Chapter 2

“Daddy, I’m scared. I don’t want the shot… it hurts…”

As the little boy spoke, he tilted his chin up to look at the man. His small, delicate face was fully revealed.

Sabrina’s breath caught.

Her eyes locked on the boy’s face.

He looked almost exactly like Luther.

He called Luther “Daddy.”

Did that mean Luther had been cheating?

The color slowly drained from Sabrina’s face.

It felt as if someone had ripped a piece straight out of her chest. The pain made her whole body tremble.

Luther patiently coaxed the child. “Callum, be good. The shot will help you get better. Daddy’s right here with you. Let’s be brave, okay?”

The boy sniffled. “Then if I’m brave and get the shot, can Daddy sleep with me tonight? Mommy said tomorrow is my fifth birthday. I want to open my eyes and see Daddy when I wake up.”

Luther’s long fingers gently brushed through the boy’s hair.

“Alright. Daddy promises.”

“Thank you, Daddy! Daddy’s the best! Callum loves Daddy the most!”

Luther smiled faintly. “Daddy loves Callum too.”

The child’s innocent voice and the man’s gentle replies cut into Sabrina again and again.

Five years old.

That boy was already five.

An invisible hand seemed to grip Sabrina’s heart and tear at it. Her stomach churned violently.

She clapped a hand over her mouth and turned away, stumbling toward a nearby trash can as dry heaves tore through her throat.

The sound caught the boy’s attention.

He turned toward the corner and pointed at Sabrina. “Daddy, there’s a lady over there. She looks sick too. She looks really uncomfortable.”

Luther’s brows knit slightly.

Hearing the retching, an uneasy feeling stirred inside him for no clear reason.

He stood up with the boy still in his arms, about to walk over and check, when hurried footsteps approached from behind.

“Luther!”

Luther paused and turned.

Sabrina froze mid-breath.

She would recognize that voice anywhere.

A woman in a tailored business suit hurried over. She reached out and touched the boy’s flushed cheeks, worry written all over her face.

“What did the doctor say?”

“There’s inflammation in his body,” Luther replied in a low voice. “That’s why the fever keeps coming back. He’ll need an IV.”

“Let’s go pay first, then we’ll take him for the shot.”

“Okay.” The woman nodded and looked at the boy with aching tenderness. “Callum, I’m sorry Mommy was late.”

The boy shook his head. “Daddy said Mommy’s busy with work. Callum knows Mommy works very hard. I’m not mad.”

“Our Callum is so sweet.” She stroked his hair before turning to Luther. “Luther, let me carry him.”

“It’s fine. He’s pretty heavy.”

Luther kept the child in his arms.

The woman walked beside him.

The three of them looked exactly like a family as they slowly disappeared down the corridor.

Back at the corner, Sabrina leaned against the wall just to stay on her feet.

Her face was white as paper. Tears blurred her vision.

Before today, she would never have believed that a man like Luther, distant and untouchable as he seemed, could cheat on her.

Just like she had never imagined that Mindy Jackson would betray her.

One was the man she had loved with everything she had.

The other was the underprivileged girl she had sponsored through college, the one who had always treated her like an older sister.

—

When Sabrina came back to her senses, the car was already parked beneath the shade of a tree outside the villa.

Through the windshield, she watched Luther’s Maybach drive through the gate.

The bronze gate, decorated with elaborate carvings, slowly slid shut, cutting off her view completely.

Her hands trembled uncontrollably on the steering wheel.

She stared at the gate, her breathing growing faster and faster inside the sealed car.

“Ugh…”

The car door flew open.

Sabrina stumbled out, covering her mouth as she rushed to the roadside tree and retched violently.

It took a long while before the spasms in her stomach finally eased.

She straightened up unsteadily, wiped the tears from her face, and slowly turned around while leaning against the tree.

Her eyes swept over the villa in front of her.

Even the architectural style felt painfully familiar.

The ache in her chest had already gone numb.

In the most exclusive residential district in North City, where homes were nearly impossible to buy, the marital home she shared with Luther, Starhaven Estate, sat in Zone A.

This villa, named Cloudbrook Estate, was in Zone B.

The two houses were separated by nothing more than a neighborhood road just over a thousand meters long.

So Luther and Mindy Jackson had built a home here behind her back.

They had even had a son together.

How long had it been going on?

The boy was five.

Which meant that during the five years Sabrina had been trapped in grief over the loss of her children, Luther had been living a warm, happy life as part of a family of three with Mindy.

Now that Luther had a new home and a new child, how could he possibly care about the twins who had died before they were born?

Sabrina got back into the car and shut the door.

Sitting there, she pulled her phone out of her bag like she was punishing herself and dialed Luther’s number again.

He didn’t answer the first call.

She dialed again.

And again.

She didn’t even remember how many times she called.

Just like the countless times over the past five years when she had lost control of her emotions and called him again and again, knowing he wouldn’t pick up, yet still pressing the call button over and over.

Night slowly fell.

Her phone finally ran out of battery and shut off, slipping from her hand.

She blinked her aching eyes.

Tears dropped silently.

Lights flickered on across the villa district, their glow spilling into the dark interior of the car.

As if guided by instinct, Sabrina lifted her eyes toward the master bedroom on the second floor.

Through the sheer curtains in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, she could faintly make out two figures wrapped in each other’s arms.

Her lips pressed tightly together.

She tried to calm herself, but her chin still trembled uncontrollably.

It felt as if a knife were twisting inside her chest.

Pain and despair surged through her until she thought she might lose her mind.

Her hand reached for the door handle.

Just as she pushed the door open, her gaze fell on the pregnancy report lying on the center console.

The words from her dream echoed in her mind.

The voices of her twins.

Slowly, she released the handle.

From this moment on, the child in her womb belonged to her alone.

…

After Sabrina returned home, she quietly put the pregnancy report away.

Luther did not come home that night.

He didn’t even return her calls.

Sabrina stopped calling him.

She lay quietly in bed, staring at the ceiling until dawn.

When the first rays of sunlight entered the room, she sat up and opened her contacts before dialing a number.

The lawyer, Heather Quinn, had been her close friend since college.

When she heard Sabrina mention divorce, Heather sighed helplessly.

“Sabrina, when the children died, Luther must have been hurting too. It’s been five years. You should try to let it go.”

Sabrina had heard this kind of advice countless times over the past five years.

All their mutual friends said the same thing.

They pitied her for losing her children, yet somehow still expected her to understand how difficult things had been for Luther.

She used to reflect on herself because of those words.

Until yesterday, when she saw Luther with Mindy and their son.

Only then did she realize how foolish she had been.

How could Luther possibly have been suffering?

He had been enjoying a happy family life with them.

Whenever he came home and saw Sabrina, he probably just thought she was a hysterical woman causing trouble.

Looking back now, the signs had always been there.

Every time he stayed out overnight claiming work or social obligations, the truth had been right in front of her.

She had simply refused to see it.

The memory of that little boy made her heart twist painfully again.

She felt it most for her own children.

They deserved better than this.

After a night of cold clarity, the resentment and hatred she felt toward Luther had reached their peak.

Sabrina’s voice turned icy.

“Heather, I want a divorce. Luther is the one at fault. I want him to walk away with nothing.”

“What?” Heather’s voice shot up in shock. “Luther is the one at fault? He… he cheated? That can’t be right.”

“He’s been living with Mindy behind my back,” Sabrina said.

“They even have a son together.”

She paused.

When she spoke again, her voice broke.

“Heather… that boy is five years old.

“The same age my children would have been.”