Chapter 1
Edward Stone's desires were immense. In our seven years of marriage, he drew me into his passion nearly every night.
He professed he would love only me for his entire life, unwilling to let a child divide my affection.
Yet, by chance, I discovered he'd already set up a love nest with his secretary—one where she was five months pregnant.
Heartbroken, I confronted Edward in front of everyone. "How could you do this to me?"
He carefully shielded his secretary in his arms, his expression one of pure irritation.
"Lily," he scoffed, "who can you blame but yourself for your own barrenness? The Stone family cannot be left without an heir simply because of you."
Everyone began to chime in, urging me to accept the child.
As I watched him and Vivian Clark exchange a tender gaze, the last of my hopes died.
"If that is what you wish, I will not stand in your way.
"Let's get a divorce," I finally said.
The moment the words left my mouth, an icy silence fell over the room.
The gentle smile on Edward's face froze.
He released his arm from around Vivian, his gaze turning cold and sharp.
"Lily, have you lost your mind?" he snapped.
He looked at me as if I were a petulant child throwing a tantrum.
"We have been together for seven years. Are you really going to demand a divorce over something so trivial?" demanded Edward, annoyance clear in his voice.
A trivial matter?
I looked at Edward's face, a bitter smile touching my lips.
After seven years of love, he had secretly conceived a child with his secretary.
While I agonized over our childlessness, he was in Vivian's bed, dreaming of the children they would have.
He had betrayed our vows and our marriage.
And in his eyes, this was merely a trivial matter?
The Edward before me now was like a different person from the man I remembered.
He stared at me coldly, his stinging words pouring out one after another.
He snapped, "There has been no sign of a child from you. How much longer did you expect me to wait?
"Now that she is carrying my child, you cannot expect me to be irresponsible like some scoundrel, can you?"
My entire body trembled with rage.
Every word out of his mouth was like a blade, slicing straight into my heart.
"Edward, have you forgotten? I had children once, too!" I shouted at him, my voice raw with pain.
A flicker of guilt crossed Edward's expression.
In the first year of our marriage, I became pregnant with twins—a boy and a girl.
I nurtured the pregnancy carefully for five months, only to be kidnapped by Edward's brother.
While the kidnappers beat me, Edward stood by and watched with cold indifference.
He didn't do a thing. He intended to trade the lives of our two children for his grandfather's pity.
The brutal beatings forced me into a miscarriage.
To compensate Edward for the loss of his two children, his grandfather named Edward the heir before he died.
Edward became the head of the Stone family, just as he had wished. But my children were gone forever.
After I lost the babies, I cried myself to sleep every single night.
Edward knelt at my bedside, slapping his own face, weeping as he apologized to me.
"Lily, it's all my fault," he sobbed, voice shaking. "We will have children again, I promise."
I softened and forgave him, though my heart remained broken.
I also held on to the hope that the next child would come sooner.
But a year passed—then two, then three.
No child came.
Eventually, I returned to the hospital for a follow-up. The doctor, unable to hide it any longer, told me the truth.
He told me my uterus was damaged and the chance of becoming pregnant again was under one percent.
I nearly fell apart, drifting through days and nights in a daze, crying constantly.
When Edward heard the news, grief filled his face.
He dropped to his knees right in front of me, grief etched all over his face.
"Lily," he choked out, "if you can't have kids, then I would rather have none—ever. I mean it. I swear."
But when Edward's parents found out, they tried every means to push me away, alternately insulting and berating me—all to force me to divorce Edward.
I could not withstand the pressure. I left the divorce papers behind and went abroad.
But Edward mobilized every connection and had me brought back to the country.
I still remember the sorrow in his eyes.
For my sake, he broke with his parents and spoke harshly to them.
"If you keep trying to force Lily to divorce me, I swear—I'll jump from the company rooftop," he said.
The threat frightened them; they relented and returned to their former kindness toward me, as if none of the dramas had ever happened.
I thought they had finally given up.