Chapter 1

I had been with Logan Dawson since I was eighteen.

Back then, he held my face in his hands, his gaze sincere and burning. "You're so young, and you chose me," he said. "I'll never let you down for the rest of my life."

Ten years later, before our wedding, I caught him in bed with another woman.

I shook with rage, calling them shameless scum.

But Logan cut me off with a cold sneer. "You have the nerve to talk about shame?" he said. "If you had any, you wouldn't have slept with a man at eighteen."

I didn't cry or make a scene. I simply turned around calmly and started packing my things.

The housekeeper stepped forward to stop me, but Logan raised a hand.

"Why stop her?" he said lazily. "She's an orphan. Where could she possibly go? Besides, the wedding is next week. There's no way she'd give up marrying me."

*****

Logan figured this was just another one of my usual dramas.

After all, he was all I had left in this world.

But I simply booked a ticket quietly and never looked back again.

As I was about to leave the Dawson family's estate with my suitcase, Janet Goodwin was the first to chase after me.

She tugged at my sleeve, her voice quivering.

"Don't go," Janet begged. "I was simply so in love with Logan. I couldn't control myself."

Love? What a nice excuse. I shook her hand off coldly.

It was only a slight flick but she tumbled down the steps, blood seeping from her forehead.

Logan rushed over in a flash.

He cradled Janet in his arms, then shot me a look of pure contempt and disgust.

"Get back to your room. If anything happens to Janet, you'll pay for it," Logan snapped.

After ten years together, Logan was actually threatening to make me pay.

I lost our child when I took a knife for him.

I drank so much at his business dinners that I ended up with stomach bleeding.

How would he pay me back for all that then?

*****

The door to the room swung open, and Logan walked in.

His gaze suddenly fixed on my temple, and his expression faltered for a moment.

"What happened here?" he asked.

"You knocked me into the wall when you rushed over to pick Janet up," I replied.

Logan looked a little guilty as he gently touched the bump on my forehead.

"Does it still hurt?" he asked.

I shoved his hand away, my expression icy.

"If your precious Janet's okay, can I leave now?" I said, voice flat.

The guilt in Logan's eyes disappeared just like that.

"Why are you so heartless?" he shot back. "You pushed Janet like that, and you didn't even ask if she was okay?"

Heartless? Didn't even ask?

All the emotions I'd been holding back exploded inside me.

My eyes were red with rage, and my hand shook as I pointed at him.

"Anyone else can call me heartless, but Janet? She has no right," I shouted.

I first met Janet at our company's charity event five years ago.

She was only sixteen then, going by another name, Flora.

Her parents wanted her to quit school and marry some stranger, just so they could trade her for her brother's wedding gifts.

I couldn't bear to see her suffer, so I brought her home, gave her the name Janet, and treated her like my own little sister.

Back then, she hugged me, tears streaming down her face.

"Leila, I swear I'll study hard and repay you when I grow up," Janet vowed.

But I never thought she'd "repay" me by crawling into Logan's bed behind my back.

And I never expected Logan to defend her and turned around to call me shameless.

With both love and family stabbing me in the back, it felt like my whole world was being ripped apart.

And now, after everything, I was the one getting called heartless.

Just saying it out loud made me feel sick to my stomach.

"You basically raised Janet. How could you sleep with her? Don't you feel filthy?" I said.

Logan snapped. He grabbed a vase and hurled it at me.

The porcelain exploded against my forehead, and blood instantly streamed down my face.

He froze, his tone losing some of its edge.

"I know I let you down," Logan said. "But it's all because you were being so harsh..."

I cut him off with a raised hand.

I didn't want to hear any of his nauseating explanations.

"You cheated. We're done," I said.

Logan froze for a second, then gave a short laugh, almost amused, and shrugged like it was nothing.

"You've got no job, nowhere to go. Where do you think you're gonna end up without me?" he sneered. "Do I really have to be that blunt to you?"

He kept his voice down, but every word was like a knife.

Back then, whenever someone said I'd nowhere to go, Logan would always be there for me, saying, "As long as I'm here, she'll always have a place to go."

But now, he was the one telling me I'd got nowhere to go if I left him.

Turned out the people closest to one knew exactly where to stab to make it hurt the most.

"Where I go is none of your business," I said flatly.

Logan's eyes darkened. "Can you stop with the drama? The wedding date's already set. If you cancel now, it'll make the company look bad.

"Besides—" he paused, his voice dropping even lower. "The doctor just confirmed Janet's pregnant. You have to stay and look after her."

For a moment, I just stood there, completely frozen.

When I didn't say anything, Logan sighed.

"Janet's a good girl. She never wanted to fight you for anything. She's even willing to have the baby and let you raise it," he added.

I was hit with a surge of sheer absurdity.