Chapter 1

The man I shared a bed with for the past five years had a legally wedded wife and two children. To make things worse, he had been secretly dosing me with contraceptives all this time! Now, I was pregnant with a child he would never acknowledge as his.

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I wandered out of the company like a lost soul.

Victoria Winston was the heiress to the Winston business empire. I was more than familiar with that name. Daniel Hudson had ranted about her more than once. “Victoria is arrogant just because she’s rich! I’ll never marry her, not even if I go broke!

“Emma, you’re the only one in the world who understands me. None of those rich heiresses actually love me!

“The board of directors is putting the pressure on me now, so we should keep our marriage a secret. I’ll publicly introduce you as my wife once I gain control over the entire company.”

What a joke, all of it. His children were old enough to go to school now. Everything I had done over the past five years amounted to nothing.

I woke up every morning to make him breakfast, I stayed up every night to wait for his return… And now, I had conceived his baby. What did all of this even mean to him?

I passed by the conference room in a daze and saw two figures through the glass door. It was Daniel and his mother, Gloria.

Gloria kept her voice low. “How do you plan to deal with the Winstons?”

Daniel sounded impatient. “Don’t worry about it, Mom. Victoria may be cocky, but she’s willing to keep the status quo. I can’t offend her this time while she’s back from Switzerland on family business.”

“But what about Emma?” Gloria’s voice turned cold. “She took great care of me these past three years.”

“She’s still my girlfriend on paper.” Daniel shrugged nonchalantly. “Victoria doesn’t care about these surface-level things. Besides, I spend most of my time at the office. I need someone to take care of you at home, or else I’ll worry.”

I covered my mouth with my hand tightly, tasting blood on my tongue.

So to him, I was just a free housekeeper.

“Also, Victoria only asked me to visit her and the children a few days every month. Relax, Emma is too naive to notice.”

My blood ran cold. My ears were ringing, like I had just been doused in a bucket of ice.

So that was why he “went abroad for work” every month. He was visiting his real family.

Whenever he spoke about kids in his sleep, it was not because he desperately wanted a child with me. He was missing his kids in Europe.

As I was about to leave, I heard Gloria say sternly, “But the kids will have to return here for school. You can’t keep Emma in the dark for long.”

Daniel snorted. “She doesn’t even have a marriage certificate. She has no say over the kids.

“I’ll just tell her it’s an arranged marriage that I can’t get away from. Knowing her, she’ll believe me and even offer to raise the kids.”

My stomach twisted in pain. I froze on the spot.

Gloria hesitated. “But she’s been so good to me the past few years. Aren’t we going too far?”

Daniel’s tone suddenly went cold. “Are you crazy, Mom? Don’t you want to see your grandkids?

“Victoria was willing to have my kids even though she came from a rich family. It wasn’t easy for her to raise them on her own for so many years. All I want is to bring the kids home. Why should we care what an outsider thinks?”

All of a sudden, I wanted to laugh. We shared a bed for five years, yet he called me an “outsider”.

In the end, Gloria gave in. “True. Biological ties matter most.”

I could not hold back my laughter anymore when I heard their careful plotting.

How ironic. The “biological” child they wanted so desperately was now growing within me.

For the past five years, whenever he returned home tired from work, I took the fertility drugs like clockwork, all to increase my chances of conceiving.

The doctor said my ovaries were not the healthiest, so I went jogging every morning and carefully watched my diet. They said my hormones were lacking, so I withstood the side effects of the constant injections. I willingly tolerated the mood changes and scars on my arm.

I was moved to tears three days ago when I discovered I was pregnant. I stayed up thinking about how I was going to surprise him with the news.

At the same time, he and his mother were discussing how they were going to bring back his real wife and kids without my knowledge.

My nails dug into my palms, but this pain was nothing compared to the twisting of my heart. I only came back to my senses when I felt a tiny twitch in my abdomen.

Fine. If they treasured someone else’s children that much, I would give them what they wanted. From now on, this baby was mine and mine alone.

I rubbed my stomach, my lips curving into a cold smirk.

‘Who did you take me for, Daniel? A meek little rabbit?’ I thought. ‘You tricked me, humiliated me, and now you’re even planning to make me raise your real kids for free?

‘In your dreams.

‘The Hudsons’ fortune, your mother’s hopes, and your bloodline…

‘Just wait, Daniel Hudson! I’ll show you the price you have to pay for crossing a pregnant woman, especially someone with wits and resources like me!’