Chapter 4

The Voss family needed an heir, but Severin didn't like children.

Since he was young and healthy, we'd agreed to wait a while before having children.

I never imagined the baby would come just as our marriage was falling apart.

Back then, the pain and fury of his betrayal overwhelmed me.

All I could think about was revenge.

So I made a decision that hurt him and hurt me even more.

I told Severin he had to choose between the baby and Vivian.

He claimed he had business to attend to and stayed away all day.

When he came home, he looked the same as always.

The dark circles under his eyes and the cigarette smoke clinging to his clothes were the only signs he'd had a rough night.

He greeted me with his usual smile, giving nothing away.

"I'll hold this family together. Trust me."

Right in front of me, he banished Vivian from the estate and forbade her from ever setting foot on Voss territory again.

He even ordered everyone never to mention her name.

Everything seemed to return to normal, as though Vivian had never been part of our lives.

Severin poured all his patience and love into caring for me and the baby.

He cooked for me, went to my prenatal checkups with me, and stayed involved in every detail of my pregnancy.

Even the visiting Donnas couldn't believe how devoted he was.

He hardly seemed like the powerful, untouchable Don everyone knew.

He drew up the plans for the nursery himself and had the sunniest room on the estate turned into a place any child would love.

His desk was covered with recipes tailored to my pregnancy.

Even the Voss family's files had been pushed into a corner.

He'd planned everything for our unborn baby.

Our baby only had to come into the world to inherit a life of unimaginable privilege.

Everything seemed to be slowly getting better.

But I could feel it. Vivian's presence still lingered between us, and Severin's heart was slipping further away from me.

The baby was the only thing we ever talked about.

Whenever I saw flowers, I thought of the photos on his phone showing the flowers he and Vivian had grown together.

For the baby's sake, I tried to mend the cracks in our marriage.

But whatever hope I had left shattered the day Severin served me a plate of peanut butter cookies.

I'm allergic to peanuts.

Vivian was the one who loved peanut butter.

I was about to tell Severin he'd made the wrong dessert.

But he was staring blankly at an ornament on the table engraved with the Voss crest.

I didn't know whether he was thinking about family business or Vivian, who had the same crest tattooed on her body.

All I felt then was regret.

I regretted holding on to a man I should have let go.

When my mother picked me up from the hospital after my miscarriage, she was still making excuses for Severin.

"I hear you lost the baby after eating something Severin cooked?

"He couldn't have meant it. He's the Don. He has so much on his plate. Everybody slips up once in a while.

"Don't blame him. A husband who treats you as well as he does is hard to find. You can always have another baby."

I didn't believe Severin had just been careless.

The cracks in our marriage had destroyed my trust in him.

I went through the recipes in Severin's study again and finally found the clue I'd missed.

On the back of every recipe was a tiny letter V.

Vivian.

I bypassed the Voss family's network and investigated Vivian's whereabouts myself.

It turned out she'd never really been sent away.

She was living in a small town not far from the Voss estate, running a restaurant under Severin's protection.

All those so-called custom recipes had come from her restaurant.

All those times Severin claimed he was learning to cook from experts, he'd actually been visiting Vivian.

Was he really doing it for me and the baby, or did he just want a good excuse to see her?

I obtained security footage from the area. The audio was crystal clear, and their conversation severed the last thread of hope I had left.

Vivian's voice was as sweet as ever.

"You're getting so much better at cooking! Today's meal was even better than yesterday's.

"Are you taking the rest home to the Donna?

"If we ever have a baby, you'll take care of me like this too, won't you?"

Then I heard Severin reply gently,

"Of course. Aren't I cooking for you right now?"

I used to cause huge scenes in public over Severin's cheating.

Now it was as if all the fight had been drained out of me.

I didn't even feel like calling him to demand answers.

Instead, I sent the leftovers from the lunch Severin had served me on the day of my miscarriage to be tested.

The doctor said it contained ingredients that could cause a miscarriage.

I'd likely been eating those ingredients for a while, and the effects had finally caught up with me, causing the miscarriage.

When I heard the results, confusion hit me before the grief did.

I couldn't understand where I'd gone wrong or how my marriage had come to this.

My husband was supposed to have eyes only for me.

Instead, even when he held me in his arms, he was thinking about whether another woman had eaten.

Our baby, who should have been the pride and joy of the Voss family, was gone because of Vivian's deliberate scheme and Severin's unwitting help.

My kindness had become the very knife that stabbed me.

Grief, regret, despair, and hatred tore me apart.

In the end, all that turmoil inside me settled into a cold, dead calm.

Only one thought remained.

I was leaving.

While Severin was at Vivian's restaurant going over recipes with her, he suddenly felt a wave of panic.

I was busy packing at the time, and I didn't answer a single one of his calls.

So he ignored Vivian's pleas to stay and rushed back to the estate.

When he saw me, he finally understood the reason for his panic.

But by then, it was already too late.

The baby was gone, and so was our marriage.