Chapter 1

After I helped Harley Mcgee find success, I discovered I was pregnant.

He promised he'd cherish me for the rest of our lives, and begged me to stay here with him.

So I gave up my chance to return to my old life, helped Harley become the CEO of a publicly listed company, made sure our child had everything they could ever want, and devoted myself to this family in silence.

Eight years later, the female lead, Ramona Guzman, came back to the country.

Harley stopped coming home at night, always sticking close to Ramona.

My son looked at me with nothing but impatience. "Ramona is way better than you, you old hag! I want Ramona to be my mom."

I scolded my son, but Harley shoved me aside. "Can't you get a clue? Without this family, where else could you possibly go?"

Oh really?

He had no idea—I could walk away and go home whenever I wanted.

*****

When Harley said this family was all I had, I just stood there, stunned, then the despair hit me like a tidal wave.

That was what it felt like to hand someone the knife yourself. Pain cut straight to the bone.

"Harley, what makes you so sure I can't go back?" I shot back, forcing myself to hold it together.

I stared him down, searching his face for any flicker of reaction.

But there wasn't even a hint of hesitation, pure contempt in his eyes. "Scarlett, you really need to know when to stop. Quit harping on about leaving all the time.

"Who are you trying to scare? You were the one who said you couldn't go back, and now you're changing your mind? You think I'm afraid? If you could really leave, you wouldn't still be here arguing with me."

His tone was so confident; he clearly wasn't worried about me leaving at all.

"Mom, you live off Dad, use his things, and keep talking about leaving. Anyone would be annoyed by you," my son, Gaylord, chimed in.

Seeing his dad so angry, my little boy tried to kick my leg with all his might, but he was so small it didn't hurt at all. Still, my heart sank, and the pain left me utterly hopeless.

I raised my son with my own hands. I gave up my career and stuck around in this world just for him.

Whenever he got sick, I was more panicked than anyone else. I took him to the doctor alone, held his hand through every shot.

And yet, for all the love and care I'd given him over the years, I still couldn't measure up to a dad who only showed up a few times a month—something my absent husband could never come close to matching.

In his eyes, his dad could do anything because he was the one who brought home the money.

When he was upset, his dad could just pull a toy out of nowhere or whisk him away on a trip. Me? I was always trailing behind, picking up after him, nagging him about this and that.

He never noticed everything I did for him. In his eyes, I was just living it up at home. But the dad he saw as a hero? Even he couldn't do it without me.

"Gaylord, is that really how you see your mom?" I asked, my voice cold and steady.

My glare was sharp, and Gaylord darted behind Harley, making a face at me. "Mom, my teacher says everyone likes gentle people. But you're always roaring like a tiger mom, getting mad over nothing.

"No wonder Dad doesn't want to come home; he'd rather be with Ramona, because she's prettier and way nicer than you."

Ramona—she'd haunted my nightmares for years, and now, hearing her name suddenly pop out of my son's mouth was so abrupt it knocked the wind out of me.

Harley paused for a moment, then hurriedly picked up Gaylord, shooting him a quick look.

"You really need to reflect on your mistakes. If even your own son can't stand you, I honestly don't know what the point of you even being here is," Harley said coldly.

Just mentioning Ramona made him uneasy; he was scared I'd go off the deep end or start interrogating him. So he rushed off with Gaylord in his arms, not even glancing back.

It felt like there was a hole in my heart, bleeding nonstop.

Gaylord was still just a kid—he hadn't figured out right from wrong yet, but he already knew who he liked and who he didn't.

It was clear he didn't like me. No matter how much I poured into making him nutritious meals, he'd always pick crispy fried chicken and burgers over anything I made.

I could treat him well a thousand times, but the one time I hit him, that was all he'd ever remember.

I really was a failure as a mother.

I didn't sleep a wink that night, just replaying everything that had happened here over and over in my mind.

This was a fictional world, a novel universe. Harley was the suffering second lead, and his whole story was supposed to be all about Ramona, the heroine.

But my arrival shattered everything.

From the start, I knew I was just someone sent here on a mission. Harley wasn't meant for me—his life was already mapped out by the plot.

Even if I managed to win him over, I was never supposed to fall for him.

But I'm human, not some emotionless AI. After Harley stepped off the rails of his story and married me, those blissful days made me lose sight of everything else.

Later, I found out I was pregnant. My mission was long over by then—all I had to do was walk away, and I'd be back in my real world, living my real life again.