Chapter 1

During a fight with my husband, he shoved me. My stomach bumped into the couch’s armrest.

Just then, his childhood friend called him, sobbing. “Caleb, hurry, come to Cloudpeak Hotel and save me! My boss got me drunk, and now he’s forcing me to serve our client…”

I nearly blacked out from the twisting pain in my stomach. I begged him to take me to the hospital.

However, my husband said, “There’s a life at stake here! Can you not be so cruel?”

He left, slamming the door behind him. I had no choice but to call for an ambulance.

That night, he spent the night with his childhood friend, while I lay in the operating theater, undergoing emergency surgery.

Good news, Caleb Gordon! You'd never have children again! Weren’t you glad?

You deserved it!

Chapter 1

Caleb Gordon and I were high school sweethearts. We dated for seven years, and then were married for five.

We had been aiming to conceive since our second year of marriage. However, we found out that Caleb had some kind of disease. Our chances of conceiving naturally were meager.

We chose to go for IVF instead. In the next four years, I had twelve implantations and three successful pregnancies. Each time, I would miscarry for one reason or another.

I got used to the pain of egg extraction and the weariness of the recovery period. I did not mind, because I wanted to give the man I loved a healthy son.

Six months ago, I finally got pregnant for the fourth time.

I was afraid of miscarrying again, so I decided to take my doctor’s advice and give up my career at the peak of its glory. I went home and stayed on bedrest.

I rarely left the bed for six whole months. I nurtured this baby carefully, waiting for the day it was born, hoping it would be the cherry on top of our twelve-year relationship.

I never expected to lose the child more than halfway through the pregnancy.

Caleb’s absent-minded shove shattered my dream of becoming a mother and killed his last hope of continuing his family line.

When the paramedics arrived, I was already losing consciousness from blood loss. They lifted me into the ambulance, asking in my ear hurriedly, “Ma’am, where’s your family? Hurry up and contact your next of kin!”

My heart twisted in my chest. My so-called next of kin was saving his damsel-in-distress at Cloudpeak Hotel.

“If I need to go for surgery, I can sign the forms myself…”

I signed my name with the last of my strength and finally fainted away.

The next day at noon, my best friend Sydney called me in a huff. “Look at your social media feed, Ella! Luna is openly provoking you!”

I never saw Luna James’ posts on my feed, since I blocked her. Sydney sent me a screenshot.

The post was a nine-picture collage, with Luna cuddling in Caleb’s embrace as the centerpiece. Seven of the other eight pictures showed Caleb busying away in her kitchen, while the last was him feeding her some soup.

The caption was, “One house for the two of us. I’m glad to have you for the rest of my life.”

It was clear that they had spent the night together, and they were still together the next afternoon.

They were a man and a woman alone in a room. She had been drunk, and he was no saint. Even if they told me they had not done anything, I would not believe them.

Still, starting last night, what they did had nothing to do with me anymore.

Last night, before I was wheeled into the OR, I had called my lawyer to draft the divorce papers. I signed them this morning, took a picture, and sent them to Caleb.

Chapter 2

He still had not replied to my messages, though. It was clear he never read them.

Only in the afternoon did Caleb finally drive to the hospital. He looked impatient from the moment he walked into the room.

“Ella Swann, could you just stop for a minute? Threatening divorce and checking into the hospital, are you trying to threaten me with the baby again? What if the baby can’t withstand all that torment?!

“Luna is like a sister to me. We grew up together! What’s wrong with me helping her out last night when she was in danger? Stop jumping to the wrong conclusions all the time!”

So he still remembered the baby. Unfortunately, the baby was dead now.

He was a boy who looked a lot like Caleb. I turned my head away.

“Caleb, the baby is gone. You don’t have to worry about me threatening you with it anymore. Just sign the divorce papers.”

I could hear Caleb’s breath catching in his throat. The next second, however, he scoffed. “You will really stop at nothing for your jealousy, huh? How could you lie about such a thing?!

“And here Luna asked me to bring you some soup, saying she was worried about your health. You’re twenty-nine this year, Ella. Can’t you be a bit more mature, like Luna?

“Stop thinking the worst of everyone, like a bitter old hag!”

Caleb put the flask of soup on the table and turned to leave. When he reached the door, he seemed to remember something. His tone and attitude softened slightly.

“Last time, you mentioned that our villa at Fonte Garden was far away from the city, so you wanted to sell it. I haven’t found a proper buyer yet, and we aren’t living there right now, so I let Luna stay there for a while. She can move once we find a buyer.

“She was fired because she refused to sleep with the client last night and offended her boss. She has nowhere to go for now.

“She’s like a sister to me, after all. Her mother asked me to take care of her before she died. I have to take responsibility for her and keep her safe.”

I looked at the soup he had brought me. It was their leftovers from this morning.

