Chapter 1

At my 28th birthday party, Lucas Reed carried Chloe Grant, who had fallen into the pool, back to her room right in front of everyone.

Everyone thought I'd swallow my anger and let it slide.

But I trashed the party and demanded a divorce.

Lucas turned to me, a cocky grin on his face. "You sure about this? Once you walk away from me, there's no coming back."

I nodded. "I know."

On the third day after leaving, I went to pick up my doctor boyfriend from work.

But I bumped into Lucas, who was holding a little girl as delicate as a porcelain doll. He was sitting across from my boyfriend, discussing her condition with him.

As soon as our eyes met, he shot me a cold smile, then pointed at me and said to the little girl, "Aren't you looking for your mom? That's her."

*****

People came and went in the corridor, and the door to the consultation room was closed by the patient who had entered.

Lucas strode over and stopped right in front of me.

His chiseled face was as cold and hard as I remembered.

His perfectly tailored suit accentuated his model-perfect physique.

And the little girl he was holding, dressed in a custom-made princess gown, was absolutely adorable.

She hugged Lucas' neck and looked at me timidly.

"Seriously? You can't even recognize your daughter?" Lucas sneered, his lips curling into a smirk, but there was no warmth in his eyes, "Not like you bothered to see her all these years. How could you recognize her?"

I froze, a wave of bitterness washing over me.

In order to divorce him as soon as possible, I didn't want anything, including my infant child.

Everyone says I was mean. Even my parents thought so.

The first day I mentioned divorce, my mother, Linda Grant, called me home specifically. "You are divorced, why don't you take the children with you? It is your own, how can you be so cruel?"

Seeing me bow my head and say nothing, she became anxious, "With your divorce, your sister will marry Lucas soon. Isn't this asking your sister to be your daughter's stepmother?"

I clenched my cold fingers.

Turns out, in her mind, this marriage was always Chloe's from the very beginning.

And I was a stranger occupying a temporary place.

But Chloe wasn't even my real sister.

Fate played a cruel trick on us, and she and I were mistaken at birth.

After I was brought back to my real family, I was the one who got married off to Lucas.

Chloe was forced to break up with Lucas, and in a fit of anger, she left the country and never contacted the family again.

I still did't know how they talked Lucas into it, but he finally said yes to marrying me.

After two years of marriage, we were respectful and harmonious.

But everyone knew Lucas was still searching for Chloe.

The day I received the news from Chloe was my due date.

In the middle of the night, I woke up with a sharp pain in my stomach. Instinctively, I went to find Lucas, only to see him on the balcony, talking on the phone.

He softly coaxed the person on the other end of the phone, "I'll pick you up in person, don't worry, no one dares to talk about you... Okay, I'll leave now."

As he turned, our eyes met.

I kept my voice steady, "My stomach's acting up. Can you take me to the hospital first?"

He only paused briefly and continued to walk out. "I'll ask the driver to take you."

Just as he was about to reach the door, I called out to him again.

Lucas glanced at me, his eyes still cold. "Is there something else?"

The tightening in my stomach made my voice tremble.

"Lucas," I said, "if you walk out that door today, it's over between us."

Lucas's face darkened instantly. "Why are you making a scene again? Evelyn Shaw, I'm going to pick her up. Why are you freaking out?"

He paused, then added, "Don't forget, you're the one who took what was meant for her in this marriage."

It was like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over my head.

After two years of marriage, I never expected Lucas to be head over heels for me.

But he always treated me decently.

For a while, I really believed he'd let go of Chloe and was ready to start over with me.

But now I realized it was all a facade.

My stomach tightened again, and I had to bend over slightly, catching my breath.

Chloe's icy voice crackled from Lucas's phone. "If she doesn't want me here, I'll buy a ticket and leave right now."

Lucas's expression hardened, and he spun around, rushing out. "Don't be stubborn. I'm on my way, Chloe, don't you even think about leaving."

Before I could say another word, he was already out the door.

The door opened and closed, shutting out all his domineering presence and the way he always put her first.

I leaned against the floor-to-ceiling window, trying to ease the pain.

But instead of getting better, my stomach felt like it was dropping, and the pain only got worse.

Then, I felt a warm liquid trickling down my leg.

I frantically called Lucas, but as soon as I started to speak, his voice came through, cold and cutting. "How long are you going to keep this up?"

My voice trembled as I said, "I'm bleeding. The baby..."

"Enough!" Lucas cut me off, his voice laced with sarcasm. "I think you are better than them, but I guess you're pulling the same cheap tricks. What's the matter, wait until I come back."

With that, he hung up. He was cold and ruthless, shutting me down without a second thought.

Before I got married, my adoptive parents told me, "If you don't want to marry him, then don't. We'll support you for the rest of your life."

Back then, I thought that as long as our families were tied together by interests, Lucas wouldn't be so ruthless.

But later, I realized you could't expect someone who never truly cared about you to make you a priority.

The idea of divorce originated at that time.

The ambulance picked me up that day.

As I lay on the operating table, my life hanging by a thread, a flood of memories came rushing back.

I remembered how, at the start of our marriage, Lucas and I actually had some sweet times together.

He'd take me to see the ocean at dawn, and when we were a little buzzed, he'd lean in and kiss me.

After we tied the knot, he'd pull me into his arms every evening and late at night, making love to me like any married couple would.

My friends would look at me with envy and say, "Your husband treats you like a queen."

But such days only lasted for half a year.

On the day I found the clue, I heard him chatting with his friend. The friend asked him, "You are showing your love in such a high-profile way to force Chloe to come back, right? But it seems that it has no effect."

Lucas leaned against the railing, a barely-there smirk playing at his lips. "Let's see how long she can take it."

"But your wife is in good condition in all aspects, so you're really not interested?"

Lucas took a sip of his drink and scoffed, "I'm playing along. No way I'm falling for her."

That look of indifference in his eyes kept stabbing at me every single day after that.

I tried giving him the cold shoulder.

But he was so sensitive, he'd instantly pick up on my mood, soften up, and try to sweet-talk me into making up.

And as he kept coaxing me, I started fooling myself too.

He couldn't let go of Chloe, it was never about love, only his pride and refusal to move on.