Chapter 1.

The small slip of paper, no bigger than the palm of my hand, felt as though it were burning my fingertips. It was a payment receipt for a luxurious ballroom on Fifth Avenue in the Upper East Side—one of Manhattan, New York's most prestigious neighborhoods. The amount printed on it was staggering, enough to buy a mid-range apartment. Kael Gostav, my husband, had accidentally left the receipt inside the pocket of the suit jacket I was about to take to the dry cleaners.

"Kael never told me anything about this," I murmured to myself.

I could still remember the last words he had spoken before getting into his car that morning.

"Aluna, I won't be back until tomorrow. Don't forget to take your medicine."

The melancholy look on his face and the warmth of his embrace still lingered in my memory.

There was no company name on the receipt. The only name listed was Kael's, as the person responsible for the payment of an event titled "Isabella's 5th Golden Birthday Celebration."

Isabella? Who was Isabella?

In five years of marriage, Kael had never once mentioned anyone named Isabella. And if this extravagant celebration was for a child, whose child was it? We had never been blessed with one of our own.

The questions burning inside my chest compelled me to uncover the truth. My curiosity overwhelmed me, and in the end, I secretly followed the address printed on the receipt without Kael's knowledge.

Now, I stood before the gates of the magnificent building that night. Wearing a simple evening gown concealed beneath a thick coat, I took advantage of the doorman's brief distraction amid the constant flow of elegantly dressed guests. I slipped inside unnoticed, walking quietly along a thickly carpeted hallway filled with the fragrance of fresh lilies and expensive champagne.

The lively laughter and the clinking of crystal glasses drew me toward a massive marble pillar at the edge of the grand ballroom. Hidden behind its shadow, I slowly took in the scene before me.

My world collapsed in an instant.

At the center of the stage, beneath glittering crystal chandeliers and fairy-tale decorations, stood a tall man dressed in a black suit—Kael Gostav. The same man who had hugged me that very morning before leaving on what he claimed was an important business trip out of town. The same man I had known for years as stern, reserved, and endlessly occupied with his business affairs.

Yet there he was, smiling with unmistakable warmth.

Without the slightest trace of guilt toward me.

Standing beside him was an elegant woman in a deep burgundy gown. That face... it was one I knew all too well.

Merry Dacko.

My former college classmate. The woman who used to visit the tiny apartment Kael and I rented before he reached the peak of his success. The woman I had believed had disappeared from our lives after graduation.

And between them stood a beautiful five-year-old girl. She looked absolutely adorable, wearing a delicate little crown and a dress that perfectly matched Merry's. Kael knelt down, kissed the little girl's forehead with boundless affection, then looked at Merry with the tender gaze of a husband looking at his wife.

They looked like the perfect family.

Whole. Happy. Flawless.

My chest felt as though it had shattered into countless pieces. Tears streamed uncontrollably down my cheeks. Every emotion crashed into me at once—shock, devastation, betrayal, and humiliation. The man I called my husband, the man who always claimed he was too busy whenever I asked him to spend time with me, had been building a fairy-tale life somewhere else.

Five years?

That little girl was five years old.

My marriage to Kael had also lasted exactly five years.

Had Kael been hiding this from me since the very first day we exchanged our wedding vows? Or even worse... was that little girl truly the daughter of Kael and Merry?

Each time the image of Kael laughing with them struck my mind, an unbearable pain pierced the very center of my chest.

My heartbeat became erratic, pounding violently before seeming to stop altogether. A crushing tightness spread through my neck and down my left arm. My vision gradually blurred. The congenital heart condition I had managed for years with medication now erupted under the overwhelming weight of my emotions.

"No... I can't collapse here..." I whispered weakly, clutching the left side of my chest beneath my coat.

I slowly stepped backward, pressing myself against the cold marble wall. Cold sweat beaded across my forehead. My body felt ready to give out at any moment—to surrender to the pain and simply let myself die on this freezing marble floor.

If I collapsed and died here, their celebration would only be interrupted for a short while. Kael might pretend to mourn for a few weeks before officially starting a new life with Merry.

They would enjoy the wealth I had helped build from nothing, living happily atop my suffering and my death without ever feeling a single ounce of remorse.

No.

I couldn't die here.

I couldn't let them win so easily.

With every ounce of strength I had left, fighting the unbearable pain in my chest and the weakening rhythm of my heart, I turned around. I walked away from that cursed room filled with laughter. Every step felt impossibly heavy, as though iron chains were wrapped around my legs, yet the fury boiling inside me became the only force keeping me on my feet.

I left the building and stepped into the freezing New York night, where the icy wind cut straight through my bones. Tears froze upon my cheeks, yet my heart was colder than the air around me.

Inside the taxi carrying me away, I rested my head against the window. My hand remained pressed against my aching chest as I struggled to steady my ragged breathing.

Who was that little girl, really?

Was she truly Kael and Merry's daughter, hidden from me for the past five years?

How far did Kael's web of lies stretch behind my back?

I squeezed my eyes shut as the taxi sped through the darkness of the night. The pain in my heart had transformed into something far darker.

If Kael Gostav believed I was a weak wife he could deceive forever, then he was gravely mistaken.

This illness might limit the time I have left, but as long as my heart continues to beat, I will never allow them to enjoy their happiness at the cost of my suffering.