The old man nodded painfully. "I was wrong to keep you tied to this family. Go. Go find a life beyond all this. You deserve a wider world."

Saying that, he hunched over and left with the already dead child in his arms.

The moment the door shut, the tears I had been holding back finally fell.

Years of bitterness and regret came crashing down at once.

My marriage to Jonathan had been arranged by his grandfather. He needed someone to keep his unruly grandson in check. I needed someone to pay for my mom's medical expenses.

It had been a fair trade.

I quit my job and married him.

Over time, I learned about the tragic childhood he rarely spoke of—how he lost his parents at an early age, how he woke up in the middle of the night crying out for “mom” in his midnight dreams.

In those moments, our two broken souls seemed to resonate with one another.

I want to heal his heart.

I want to start a happy family with him.

So, I dedicated myself to being the perfect wife.

I trained tirelessly in the kitchen, hoping to recreate the taste of his mother’s cooking—the only warmth he had ever known.

I traveled from place to place, trying to recreate the little wooden cabin from his childhood memories. I even learned every bed trick to satisfy his needs, hoping it would make him stay.

I thought we would have a happy future together.

But on our wedding anniversary, he proudly walked into a hotel with my best friend in a dignified manner.

Like a madwoman, I ran after him, demanding an explanation.

He scoffed and threw the contract between his grandfather and me in my face.

"Zara, what do you think you are? Just because I entertained you for a few days, you think you are actually Mrs. Richards?"

"You are nothing but a dog my grandfather bought. What right do you have to question me about my affair? If you dare to upset me, I will stop paying for your mom's treatment right this second!"

I felt like I'd been struck by lightning. I couldn't say a single word.

From then on, Jonathan became even more reckless.

When he was done playing with internet celebrities, he moved on to my friends.

He kept testing my limits, again and again.

On one side, my mom needed medical treatment.

On the other, my marriage was rotten to the core. I almost collapsed.

The two forces pulled me in opposite directions, tearing me apart.

One day, lost in thought, I slipped and fell down the stairs.

That was when I found out I was pregnant.

His grandfather pleaded with me, almost desperate.

"Zara, please keep the child. Maybe this could save your marriage. If, after the baby is born, Richards still doesn't change, I promise I won't force you to stay."

With too many emotions weighing on my heart, I agreed.

I tried. I really did. I hadn't thought about trying so hard for so long.

But in the end, I lost everything—my mom, my baby, my marriage, my love.

I wiped away my tears and gazed out of the window at the gray sky.

Maybe the only relief was that both Jonathan and I were finally free.

While I was lost in thought, my phone rang.

It was him.

"Zara, did you go crying to Grandpa again? You ruined my night with Lily! I'm warning you—if you pull something like this again, I will cut off your credit card!"

In the past, I would have begged, apologized and done everything to get back into his good graces.

But now, I just said with an indifferent face.

"Do whatever you want."

He was caught off guard by my indifference. But soon, he sneered.

"I heard you gave birth. Having a child really gives you confidence, huh? But don't forget—I’m the son of the Richards Family. As long as you are still part of this family, I can make your life hell."

I closed my eyes.

I had seen what he was capable of.

The first time I caught him in bed with another woman, I naively went to his grandfather for justice.

But all I got in return was his twisted revenge.

He used my mom against me, forcing me to kneel on the freezing balcony, slapping myself over and over.

That night, I listened to him and his lover making love, their voices echoing through the house, while I shivered until I passed out.

By the time morning came, my face was swollen, my body frostbitten and I was sent to the hospital.

That was the night the last of my love for him died in the snow.

After that, no matter how cruel he was, I pretended not to see.

I endured every humiliation and every insult that Richards did.

I forced myself to stay in the role of Mrs. Richards.

But now, my mom was gone.

My child, too.

This marriage, already a corpse, needed to be buried once and for all.

I hung up the phone without another word.

Then I stood up and contacted my friend at the funeral home to make an appointment for the cremation.

When I returned to the hospital room, I saw Jonathan standing in the doorway.

He wrinkled his eyebrows as he looked at me, then sneered.

