Chapter 1
Just as I stepped into the house, holding the pregnancy report I had worked on for five years, I saw my husband leading his young female secretary into the baby
room.
Holly Winter clenched her hands, lowered her head, and began to sob, deliberately revealing the red marks on her neck.
“Alex, I’m homeless. Please agree to let Mr. Thornton take me in,” she pleaded.
Darrell Thornton held her hand, his tone. sharp and defensive toward me.
“She’s the good student you sponsored. She just graduated and doesn’t have the money to rent a place. You‘ re a grown. adult–don’t make a fuss over a young girl.”
He glanced at me coldly.
“Besides, you can’t have children. There
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are plenty of empty rooms in the house. What’s wrong with letting her stay for a while?”
I watched silently as he turned the baby room we had prepared into her bedroom.
Letting out a long sigh, I made a call.
“Mom, is it too late for me to agree to the conditions you gave me before and come home?”
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“Alex, have you finally come to your senses?” My mother asked her voice for a mix of surprise and suspicion.
“I’m warning you,” she continued. “Before you return, you must cut all ties with that man. If you don’t, you won’t get a single penny from the Wood family estate.”
I looked down at the pregnancy report in my hands and smiled bitterly.
“Mom, I’ve made up my mind. Just give me a few more days to sort everything out
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here.”
After hanging up, my legs suddenly gave out, and I barely managed to steady myself by leaning against the wall.
In the five years since my marriage, the Thornton family had repeatedly hinted at their desire for a son.
But the tests confirmed that getting pregnant wouldn’t be easy for me..
Consumed by guilt, I visited every gynecological clinic and sought advice. from countless traditional medicine
practitioners.
For years, I endured endless medications. and examinations, my body burdened with the bitterness of herbal concoctions.
Yet during all of this, Darrell brought the college student I had sponsored into his company as his “personal secretary,” a role he conveniently described as a “life
assistant.”
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And now, he had taken it a step further- bringing her into our home.
All my efforts over the past five years felt like nothing more than a cruel joke.
“Alex, are you okay? Why are you sitting on the floor?”
Holly appeared in a white shirt and miniskirt, leaning down to check on me.
As she bent forward, her actions. deliberately revealed a provocative glimpse.
I stared at her coldly, watching her shameless display right in front of me.
I couldn’t forget how, back when she first learned I was married to Darrell–a rising name among the business elite–she had publicly knelt before me in her alma mater‘ s auditorium, begging for my help.
She looked so pitiful. Since she was my junior, I had covered all her tuition and miscellaneous fees, even giving her an
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extra 2,000 dollars every month for living
expenses.
Who would have thought her true target was never my kindness, but my husband, Darrell?
Holly held a large box filled with baby toys.
and clothes.
“Alex, I looked through these things. carefully, and they‘ re all useless junk,” she said casually.
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“Since you can’t get pregnant anyway, let me help you by clearing out this clutter that’s just taking up space.”
I touched my slightly rounded belly, at sharp ache stabbing through my chest.
These toys and clothes were the ones. Darrell and I had picked out together, piece. by piece.
I remembered how he used to rest his head. on my stomach, listening for sounds that weren’t there yet.
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When he looked up at me, his eyes sparkled with excitement.
“I heard that if we make the baby room beautiful, the baby will come sooner,” he’d say.
“We’ll definitely have a child of our own. someday. I’ll keep this room ready for you, and I won’t let anyone touch it.”
But now, I am pregnant.
And that very baby room–the one we had. lovingly designed together–had been handed over to someone else by the man who once promised to protect it.
I stood up coldly and snatched the box from her hands.
“It’s not for you to decide whether these things are useful or not.”
Holly‘ s wide eyes instantly brimmed with tears, her voice trembling as she
stammered,
“Alex, I know you don’t like me, but no
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matter how much you blame me, someone has to take care of Mr. Thornton. You‘ re so focused on the baby that you don‘ t understand Mr. Thornton‘ s feelings at
all.”
