Chapter 1

“Did Mrs. Ronan just slink off to the guest room like that? If she has to listen to them through the walls tonight, won’t she die of a heartbreak?”

“You want to help her or something? Didn’t you see how much Mr. Ronan dotes on Ms. Jessica? Mrs. Ronan is nothing to him now. You should know better who to flatter.”

“True, Mr. Ronan and Ms. Jessica is a perfect match.”

I cradled my child, Holly, as I pushed boxes out of the master bedroom into the guest room.

My eyes searched for help, but no one offered it.

On the fifth day after my diagnosis, Pierce Ronan planned to sleep with Jessica Stone in our marital bedroom.

The housemaids carefully removed every trace of me. Photos of us, our bedsheets, and the little tokens of our life together were all quickly stored away.

They replaced the bedsheets, brought in Jessica’s personal belongings, and the couple’s wedding photo.

Pierce swept his cold gaze over the room, not sparing me a single glance.

He knelt by the sofa, tenderly feeding strawberries to Jessica, his voice thick with affection.

“I promised you everything a bride deserves — you won’t be shortchanged, sweetheart. Come on, open your mouth…”

In my arms, Holly sensed something was wrong and whimpered softly, but Pierce acted as if he didn’t hear.

His heart and eyes had a place only for Jessica, while Holly and I were left to be mocked by everyone around us.

I rocked Holly gently as a deep, bitter ache flooded my chest.

But what could I do?

I was dying.

The boxes scraped across the floor as I worked.

Once I finished, I didn’t want to speak, I just wanted to retreat quietly to my room.

As I walked through the living room, Jessica stubbornly refused to let me go.

Pierce coaxed her for a long time before she tearfully spoke up.

“I don’t have many days left, and I can’t have children. I just want to take Holly for a few days to feel what it’s like to be a mother. But… I’m afraid of offending you, Lorien.”

In an instant, every gaze in the room turned and fixed on me.

I locked eyes with Pierce, my gaze unrelenting.

He had already let Jessica parade openly into our home, and I had become the maids’ private joke.

Could he truly be so heartless as to snatch away our child, leaving me unable to even look at Holly in my final days?

The moment Pierce saw the sorrow on the delicate face before him, his heart softened.

“Lorien, since you’ve already given up our room, you won’t mind letting Jessica have Holly for a few days, right?” he pleaded.

I almost forgot, Jessica was the woman he had sworn to marry in his youth.

If Pierce hadn’t loved her so deeply, if he hadn’t broken up with her back then just to avoid holding back her future, they would have long been husband and wife.

Instead, I had merely picked up what had been left behind.

I became his wife because I was convenient, not because he loved me.

Once you removed the duty, there was nothing left between us.

I fought through the dull ache pounding in my head and asked, “What if I do mind? She’s our daughter. She’s only a month old.”

Pierce froze, then turned to me coldly.

“I told you, it’s just three days. Jessica is not well. She’s never been a mother. What’s the harm in letting her keep Holly for a while?

“You still have so many years left! You’ll have plenty of time to be with Holly.”

“She’s my daughter! Without my consent, no one can take her away!” I snapped.

I had given birth to Holly while fighting for my life, yet now I had only three days left to live.

She would never see me again.

“I didn’t think you could be so selfish,” Pierce growled, his brows knitting, his voice dark.

“Can’t you even wait for just three days?”

I couldn’t.

Of course, I couldn’t.

But before the words could leave my mouth, he ordered the maids to seize me. They pried Holly from my arms and passed her to Jessica.

I clenched my teeth, eyes burning red as I glared at him.

It felt as if my heart had been ripped out of my chest.

Meanwhile, Jessica smiled radiantly, her eyes brimming with triumph as she looked at me.

At that moment, no physical pain could compare to the agony inside my body.

I struggled fiercely against the maids, lunging forward to grab Holly, desperate to take her back.

The moment my hand caught the edge of the swaddle, a flicker of joy flashed through me, but then I caught sight of the sly curve at the corner of Jessica’s lips.

I hesitated, and in that instant, Jessica suddenly let her body fall backward, her arms releasing the swaddle without warning.

Seeing Holly slip from her hands, I instinctively reached out and snatched her safely into my arms.

The force of the motion sent me crashing to the floor, pain shooting up my elbow.

Gasps of alarm filled the room.

Pierce, however, had caught Jessica.

She nestled in his embrace, her voice trembling with panic.

“If you didn’t want to let me take Holly, you could’ve just said so, Lorien! There was no need to use her just to push me down and hurt me.”

One of the maids stepped forward and glared at me. “You were so reckless, Mrs. Ronan! Holly is so tiny…if she had fallen and hit her head, no one could’ve saved her!”

Pierce’s eyes had softened for a moment when he saw me fall to the ground, protecting Holly without a thought for myself.

But at the maid’s words, his face twisted with fresh disappointment and anger.

“You’re just cruel, Lorien. How could you use Holly to bully Jessica! A woman like you doesn’t deserve to be a mother!”

As he spoke, he snatched Holly out of my arms.

“These next few days, you can stay in the maids’ quarters. You can serve Jessica properly, just like the maid you are.”

As he finished, he noticed the tears pooling at the corners of my eyes as I curled up on the floor.

For a moment, I saw a flicker of concern cross his face.

Off to the side, Jessica shrugged lightly. “You didn’t hit your head or anything, so why pretend like you’ve got a concussion? Are you trying to gain sympathy from Pierce?

“Holly isn’t even crying, but you, a grown woman, are crying in pain. Isn’t that a bit much?”

Pierce’s fleeting concern vanished, replaced immediately by a look of disgust.

“Stop pretending you’re some pitiful dying woman. Your sixty bright, shining years of life are written clear as day. You can’t fool me.”

My heart ached as I knew that he was the one who had been lying to me all along.

I thought back to the whirlwind marriage between me and Pierce, to the sweet, intimate days we had shared.

Now, it all felt like nothing more than a dream.

In my last trimester, he had set aside his work every day to make soup for me, and rub oils on my belly so I wouldn’t get stretch marks.

He kissed and cuddled me even when I was swollen and unattractive from pregnancy.

But the moment Jessica reappeared just five short days ago, everything changed.

Pierce now shielded Jessica at every turn, and even the maids in the house all sided with her.

I stood utterly alone, abandoned and cornered.

When the pain gradually faded, I pulled myself up from the floor.

The living room had emptied as I lay there.

Pierce had ordered that, for the next few days, I was not to see Holly, not even once.

Even the luggage I had just moved into the guest room had been tossed into the maids’ quarters.

Feeling weak, I tried to head back to the room, but Jessica called out to me.

“Lorien, I’m planning to let my puppy stay here, so why don’t you make do with the basement for a few days?”

I clenched my jaw, shooting a furious glare at Pierce, who stood quietly behind her.

Pierce pressed his lips together, and for once, he stopped her from driving me out again.

“Enough,” he said. “The guest room next door is for your dog. The maids’ quarters are for her.”

Hearing that, Jessica happily ran upstairs, already busy arranging the dog’s little home.

Only then did Pierce turn to me.

“Lorien, I just want to make the best of her time here. I promise, I’ll only be with Jessica for three days,” he explained.

“After that, we’ll have many decades together. She’s just a passing shadow. You’re still my wife, and nothing will change that.”

He reached out to pat my head gently.

“Be good. Be a little more generous. From now on, I swear, I’ll never let you suffer like this again.”

With those words, he turned and left.

But he didn’t know that I didn’t have the time to be generous.

We had no future left.