Chapter 3

I swallowed on instinct, my whole body trembling uncontrollably. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Andrew order someone to drag the helper away. Soon, a winding trail of blood streaked across the floor. "She couldn't even keep my wife from drinking, and for what she did to my son, she doesn't deserve to live." Maverick's ruthless expression made my stomach churn. He gently and tenderly touched my face. "It was all my fault for putting you through so much. Now that we finally have a baby, you must never touch alcohol again, okay? "No matter what, this child must be born healthy. Do you understand?" I took several deep breaths before forcing out a strained smile. "Okay." But a cold dread gripped my heart. We'd been married for three years, and I'd tried everything to get pregnant, but nothing ever worked. Upon looking back now, he might've been secretly slipping me contraceptives all along. Six months ago, the doctors declared I could never conceive again. Maverick had gently held me, whispering that he didn't care about children. He said that all he ever wanted was for me to be happy and healthy. Yet, I couldn't shake the guilt of failing to give him a child. Desperate, I turned to IVF, enduring countless injections and fistfuls of hormones. Soon, my stomach became a patchwork of needle marks. Every struggle I went through, every bit of suffering, just ended up paving the way for Yana. She was afraid of pain, so I was robbed of the chance to be a mother. In the end, I was nothing more than a breeding machine. "What's wrong? You look so pale. Are you feeling sick? I'll call the doctor right away." "I'm fine. It's just morning sickness." Maverick's eyes brimmed with emotion as he gently stroked my cheek. "Sweetheart, you're going through so much, and I just wish I could bear it for you. "Things were rushed when we first got married, but this time, I've had your favorite designer wedding dress flown in. Let's go try it tomorrow before your bump shows too much." I stared at him, taking in those deeply affectionate eyes that had deceived me like a fool, time and time again. If he knew I had no intention of keeping this baby, I'd probably end up just like that helper. I forced a smile. "I'm going back to my room to rest. You guys carry on." As soon as I stepped into the room, I bolted to the bathroom in tears and threw up until my stomach felt like it was in knots. The physical pain I'd been enduring didn't even come close to what was tearing me apart on the inside. It took me a long time to steady myself. When I finally stepped out, I noticed Maverick's phone sitting on the coffee table. As if guided by instinct, I picked it up and entered Yana's birthday. It unlocked on the first try. The lock screen was a photo of Yana leaning against his shoulder, smiling radiantly. I scrolled through his photo album, one picture after another. There were over five thousand photos, and every single one featured Yana. He had organized them into four folders, each documenting a different phase of her life. The folder names, when read together, spelled out "Love of My Life". In their chat history, I found messages saying Maverick had risked his life to steal the Queen of Astovia's crown late at night. Suddenly, I recalled that that day, he had been shot twice and nearly didn't make it back. Back then, I'd offered up my mother's sole heirloom—a priceless ancestral protective charm. It was the only reason I was able to negotiate his release. Maverick had only done all that because Yana casually mentioned wanting to feel like a queen at her 25th birthday party. As tears fell onto the screen, my heart felt like it was being torn apart. However, what cut the deepest wasn't the years of lies—it was knowing I'd traded my mother's final keepsake for the very man who shattered me. Through my tear-blurred vision, my eyes locked onto a crescent-shaped birthmark on Yana's right shoulder. My breath caught in my throat. On my right shoulder, in the exact same spot, I had an identical birthmark. I distinctly remembered that when I first met Yana, she didn't have that mark.