1.
Today is our third wedding anniversary.
I spent the whole afternoon in the kitchen, cooking every dish William loves—
the kind of meal that should have felt warm, intimate, like a promise.
Red wine breathing on the table, candles flickering like they were trying their best to bless us, soft music humming in the background.
And in my pocket, crumpled from how tightly I’d been holding it, was the pregnancy test.
Positive.
Three years of a marriage built on business, not love.
Three years of him treating me with a polite distance, as if I were nothing more than a partner in a company he never wanted to run.
But I loved him.
God, from the first moment I saw him—tall, distant, impossibly composed—my heart sank in surrender.
Love hit me like a storm, unreasonable and humiliating, and I let it.
Maybe that’s what people mean when they say *love at first sight*.
I thought… stupidly… that this child might finally change something.
Maybe he’d soften.
Maybe he’d look at me—not with duty, but with something warmer.
The door lock clicked.
I jumped to my feet, forcing the brightest smile onto my face.
“William, you’re home—”
My words froze.
William stood at the entrance, his tall frame swallowed by the shadows.
And beside him… leaning gently, almost tenderly against his arm… was a woman.
Even under the dim lights, she was breathtaking.
Anna.
The woman he had searched for—relentlessly, obsessively—for three years.
She’d come back.
A cold, heavy weight dropped straight through my chest.
William helped Anna step inside. His eyes swept across the food, the candles, the soft light—
and held no emotion.
Nothing.
Only a sharp, bone-deep disgust.
“Suzy,” he said, voice as cold as steel, “Anna is back.”
Anna shrank behind him, eyes red, like a frightened deer.
“I-I’m sorry… Did I interrupt? This must be your wife, right? I didn’t know…”
“It’s not your fault.”
William cut her off immediately—his tone warm in a way I had never heard addressed to me.
“In this house, **you** are the true lady.”
My blood went ice-cold.
I stared at him, my throat too tight to speak.
Three years of marriage—exposed, in one sentence, as nothing but a mistake.
“William,” I finally forced out, “today is our anniversary.”
He laughed.
A short, cruel sound.
“Anniversary? Suzy, you don’t actually think I love you, do you?
If you hadn’t used those dirty tricks back then to force Anna away, do you think you’d ever have become my wife?”
I trembled.
So this… this was what he had believed all along.
I tightened my grip on the pregnancy test paper until its sharp edges dug into my skin.
I wanted to explain—to scream—to defend myself.
But what came out was barely a whisper.
“I didn’t.”
“Enough!”
He cut me off, irritated.
“I’m done with your lies. Anna is back. You should step down.”
He pulled a file from his briefcase and tossed it onto the table.
The wine glass toppled, red liquid spreading like a wound across the white tablecloth, bleeding over the bold, cold title:
DIVORCE AGREEMENT.
“Sign it,” he said flatly.
“My family will give you enough money to waste for the rest of your life.”
My vision blurred.
Compensation?
He really thought everything I’d given over the last three years—every effort, every humiliation—was all for money?
I stared at him, fighting to keep my voice steady.
“What if I don’t sign?”
William’s expression sharpened instantly, a cold cruelty flashing through his eyes.
He stepped forward, grabbed my chin hard enough to make pain bloom along my jaw, and forced my face up.
“Suzy,” he said quietly, dangerously, “don’t make me take back the little dignity I’m leaving you. You’ve stolen Anna’s place for three years. That was already my greatest mercy.”
His grip tightened.
I tasted blood.
“William—don’t…” Anna tugged lightly at his sleeve, tears shimmering in her eyes.
“This is my fault. I shouldn’t have come back… Mrs. Shen, please don’t blame William. He only acted like this because… because he loves me too much.”
Her voice was like a handful of needles driven straight into my chest.
I looked at William—at the pain in his eyes for her, the tenderness he’d never once given me.
And then at the contempt he didn’t bother to hide from me.
Something inside me cracked.
I laughed.
Not because anything was funny—
but because I didn’t know what else to do.
Tears spilled down my cheeks as the laugh shook out of me.
“William,” I choked, “you love her. Then what about me? What about the three years I spent as your wife?”
“You brought it on yourself.”
He shoved my face away, voice colder than the marble floor beneath us.
“A woman who uses dirty tricks doesn’t deserve love.”
That was the moment my heart completely died.
My hands trembled as I picked up the pregnancy test—the fragile little hope I’d been holding onto.
I wanted to try one last time.
“William, I—”
“What now?”
He looked disgusted.
“Suzy, stop putting on your pathetic act. It makes me sick.”
My phone suddenly rang.
A call from the hospital—
My father… critical condition… emergency surgery needed immediately.
I didn’t think. I grabbed my bag and headed toward the door.
William blocked my way in an instant.
“Where do you think you’re going? You’re not leaving until you sign.”
“My dad is dying!” I screamed, desperation ripping through my voice.
“I have to go to the hospital!”
“Oh, please.”
He laughed.
“You think I’ll fall for your dramatics again?”
Hopelessness washed over me like a black tide.
I stared at the man I’d loved for years—
the man I married—
who now looked at me like I was something rotten.
“William,” I whispered, “you will regret this.”
“Regret?”
He let out a short, cruel laugh.
“The only thing I regret… is marrying you.”
Then he shoved me.
Hard.
I stumbled back, slamming into the sharp edge of the dining table.
A sharp, tearing pain shot through my lower abdomen—so intense it stole the air from my lungs.
Warm liquid trickled down my thighs.
I looked down.
Blood.
Bright. Red. Blood.
“No…” My voice trembled as terror seized me.
“My baby… my baby…”
William’s face changed—but before he could react, Anna let out a sudden scream and collapsed dramatically to the floor.
“Anna!”
In an instant, all of William’s focus snapped to her.
He ran to her, scooping her into his arms like she was made of glass.
“Anna—talk to me. Don’t scare me like this.”
He didn’t even glance at me.
He carried her out the door, frantic and terrified—
his entire world cradled in his arms.
I lay on the cold floor, pain twisting through my abdomen, my vision darkening at the edges.
I reached out, trying to grab his pant leg—wanting him to turn around, to look at me, to remember I existed.
My hand closed around nothing but air.
“S… some… body… help…”
My voice was thin, fading.
But he didn’t hear it.
In his world, there was only Anna.
He disappeared through the doorway, without hesitation, without remorse—leaving me behind in a pool of my own blood.
In that moment, I finally understood:
To him,
my life and my child’s life weren’t even worth a single strand of Anna’s hair.