Chapter 2

Los Angeles. A mansion in the Hollywood Hills.

The marble kitchen island was covered with top-tier ingredients flown in from Europe.

Dressed in my pristine white chef’s uniform, I used a pair of plating tweezers to place the final touch of caviar onto a beautifully seared Beef Wellington.

Clatter!

A hand adorned with a diamond-encrusted bracelet ruthlessly swept my freshly prepared appetizer off the counter.

The expensive white truffle mixed with the specialty sauce, spreading into a dirty, messy stain across the plush rug.

"What is this garbage?"

"I already told you, I'm pregnant and I can't stand the smell of anything earthy! Why did you put so much truffle in it? Are you trying to make me throw up?"

The woman speaking was Tiffany.

She wore a silk maternity dress and reclined lazily on the velvet sofa, one hand gently cradling her slightly protruding belly. Her face was twisted in a snobbish, condescending scowl.

I took a deep breath, suppressing the icy anger in my chest, and forced a flawless, professional smile.

"Mrs. Williams, the white truffle was specifically requested by your husband. He said it would provide the essential minerals you need during your pregnancy."

"So what if he requested it? I don't want to eat it right now!"

Tiffany rolled her eyes with a dramatic sigh, but her face quickly softened into a smug, sweet smile as she rubbed her belly.

"Actually, my husband used to be so adamant about being child-free. He absolutely refused to have kids."

"But he saw how much I wanted a family, so he compromised."

"He told me that for the sake of our baby, he’d break all his rules and bring the entire world to my feet."

"Look at this mansion. He bought it just for me as a pregnancy gift. Isn't he just too much?"

Yes, he was indeed "too much." Especially that part about "breaking his rules."

My eyes locked onto the sparkling pink diamond necklace resting on her collarbone. My fingernails dug deep into my palms, drawing blood, but I couldn't feel the pain.

I had spent three sleepless nights designing that exact necklace three years ago.

I wanted it to be our anniversary gift. But Rob had thrown the sketch into the trash with a cold, disgusted face, calling me vain and materialistic.

Now, it was shining around another woman’s neck.

"To be honest, my husband was married before. I heard his ex-wife couldn't get pregnant.

“She kept nagging him for a baby and even tried to squeeze every penny out of him during the divorce," Tiffany said, popping a cherry into her mouth with a casual shrug.

"Luckily, my husband is smart. He faked a company bankruptcy beforehand so that greedy woman would sign a clean-break agreement and leave with nothing."

"Can you believe how stupid some women are? It's almost sad."

Boom. The last string of sanity in my mind snapped completely.

Six months ago, Rob had stood before me with red, teary eyes, handing me a stack of debt and bankruptcy papers.

"Chloe, you know I don't want kids," he had said. "You stopped taking your birth control to try and trap me with a baby. You crossed the line."

"Now the company is bankrupt, and this house is being foreclosed to pay the debts. We're done. Just sign the waiver and leave. Don't ruin your life staying with a broke man like me."

I had believed his lies.

To make sure I wouldn't burden him, I signed the waiver, walked away without a single asset, and even left him my entire personal savings of five hundred thousand dollars.

While I was living in a damp, ten-square-meter basement, eating stale bread and working three jobs a day...

He was living in this Hollywood Hills mansion, using the necklace I designed to pamper another woman who was carrying his child.

The bankruptcy and the "child-free" vow were nothing but a massive, elaborate scam.

He just didn't want a child with me.

My five years of unconditional devotion were nothing but a hilarious joke in his eyes!