Chapter 3

Edwin crushed my jaw in his grip, so hard I thought my bones might snap. His gaze was pure frost.

"I've wronged her for ten years. I couldn't bear to see her lose even a single strand of hair. How dare you touch her?"

Jerry rushed in at the sound and stepped in to stop Edwin. It felt like a knife twisting in my chest. That was the moment I realized that the maid his friends always talked about, the one he could never let go of, was real.

"General, I was with Mrs. Morris all day today. She really didn't do it," Jerry said.

Edwin's eyes suddenly tightened, his face went ghostly pale. His lips trembled, like he wanted to say sorry, but I turned away. I didn't even have the strength to explain.

That was my first real confrontation with Lillian. Hardly any words were spoken between us, but I came out totally defeated.

Now I finally understood where her confidence came from, because the one in charge here saw her as more important than anyone else.

After that, something broke between us. Edwin knew he'd wronged me and did everything he could to make it up to me, but he just couldn't help being drawn to Lillian.

Jerry tried to comfort me.

He said, "Ms. Grote was General Morris's first love. If it weren't for her family situation, they would've gotten married back in the north.

"Her mother secretly sold her to be someone's mistress for money. General Morris thought she'd broken her promise and married someone else, so he left for the south in anger. Ms. Grote has been through a lot over the years..."

He meant well, trying to tell me that the past was the past, and the present was the present. No one could change what had already happened.

But he didn't realize that Edwin wasn't the only one who couldn't let go of the past.

My growing coldness didn't make Edwin back off. Maybe it was because my due date was getting close, but he became more patient than ever, always trying to explain himself to me.

He said, "Lillian suffered these years because of me. I messed up that day, but you have to believe me. I never wanted to break my promise to you."

Before I could even be moved by his words, the person eavesdropping behind the wall was already fuming. The next day, Lillian came straight at me, itching for a fight.

Lillian said, "Do you know why he really married you?

"We've been involved for ages. He needed to marry someone respectable, so he could bring me, a widow, home and keep me around without anyone gossiping."

I'd told myself again and again not to get worked up over their mess, but Lillian hit me right where it hurt most.

This was the thing I cared about most. I gave him everything when I married him, just wanted him to care about me, even a tiny bit. That was why I kept pestering him about why he chose me.

Lillian said, "It was all set up from the start. He even had someone inform me of the exact day you were going to join his household.

"Honestly, he could've just kept me as his mistress outside, but the moment he heard I was about to end my life, he rushed over, risking everything. How could I possibly let him down after that?

"Bertha, do you even know your place in his heart?"

My heart seized up, a numbness swept over me, and turmoil churned inside. A fierce pain tore through my lower body, and blood trickled down my leg.

Grover arrived, but not in the way I'd hoped, not in love, not in anticipation, only in pain and heartbreak.

When Edwin heard what happened, he came rushing back and stayed by my bedside, worry written all over his face as sweat poured down.

He held my hand.

He said, "Just listen to the doctor, don't be scared. I'll be right here with you."

I couldn't take in anything he said. Lillian's words kept replaying in my head, and rage consumed me.

"Throw her out... She's the one who ruined me..."

I was so furious that I went into labor early, and with all the emotional turmoil I'd been through, the delivery was anything but smooth.

I thought he'd at least defend me, but he simply ignored it. After Grover was born, he allowed Lillian to visit him as she pleased.

Whenever I got upset with him, he'd just change the subject to Grover.

He'd say, "You gave me a child. None of the others could ever do that. So why are you so hung up on some outsider?"

He couldn't give me what I truly wanted. He kept his distance from Lillian on his own terms, thinking that would somehow make me feel better.

But his heart was still with her. All his efforts were just for show, and it was pointless. He even tried to make it a deal.

He said, "I'll stay with you and the baby, but I hope you won't make things difficult for her."

He slipped right back into being my loving husband, trying his best to be a good dad. But with every move, he was pushing Lillian, the woman he'd always tried so hard to shield, closer and closer to the edge.

Grover had just turned one when, while I was away, he drowned in the lotus pond, and I was convinced Lillian was behind it.

Everyone insisted it was just an accident, that the nanny had slipped and let him fall in. But Lillian, ten years older than me, was even willing to take her own life just to prove she was innocent.