Their excitement was instant, voices dripping with mockery.

"Amanda, if you hadn't spent every waking minute controlling Carter—telling him what he couldn't eat, refusing to let him go out with us—he never would've fallen for someone as sweet and caring as Nora."

"Bet you're regretting it now that he's dumped you, huh? Why don't you get on your knees and beg him to take you back? Who knows, maybe he'll change his mind!"

Laughter and jeers erupted across the room.

A year ago, when Carter and I returned from Doctors Without Borders, I'd shed my usual reserve and made a real effort to fit into his social circle. I'd even broken the Henson family's rule against living together before marriage and moved into the Gilbert residence.

They all assumed I was deeply in love with Carter. He assumed the same.

That was why they'd conspired to set this trap for me.

Right now, Carter was waiting for me to fall apart. Waiting for me to beg him to come back.

He was wrong.

Under every mocking stare in the room, I slipped the engagement ring off my finger and let it drop to the floor like it weighed nothing.

"Congratulations on your marriage, Carter."

"We're done."

The words hung in the air.

Carter, still holding Nora, went rigid. His expression darkened as he stared at me.

"You're doing this on purpose, Amanda. Trying to get under my skin."

"Just because I humiliated you at the engagement party, now you're pretending you don't care."

I looked at him with a cold smile.

"Whether I care or not—"

"You'll find out soon enough."

With that, I turned and walked out of the banquet hall. I pulled out my phone.

"Stop delivering medication to the Gilbert residence."

"And suspend the new drug research project with the Hensons. I'm cutting ties with them. Permanently."

Since I was leaving the Henson family behind, I intended to resign from Henson Medical Center as well.

Three days later, I finished the handover.

And ran straight into Nora, who was at the hospital for a checkup.

She took one look at the cardboard box in my arms and let out a soft laugh.

"Amanda. Three years ago, when you destroyed my reputation and got me blacklisted from every medical school in the country—did you ever imagine you'd end up like this?"

"So what if I never became a doctor? I still managed to drive you out of this hospital."

Looking at that smug, gloating face, it all came flooding back.

Three years ago, Nora and I were both graduate students under the same advisor. But she'd been desperate for quick results and secretly purchased unauthorized materials, mixing them into the drugs we were developing.

The entire batch was ruined.

She pinned every last bit of blame on me—the person who'd been on duty with her that day.

In the end, the police traced the purchase records back to her and cleared my name. But because she'd destroyed nearly six months of the institute's work, she was blacklisted from the field entirely.

Nora, of course, blamed all of it on me.

She'd been looking for payback ever since.

"I have to say, I didn't expect your man to be so easy to reel in. A few staged run-ins and he convinced himself it was fate."

"He complained about you constantly—how you spent every day locked in your lab, how boring you were. Not like me..."

"I can give him the kind of pleasure you never could."

She tugged the silk scarf from her neck, revealing a trail of bruises scattered across her skin.

Her eyes locked on mine, daring me to react.

"I asked Carter how many children he wanted. Guess what he said?"

"He said the more the better. Because he's going to love our children so, so much."

Nora's brows arched in triumph. She was searching my face for devastation, for the cracks she was so sure would appear.

Instead, I smiled.

A big happy family?

They were in for a disappointment.

A year ago, when Carter and I returned from Doctors Without Borders, we'd both gotten full physicals.

Carter's results showed he would never be able to father children. Not in this lifetime.

Once, in the heat of passion, he'd held me close and begged me to give him a baby.

He'd grown up in an orphanage. All he'd ever wanted was a family of his own.

But fate had played the cruelest joke on him.

I didn't want him to lose hope, so I had the hospital keep it confidential.

For the past year, I'd practically lived in the lab, day and night, developing a treatment for his condition.

One more round of therapy, and he would have been cured.

Too bad he'd never deserve it now.

"Is that so? Then I wish you two all the best. May you pop out babies left and right and stay shackled together forever."

Nora flushed with rage and raised her hand.

I was bracing myself when someone grabbed me hard from behind and yanked me backward.

A palm cracked across my face.

Leila Henson's eyes burned with enough hatred to flay me alive.

"Amanda Henson, you stay away from my daughter! If anything happens to her, this family will make you pay!"

I pressed my hand to my throbbing cheek.

Looked into those eyes, brimming with disgust.

All I felt was the irony.

Six months ago, she'd been diagnosed with liver cancer. Not a single suitable donor could be found in all of Crestfield.

So I gave her part of mine. That transplant was the only reason she was still breathing.

But it nearly killed me. Massive hemorrhaging on the operating table. I'd flatlined before they pulled me back.

When I woke up, she held my hand, called me "sweetheart" over and over, and swore that even after they found Nora, she'd love us both equally.

That hadn't lasted long.

Now all she had left for me was revulsion.

"I've already had your name removed from the Henson family registry. From this moment on, you have nothing to do with us!"

"I will never give you the chance to hurt my daughter or my grandchild!"

Watching me stand there, stunned, Nora cradled her stomach with a slow, deliberate hand. "Don't tell me you didn't know, sis? I'm pregnant. Three months along."

Carter stood in the doorway, his expression unreadable.

So that was why he was marrying her.

"Congratulations, Mr. Gilbert."

