Chapter 1

Phineas Delgado likes to see me cry, wronged and hurt.

So in our three years of marriage, he arranged plenty of flings.

Without exception, I swallowed my feelings and snuffed out each spark of romance.

People in our circle called me a woman with no self-respect, a hopeless fool for love.

Until the beautiful online influencer Phineas had just taken up with stole my daughter's corneas.

It sent my two-year-old daughter to her death on the operating table.

I looked at the apology text Phineas sent me:

"Myra loves her looks more than her life. If she went blind and couldn't see herself, it would kill her."

"The child is still young. If a transplant is possible, I'll get it arranged for her right away."

This time, I wasn't going to put up with it anymore.

I called his brother at once. "Three years ago I married Phineas per our agreement. As long as I made him lose his inheritance rights, you'd give me ten million."

"I don't want the money anymore. Just take me away with you, and I'll hand you the evidence that will make sure he never gets back up..."

......

His older brother's mocking voice came through the phone:

"Weren't you the one who said you wouldn't work with me, that you wanted to give your child a home?"

My eyes went wet in an instant.

"The child is dead."

After a long silence, the voice on the other end said:

"My condolences. But wait until the seventh day after her passing before you leave. Give her some peace, all right?"

"This is my fault too. The Delgado family will give her a proper funeral to make up for it."

Eyes red, I nodded. "All right. Seven days."

But Phineas, I would never forgive.

I had just hung up when Phineas pushed the door open and walked in.

"Honey, why are you kneeling on the floor? I already told you, from now on the corneas will be arranged for our daughter first thing."

He frowned slightly and flicked away my tears.

"Your tears are only allowed to fall for me."

"If you cry for someone else again, I'm going to get angry."

There was tenderness in his words.

But his voice made me sick, made me shake.

When the online influencer's corneas detached,

the first thing he did was ask me what to do.

"Doesn't it hurt you that I'm this frantic over another woman?"

Numb, I told him to do whatever he wanted.

Our daughter stared up at him with her big eyes, reaching for a hug.

Phineas suddenly smiled.

"Baby, what if I used your child to save my lover?"

"Would that make you feel wronged?"

I cried and begged him not to.

Phineas gazed at me, spellbound.

He kissed my tears away,

then turned and dragged our child into the operating room.

The doctor said our daughter was allergic to anesthesia.

I texted Phineas, begging him to spare her, telling him the anesthesia allergy could kill her,

but Phineas didn't answer me for two whole days.

Only later did I learn

that while our daughter was convulsing on the operating table, he was busy at a karaoke bar celebrating Myra getting her sight back.

He was losing himself in the arms of a woman.

He bragged proudly to his friends

about how enchanting his wife looked when she cried.

They congratulated Phineas.

Because if I found out about that night,

Phineas would get another taste of his favorite pleasure.

Seeing that I stayed silent, Phineas reached out to pull me toward him.

"I'm sorry, honey. I was wrong about this. I promise I'll make it up to you and our child."

"I just love you too much. I love the way you cry too much..."

But the moment Phineas's hand touched our daughter's cold body,

he froze too.

It took him a long while to grasp what had happened.

His voice trembled as he spoke.

"Bess, what's wrong with our daughter?"

"It's just an allergy, isn't it? Just a rash, how could it kill her?"

The air in the hospital room went still all at once.

So still you could clearly hear

the sound of my tears dripping to the floor.

"Isn't this exactly what you wanted to see?"

"I'm wronged now, the tears won't stop. Are you happy?!"

"You're a pervert! A monster! I wish you had never loved me."

I wished I had never loved him.

In the inheritance war between the Delgado brothers, I was the spy Godfrey planted at his younger brother's side.

My job was to help Godfrey get the evidence that would bring the younger brother down completely.

At first I only wanted to take the money and do the job.

So I endured Phineas's obsession, again and again.

But over our married life, Phineas's feelings ran hot.

He would flirt with others constantly just to see my tears,

and afterward he would apologize with the utmost tenderness.

Apart from his vile fetish, he spoiled me like a princess held in his palm.

He said this was love.

I believed it.

After we had our child, I even started to think we might build a real life together.

But now, using our child's life, he has killed every last feeling I had.

Phineas is a madman, through and through, and I will never forgive him.