Chapter 1

"I promise I'll be good."

In the master bedroom, Ruthie Wall gazed at Nigel Heath with teary eyes.

Pleased by her attitude, Nigel released his grip.

Ruthie clung to him again. "Nigel, let's continue. I want to give you a child."

"Jenna takes the medicine you give her every day, so there's no way she can have children now. But with a business empire as big as yours, how can you not have an heir?"

My eyes widened, and I clenched my fists so tightly that my hands turned red.

In the two years we've been married, I had never gotten pregnant once. I had believed it was due to my weak health, but it turned out Nigel had been tampering with my medication all along.

The vulgar noises from the room grew louder.

My heart twisted in agony.

I turned away, but the sounds of their pleasure still seeped through the door, filling me with grief and rage.

After being rescued from the sea, I was left with a lingering illness that required me to take medicine every day to recover.

Each day, Nigel would prepare my medicine and bring it to me, watching as I took it.

Ruthie, the housekeeper, was someone he had insisted on hiring. She was young, beautiful, and highly educated. I had once wondered why she'd ever choose to be a housekeeper, but Nigel claimed that someone of her caliber could take better care of me, so he hired her.

I thought he was being protective and caring, but in reality, he had betrayed me and sought to harm me all along.

I staggered toward the staircase. Blinded by fury and sorrow, I didn't notice the steps beneath me and tripped.

"Who's there?"

Hearing the noise, Nigel quickly came out of the master bedroom. When he saw it was me, he hurried downstairs.

"Jenna, are you alright?" He anxiously pulled me into his arms, then shouted upstairs. "Ruthie, come quick! And bring Jenna's medicine over."

Ruthie brought my medicine over, then stood aside as Nigel tended to the injury on my leg.

Ruthie was wearing a loose-fitting robe and said to me, "Mrs. Heath, why are you back so suddenly? Aren't you supposed to be on a business trip?"

I glanced at the red marks on her otherwise pristine neck, then at Nigel's unbuttoned shirt collar, and laughed bitterly to myself.

How oblivious had I been before?

If I had paid even a little more attention to them, I would have discovered their relationship much sooner.

Ignoring Ruthie's question, I asked instead, "The robe you're wearing—it's mine, isn't it?"

Expressionless, I continued, "Why are you wearing my robe, and why did you just come out of the master bedroom?"