Before the words had fully left my mouth, Leila's hand swung at me again.

"Flirting with Carter right in front of us? Do you think we're dead?!"

But this time, I didn't let her land it.

I caught her wrist and held it. Squeezed until she cried out.

Nora scrambled into Carter's arms, trembling like a frightened kitten. "Carter, is it because I took the drug development project from her? Is that why she's lashing out?"

"Please, sis, if that's what this is about, just let Mom go. I'll give you back the spot."

Then her eyes locked onto mine, glinting with challenge.

I almost laughed.

They had no idea.

That drug development project was mine. I'd initiated it. The only reason I'd handed it to Henson Pharmaceuticals was to elevate their standing in Southgate City.

But I didn't feel like giving anymore.

Carter's face went white with fury. He seized my hand in a crushing grip.

"Amanda, are you done making a scene?!"

"One of them is the sister whose life you stole for twenty years."

"The other is the mother who raised you. Do you really have to be this aggressive?"

His grip was iron-tight.

And suddenly I remembered the day he proposed. He'd held my hand just like this, fingers locked around mine.

Breathing hard. Eyes full of conviction.

Promising that if we both made it home alive, he'd give me a lifetime of happiness.

I never once doubted his love. But love shifts like wind.

Everything he'd given me, he could just as easily give to Nora.

Carter's brow furrowed, and his voice dropped to something dangerous.

"Apologize to Nora and her mother."

"Or I'll make sure you never work in Crestfield again."

He used to defend me just like that. Blindly. Fiercely. Without asking questions.

Now the same ruthlessness was aimed squarely at me.

"Even though you know they provoked me first. Even though you can see I'm the one who got hit." My voice was steady, each word precise. "And you still want me to apologize. Is that right, Carter?"

Carter pressed his lips into a thin line and said nothing.

Leila took that as her cue. She rushed forward and slapped me across the face, just as she'd been itching to do.

"Amanda, shut your mouth!"

"Don't forget—he's your sister's husband now. What right do you have to say something like that?"

I laughed.

But the tears spilled before I could stop them.

"What right do I have?" My voice cracked. "My sister stole my husband. Mom... I have more right than anyone."

Carter's tone went cold. "She's Nora's mother. Not yours."

I cut him off, my eyes locked on Leila's bloodless face.

"She is mine."

Leila screamed like a woman unhinged. "Stop talking!"

I let out a quiet laugh, even as something inside my chest tore. "After her one-night stand, she gave birth to me and dumped me with my grandmother. She didn't marry Morgan Henson until the following year. It wasn't until Nora went missing at five that she brought me home as a replacement."

Leila's eyes went wide. She stared at me, stunned.

She hadn't expected me to know any of this.

Her composure shattered. She lashed out, shrieking: "Don't listen to her nonsense! After we kicked her out of the family, she lost her mind!"

"She's just a girl I adopted from an orphanage—we have the paperwork to prove it!"

After my grandmother died, I'd been sent to the orphanage.

I never had enough to eat. The older kids beat me daily. I was seven years old but so malnourished I could've passed for four. My body was covered in bruises, every shade of purple and green.

I still remembered the first time my mother saw those marks.

She cried the entire day.

I felt her guilt, her regret. After that, she tried to make up for everything at the Henson house. For years, I truly believed she loved me.

But that love was too fragile.

Too fragile to survive even a few whispered words from Nora.

"Mom." My voice was steady. "This is the last time I'll ever call you that. From here on out, you're on your own."

Leila couldn't meet my eyes.

I smiled bitterly at myself. What did it matter, saying all of this out loud? She didn't care. She never had. She had Nora, and that was enough.

Carter opened his mouth but said nothing.

The moment he wavered, Nora collapsed into his arms.

"Carter, I'm so dizzy... Am I dying?"

Leila's face went ashen, her voice sharp with panic. "Nora has a heart condition—she could have an episode at any moment! Get her out of here, now!"

"This new drug we've been developing targets exactly her type of congenital heart disease. Why do you think her father and I have been bending over backward to secure this partnership?"

"Nora is supposed to join the project team. She absolutely cannot have a setback right now."

In that instant, whatever sympathy had flickered in Carter's eyes vanished. He whipped around and glared at me with pure venom.

"Amanda, you knew damn well Nora was sick, and you deliberately provoked her. If anything happens to her, I will bury you. Do you understand me? I will make sure there's nothing left."

He scooped Nora into his arms and tore down the hallway like a man possessed, searching for a doctor.

The man who once swore he'd protect me for the rest of his life now wanted to destroy me.

I smiled faintly. Calmly wiped the tears from my face.

Then I pulled out my phone.

"If you still want to marry me, be at City Hall in thirty minutes."

On the other end of the line, I heard a voice tight with restraint.

"Done."

Carter Gilbert, this time I'm the one walking away from you.

After we registered at City Hall, I went straight into the sealed lab for the new drug trial. Carter called repeatedly. I didn't answer a single one.

It wasn't until the first phase of testing was complete that I finally stepped out of the laboratory.

And found the Hensons and Carter standing in the lobby of DM Biotech's research center, every one of their faces dark as a storm cloud.

I'd made myself clear—neither the Henson family nor the Gilberts would ever receive our cooperation again. So why the hell were they here?