My lips curved into a sneer. I see.

Luna was planning to exchange my villa for a flask of leftover soup.

No wonder Caleb did not even react when I lost the baby. All he cared about was Luna’s safety, Luna’s comfort, and Luna’s mother’s dying wishes.

It was all about Luna, always about Luna! With Luna in his life, there was no more space in his heart for the baby and me.

If it were any other day, we would have started arguing by now. However, all I could think about was what happened last night.

While Caleb and Luna were making love through the night, I lay in agony on the operating table. I was allergic to anesthetics, so I had to feel my baby leaving me without any painkillers.

Toward the end, my body and heart were both numb from the pain. I would never forget that feeling!

And it was all Caleb’s fault!

Bam! I knocked the flask over, and soup spilled everywhere.

Caleb’s gaze turned cold. I looked him in the eye and barked, “Get lost!”

“You’re crazy!” Caleb slammed the door behind him. The next day, he sent me a text saying he was going to another city for work.

At the same time, the property manager at the villa called me, telling me that Caleb had left with Luna an hour ago.

I put my phone away expressionless. I did not care if he had gone for work or a vacation with Luna.

All I needed from him now was his signature on the divorce papers.

Chapter 3

I did not care who he was with anymore.

As expected, Caleb did not show up for the next few days. He did not even text me.

On the day I was discharged from the hospital, however, I found him waiting for me in the carpark.

I immediately turned to leave, but he gave chase. He stood in my way and grabbed my things.

“Get into the car.” His tone was overbearing, as always.

It was pointless to argue with him. I rolled my eyes and got into the backseat.

A strong and familiar scent of perfume wafted over from the passenger seat. It was Luna’s favorite brand.

I used to smell this scent in the car often. Every time, I would agitatedly ask Caleb what was going on. Today, however, I just glanced at the front passenger seat before looking away without a word.

Caleb stood outside the car, glancing at my stomach before scoffing. “So you stopped pretending after a few days in the hospital?”

It was almost winter, and my body was weak after the miscarriage. I did not want to catch a cold, so I wore a few more layers of clothing. I even added some heat packs to alleviate the pain in my stomach.

From the outside, my belly looked as swollen as it did before my induced labor. The difference was even harder to spot once I sat down.

I glanced at Caleb, staying silent when I saw the look of irony on his face.

He thought I could not possibly miscarry six months into the pregnancy. He refused to believe a light shove could have killed his baby.

I could not be bothered to argue with him. I just closed my eyes and waited for him to take me home.

Since he could not get a reaction out of me, Caleb grumbled and started the car. Almost as soon as he left the basement carpark, his phone rang with Luna’s personalized ringtone.

I opened my eyes in time to see him reject the call in a panic. He saw I was awake in the rear mirror and awkwardly explained, “Uh… John changed my ringtone as a prank. Don’t misunderstand, Ella.”

John was his secretary. Just then, the phone rang again. The caller ID clearly said, “Luna Baby”.

I was unperturbed, looking at the guilt flashing across Caleb’s face with a sardonic smirk.

“Answer the call. She called twice in a row, after all. Maybe it’s something important.”

Luna was doing this on purpose. She knew I was with Caleb, so she wanted to use her old tricks to tear us apart. After all, she had succeeded every time before. Caleb would abandon me and rush to her side every time.

Caleb picked up the call, his tone guilty. “I’m driving. Whatever it is, you can tell me later.”

She said something I could not hear. The next second, Caleb’s eyes widened in panic, and he slammed the brakes.

Skree— My body fell forward from the momentum. The next instant, another impact struck me from behind.

Someone had crashed into us. A steel pipe pierced into the car, stabbing me exactly in the belly.

Warm blood leaked out through my thick layers of clothing, dying the car seat red.

Caleb’s head slammed into the steering wheel. To my surprise, the first thing he did upon getting up was turn around to check on me. “Ella, are you alright?”

I was too weak to reply, holding my wound and panting as all the blood drained from my face. The blood loss was making me dizzy.

Caleb pulled off his seatbelt and ran to the back seat in a panic, trying to pull me up.

Chapter 4

He also turned pale when he saw the bloodied steel pipe sticking out of my body.

“Ella, t-the baby…” Caleb’s voice was trembling.

My lips twitched. Somehow I found the energy to mock him. “Believe it or not, Caleb, our baby is long gone…”

The pipe had gone through my belly. Even if I had not been induced earlier, there was no way the baby could have survived.

I was heartbroken. In order to conceive, I had done so much research that I knew as much theory as a freshly graduated obstetrician. I knew that the chances were high that I would lose my womb.

I would never become a mother again.

Caleb’s gaze was manic. He wanted to pick me up, but he did not dare to touch me when he saw the long steel pipe. His expression was distraught. “Don’t worry, honey, I’ll find a way to save you right now!

