Chapter 1

At the company's morning meeting, Rodney Delgado publicly granted the honeymoon leave I'd been waiting three years for to my deputy, Rachel Chavez.

After the meeting, I stormed into the CEO's office and demanded to know why.

His back was to me, his tone easy:

"Let's cancel our honeymoon for now."

"Her morning sickness is severe. She can't come to work."

I thought I'd misheard and froze where I stood.

Only then did he turn around and toss a pregnancy test report onto the desk.

"Two months ago, during those days when you were hospitalized after your miscarriage, she and I slept together for several nights, and she got pregnant."

In that instant, my whole body shook.

Eyes reddening, I looked at the man I had loved for years.

It took me a long time to force out a single sentence:

"But we just had our wedding last week!"

Rodney walked over and sighed to soothe me:

"You've had three miscarriages. The doctor says it will be very hard for you to conceive again."

"And Rachel—to repay your five years of support—she stripped naked and knelt over me, crying and begging me to give her the chance to bear a child for you."

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1.

"What did you say?"

Tears welled in my eyes as I glared at him.

But he frowned, his expression full of reproach:

"Don't worry, the child will call you 'Mom' from the day it's born.

She's an innocent, decent girl—she doesn't even want a title. All she wants is a chance to repay a kindness.

You ought to be grateful to her. How can you not have even that much room in your heart for another person?"

I couldn't hold back my tears.

I snatched the pregnancy test report off the desk, tore it into pieces, and threw them in his face.

"Rodney Delgado, you make cheating during marriage sound so fresh and refined. Doesn't it disgust you?"

He took half a step back and lifted a hand to brush the scraps of paper off his shoulder.

Then he casually pulled a tissue from the desk and, the way he always had, wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes.

"Stop crying. Your health is poor. Too much crying will hurt you."

Just that one line.

Light and weightless, like coaxing a willful child.

I flung his hand off hard.

He was silent for a few seconds, and when he spoke, his patience was already gone:

"Rachel is young, smooth and firm, and healthy. She can carry on the Delgado line.

And you? Three miscarriages, and the doctor says the risk if you conceive again is extremely high.

I'm keeping her around to give the Delgado family an heir, not to cast you aside as my wife."

When I heard it, I didn't cry, and I didn't curse.

It felt like a gash had been torn straight open in my chest, the pain surging in half a beat too late.

How I lost those three children rose up in my mind.

The first time, three months pregnant, digging into the company's accounts.

I stayed up till the small hours every night, hemorrhaged badly, and couldn't keep it.

The second time, running a fever of a hundred and two.

Fighting for him at the negotiating tables of his major projects—I'd just signed a big one, then collapsed, and the heartbeat stopped.

The third time, the company was in turmoil, and to protect his position,

I worked forty-eight hours straight, fainted in the conference room, blood soaking my dress.

Three times, I was wheeled out of the operating room.

He stood outside the door.

And every first sentence was: "Don't be upset. Rest well, get your health back quickly. The company still needs you keeping an eye on things."

I lightly wiped the corner of my eye with a finger and gave a cold laugh:

"If that's the case—now that you've found someone to carry on the Delgado line—why did you still go through with our wedding last week?"

He thought about it for a moment, then knit his brows.

"You're different from her.

You're sensible, capable, able to help me run the company—you even gave up your family inheritance rights for me. You're the best choice for a wife."

He paused, then went on:

"But Rachel is different. She's too simple. To repay you, she was actually willing to use her own body to bear a child for you.

With that guileless nature of hers, she couldn't hold up the company, and she couldn't hold up this home."

Rachel.

Five years ago, I dragged her out of her stepfather's room and saved her from hell.

For five years I paid her college tuition on time, and now and then I bought her clothes.

The moment she graduated, I brought her into the company as my deputy.

These two people were the closest, most cherished people to me over the past ten years.

Now they'd gone behind my back and made a child.

Yet here he stood in front of me, telling me this was called repaying a kindness.

I was so furious I laughed, utterly beyond words.

Rodney crossed his arms and watched coldly as I cried one moment and laughed the next.

"This matter ends here. Once she's given birth, I'll arrange for her to go abroad. You'll still be the glamorous Mrs. Delgado."

The calmer and more candid he was, the more I wanted to laugh.

Tears blurred my vision again.

"Rodney Delgado, let's get a divorce."

He was stunned at first, and had just started to say something.

At that moment, his phone rang.