The day I found out I was pregnant, Lawrence James came clean.

“I've been cheating on you. With your secretary.”

“She's younger, you know? More adventurous. Exciting.”

“Not like you, raised with all those rules and etiquette. It's refreshing.”

I stood there, the lab report crumpling in my fist.

Lawrence looked like a man who had finally set down something heavy. His tone was so casual it was almost cruel.

“But don't worry. I'll be a good father.”

“Just don't think that being pregnant means you get to chain me down.”

“A man needs a little excitement on the side. It's normal.”

I laughed.

Lawrence married me and actually believed that made him one of us?

I already had an heir. The family legacy belonged to me and this child.

As for who the father was, how much did that really matter?

——

I glanced down at the wrinkled lab report in my hand.

“How long has this been going on?”

Lawrence hesitated.

“Six months.”

Elise Henson smiled and added：

“Longer than that, Mr. James.”

“The first time was the night Pauline Swanson left for the rural highlands.”

“You were drunk. You held me and said Pauline was perfect in every way, except she was always so stiff.”

Something clenched around my heart like a fist squeezing shut.

I had gone to the rural highlands for Lawrence. To hike the pilgrim trail and pray for his well-being.

Forty miles on foot. Millions of prayers for his peace and happiness.

And while I was gasping through altitude sickness, head splitting with pain, Lawrence had been tangled up with someone else.

Elise tilted her head and looked at me, her eyes bright with undisguised triumph.

“Mr. James, didn't you say that morning that I knew all the right moves?”

I stared at Elise's familiar face and couldn't find a single word.

Ten years ago, I had gone to the mountains for a charity trip.

She didn't go by Elise Henson back then. She was just Little Elise.

Skin and bones, too weak from hunger to even cry.

I paid for her medical treatment. I put her through school.

After she graduated, I brought her into the company and made her my secretary.

I taught her how to write emails, how to handle clients, how to pin her hair up when she wore an evening gown.

At a company gala, she had raised her glass with tears brimming in her eyes and said：

“Without Pauline, I wouldn't be the person I am today.”

So this was how she repaid me.

Covered in marks, sitting on my husband's lap.

Lawrence noticed me staring at Elise and frowned.

“Pauline, this doesn't have much to do with her.”

“I'm the one who caught feelings first.”

Elise's eyes turned red on cue, as if she'd just heard the most romantic confession of her life.

“Mr. James……”

I nearly laughed from the sheer disgust.

Lawrence looked at me and softened his tone.

“Don't blame her. Elise is young. She's innocent.”

“She's not like you, groomed since birth to do everything the proper way.”

“Being with her is easy. And exciting.”

He paused there.

His gaze finally landed on the lab report in my hand.

“Pauline, if you're pregnant, I'll take responsibility.”

“I'll be a good father.”

“Elise won't threaten your position as Mrs. James.”

He sounded like he was negotiating a deal he had already settled in his head.

His tone was almost reasonable.

“But don't think that being pregnant means you get to tie me down.”

“In your condition right now, it's not exactly convenient.”

“I can't just hold it in forever.”

Elise lifted a hand and touched the necklace at her throat.

That was the graduation gift I had given her.

She had told me she was nervous about attending her first company dinner, afraid she'd embarrass herself.

I had clasped it around her neck with my own hands.

She let out a soft laugh and looked at me, satisfaction written all over her face.

“Pauline, why don't you stay and watch?”

“Might learn a thing or two.”

“Stop letting Lawrence get so bored with you.”

My stomach lurched.

Elise had finally shed that obedient skin of hers, her voice growing lighter and brighter with every word.

“You taught me how to study, how to pick out a gown, how to hold my own at a dinner table.”

“But you never figured out how to make a man fall in love with you, did you? Want me to give you some pointers?”

Lawrence frowned.

“Elise.”

As if scolding her for going too far.

But his hand reached over and pulled her back to his side, the protectiveness so practiced it looked like second nature.

I thought of seven years ago.

The first time Lawrence came to me looking for investment.

He wore a suit washed so many times it had gone pale, palms slick with sweat.

Nobody believed in his project.

I gave him his first round of funding and introduced him to every contact that mattered.

Step by step, I pushed him to where he sat today.

People on the outside called him Mr. James, said he was a young man on the rise.

He heard it long enough that he must have actually forgotten.

Who put him at this table in the first place.

When I said nothing, Lawrence finally grew impatient.

“Pauline, don't blow this out of proportion.”

“You're a Swanson. You know better than anyone how to keep things dignified.”

“I'll give you and the baby all the respect you deserve.”

“And Elise, I won't mistreat her either.”

“Both of you matter to me.”

Both of us mattered.

I stared at him for a few seconds, then laughed.

“Lawrence.”

“You married me and actually started believing you belonged in this world?”

The color drained from his face.

“Pauline, what the hell is that supposed to mean?”

