Chapter 1

For five years, I kept my identity as the heiress to a powerful conglomerate a secret.

I willingly gave up my privileged life to help Leonardo fight his way from nothing to the CEO of a multinational corporation.

Full of joy, I took my prenatal scan to surprise him, only to see him kneeling through the crack in the door, kissing Tiffany's slightly swollen belly.

When he saw me, he showed no remorse. Instead, he coldly slammed an abortion consent form onto my face.

“Tiffany has severe depression. She can’t stand to see anyone else pregnant. Go get the abortion tomorrow. Don't make me angry.”

I looked at the man I had poured everything into, and suddenly, I felt utterly disgusted.

For a gold-digger, he wanted to kill my child.

But he didn't know. Everything he owned was merely a toy I had casually bestowed upon him.

Since he had no shame, I would take back everything that was mine, with interest!

“Mr. Leonardo, Miss Tiffany’s pregnancy is stable, but her emotions absolutely must not be stimulated.”

I stood outside the CEO’s office, clutching the ultrasound report that read "Four Weeks Pregnant." My knuckles were white from clenching so hard.

The door wasn't fully closed. Through that glaring gap, I saw my husband, Leonardo, who was usually so cold and imperious at the office, now kneeling on one knee in front of the leather sofa.

He held a bowl of steaming, high-end nutritional broth, carefully blowing on it to cool it down, as tenderly as if he were handling a priceless treasure. Then, he slowly brought it to Tiffany’s lips.

“Tiffany, come on, just a sip. For our baby, you need to eat something.”

Tiffany was wearing an oversized men’s shirt, its collar slightly open, revealing suggestive red marks.

She pushed Leonardo’s hand away with a whine, tears instantly welling up in her eyes, and said with a fragile, tearful look:

“Leonardo, you spend every day with me like this. Won’t Aria be angry? After all… after all, she’s your legally married wife. What am I?”

Leonardo scoffed, an undisguised look of disgust and disdain flashing across his handsome face.

“Why even mention her? What a buzzkill. She’s just a dowdy housewife, always smelling of stale cooking.”

“If it weren’t for her being so docile and responsible, like a free live-in maid who could take care of me, I never would have married her.”

He put the bowl down and pulled Tiffany into his embrace with a pained expression, kissing her forehead.

“You’re the only one in my heart, always have been. As soon as this baby is born, I’ll divorce her immediately and marry you. Everyone will know you’re my true wife.”

I stood outside the door, my blood running cold as if drained from my body, shivering from head to toe.

Five years. For him, I broke ties with my family, abandoned my esteemed status as the heiress of the Franklin Corporation, and lived anonymously. I endured countless hardships with him in this city.

When he was starting his business, he couldn’t attract investors, and he stayed up all night smoking on the rooftop, desperate.

It was me who secretly leveraged my grandfather Spencer’s connections, disguised as a mysterious investor, paving the way for him.

He worked overtime until he had a stomach hemorrhage trying to rush a project. I never left his side at the hospital for half a month, neglecting myself entirely, preparing him various stomach-soothing broths until my own hair started falling out.

I thought we were a couple who had been through thick and thin, with a love as strong as steel.

But it turned out, in Leonardo’s eyes, I was just a doormat who practically paid to be his live-in maid.

A mere stepping stone, to be kicked aside at any moment to make room for his precious first love.

I took a deep breath and suddenly pushed the door open.

With a loud "bang," the heavy solid wood door slammed against the wall, startling the two people who were locked in an intimate embrace inside.

Tiffany shrieked, shrinking into Leonardo’s arms like a startled rabbit.

Leonardo’s face instantly changed. Seeing me standing at the door, his brows furrowed into a tight knot, his eyes full of the fury of someone whose secret pleasure had been interrupted.

“Aria? What are you doing here? Who told you to come in without knocking! You have no manners!”

He instinctively spread his arms to shield Tiffany behind him, as if I were some man-eating monster.

I ignored his roaring noun and walked in step by step, staring intently at his face, which I had once been so infatuated with, and held up the ultrasound report.

“I came to tell you I’m pregnant.”

“But now it seems, I’ve come at a bad time. My apologies for interrupting, Mr. Leonardo.”