Chapter 1
On their fifth wedding anniversary, Claire Rhodes was hit by a truck. Her legs were crushed—run over nine times.
Her childhood sweetheart and husband, Silas Vane, was frantic. In a desperate bid to save her life, he gave so much of his own blood that he nearly drained himself.
As Claire was wheeled out of emergency, still dazed and weak, she caught fragments of his conversation with his assistant.
“Sir, there's still a window for surgery. Are you truly prepared to forgo treatment… to leave your wife permanently disabled?”
Silas's expression didn’t change. His tone was chilling in its calm. “I arranged for the accident. Did you think it was to leave her walking?”
"The person I've always loved is Blair. If the Vane family hadn't opposed her marriage back then, and even threatened me with her life, how could I have suppressed my love and gone to pursue Claire, who was a better match for me, and married her and had children? My biggest regret in this life is that I couldn't give the girl I love a proper status. Since I can't give her a proper status, I must give her a wedding."
"If Claire knew that I was arranging a wedding for Blair, she would definitely cause trouble at the wedding. So she might as well be crippled and stay at home, where she knows nothing."
The assistant couldn't help but sigh, "Mr. Vane, I know you love Miss Knight, but I just feel that Madam doesn't deserve this. She did nothing wrong. She didn't know that you loved someone else, and she didn't know that you strangled her child at birth. Now, the child left with her is yours and Miss Knight's. This is cruel enough for her. If her legs are crippled..."
He had barely finished speaking when he was coldly interrupted.
"What does her pain have to do with me? I only care about Blair."
"She lost both her legs and a child, but in my heart, nothing can compare to a single tear shed by Blair."
...
Claire, who was separated from by a wall, felt as if she had fallen into an ice cave while lying in her hospital bed.
Blair Knight, a poor student sponsored by the Vane family, was now Silas's secretary.
Silas was known in the industry as a doting husband. They grew up together as childhood sweethearts, and everyone said he loved her to death. But she never expected that this marriage was a lie from beginning to end.
It turns out he didn't love her. His crazy pursuit of her and marriage to her were just to prevent the Vane family from causing trouble for Blair!
It turns out that this was not an accidental car accident, but something he did intentionally. He crippled her legs so that he could secretly hold a wedding for the girl he loved!
It turns out that the child she cherished for five years was not her biological child, but the fruit of his love with Blair. And the child she gave birth to was strangled to death at birth !
Claire was utterly devastated. She felt dizzy and coughed up blood before losing consciousness completely.
When she woke up again, Silas was by her bedside. When he saw she was awake, his eyes were full of tenderness and heartache.
"Claire, you're awake. Does your wound still hurt?"
"The doctor said that you will never be able to walk again, but don't be afraid. I will try my best to find someone to cure you. Even if you can't be cured, I will be your crutch for the rest of your life."
Her heart ached as she looked at Silas, his cold words still vivid in her mind, words she would never forget.
He clearly didn't love her at all; he clearly had someone else on his mind all the time.
But he had been deceiving her for so many years without her noticing a single clue.
How could he act so well?
Silas, how could you be such a good actor?
Seeing that she was in so much pain that she couldn't speak, Silas assumed that she was heartbroken because she had lost her legs, and quickly took her into his arms to comfort her.
"Don't be afraid, I'm here. I'll stay with you for the rest of my life."
"With your husband here, you don't have to worry about anything, okay?"
He kept showering Claire with sweet words, and Claire's tears kept falling.
It wasn't until his assistant knocked on the door and said there was an urgent company matter that he had to deal with that he had to reassure Claire and let her rest before turning around and leaving.
He left his phone behind as he left.
Claire kept crying. She picked up his phone, which was on the bedside table, and swiped the screen with trembling hands.
Because of her trust, she had never looked at his phone, so he never set a password.
But now that she's opened it, she's discovered that his phone was full of evidence of his love for Blair.
The first thing she saw on the phone's screensaver was a photo of him and Blair kissing.
She had never seen him with such an expression, so devout, so focused, as if he were kissing the most precious treasure in the world, gently holding it in his mouth, afraid it would melt away.
The private photo album contained tens of thousands of photos of Blair, titled "My Love in This Life".
The photos show her eating, reading, having a snowball fight, and walking under a sycamore tree in a white dress...
She had noticed before that his expression would always become incredibly gentle whenever he looked at his phone.
Back then, she would always jokingly ask him if he had any secrets hidden in his phone.
He just smiled and playfully pinched her nose. "Yes, my phone holds my most cherished secrets and my most beloved person."
She assumed he was talking about her, blushed with embarrassment, and dared not ask any more questions.
Looking back now, this was probably the only truth he ever told, and it contained his feelings for Blair, the person he loved most.
Tears streamed down her face. Claire clutched her chest, where she felt suffocated and in pain, almost unable to breathe.
Silas, you love Blair so much.
But if you love her… why did you have to ruin my life?
She didn’t know how long she sat there, lost in the dark, before her trembling hands finally reached for her phone.
She dialed the number—her parents, an ocean away...