Chapter 2

This had happened three months earlier, back when I was supposed to be resting and focusing on the pregnancy. The staff in the house all doted on me, and William played the part of the attentive expectant father in front of everyone else.

Everyone envied my background and my eye for men. They said I'd found myself a gentle, promising professor for a fiancé. Only I knew that beneath that happy facade, maggots had already started to crawl. That day, with nothing else to do, I went to the mall to pick out a few clothes for the baby and buy William the silk tie he'd been talking about for ages.

The second I reached the escalator, I spotted a man and woman who stood out far too much. The man was wearing the custom shirt I'd bought him: my fiancé, Dr. William Quinn. The woman beside him was Emily Rivers, in the dress I'd given her, carrying a purse bought with the allowance I'd handed over.

Speaking of Emily and William, both of them only made it out of those mountains and into my world because of my family. The Youngs built our name on educational aid; ever since my grandfather's day, we've sponsored kids from poor mountain towns. I chose Emily myself, paid her tuition, sent her living expenses, and mailed her new clothes and books every holiday. Every time she got them, she'd write me a letter thanking me, calling me Charlie, and promising she'd study hard and repay me someday.

William had come from that same mountain region. My father noticed him during one of those aid visits. He thought William was bright, steady, and full of promise, so he paid for his college and graduate school and later helped him stay on at the university to teach. My father thought highly of him and often spoke of him at home. Later he brought him to meet me and said with a smile, "William, this is Charlotte. You young people should spend more time together."

Back then, William stood in our lavish living room in a faded old shirt, awkward as a sparrow that had flown into a palace by mistake. I never once looked down on where he came from. Before long, his gentleness and thoughtfulness put me at ease, and we naturally got together, got engaged, and started planning the wedding.

My father was delighted and said a good thing should stay close to home. I gave William everything, just like I did for Emily: support for further study, doors opened in all the right places, and the kind of connections that gave him status. Everything he had now came from the Young family.

And now, these two people my family had lifted out of the backwoods were holding hands and betraying me together. I stood behind the escalator without going over or saying a word. Even my breathing stayed steady as I texted my assistant and told her to dig up every record between William and Emily.

I followed them without a sound and watched William buy Emily expensive jewelry, take her out for fancy meals, open car doors for her, and guide her across the street like she was precious. In the end, they went to one last place.

It was the bridal villa I'd designed, overseen, and poured my heart into for our future marriage. I stood outside and watched William lead Emily inside by the hand. The moment that front door shut, the last bit of attachment I had to that relationship disappeared for good. I just stood there quietly for a full hour, weirdly calm despite the wind.

That same night, my assistant laid everything in front of me, clear as day. From the day Emily showed up to visit me with those dates and peanuts, William had fallen for her at first sight. He disliked that I came from money and carried myself with confidence. He thought I was too strong, not gentle enough. Emily, on the other hand, seemed pure and simple and fed his need to play protector. Then he started pursuing her behind my back and used my family's resources to pave the way for her.

At first, Emily resisted. She said she couldn't betray Charlotte. But under William's constant tenderness and material temptation, that resistance slowly fell apart. She stopped fighting him and started enjoying everything like it was hers by right.

They went around behind my back, and my bridal villa became their private hideout for the affair. Their chat history was dripping with affection and pity for me. They thought I was pathetic, and that one day they could make it all up by pouring their love back into me.

I actually laughed. I'd seen mistresses taunt the wife-to-be, and I'd seen women cry and make scenes for a title, but this was my first time seeing cheaters act like saints making some noble sacrifice. After reading every last file, I destroyed them without changing my expression. The next day, I went to the hospital and got an abortion.

I didn't tell anyone, not even William. I kept playing the sweet, considerate fiancée, showing up at his side and putting on a happy show in front of everyone. He never noticed my flat stomach and went on acting like the perfect fiancé while staying tangled up with Emily behind my back.

Because cheating made him feel guilty, he treated me even better than before. He thought his little efforts could cancel out what he'd done. He thought his act could fool me forever. And now, he'd finally found out the baby was gone.

William stared at my flat stomach, his eyes turning red as tears spilled down instantly. It was the first time I'd ever seen him cry.