“I’ll take you to the hospital! You and the baby will be fine, I promise…”

I had not heard him call me “honey” for almost three years. What a blast from the past…

I closed my eyes amidst the irony. Before I lost consciousness, I could hear Caleb’s anguished cries. He seemed to be calling someone while yelling at the driver who rear-ended us.

Whatever. I did not care. I was tired, and I wanted to sleep…

Caleb and I started dating in high school. That year, I was the school idol and the top scorer. He was the welfare case and the perpetual runner-up.

He was handsome and good at his studies. Even though he was poor, plenty of girls confessed to him. However, he wrote me a love song and played it on stage during the year-end party, singing his love for me.

Everyone objected, but I insisted on dating him.

I had fallen in love with him at first sight. His good looks, stubborn temper, and rugged determination won my heart.

After every exam, he would wait in anticipation for his results. Once he got what he expected, he would congratulate me for coming in first.

I liked how sincere and honest he was. I naively believed that he was pure at heart.

We went to the same Ivy League university and chose different majors. Both of us shone in our respective fields.

He rejected everyone else’s advances, buying me gifts and treating me to fancy meals with his scholarship money.

When I graduated, I came to this city and started a company with him using the seed money my parents gave me.

To save money, we did not even have a wedding ceremony. We just registered our marriage, ate a cake we bought at a discount in our tiny apartment, drank two bottles of the cheapest wine, and swore our lives to each other.

We did not dare to have a baby at the time, but I accidentally fell pregnant the next year.

It was only after I miscarried that we went for a test and found out about Caleb’s serious disease.

The doctor had said that even if we did not use protection, it would not be easy for us to conceive. Nevertheless, that baby had beaten the odds and settled in my belly.

Unfortunately, we were both too careless. Neither of us noticed until he left us.

Since then, Caleb started to worry about continuing his family line. He asked me to consider having a baby earlier, while we still could. I felt bad for him, so I agreed.

At the time, his company had just started up. Money was tight, and I could not bear to give him any more pressure, so I lowered my head and asked my parents for money.

Chapter 5

I took their scolding on the nose, borrowed fifty thousand dollars, and went to the hospital for IVF treatments.

I spent most of the next four years in hospitals doing checkups and taking care of my body at home, trying to conceive. I moved my career online. Sometimes, I would find time to help Caleb at his company, sharing some of his burden.

With my help, Caleb’s company grew steadily. Three years ago, it finally went public and became a rising star in the local business scene.

That day, Caleb was carted home drunk. As soon as he walked into the door, he hugged me and ranted, “Honey, we finally… don’t have to worry about money anymore… Your husband finally became rich…”

He grabbed a handful of cash and threw it into the air. The notes drifted down onto him, me… and the woman at the door.

“Nice to meet you, Ella. I’m Luna James, Caleb’s childhood friend.”

The one who had brought him home was Luna, his childhood friend who had been missing for years. From the moment I laid eyes on her, I felt a strange sense of hostility.

In the end, I could not even sleep in peace. It was too noisy outside. Caleb seemed to arguing with someone, and it even escalated into a fight.

The steel pipe had me pinned onto the seat. I could not move, so I could only tap the door with my phone, reminding the people outside that there was a patient in here.

“Stop fighting! I see blood over there, someone’s hurt! I’m a doctor, let me through!” A woman’s voice rapidly approached me. “Sir, please calm down and leave the judgment of the case to the cops. Your wife’s life is in danger. We should save her first!”

Caleb had long since lost his mind. He did not dare to yell at the doctor, so he roared at someone else instead.

“What the hell were you doing? If you’re driving such a huge truck with all those steel pipes, you should at least tie them down! My wife and I had been trying for years to get this baby! If anything happens to it, I’ll make you and your entire family pay the price!”

So it was the truck driver who rear-ended me. The pipes were his cargo.

Still, how was this his fault? It was Caleb’s fault for braking so suddenly. Was he trying to blame the other party to run away from his sins?

I scoffed at him inwardly, but I had no energy to speak. The next moment, a woman’s anxious face peered into the car.

“Don’t worry, ma’am, I’m a doctor! Where are you hurt?

“Huh? It’s you?”

I forced my eyes open and looked at her weakly. “It’s you…”

The woman was the doctor who met me at the hospital and performed the emergency induction. I remembered they called her Dr. Shay.

She looked at me and then at Caleb, who was still throwing a tantrum outside. In the end, she could not help but roar, “Enough, stop fighting!

“Hey, bastard. Yes, you. Is this your wife? Are you her next of kin?”

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Caleb nodding in a daze.

Dr. Shay scoffed. “So you were the missing husband! Don’t you know your wife lost her baby a few days ago after blunt-force trauma to her abdomen? She almost bled out, and we had to induce labor!”