Chapter 1

The first time it happened, Yara was two months pregnant.

A mysterious car accident shattered bones throughout her body.

She suffered severe bleeding and lost the baby.

Simon Quinn frantically brought in the world's best medical team.

He barely slept as he waited outside the operating room all night.

When she woke, she saw his bloodshot eyes and felt him gripping her hand.

"Yara, don't be afraid. Even if you can never get pregnant again, it won't change how I feel about you!"

His promise sounded as solemn as ever, but an uneasiness she couldn't explain crept into her heart.

Something about it was strange. Simon was worried about her, yet he wasn't angry.

Once, someone accidentally bumped into her, and Simon cut off both of his hands.

This time, he made no move to investigate.

Yara couldn't help wondering why.

Later, Simon told her he'd already found the person responsible and fed them to the sharks.

For some reason, she felt relieved. She even laughed at herself for overthinking it.

During her second pregnancy, she stayed home to rest, but a fire suddenly broke out in the middle of the night.

She lost the baby again. The flames also burned her neck and part of her face, leaving an ugly scar.

When she looked in the mirror, fear overwhelmed her.

She feared losing Simon, but she feared those repeated "coincidences" even more.

Simon picked up a kitchen knife and cut a deep gash into the side of his own face. Blood poured down, but he seemed not to care.

"Now we're the same."

He looked at her with the same tenderness as always. "You won't think I'd leave you now, will you?"

She forced down her doubts and unease once more.

She obediently rested until she recovered and left the hospital.

Afterward, they were as loving as ever.

This time, she was kidnapped on her way to the hospital to confirm a new pregnancy.

With a knife pressed to her throat, she felt almost certain it was a plot against them, meant to make Simon suffer.

But when the kidnappers spoke to Simon on the phone, they made an absurd demand:

"Want her alive? Fine. Divorce her first, then transfer the property in her name to us!"

The other end of the line stayed silent for a long time.

When Simon finally spoke, he sounded conflicted.

"...All right. I agree. Just don't hurt her."

Yara's scream answered him. A kidnapper drove a blade into her abdomen.

When she was rescued, the baby was gone, and she had a divorce decree in her hand.

The doctor told her she would never get pregnant again.

Simon held her tightly. His voice was as gentle as it always was.

"My feelings for you will never change, even without a child or a marriage certificate."

She leaned against him and said nothing, her eyes vacant.

On the night she came home from the hospital, he brought her a glass of warm milk, just as he had for the past seven years.

As she looked at it, she remembered how much her insomnia seemed to improve under his daily care after they married.

But she didn't drink it that night. She secretly poured it away.

Late that night, she heard the person beside her get up.

She lay still for a while, then forced herself to follow him.

The study door stood ajar.

Light spilled through the gap, along with the voices inside.

"Cindy should be satisfied now."

Simon sounded fondly exasperated. "First the car accident, then the fire and the kidnapping. Yara and I are even divorced now."

His assistant replied respectfully, "Miss Hughes said she'll feel safe having the baby once the two of you are legally married."

Simon acknowledged him, then sounded uneasy for some reason. "We had to act quickly this time. Be extremely careful from now on. Yara must never find out."

Outside the door, Yara went cold all over. She couldn't move.

So, none of her three miscarriages had been accidents.

The car accident, the fire, and the kidnapping over the past year...

Every seemingly tragic coincidence was planned by the man who slept beside her!

All so he could marry another woman and persuade her to have his child!

Yara's mind went blank.

As grief overwhelmed her, she thought back over seven years of what she believed was a loving relationship.

When had it gone wrong?

Inside the study, the assistant spoke hesitantly.

"Understood. But Miss Hughes has gone quite far these past few times. Mrs. Quinn was seriously hurt..."

Simon cut him off. He sounded so casual that a chill ran through Yara's whole body.

"Cindy and I have been together since college. She's just jealous. She never meant any harm. The men carrying out her orders went too far, and I've dealt with them."

"As for Yara, she's the only family I have. Of course I'll take care of her. In the public eye, she'll always be Mrs. Quinn."

"She was so ill back then that I couldn't bear to tell her I fell for Cindy at first sight in college. That's when I realized what I felt for Yara was only familial love."

"I was young and didn't understand my own feelings. I mistook my dependence on her for love and made her wait for me all those years."

Each word struck Yara like a poisoned blade. Tears streamed down her face.

She turned and stumbled back to her room, careful not to alert anyone.

A long time passed.

Simon didn't return.

Instead, she heard a car engine start downstairs.

Her tears finally broke free.

She bit her lip hard to keep herself from crying aloud.

Had he given her a glass of milk every night for seven years to make her sleep, then gone to see Cindy Hughes?

She didn't even have the courage to confront him.

No one had come between them.

Simon had never loved her in the first place.

Then what had all her passion meant to him?

Yara shuddered, and her stomach churned.

She scrambled up, rushed into the bathroom, and vomited until she had nothing left.

The pain of losing their three babies came back with terrible clarity and reminded her how foolish she'd been all these years.

Had he spent seven years being intimate with her only because he felt he owed her for raising him?

Yara sat on the bathroom floor beside the toilet all night.

By morning, she had no tears left.

As the sky began to lighten, she got up and quietly called a number she hadn't used in years.

An assistant at her mother's research institute answered with concern.

"Miss Shaw? You finally called!"

"Your mother abandoned you back then, but she deeply regretted it before she died. She also made arrangements for someone she believed you could trust."

"She left you a substantial inheritance. All you have to do is come in and sign for it. That was her one last wish..."

Yara looked at the scar that disfigured half her face in the mirror. Her voice was frighteningly calm.

"I can fulfill her last wish."

She paused, then spoke each word clearly, leaving herself no way to turn back.

"But I have one condition. Use the memory-erasure device she worked on to remove every memory I have of Simon Quinn."

The line went quiet for a moment.

Someone seemed to be speaking softly to others in the background.

At last, the assistant replied, "We can do that, but we need a month to record your interactions with the person you want to forget. That way, we can make sure we erase everything."

"All right," Yara answered without hesitation.

"We can start today."

She ended the call and closed her eyes.

In one month, that sickening past would have nothing to do with her anymore.