Chapter 2

Mixed in with the breathless sounds were faint fragments of conversation.

"Daniel, that supplement you bought really did the trick. You… you're stronger than you used to be."

The man let out a low, smug laugh. "You cling to me every day. I have to improve somehow. And ever since we used all of Mia's salary to buy supplements to nourish the baby, your skin has gotten softer too."

I froze. A wave of nausea rose hard and fast within me. Once I understood what I was hearing, I bolted from the room and leaned over in the front yard, retching until my stomach cramped.

Anna suddenly stepped out and laid a hand on my shoulder. "Mia, what's wrong? Did you eat something bad tonight?"

I looked up at her worried face and forced down the bitterness tightening in my chest.

"I'm fine, Anna."

In this whole house, Anna was the only one who truly cared about me. I didn't want her to worry.

Remembering that I would be leaving for the island in three days to be married, I reached into my pocket for the wages I had saved and was about to hand them to her.

But Anna hesitated. She slipped a folded sheet of paper into my hand, and said, troubled, "Mia, I know this promotion means a great deal to you. But Ale— Daniel said Lily is pregnant. She… she needs the promotion more."

The banknotes in my hand scattered to the floor like confetti.

'Alexander, are you even a man? You covet my promotion, wear your brother's name to please your brother's wife, and push your own mother to deliver the news,' I thought.

I had reached my limit. I marched inside and knocked on the door next to my room, where soft moans were still drifting out.

"Daniel, come out. I have something to say."

I left him the last shred of dignity by not calling him by his true name. Anna tried to stop me, but the door opened before she could speak.

Alexander and Lily stepped out, clothes disheveled, faces tight with annoyance.

"What are you doing, Mia?" Alexander asked sharply. "Knocking this late. Don't you know you're disturbing us?"

I laughed coldly in response. "Did you tell your mom to ask me to give my promotion spot to Lily?"

At the question, he instantly grew evasive. He lowered his head and said nothing.

Lily and I worked in the same department. Each cycle, only one promotion slot was available, and competition was intense. This time, only the two of us were shortlisted.

In every metric—evaluations, performance, reputation—I outranked her. The promotion was always meant to be mine.

I stared straight at Alexander. He kept his head bowed, refusing to meet my eyes. When he finally spoke, his voice faltered. "Mia, Lily is pregnant. If she misses this chance, it'll be even harder for her to be promoted once she has a child. She isn't like you. You have no children, no burden."

His plea was thin and weak. He knew why.

Because we once had a child.

After I received the news of Alexander's death, I made my first suicide attempt. When I was pulled back from the brink, Anna wept at my bedside and told me I had been two months pregnant. But grief had been too much for my body. The baby could not be saved.

I had loathed myself then for being so useless. I hated that I couldn't protect the only child I would ever have with Alexander.

I hurt myself again and again, starved myself, and tried to follow him into death.

And where had the man I loved been all that time?