"Why don’t you continue acting and pretending to be pitiful anymore?"

He crossed his arms and scanned me with an icy gaze. "Running around so soon after giving birth? Looks like you are in great health. I suppose you won’t need any time to rest and recover."

He stepped closer, his voice dripping with malice. "I have decided to bring Lily to live in the villa. She is young, delicate and doesn’t know how to do housework. Go ahead and process your discharge papers—you can come home and be our maid."

As he leaned in, his lips curled into a cruel smile.

"Your pain expression is the best stimulant for me in bed."

He stared at me dead on, expecting to see my pained and saddened look.

But I didn’t. I met his gaze with an expression as blank as an empty canvas, drained of any emotion.

His amusement faded when he realized there was nothing left for him to destroy. Irritated, he turned to a nearby nurse. "Where is the baby? Boy or girl? Bring it to me."

The nurse hesitated, her face pale with anxiety.

I helplessly said, "Grandpa carried away the baby."

Jonathan looked like he wanted to say more, but his phone rang. The moment he picked up, his face twisted with fury.

Without warning, he slapped me across the face.

"Zara! What did you do to Lily?! If anything happens to her, I swear you will regret it!"

Already weak from childbirth, I stumbled back, crashing into the hospital bed's railing. The nurse rushed forward, steadying me.

"Mr. Richards, your wife just gave birth! If you keep this up, you will kill her!"

But Jonathan didn’t care. He acted as if he hadn't heard. With concern for Lily and without sparing me another glance, he stormed out of the room, his mind solely on her.

The nurse looked at me with a heartbroken face. My pale face, however, didn't have any extra expression. My face was pale, my heart empty. As if all the love and hatred had been consumed in ten years of suffering.

***

After the check-up, the doctors instructed me to rest. It was then that I finally realized the reason why Jonathan had lost his temper.

The baby had died and his grandfather was so grief-stricken, retaliated by using his influence to blacklist Lily from the entire industry. Desperate, she mistakenly thought that I was retaliating. She had run to Jonathan, crying and exaggerating the situation and added more fuel to the fire to complain to him. That was why he had struck me.

But it didn’t end there.

As a gift to Lily, Jonathan revoked my shares in the Richards Corporation and transferred them to her.

To further appease her, he even photographed twenty stars in the sky and titled them with Lily Patricia’s name.

During an interview, Lily flaunted her new diamond ring, smiling sweetly. ‘I don’t consider myself a mistress. If a woman can’t keep her husband’s heart, she has no one to blame but herself.’

She ran a finger over her ring, her voice dripping with mockery. ‘Besides, the current Mrs. Richards married for money. But me? I only love Richards with all my heart.’

The Internet erupted into chaos. Her fans showered her with praise, while others condemned her shamelessness. Some even tagged my account, flooding me with insults, demanding I step aside for her.

I stared at my phone, but instead of anger, I felt… irony.

After so many years, Jonathan's tricks for coaxing girls haven't changed at all.

Thinking back then, Jonathan had done the same thing for me.

After learning that I had grown up poor and never celebrated a single birthday, he showered me with twenty gifts on my twentieth. From a golden locket for my first year to a villa for my twentieth.

He said he wanted to compensate me for the suffering I had endured in the past twenty years.

I still remember that day, he took my hand under the starry sky.

"Zara, I lost my parents when I was young. But from now on, I will treat your mother as my own. I will start the happiest family with you."

I melted in the depth of his eyes.

Naively, I thought that I had finally found someone to share a lifetime with.

But then, love had an expiration date. And once the novelty wore off, he had simply moved on to someone else.

One night, during one of our so-called dates, he left me stranded on a mountain just so he could deliver flowers to his new mistress. That night, I walked for miles down the rugged trails alone. My feet were torn and bleeding and my calves were left with lifelong scars that would be hard to erase—a permanent reminder of the price I paid for loving him.

Looking back, I should have known then.

A selfish and sentimental man like him would never settle for just one woman. Our marriage contract had always been nothing more than his excuse to justify his infidelity.