Chapter 1

I closed my eyes. My body felt weak, and my face was deathly pale.

The conversation outside the room went on.

“Now that we have the child, we don’t need Natalie anymore. You should dump her as soon as possible.

“I should thank you for the plan you came up with back then. Not only did it help me get rid of her, but it also made her willingly have your child and provide Xenia with a suitable organ donor.”

Samuel Zane’s voice carried the same disgust for me as always. I had heard that tone of voice countless times when I was trying to win his heart.

I thought I had escaped that voice forever. I never expected every part of it to be nothing but a carefully planned lie.

“I’ll think about it. Take good care of Xenia. Tell her I miss her.”

Samuel’s footsteps faded into the distance. William Zane came into the room.

He closed the door as quietly as he could, as if he were afraid he might wake me.

It was a thoughtful gesture, but it could not chase away the iciness I felt inside.

I opened my eyes and looked straight at him.

“Natalie, you’re awake. How are you feeling? Does anything hurt?”

William froze for a second. Then, the look of concern I knew so well returned to his face. He wrapped an arm around me and gently pulled me into his embrace.

His deep voice sounded above my head.

“Natalie, I have some bad news. The baby you gave birth to… was stillborn.”

Even though I had prepared myself, I felt my breath catch for a moment.

“But don’t worry. We’re still young. We’ll have lots of children!”

I sneered. Tears welled up in my eyes.

To William, the child I had waited for with all my heart—the child born from our love—was nothing more than an insignificant object.

Even our relationship had been nothing but a lie he created.

When he saw me cry, he immediately kissed my cheek. He looked at me with heartache and kept whispering words of comfort.

It was as if he still loved me.

“All right, don’t cry. It hurts me to see you like this. Once you’ve recovered, we’ll have another baby.”

My hand clenched into a fist beneath the blanket.

I looked at the thirty-day countdown that flashed in my mind. Then, I looked at William’s loving face. I closed my eyes in despair.

‘William, we’ll never have another child,’ I thought. ‘Soon, I’ll disappear from this world.’

…

After the countdown began, my body started to fail at an alarming rate.

William was frantic. He brought in one specialist after another to examine me. Later, he stayed home and took care of me himself.