenly passing out on the floor.

"Dad!"

Nicholas had just entered the house when he suddenly saw Oswald passing out. He immediately flew toward him to hold him up. Then, Nicholas glared angrily at me.

"What did you say to Dad, to make him so angry like this?"

Evelyn pretended to defend me and said, "Don't blame Victoria, Nick. She was just concerned about him."

Nicholas' eyes turned red as he instantly kicked me to the floor.

"Victoria Rosewood! I'm telling you, if anything happens to my father, I will never forgive you!"

I fell to the ground. I could feel my abdomen contracting in pain, and blood began spilling down my thighs once more.

I had just had a miscarriage, and my weak body simply couldn't put up with the strength behind that kick.

I shivered on the ground, pressing my hand against my abdomen as silent tears flooded my face.

…

A few days later, Nicholas came home to me with disgust and fury in his eyes.

"Victoria! How much more shameless can you get? My dad's already hospitalized because of you, and you still have the audacity to seduce other bastards?"

I quickly said, "I've only been home these few days, Nicholas! Don't accuse me of something I never did!"

"Still trying to lie, aren't you? You're not going to admit it until I come up with all the evidence, are you?"

Nicholas grabbed me by my hair again and dragged me over to the laptop.

"Read this with your own eyes!" he hollered.

The screen showed a message that Dean had sent to me. "The things you wanted are ready. I'll be waiting at your office."

The "things" Dean was talking about were the data on all sorts of heart disease patients from the hospital overseas after the intensive training course ended last month.

These data were very important because they were crucial to the success of Oswald's heart procedure. That was why I had asked Dean to compile the data as quickly as possible before giving it to me.

I began defending myself again. However, when I looked up at Nicholas, I suddenly didn't want to speak anymore.

Nicholas was my husband, but he had never once trusted me. So, what was the point of trying to explain and defend myself anyway?

When Nicholas saw that I was keeping quiet, he got even angrier and grabbed me by my wrist.

"So, you're the kind who can't live without a man's rod inside of you, are you? Well, since you want it so much, I'll give you everything you want!"

Then, he shoved me down on the bed and began tearing my clothes off.

I stared at him in disbelief.

"Are you crazy, Nicholas? I've just had a dilation and curettage procedure!"

"Hahaha! So what? That bastard's baby is no more. Let me give you a baby that's of my own flesh and blood instead!"

I kept struggling against him, but it only made him even more aggressive toward me. Also, he was a lot stronger than me, so my attempts at fighting him back were all futile.

In the end, I just closed my eyes in despair, letting him violate my body and do whatever he wanted with me. Tears slipped down my face.

"Nick."

Right at the most crucial moment, Evelyn suddenly barged in on us. She looked at us on the bed, and a hint of jealousy just flashed in her eyes.

When Nicholas saw that it was Evelyn, he finally released me and got up from the bed.

"Weren't you at the hospital? What are you doing here now?"

"Oswald asked me to fetch something for him," she replied.

Nicholas' eyes softened as he looked at her. Then, he turned toward me and roared, "What the hell are you looking at? Get lost!"

I leaned against the cold walls and listened to the soft moans and gasps coming from inside the room, slowly slipping to the floor weakly as my heart shattered into pieces.

…

Nicholas and I were high school sweethearts who fell in love with each other at first sight.

Back then, Dad had already had a heart condition, and it was only with Nicholas' help that Dad's condition began to improve.

Back then, Nicholas would have changed his view of me. He didn't break up with me, and he even got himself busy on my behalf, helping me with everything.

I had felt secretly delighted when he'd helped me during that period.

However, at some point, everything suddenly changed. Nicholas began speaking very coldly and sarcastically to me, and everything he said felt like a knife slicing my heart into pieces.

"You're only dating me because you want me to pay for all your dad's medical expenses. What else would you do for money, Victoria Rosewood?"

I shut my eyes in helplessness.

I should have woken up sooner. Nicholas was no longer the same person who still treated me like I was his world ten years ago.

