Chapter 4

My father's brow didn't so much as twitch.

"This is what you owe Melanie."

My mother let out a heavy sigh.

"You know your sister's uterine lining is too thin. She may only ever get to have one child in her whole life. And instead of supporting her, you hurt her."

"So you all just let the doctor take my womb!" I couldn't hold myself up any longer. I sank to the floor and buried my face in my hands and wept.

I had once left the adoptive parents who cherished me, all for the sake of this blood tie. And in the end, what this "family" gave me wasn't happiness. It was wound after wound.

I'd been such a fool.

"Enough." Cyril pressed his fingers to his brow and called for the housekeeper. "Tear down the nursery."

My head snapped up.

"What are you doing?!"

I had chosen that nursery myself. Every last detail had been designed and arranged by my own hands.

I'd walked through countless stores for the color of the wallpaper, the weight of the curtains, the shape of the crib. Even that final scrap of longing I had for my child, he wanted to destroy it?

"Melanie gives birth in six months. The room needs to be redone."

His eyes carried a warning. "She hasn't been well since she got pregnant. As of today, she's moving in to live with us. I expect the two of you to get along."

Melanie bit her lip and spoke in a small, timid voice.

"If my sister doesn't want me here, I can move in with the baby and stay with Mom and Dad."

"No. I won't feel at ease unless I look after you myself." There was no room for argument in Cyril's voice. "And the Weiss heir deserves nothing less than the best environment to grow up in."

Over his shoulder, Melanie shot me a glance and let a smug little smile slip out.

The housekeeper went off at once to have the nursery torn down.

I sat there, numb, and watched them sweep Melanie off to the hospital to have a doctor look at that "injured finger" of hers, the one that hardly left a mark.

The scald on my leg still burned without mercy. My heart had gone numb.

My tears stopped.

I remembered something my adoptive mother once told me.

"Tears are only a weapon for wicked people to hurt you with. You have to learn to brew your tears into poison and feed it to them with a smile."

She was right. I would never let my tears be a letter of surrender again.

I got to my feet and looked coldly at the enormous wedding portrait in the living room, picked up a bottle of Lafite, and hurled it. The frame came down and shattered.

Then I cut every photo of the two of us to shreds and smashed every keepsake from those seven years into pieces.

I called for the maid and gave her my instructions, calm as anything.

"Fiona, clean this up. These bags, and all this jewelry, they're yours now."

"Mrs. Weiss, your leg…" Fiona's voice trembled as she looked at the blisters covering my feet. "Let me tend to it for you."

She was probably the only person left in this house who felt anything for me.

Eyes rimmed red, she dabbed on the medicine without a word and urged me to go to the hospital.

But I was so tired. I shook my head, curled up in bed, and sank into a heavy sleep.

When I woke again, it was already the next day.

I had just finished washing up when Cyril's voice came from behind me. "Julie."

He looked at the worn, hunched line of my back and reached out to touch my hair. I turned my head away.

His hand froze in midair.

"Don't worry. Melanie moving in doesn't change that you're my wife."

I blinked my dry eyes. "Fine. I'll get along with her."

"You agree?" He sounded surprised.

"Why wouldn't I?" I answered evenly. "I can't get pregnant again. But I still want to be a mother."

He seemed quite pleased with that answer.

"I'm glad you've finally come around. Does your leg still hurt?"

Footsteps came down the hall. My brother, Lucas Henson, walked in, with Melanie behind him.

Lucas fixed Cyril with a cold, hard stare. "I hope you'll take good care of my sister and my nephew. I don't want her getting hurt in this house by certain people."

Then that icy glare landed on my face.

Cyril frowned slightly. "Don't worry. Julie's already agreed to get along with Melanie."

Melanie gave me a timid little glance, and Lucas pulled her into his arm at once, his voice impossibly gentle.

"If anyone dares bully you again, you call me. Mom, Dad, and I are always on your side."

Melanie shook her head.

"It's all right. My sister doesn't like me, but for the baby's sake I can endure anything."

Cyril stroked her hair and swore to her, "With me here, no one will ever bully you."

What a touching scene.

A bitter curve tugged at the corner of my mouth.

From my husband to my family, every single one of them poured their hearts out for her, no questions asked. And me, I was forever the one in the wrong.

A dry, cold laugh scraped out of my throat.

"That's right. I'm the woman who's always hurting other people, the mistress who seduces another woman's husband and even bears him a child."

"What a fine daughter the Hensons raised, pure and innocent as a white lotus!"