Chapter 2

Mia looked at Leo with teary eyes. "Leo, maybe I should just go. Miss Collins doesn't want me here.

"She even dared to push me, even with you here. What am I supposed to do when you're not home, and I'm all alone with this baby bump?"

As she spoke, she clutched her belly and cried out, "Leo, help. My stomach hurts so much."

The live chat scrolled past my eyes again. [Mia is such a good actress. Look at how worried Leo is.]

I almost blurted out, "She's faking it. I didn't push her."

But Leo's face was cold. "Apologize to Mia."

I stared at him in disbelief. He'd seen the live chat too. He knew Mia was just acting, but he still made me apologize.

Mia quickly grabbed Leo's hand, her face full of grievance. "Leo, please, don't be like this. Miss Collins is your wife after all. I'm really okay."

Leo kept his gaze fixed on me. "Apologize to Mia."

Seeing my reluctance, he threatened, "Yara, your father's company is still waiting on my final round of funding."

The live chat kept rolling. [Yara really has no clue, does she? If Leo wasn't backing the Collins family, they'd have gone bankrupt ages ago.]

I felt like I'd been struck by lightning, and tears streamed down my face before I could stop them.

Back then, I begged in front of my dad for a whole day, just to get him to help Leo.

Now that he was successful, he was threatening me with my father's company, all just for Mia's sake.

I looked at him with stubbornness in my eyes, my tears hitting the floor one after another.

Leo saw my tears, and his breathing grew uneven. Just as he was about to come over and help me, Mia's sudden shriek stopped him in his tracks.

"Leo, I'm bleeding," Mia screamed.

The live chat exploded. [Holy shit, turns out Mia wasn't faking it. She really got pushed by that bitch Yara.]

[Damn, what's Leo doing? Why isn't he slapping that stupid Yara? How dare she bully our precious Mia?]

Leo immediately scooped Mia up in his arms, shooting me a cold glare. "If anything happens to Mia, you'll pay for it."

I watched him walk away in a daze, barely managing to get back on my feet.

Stone-faced, I wiped away the blood trickling from my nose.

As I lay back down on the bed, Mia posted a fresh update on her feed.

In the photo, the two of them had their fingers tightly intertwined.

And on their ring fingers, they were both wearing matching wedding bands, exactly like the one I had on my hand.

Just then, my phone buzzed with a reminder.

[Three days left until our sixth anniversary.]

I quietly deleted the reminder.

I took off the ring I'd worn for six years and tossed it out the window.

I burned all our photos together, and every love letter Leo had ever written me.

By the time I finished burning everything and cleaning up, it was already three in the morning.

I had barely fallen asleep when someone violently yanked me out of bed.

Leo's face was as dark as thunder as he threw a stack of photos right in my face.

He demanded, "Did you do this?"

I stared at the photos. Mia's dog was lying there, soaked in blood, its eyes wide and glassy, fixed on me.

Instinctively, I took a step back.

But Leo took my reaction as guilt. He grabbed me by the collar, jaw tight. "How did you get so cruel? Mia's pregnant, and her emotions are unstable. Maybe she misunderstood you last night, but you went and killed her dog?

"Do you even realize what you've done? She started bleeding out from the stress, and now she's fighting for her life in the hospital."

The live chat flashed before my eyes again: [When is the male lead finally going to admit that the baby Mia's carrying is his? I can't stand that dumb Yara anymore.]

But when I saw that bright red hickey on his neck, everything he said just faded into background noise.

And there was a faint trace of perfume lingering on him.

It was the scent of gardenias, Mia's favorite.

My face went ghostly pale, and for a moment, I just couldn't find the strength to argue back.

Seeing my eyes brimming with tears, Leo finally sighed and pulled me into his arms. "Yara, you were really in the wrong this time. Mia's pregnant. No matter what, you should've just gone easy on her."

He absentmindedly caressed my hand, but his fingers suddenly paused.

"Where's your ring?" he asked.

I turned my head away and said lightly, "Sent it to be cleaned."

Not even bothering to ask about the ring, Leo just moved on and said, "Yara, go apologize to Mia.

"She's not the type to hold a grudge. The whole thing with her dog. She'll let it go."