Chapter 1

Ethan kept me as his plaything for three years.

In bed, he called me his baby. But the moment he got up, he forced birth control pills down my throat.

Behind my back, he told everyone I was just a pet, a human shield to protect the woman he actually loved. He said he would throw me away when he got bored.

The day I found out I was pregnant, he personally pinned me to the operating table. He ordered the doctors to scrape my womb clean, without any anesthesia.

So I jumped into the freezing ocean, faking my death along with our unborn child.

Three years later, I stood right across from him at his own engagement party. Linking arms with another billionaire, I slapped the Vance Corporation's bankruptcy and acquisition papers right onto his face.

"Mr. Vance, who is the pet now?"

With bloodshot eyes, he fell to his knees in the pouring rain, begging me to look at him. What he didn't tell me was that he was already carrying a terminal cancer diagnosis in his pocket.

But when our little boy collapsed in front of him from a sudden heart attack, this ruthless man, the one who once wanted me dead, did the unthinkable.

He let the doctors drain one-third of his own blood without any anesthesia to prime a mechanical heart for our son.

With a weak, dying smile, he whispered to me.

"Chloe, I am giving my life back to your son. Can you please stop hating me?"