My fiancée, Loretta Keith, who I had not seen for a year, hosted a welcoming banquet for me even though she was six months pregnant.

Everyone knew that she was my fiancée and everyone watched with a smile as her assistant, Rico Hathway, busied himself with serving tea and water for her.

Then he looked at me mockingly. But Loretta ignored my doubts and my dark face.

She let Rico hold her waist and walk among the crowd to toast and declare his sovereignty.

What they were wearing were obviously custom-made suits of the same color. For the people who did not know, they would think that that day was their wedding day.

It was not until the end of the banquet that Loretta seemed to remember me and wanted to give me an explanation, “Tyson, don't be so gloomy. Rico's mother is dying. Her last wish is to hold her grandson.

“You know, Rico just graduated not long ago and I'm the only one he can rely on. 

“Don't think too much. This is from a test tube. Rico and I are innocent.”

I stared at Rico's restless hands on Loretta's waist and could not help but sneer, “Very innocent indeed.

“Mrs. Keith is so cheap that you can even ask any Tom, Dick, or Harry to give birth to a child for him.”

——

This was the first time I humiliated Loretta in public.

Although Loretta's face looked very unhappy, a rare trace of guilt flashed across her face.

Rico seemed to have just noticed something and loosened Loretta's waist in a pretentious manner.

“Mr. Chapman, please don't quarrel with Mrs. Keith. It's all my fault. I have little experience and don't have many friends around me, so I can only ask Mrs. Keith for help.

“There are too many people this night and Mrs. Keith is in her advanced period, so it is always inconvenient for her to move around.

“Don't worry, I will definitely not compete with you for Mrs. Keith in the future.”

Rico kept looking at Loretta with guilty eyes and Loretta's already small amount of guilt disappeared in an instant.

“Tyson, please don’t be so stubborn and conservative like that. We are a liberal people in liberal country. What's wrong with hugging each other's waist? 

“You were supposed to be by my side at night, but what happened? What were you doing?”

I laughed out of anger and snapped, “Oh, you 're pregnant with someone else's child and I still have to protect you?”

Loretta's tone became impatient as she responded, “You don't understand what I'm saying? How many times do I have to explain it?”

“Explanation? My fiancée is pregnant with another man's child. Can this be solved with an explanation? Should I accept this explanation generously?

“Even if you get an abortion right now, you still can't get over this!”

After a whole night of being suppressed, my tone of voice could not get any better and the pitch rose unconsciously.

Loretta was stunned.

Rico knelt down in front of me and said, “Mr. Chapman, please don't ask Mrs. Keith to abort this child. I really have no other help, so I asked Mrs. Keith to help me.

“What's more...” he leaned toward me and whispered, so that only he and I could hear the rest of Rico's words. “...in order to get pregnant with my child as soon as possible, Mrs. Keith aborted her previous child.

Her previous child? I kept thinking back to the time when Loretta told me the good news of her pregnancy one day after I went abroad and the next day, she told me the bad news of her miscarriage.

I was in a foreign country at the time and I immediately bought a plane ticket to come back and be with her, but she cried and forced me to finish my work first.

She said, “I have lost my child and I cannot destroy the inheritance that my father has entrusted to me.”

We all understand how critical this project was to the Keith Family company. Failure would mean the end.

So, I turned my guilt towards Loretta into motivation for work and I completed the project that was originally scheduled to take one and a half years in just one year.

I grabbed Rico by the collar.

“Explain it clearly!”

Faced with my anger, Rico did not mention a word about what he had just said.

He just pulled my hand away, rolled and crawled to hide behind Loretta and explained in a tepid manner, “I just said that Mrs. Keith's health is not good. The doctor said that she has a coagulation disorder and is not suitable for multiple abortions.”

A typical reason for a cheater!

“Is what he said true, if you aborted our child in order to get pregnant with this one?”

Rico and Loretta's expressions all changed because of my frankness.

