Chapter 1
For eight years of marriage, every time after Jonathan Carter and I were intimate, he'd go find another woman.
It was his twisted way of proving he didn't love me.
And I? I kept clinging to him like some desperate fool.
Then came the day I gave birth. That's when I overheard him with his latest stunning mistress.
"Pregnancy looks so hard," she sighed. "All those stretch marks..."
"You're too precious for that, darling," Jonathan replied. "Let my wife do the hard work for us."
But even a doormat gets tired of being stepped on.
That day, I'd had enough.
"Jonathan," I said, "I want a divorce."
*****
I lay pale on the hospital bed.
"Divorce? April, you just had the baby. Can't we talk this out?" Jessica Carter, Jonathan's sister, said.
She practically threw my lawyer, Herman Williams, out of the room.
When a nurse tried to shush her, Jessica snapped at her too.
Jessica got even more pissed, thinking I was being immature, and now she was using my baby to guilt-trip me.
"You're a mom now. You need to think about your kid," she snapped.
I just let her rant, my eyes glued to my phone, scrolling through one suggestive photo after another.
Jonathan was lying in some woman's arms, his eyes glazed over.
I could practically feel the heat from whatever they'd just been up to.
My heart ached. In the past three years, Jonathan hardly ever slept with me.
And on the rare occasions he did, it was always over in a flash.
I glanced at the text message.
It read: [Hey, April, Jon said pregnancy would ruin my figure, so he let you have his kid.]
Jessica stood there, her hands on her hips, panting from all the yelling.
I gave her a pointed look and handed her my phone.
She arched an eyebrow and snatched it from me, clearly annoyed.
Her eyes went wide, and her face and neck flushed red in an instant.
"Well... men do stupid things sometimes," Jessica stammered.
"You're not actually believing some stranger trying to come between you, are you?" she added.
I smirked, with pure mockery on my face.
Talk about double standards.
Jessica slunk out, unease written all over her face.
I finally asked the nurse how my twins were doing.
"Your little girl is so cute, and she barely ever cries. Such a sweetie," the nurse smiled.
"Your boy's a strong little guy, his cries loud enough for the whole hospital to hear, and he's really clever too," she added.
My daughter barely cried. Quiet kids like her always got bullied.
As for my son, whatever his personality, he was the only heir in the Carter family. That alone guaranteed his future.
Thinking about all this, I let out a long sigh.
The nurse misunderstood and quickly handed me the medical report.
"Don't worry. Even though they were born early, all their numbers look great," she said, trying to reassure me.
The babies were still in the neonatal unit, but I just didn't have the strength to visit them.
My body was weak, but my heart felt completely numb.
I looked out the window. It was a bright, sunny day.
But even with the sun blazing overhead, my heart felt frozen solid.
I had to leave. There was no other choice.
But thinking about abandoning my children felt like having my heart torn in two.
My phone rang. It was Jessica calling.
She said, "April, I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier. Don't let it get to you."
She went on, "That dumbass just wasn't thinking straight. He's a pilot, always flying around, barely has time for anything. That's why he couldn't make it to the hospital.
"Every flight, he's got hundreds of lives depending on him. I really hope you can understand and let it slide this time."