Chapter 3

My fingers tightened around my phone until my knuckles turned white. A dull ache had even begun to spread through my lower abdomen.

The baby had been conceived naturally.

Hugo had even invited both our families to celebrate at a resort hotel.

Ever since I got pregnant, he'd been taking increasingly meticulous care of me. I'd thought he was just as excited as I was to welcome our baby into the world.

Now, I realized it was nothing more than the effect of guilt eating away at him after he'd cheated.

I lay on my side, tears streaming down my face as I rested a hand on my swollen belly. For the first time in my life, I had no idea what to do.

"What am I supposed to do?"

I felt so desperate that I even thought that as long as they hadn't gone all the way yet, I could…

But the next update to the post snuffed out the last flicker of hope I had left.

"Yeah, I admit this isn't fair to my wife. But pregnancy lasts for months. What normal man could possibly go that long without sex?

"The young woman is pretty adventurous, too. She loves getting all clingy and affectionate whenever I'm on the phone with my wife. You can't imagine how thrilling that is. No man can resist."

The images those words conjured up made my stomach turn.

A wave of nausea surged up my throat, and I stumbled into the bathroom, vomiting until there was nothing left but bile.

No wonder Hugo would sometimes fall strangely silent whenever we were on the phone. Whenever I asked him what was wrong, he'd always say the same thing.

"Nothing, babe. I was just thinking about what to make for dinner when I get home."

The more someone lied, the more effortlessly the lies rolled off their tongue.

Whenever I happily showed him the baby clothes and supplies I'd carefully picked out, he was busy trying to please the woman in his bed.

When disappointment reached its breaking point, I found myself growing strangely calm, as though all my feelings had simply shut down.

Meanwhile, the comments were getting more and more heated.

"You absolute scumbag. Why don't you just drop dead? I hope your wife comes across this post and stops letting you make a fool of her."

"You piece of trash! Aren't you afraid your wife will find out what you've been doing?"

More than half an hour passed before Hugo finally responded to the comments.

"Her parents never wanted her to move so far away from home after getting married, and she had to steal her personal identification documents from her parents just so she could marry me.

"She's seven months pregnant now, and she can't get an abortion at this stage. And if we divorce, her family definitely won't help her raise the baby. How's a single mother like her supposed to survive?

"If she finds out, I'll just let her cry and throw a fit. I'll sincerely apologize, and that'll be the end of it.

"To make sure I can return to my family without any loose ends later, I've even promised my girlfriend an apartment in the property where she works. We've already picked one out—Unit 1604, which happens to match her birthday. Think of it as compensation for keeping me company all this time.

"I've made sure neither side has anything to complain about. Doesn't that make me a pretty decent man?"

It felt as though the seven years we'd shared had shattered into shards of glass, each one cutting deep into my heart.

The very thing that made me vulnerable had become the weapon Hugo used to keep me under his thumb.

He was right about one thing, though.

If all I did was confront him, cry, and make a scene, it would be far too easy on both him and Regina.