Loretta's shocked eyes moved between Rico and me and Rico's panic turned into innocence in an instant.

“I'm a bad mouth. I said abortion instead of miscarriage,” Rico interrupted me. 

I could not help but cursed him, “Do you think I am a fool? Stop pretending and admit it now, you bastard!”

“That's enough!”

I realized that Loretta’s scolding was directed at me.

I then realized that Loretta was no longer the little woman who hid behind me and begged me for protection.

The one who stood in front of me was a different Loretta, until it felt unfamiliar to me.

“So what? Rico's mother won't last long. Can't you have a little sympathy?

“If you hadn't ended the project early, why would I beg for your understanding now?”

I was stunned by her words.

So, was that mean, if I came back later, she could have the baby and hide it from me completely?

They really thought of me as a fool who was easily fooled.

At that moment, I suddenly lost the strength to ask for an explanation.

My silence made Loretta think that she was right.

She continued, “The child is innocent. Just think of it as us doing good.

“It's not good for you to worry too much. The project has been completed. As long as you don't make a fuss, you will still be the son-in-law of the Keith Family.

“Don't worry, I'm already preparing for our wedding. You can take a couple of days off and hand over your position in the company to Rico. Just wait for the wedding.”

Did I hear that correctly? Did she really want to discard someone when they were no longer needed?

When Loretta's father passed away, only Loretta, known as the stupid beauty, took over the Keith Family.

Loretta was busy dealing with the issue for less than a week and was almost kicked out by the board of directors.

In the end, it was my efforts as her boyfriend that saved the situation and allowed Loretta to continue to hold a position on the board of directors.

But I had the Chapman Family behind me and the board of directors did not trust me at all, fearing that I would use this opportunity to infiltrate the Keith Family and eventually changed Keith to Chapman.

The mock and sneer by the board of directors made Loretta exhausted. In the end, she cried and begged me if I could give up inheriting the Chapman Family and become a member of the Keith Family. 

The Chapman Family had no shortage of sons, but the Keith Family was in urgent need of a pillar. What was more, Loretta, who was a young girl at that time was overwhelmed with protectiveness, so I agreed.

I even shouted at my father in a fit of rage, “The Chapman Family can be carried on by my brother, can’t it? If you still can’t let go, then just pretend you never had a son like me!”

For that rebellion, I was beaten nearly half to death under the guise of family discipline. 

The marks left by the cane on my back still throb with pain, a constant reminder of how deep the scars of expectation could run.

As I came to Keith, those directors who made things difficult for Loretta back then had either retired or been kicked out by me through various means.

With the addition of this project, as long as there were no major directional errors, the Keith Family would be able to be active in the business district for the next ten years.

I stared at Loretta's face, which showed an attitude of superiority that I had never seen before.

I felt sad. Was it because of the situation that people have changed so much in this year or was this her true face?

I tore off the work badge on my chest and threw it to Rico.

“Why do we need to hand it over? You came prepared today, right?

“During my absence, hasn't Rico taken over the General Manager's duties?”

I was out of reach abroad, but I still heard some things. My subordinates who were originally loyal to me were forced away by Rico for various reasons.

I also argued with Loretta about this, but Loretta always promised me to comfort my subordinates one second and turned a blind eye to Rico's actions the next second.

Rico took my work badge in a panic and the pride in his eyes almost overflowed.

Loretta frowned, ignoring the hidden meaning in my words and just said, “That's it, you've worked hard these years.”

After a pause, she seemed to be giving me a sweet date. “Let's move the wedding forward to next Saturday.”

Wedding? How much I was looking forward to it before returning home, how disappointed I was then.

I stared at her belly. My fiancée was pregnant with someone else's baby. I would be a fool if I did not cut my losses in time.

Loretta seemed to think that I just minded her wearing a wedding dress with a big belly. She was stunned for a moment and then said, “Don't worry, I will let the receptionist take my place. It's just a ceremony. As long as you don't mind, your bride will still be beautiful.”