I didn't answer. I just pulled the wedding ring off my finger.

That ring. Lawrence had slid it on himself the day he proposed.

He told me I was the only woman he would ever love.

Thinking about it now made my skin crawl.

I tossed it into the trash can.

Elise glanced at it without thinking, and something greedy flickered through her eyes.

I caught it. I smiled.

“Like it? Go ahead and fish it out.”

“You've always had a thing for my leftovers, haven't you?”

Elise's face went scarlet.

Lawrence finally stood up.

“Pauline, that's enough.”

“Elise has been through enough already.”

I laughed again.

“Sure.”

“Since she's so talented, let's give the whole world a chance to learn from her.”

I pulled out my phone and hit record.

The camera pointed straight at Elise.

“Go on. Let's hear it.”

“Teach everyone how you cashed your benefactor's paychecks and slept with her husband.”

“Show me what exciting new tricks you've picked up.”

Every trace of color vanished from Elise's face.

She shrank behind Lawrence on instinct.

“Lawrence……”

Lawrence's expression turned to ice.

He shoved his hand over the lens, barely-contained fury lacing every word.

“Pauline, enough.”

“You're pregnant. Your emotions are all over the place. I get it.”

“But you don't get to destroy a young woman's life just because you're upset!”

“Elise made a mistake, fine.”

“But she clawed her way out of nothing on her own. That wasn't easy.”

“One word from you and she loses her job, her reputation, everything she's ever built.”

“You think that's fair?”

I stared at him. I almost laughed out loud.

Lawrence took my silence as surrender and let his expression soften a fraction.

“Pauline, put the phone down.”

“You're my wife. I won't let you down.”

“Don't turn yourself into some bitter, nagging wife.”

The word nagging landed, and the last ripple of feeling inside me went still.

I looked at him and asked quietly：

“That was going too far?”

Lawrence blinked.

The next second.

I raised my hand and slapped Elise across the face as hard as I could.

The crack echoed through the entire lounge.

Elise's head snapped to the side, five red welts blooming instantly across her cheek.

I shook out my stinging hand.

“You want to see me go too far? I haven't even started.”

Lawrence finally lost it.

He lunged forward and shoved me.

My lower back slammed into the corner of the table. Pain exploded white-hot behind my eyes.

The prenatal exam report slipped from my hand and fluttered to the floor.

Lawrence didn't even glance at it.

He caught Elise first, pulling her into his arms.

“Pauline!”

“What the hell happened to you?”

His eyes were full of disappointment. Nothing else.

As if I were the one who had done something wrong.

“You used to be the kindest person I knew.”

“Elise had nothing growing up. You were the one who felt sorry for her, remember?”

“Now, just because she fell in love with me, you want to destroy her?”

A laugh almost escaped me.

He said I'd changed.

But Lawrence.

Who was the one who became disgusting first?

My mind drifted to a long time ago.

The first time Lawrence proposed, his hands shook so badly he couldn't even open the ring box.

He slid the ring onto my finger with red-rimmed eyes and said：

“Pauline, just getting to stand beside you is the luckiest thing that's ever happened to me.”

“No matter how high I climb, I'll never forget that you're the one who pulled me up.”

He was young then. Sincere. I was the only person in his eyes.

But now, the face that once held my hand and swore those vows.

And the face shielding Elise while demanding to know what had happened to me. Slowly, they merged into one.

All at once, I was calm.

I wasn't the one who had changed.

The man who promised he'd never make me cry.

He died the day he first betrayed me.

I didn't say another word.

I turned and walked out of the office.

Behind me, Elise was still sniffling.

“Lawrence, do you think Pauline will really ruin me?”

Lawrence lowered his voice to soothe her：

“She won't. I'm here. Nobody touches you.”

“But how are you going to thank me? Wear that outfit from last time. Remember what you called me?”

Elise's tears turned into a giggle. She swatted his chest playfully, her voice turning coy.

“Oh stop it, you're so bad……”

My steps didn't slow. I was already dialing the head of legal counsel.

“Notify the Board of Directors.”

“Suspend all of Lawrence James's authorizations within the company. Freeze every asset under his name.”

“Revoke every clearance under Elise Henson's name.”

A beat of silence on the other end.

“Ms. Swanson, Mr. James might……”

I rested my hand gently against my stomach.

“As of right now, there is no Mr. James at this company.”

That afternoon, every one of Lawrence's permissions was locked out of the system.

He couldn't sign a document, couldn't move a dollar.

He couldn't even badge into the executive conference room.

Elise had it worse.

When HR placed the termination notice in front of her, the color drained from her face.

Lawrence finally realized I wasn't throwing a tantrum.

He called me over a dozen times.

I didn't pick up once.

At eight that evening, I had just left the boardroom when the driver veered off the usual route home.

The car turned down an unfamiliar road.

I looked up at the front seat：“Where are we going?”

The driver wouldn't meet my eyes.