Chapter 1

"Hear me out, Melanie—" my husband, Cyrus Parker, pleaded, stepping forward to shield his son, Caleb Parker, behind him. That instinctive gesture pierced my heart like a blade.

"This is not the place to talk," I cut him off, picking up my bag. "Let that woman come and collect her son. Then we'll talk."

"Paige isn't feeling well—"

I stared coldly at him. "Cyrus, do you want me to call Grandpa right now, or should I have the lawyer send you the papers directly?"

Cyrus fell silent. The agreement I held was enough to strip him of his position as CEO of Parker Corporation and leave him with nothing.

Just then, Caleb peeked out from behind Cyrus and shouted at me, "Don't bully my daddy, you evil woman!"

A child's words carried no malice, yet they cut deeper than any blade.

Cyrus hurriedly clamped a hand over Caleb's mouth, his eyes wide with fear as he looked at me.

"Such fine parenting," I remarked with a bitter twist of my lips. "It seems the only skill Paige has honed over the years is sowing discord."

With that, I turned and walked out of the police station.

Outside, the snow was falling heavily, the cold biting through to the bone.

My mind drifted back to five years ago, when Paige Gallagher had shown up at my door, heavily pregnant.

Cyrus had dropped to his knees before me, his eyes bloodshot, pleading that the Parker bloodline was thin and begging me to spare the child. At the time, I had just suffered a miscarriage and was at my weakest.

I had signed an agreement under two conditions. The first was that Paige and the child would leave the country and never return, and the second was that 50% of the shares in Parker Corporation would be transferred to me if they came back.

Cyrus' grandfather, Geoffrey Parker, had been so furious that he nearly beat Cyrus to death with his cane. But in the end, he had silently acquiesced, if only to appease me.

Cyrus had sworn to me then, "Melanie, I messed up, but you're the only one I love. You can take all my money, or even take my life. All I ask is that you let her have this child. I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you."

And for five years, he had indeed kept his word. No matter how busy he was, he never missed our daily video calls, and gifts arrived without fail on every occasion. He had even canceled billion-dollar contracts just to spend weekends with me.

I had almost believed that time could truly heal all wounds.

…

When the snow outside stopped, Cyrus had the driver take Caleb home first. But Cyrus himself didn't dare to leave, nor did he dare let me leave. So, we sat in the cafe next to the police station.

"Melanie, it's not what you think," Cyrus said, his hands pressed to his forehead, voice low.

"Paige… She did actually go abroad. But she couldn't cope there. Caleb has asthma and a heart condition, and the medical costs overseas were simply too high. She just couldn't manage alone."

"And so you brought them back?" I countered, stirring my coffee slowly. "And not only that, you settled them in a luxury apartment under Parker Corp. and visited once a week. Cyrus, is this charity, or are you keeping a second family out there?"

"I was only there to visit Caleb!" he insisted desperately.

"Melanie, he's innocent. Every time Caleb has an attack, he cries for me. What was I supposed to do? I couldn't just watch him die, could I?"

"But you can let me live like a fool, keeping me completely in the dark. Is that it?" I shot back. "Cyrus, did you think that as long as they never showed up in front of me, it wouldn't be considered a breach of contract? And what was your promise back then even worth, then?"