I could not help but laugh out loud and sneered, “You are still so considerate.”

The woman I was getting engaged to was still pregnant with another man’s baby. So, the one who I would get married to was the fake one to replace her for a beauty.

What a convenience.

I was about to say something else when Rico held my work badge and said, “Congratulations, Mr. Chapman. You can finally put down your burden and be a good husband.”

Then he came to me quickly. The provocation and desire in his eyes almost overflowed.

I just heard him patting my shoulder with gnashing teeth and continued in a low voice, “From now on, you will serve Mrs. Keith at home and I will serve Mrs. Keith outside. Who do you think Mrs. Keith likes it better in bed?

“Looking at my performance this year, Mrs. Keith is very satisfied. You have to work hard!”

After saying that, he smiled and returned to Loretta’s back.

He even picked up his phone and shook it at me.

I opened my phone and saw the picture sent by Rico, showing Loretta with flushed cheeks leaning against Rico, both of them naked.

The dense kiss marks on Loretta's chest showed how fierce the battle was.

Haha, what a waste of time. I never believed a word of this test tube nonsense.

I would not open the picture and question Loretta, “Didn't we agree on a test tube?”

It was meaningless.

But should I be angry or sad?

No, I calmed down.

A mistress who did not want to be promoted was not a good mistress. It was normal that Rico did not want Loretta and I to get married.

After reading it, I gave him a cold smile.

He was stunned, too.

I did not get mad and could not let him continue the show.

He must be very disappointed.

I opened the message sent by Loretta’s mortal enemy, Miriam Hurst, sent me before I returned to the US.

The last message she sent was, [The storms in the US are very strong, so when you take shelter from the rain, remember that my house is very big. It would be even better if you can stay for a long time. You don't need to marry into my family, I will marry you instead.]

Miriam had openly expressed her love many times over the years, but these words seem inexplicable but contain a mystery.

I replied, [If you can come to the hotel to pick me up and take shelter from the rain within ten minutes, it will be as you wish.]

As soon as the message was sent, Miriam replied, [Three minutes!]

The complicated emotions had found a place to rest.

I looked up at Loretta and said sarcastically, “I don’t want to bring so much trouble for you to choose the bride for a wedding.

“Don't worry, just take good care of your pregnancy. I will take good care of my wedding, so you don't have to worry about the bride.”

Loretta frowned without any surprise, “What do you mean? I have already moved up the wedding to make you happy. Don't be so sarcastic.”

I curled my lips into a smile and explained lightly, “You don't think I'll still marry you even though you're pregnant with someone else's child, do you?”

 “From the moment you showed up with your bulging belly, my bride had already been replaced in my heart.

“After today, we will go our separate ways.”

Loretta listened to what I said and I did not see a trace of sadness on her face, but more of helplessness, as if I was the one who did something wrong.

“Tyson, many people know about our relationship. I don't want to make it too bad. I can still afford your marriage. As long as you behave yourself, you will definitely have a meal in the Keith Family in the future.

“After I give birth to this child, I will ask you for another child. I won't let you down.”

These three views drove me crazy.

If I did not believe in science, I would have suspected that Loretta had a replacement. Since the Loretta who loved me so much before disappeared without a trace. 

Seeing that I did not say anything, she said impatiently, “Stop making trouble. This is already a good result. You are no longer the young master of the Chapman Family. Without me and the platform of the Keith Family, you are nothing.”

I never knew that in Loretta's eyes, my wholehearted help was actually because I relied on her influence to get to where I was today.

And the inheritance rights of the Chapman Family that I gave up for her became a means for her to control me.

“Oh, don't bother yourself. I can afford to support my fiancé!” Miriam's voice sounded at the right time and Loretta's arrogant attitude began to crack.

Miriam pounced on me openly and I dodged sideways as usual.

Under Loretta's incredulous look, I unceremoniously hugged my fiancée in my arms.