Chapter 2

Sebastian's POV

Just ten minutes after Madeline left, a photo of Nathan kissing her appeared on my phone with a text.

"Thank you for giving the mother of my child back to me."

I opened Nathan's social media profile. His latest post was a video of Madeline holding a little boy while Nathan stood beside her with an arm wrapped around her waist. The child Madeline had told me she'd aborted was calling her "Mommy" in his sweet little voice.

My hands went numb as I opened the monitoring app on my phone. Madeline had installed it herself three years ago, back when she'd supposedly sworn to be loyal to our marriage. I'd never checked it before.

Now I wished I hadn't.

The records showed that over the past three years, she'd met Nathan 1,134 times behind my back.

All those nights when I'd felt guilty because I couldn't bring myself to accept her touch, she'd simply waited until I fell asleep and gone to see Nathan instead.

Their first recorded meeting had been three years ago.

That was the same day Nathan sent me a prenatal checkup report on the anniversary of our child's death. I'd completely lost control and climbed onto the roof, thinking about ending my life. Madeline had knelt in front of me with tears in her eyes, swearing she'd never contact him again.

But while I was still asleep in the hospital that night, she went to a neighborhood on the opposite side of the city from our home and bought a 30-million-dollar villa for Nathan and the son she had with him.

The next morning, she took a single rose from the thousands roses Nathan had given her and placed it beside my pillow. Fading hickeys were still visible on her neck, but when I asked about them, she casually told me she'd gotten bitten by mosquitoes while picking the rose for me.

And I believed her.

God, I was such an idiot.

But none of it mattered anymore.

I calmly liked the post and even left a comment. "The kid is adorable."

Madeline called me almost immediately, her voice sharp with anger. "What the hell do you mean by that?"

"I'm congratulating you," I said calmly. "No need to thank me."

She gave a soft laugh, her usual composure slowly returning.

"If you're that jealous, why did you keep pushing me away? Even if you regret it now, it's too late."

Within a week, Madeline had turned me into the biggest joke in our entire social circle. She held a lavish wedding ceremony with Nathan overseas, and when they returned home, she made a point of attending every high-profile event with him—the very same events she'd always refused to attend with me.

They showed up in matching formalwear, wore rings engraved with each other's names, and were so openly affectionate that they looked like newlyweds still in their honeymoon phase.

But this time, I didn't lose my mind the way I had before.

Instead, I took the divorce papers Madeline had already signed and placed them in front of my father.

"I'll step aside and make way for Nathan," I said. "But you have to promise me one thing. Give my mother the grand tenth-anniversary memorial she deserves."

I paused, then added, "And publicly clear her name as the legitimate wife. After that, move her remains into the family cemetery."

Years ago, Nathan's mother, Selena Williams, had accused my mother of being a mistress, then stood by as the entire internet tore her apart for five long years.

Even on the day she died, my mother had called me in tears, repeating the same words over and over.

"Sebastian, I'm not a mistress."

That was the one thing she cared about most. So before I walked away, I wanted to restore her reputation and dignity, which had been stripped away from her.

My father, who had always treasured Nathan more than anything, agreed without hesitation.

On the tenth anniversary of my mother's death, my father held a lavish memorial to publicly restore her reputation. I spent the entire day following the household staff around, making sure every detail was handled perfectly.

But as I passed my father's study, I heard Nathan crying inside.

"Dad, Madeline, did Sebastian figure out that I was the one who caused his mother's death? But we were arguing, and I only pushed her by accident. I didn't mean to. I was only trying to protect myself."

Nathan sobbed pitifully, repeatedly apologizing for what he'd done to my mother.

My mind went completely blank.

A second later, I threw up blood.

Suddenly, everything made sense. My mother had endured five years of relentless harassment online, yet she'd never once considered taking her own life. So how could she have suddenly broken down and jumped to her death right after Nathan and Selena moved into our home?

The truth was she'd been murdered.

My last thread of sanity snapped.

I threw open the door, grabbed Nathan by the collar, and punched him hard enough to send him crashing to the floor.

"Sebastian! Have you lost your mind?"

Madeline's expression changed instantly. She screamed and shoved me away with all her strength, using her pregnant body as a shield as she threw herself between Nathan and me.

Her body slammed into the corner of the desk, and blood immediately began running down her leg.

The child I'd once gotten down on my knees and begged Madeline to keep—the child I'd nearly divorced her over because I couldn't bear the thought of losing it—was killed by its own mother.