Chapter 3

[Annie, doesn't this hurt to watch? You've followed him without complaint for five years. Has he ever done a single thing just to make you happy? No, right?]

I stared at the words. For a long moment, I could not move.

Because she was right.

A sharp pain tore through my chest. It felt as though someone had reached inside and twisted a knife. I pressed a trembling hand against my heart and struggled to breathe.

When no reply came from me, Lilian sent another message.

[My baby and yours were conceived on the same day.]

A second later, another line appeared.

[Actually, mine came first by two hours.]

The cruelty behind her words was no longer hidden.

She wanted me to see it clearly. To imagine every detail. To understand, once and for all, exactly what role I had played in Raymond's life for the past five years.

My child had been conceived on Valentine's Day.

The memory of that night came rushing back with painful clarity.

Raymond had disappeared without a word, leaving me alone to wait for him. As the hours dragged by, every call I made went unanswered, and every message disappeared into silence.

Only later did I learn that he had spent the evening stargazing with Lilian.

He did not come home until after midnight, carrying the faint scent of Lilian's perfume with him.

By then, I was already asleep.

Still, he woke me.

Roughly.

Desperately.

As though something inside him had completely unraveled.

He held me the entire night.

A month later, I discovered I was pregnant.

Then I understood that Raymond had left Lilian's bed and come straight to mine.

The realization made my stomach churn, I nearly threw up.

I stayed at the nursing home the entire night, sitting quietly beside my father's bed and watching the darkness outside the window gradually fade into the first light of dawn.

Somewhere during those long hours, a decision quietly settled inside me.

My father was leaving this world.

Once he was gone, there would be nothing left holding me here.

Raymond was no exception.

I was done with him. I was done with the child that connected us.

……

The procedure was over quickly.

One moment I was closing my eyes, and the next, it was done.

The child I had waited five years for was gone.

I would be lying if I said it did not hurt.

It did.

Far more than I could ever put into words.

I had loved Raymond for years, and I had dreamed of this baby for just as long.

On countless nights, I had imagined tiny fingers wrapping around mine. I had pictured birthdays, first steps, and all the ordinary moments that would one day become precious memories.

Now, all of it was gone.

However, heartbreak was not always the worst thing a person could endure.

The thing that truly destroyed me was staying.

Staying where I was not wanted. Staying where I was repeatedly humiliated. Staying where my love was treated as an obligation rather than something to be cherished.

Compared to that, letting go felt almost merciful.

For the child.

For me.

When I woke up, my phone was buzzing nonstop.

Notifications poured in faster than I could process them. First dozens. Then hundreds. Before long, there were thousands.

Every headline was about me.

A husband carrying the woman he truly loved out of his wedding anniversary banquet and a pitiful wife abandoned in front of an entire ballroom.

Photos of me covered in frosting from head to toe had spread across every major website in Liberty City.

At the same time, discussions about the love triangle between Raymond, Lilian, and me exploded across social media.

The internet had already chosen its heroine.

Lilian was the goddess and I was the villain.

Story after story claimed that Raymond and Lilian had been the perfect campus couple before I barged into their relationship and stole her place.

People mocked me and defended her.

Somehow, I — the legal Mrs. Lowe — had become the homewrecker.

The irony would have been amusing if it were not so pathetic.

Because I was never the other woman.

Not even close.

The truth was the exact opposite. Lilian and Raymond's breakup had nothing to do with me.

From beginning to end, I had always been Raymond's officially chosen fiancée.

Lilian was the one who entered the picture afterward.

Knowing full well that Raymond and I were engaged, she still pursued him relentlessly.

And Raymond allowed her to.

In the end, both the Lowe family and the Smith family strongly opposed their relationship.

Unable to overcome the pressure, Lilian quietly left the country.

Five years ago, I never bothered explaining any of that. Five years later, I cared even less.

What surprised me was Raymond's silence. As president of the Lowe Group, he possessed more than enough influence to stop the rumors with a single statement. Instead, he did nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

He allowed the lies to spread.

He allowed strangers to insult me and stood by while my reputation was torn apart piece by piece.

I suppose Raymond had finally given up on me completely.

After all, I had embarrassed him.

In front of an entire ballroom and the person I slapped had been Lilian, the woman he had loved for years, the woman he had never truly forgotten.

How could he possibly forgive me for hurting her?

I understood better than anyone how deeply they had loved each other. However, I had never forced Raymond to marry me.

When Lilian left five years ago, he could have followed her.

No one had stopped him. Instead, he chose power, he chose the alliance between the Lowe family and the Smith family.

In the end, he chose me.

For five years, we played the role of the perfect couple, at least in public and at least on the surface.