Chapter 3

The contractions eased up slightly.

I didn't go back to the delivery room.

Instead, I pushed open the door and walked into the VIP suite.

The room was empty now.

The air smelled of a faint, sickening rose perfume.

I looked around.

Imported Italian leather sofas.

My favorite brand of scented candles on the nightstand.

Even the landscape painting on the wall was the exact one I had wanted at an auction, which Luke had talked me out of buying because it was "too expensive and impractical."

He didn't think it was too expensive.

He just didn't think I was worth it.

I walked over to the sofa, wanting to sit down and catch my breath.

Suddenly, voices drifted from the adjoining dressing room.

It was Lily.

She hadn't left.

She had only put on a show in front of Luke to get him to go downstairs first.

"Don't worry, I have Luke wrapped around my finger," Lily's voice rang out, no longer sweet and helpless, but sharp and venomous.

"The claustrophobia? Totally faked. I just wanted to see who mattered more to him—me, or that fat housewife who's about to pop."

She laughed wickedly.

The sound sliced through my heart like a blade.

"And guess what? He literally ordered the nurses to pump her with inhibitors to force her to hold the baby in."

The person on the other end of the line said something.

Lily sneered.

"So what if she's his wife? Luke already transferred the Hilltop Villa to my name."

"Once she gives birth today, he's going to commit her to a mental asylum under the guise of postpartum depression."

*The Hilltop Villa.*

That was the surprise I had prepared for our third anniversary.

I had personally visited construction sites, picked out every tile, and selected every chair.

I even filled the garden with his favorite sunflowers.

I had lied and told him I rented it, just to protect his pride.

At the time, his eyes had welled with tears as he held me, calling me the best wife in the world.

And behind my back, he handed the house that held all my love over to his mistress.

My breathing grew ragged.

But what she said next made my blood run cold.

"And here's the best part," Lily whispered, her tone laced with malicious excitement.

"Luke said the kid in her belly is the perfect backup blood bank."

"Once the baby is born, we'll take it away. It’ll be my personal supply to treat my illness."

*Backup blood bank.*

Those words exploded in my brain like a bomb.

I had an incredibly rare blood type—Rh-negative.

When I first got pregnant, Luke had insisted on encrypting my medical files.

He claimed he was protecting me from malicious people who might exploit it.

As it turned out, the malicious person was him.

Every night, he would press his face to my belly, gently reading stories to our unborn child.

He bought all sorts of classical music, claiming he wanted to nurture our baby's artistic soul.

He wasn't anticipating a new life.

He was cultivating a living blood bank!

A wave of nausea hit me, and I nearly threw up.

I kicked the dressing room door open with a loud slam.

Lily gasped, spinning around in terror.

When she saw it was me, she froze, then her brow furrowed in anger.

"Who the hell are you? Who let you in here? Get out!"

She hung up her FaceTime call and marched over to me, chin held high.

I didn't say a word.

My eyes were locked onto the emerald bracelet on her wrist.

"Are you deaf? I said get out!"

Seeing me ignore her, Lily reached out to shove me.

I stepped aside.

Raising my hand, I slapped her across the face with everything I had.

*SMACK!*

The crisp sound echoed through the room.

Lily's head snapped to the side.

She clutched her cheek, staring at me with wide, disbelieving eyes.

"You dared to slap me? Do you know who I am?!"

I curled my lips into a cold, mocking smile.

"You’re nothing. You don't deserve to know who I am."

Furious, Lily grabbed a glass cup from the table and threw it at me.

"I'm Luke's woman! He’s about to inherit Vance Private Hospital! I can make him ruin your life in a second!"

The glass shattered against the wall, sending shards flying.

I didn't flinch.

"Inherit Vance Private Hospital?"

I laughed, as if hearing the funniest joke in the world.

"A gold-digging piece of trash like him actually thinks he can dream that big?"

Lily froze.

She clearly hadn't expected a random pregnant woman to speak of Luke this way.

"What nonsense are you talking about?!"

I took a step closer, my gaze like a knife.

"The deed to the Hilltop Villa is under the name Hazel Vance. Did you really think he could transfer it to you?"

Lily's face turned pale.

"How... how do you know Hazel Vance?"

Hazel Vance.

The heiress of the Vance Group.

The public knew the name, but few had ever seen my face.

To hide the fact that he had married into my family, Luke had told everyone that Hazel Vance was constantly recovering in an overseas sanatorium.

I watched the panic rise in Lily’s eyes, my hatred growing exponentially.

"Not only do I know Hazel Vance," I whispered, every word sharp as ice, "but I also know that the bracelet on your wrist belongs to a dead woman."