I felt my heart turning cold with despair. Soon, I made a decision. Once I had performed the surgery for Oswald as payment for what I owed him for saving my dad, I would end things with him.

The hospital called me again and told me that Oswald wasn't doing well and that he had to undergo the heart procedure as soon as possible.

I was anxious and immediately rushed to the hospital at once. However, when I arrived at Oswald's ward, I suddenly overheard his conversation with Nicholas inside.

"Luckily, you stopped all treatment for Victoria's dad back then. Otherwise, we would have racked up even more bills and wasted more money on him."

"It didn't cost much to keep her dad in the hospital. I was just sick and tired of paying for her. I didn't want to waste any more time and effort on her."

Suddenly, I felt a cold chill running down my back.

I never thought that my husband was actually the direct cause of my own father's death!

How ironic was that?

And yet, I had been blind to the fact and still continued loving Nicholas for ten more years.

Something snapped in me. I lost all control and rushed into the ward, grabbing Nicholas by the collar and yelling at him, "Nicholas Leyton! Why did you do that? Why?

"I'd nearly completed my training back then! I could have obtained the certificate to operate on my dad! Dad could have still survived! How could you be such a heartless person, Nicholas? You're a monster!"

Nicholas slapped me hard, and I fell to the ground at once. His facial features were all twisted up in an angry sneer as he glared at me with bloodshot eyes.

"What the hell, Victoria? How could you call that 'intensive training' again? If you were really busy with training, then would you still have the time to make flirty eyes at Evie's first love?

"Why don't you find another excuse for yourself? You keep using the same excuse of going for training and going overseas every time. Would you die if you didn't have his thing in your body the entire time?

"I was the one spending money on your dad's treatment, but you were having fun rolling in the sheets with some other bastard in the meantime! Your dad deserved to die! He was nothing but a liability! He brought the sickness to us! He's the main reason why my dad now has a heart condition!"

I only understood now why Evelyn seemed to hate me so much and kept framing me for no reason. As it turned out, Dean had been her first love!

However, it was too late now.

Nicholas kept inching closer and closer to me. Then, he stomped on my right hand and kept stomping on it with all his might.

The pain was so great that I couldn't even make a sound anymore.

Tears flooded my eyes at once. Nicholas' figure turned blurry in my vision. Now, he looked even more like a monster to me.

I tried to pull my hand back, but it was to no avail. I felt terror spreading through my chest.

My hand!

Suddenly, there was a blood-curdling crack.

Nicholas had broken my hand. I immediately let out an ear-piercing scream.

A nurse heard my scream and came in to check. She was shocked when she saw what was happening and quickly ran in to push Nicholas aside before helping me up.

"Calm down, sir. Let's not solve things with violence."

I looked at my hand, which was stuck out at a weird angle and dangling numbly from my wrist. I couldn't even speak anymore because of the pain.

I was a heart surgeon, which meant my hand was more precious than my life!

Nicholas had completely destroyed me!

Just then, Oswald's heart doctor, Jacob Einstein, walked into the ward with a serious look on his face.

"Mr. Leyton? Your father's heart condition has just worsened. If he doesn't undergo surgery immediately, there's an extremely high risk of him getting a heart attack soon after. And his surgery is going to be a very difficult and complicated one. Currently, there haven't been any cases of successful surgeries in this country as of yet."

Oswald got anxious at once. He tugged at Jacob and asked, "Then, what am I supposed to do? Wait for death like a sitting duck?"

Jacob smiled. "No. Actually, I'm here to deliver some good news to you."

Oswald and Nicholas spoke at the same time. "What good news?"

"The good news is that one of our heart surgeons, Dr. Victoria Rosewood, just attended an intensive training course overseas three months ago, and she also successfully operated on three other patients who were in far worse shape than you.

"The three patients had very successful surgeries and have been steadily recovering ever since. Dr. Rosewood managed to save their lives.

"And Mr. Leyton Senior, since Dr. Rosewood is also your daughter-in-law, you can rest assured that you will definitely recover from your condition with her as your surgeon."