Chapter 1

After five years of marriage, Emily Johnson still hadn't been able to get pregnant.

The prestigious Smith family had a lot of complaints about her. Whenever they saw her, they'd make snide remarks, telling her that if she couldn't have children, she should step aside sooner rather than later.

She knew how obsessed the Smith family was with carrying on the family line, and she knew her loving husband James Smith was under tremendous pressure because of her.

She decided to divorce him, but James pulled her into his arms.

"Honey, I won't divorce you. Even if we don't have kids, I want to be with you forever."

Moved by James's devotion, she secretly went to the hospital where her good friend worked to get checked out.

After the examination, Emily went to meet her friend for lunch, but accidentally overheard a conversation between James and her best friend Sophia Brown.

"James, after five years, are you still not willing to tell Emily the real reason she can't get pregnant?"

The real reason she can't get pregnant?

Wasn't it just that her health wasn't good and it was hard for her to conceive? For the past five years, every checkup at the Smith family-controlled hospital had given her the same result. Was there something else going on?

"Isn't this exactly what you wanted? Why are you worried now? Are you afraid I'll actually get her pregnant and stop caring about you and our child?"

Sophia nestled in James's arms and said sweetly, "I am afraid, but I'm worried you might soften when you're around her."

"I'll never soften toward someone as bad as her. If she hadn't tricked you into studying abroad back then, and lied to me saying you liked someone else, how would I have lost control, gotten drunk and slept with her, and been forced to marry her? She owes us this!"

Through the crack in the door that wasn't fully closed, James's face looked cold and stern, his eyes glinting with coldness, yet his right hand stroking the top of Sophia's head was incredibly gentle.

This morning when James left home, he had stroked the top of her head the same way. At that moment, she had felt like the happiest woman in the world.

Who knew it was all a joke.

James and Sophia had been together all along. The two of them had teamed up to deceive her and even secretly had a child.

She felt ridiculous, in pain and furious. Her body was more honest than her mind—she kicked the office door open.

"Honey!"

"Emily!"

Both of them looked at her at the same time. She tried hard to hold back her tears and asked hoarsely, "When did this start?"

Both were silent. James let go of Sophia, but his body honestly blocked her protectively.

This scene pierced Emily's heart. She forced the corners of her mouth up, smiling in a way that looked worse than crying, her voice even more hoarse than before.

"James, that year when you got drunk and we had a one-night stand, I said you didn't need to take responsibility. But you said you couldn't live with yourself and insisted on marrying me—have you forgotten?"

"On our wedding day, you said you would love and protect me forever, that you'd never let me suffer even a little bit. So what have you done now?"

The more she spoke, the more agitated she became. Her chest heaved violently, her whole body trembling as she stood in the doorway, stubbornly staring at them, demanding an answer.

James frowned slightly and said impatiently, "Emily, I gave you the title of wife. What right do you have to question me?"

This statement completely crushed Emily. She screamed hysterically, "I have no right? Then what are you two?"

"What about these five years of distress, self-blame, and anxiety I've felt for not being able to get pregnant?"

"Does it just mean I'm stupid? Or that I'm an idiot? Betrayed by the man I love most and my best friend, and in the end you say I have no right. How ridiculous!"

Emily stared intently at James and Sophia behind him, looking exactly like a dying swan, wounded by villains but still refusing to bow her head.

Sophia ran out from behind James to stand in front of her, looking pitiful as she apologized.

"Emily, this has nothing to do with James. It's all my fault. If I hadn't been so proud back then, we wouldn't be in this situation now. When I was abroad being bullied and almost died, that's when I called James."

"I'm sorry! It's all my fault. I'm a terrible person who seduced James. Emily, if you want to blame someone, blame me. This has nothing to do with James."

"For the sake of us being best friends, can you forgive me?"

Sophia was the one who lied, the one who betrayed her with her husband James, and now she was humbly begging for forgiveness?

Did she have any reason to forgive?

These five years of not being able to get pregnant, living humbly at the Smith Villa, had broken her pride.

To get pregnant and give the Smith family an heir, she took medicine and got injections. Those bitter herbal remedies that made her retch constantly haunted her even in her dreams. She lay in bed alone, forcing herself through the physical nausea, enduring it all.

Those long, thin ovulation needles injected into her belly—she went to the hospital alone, back and forth, yet she did it all willingly for James.

Every few days, the Smith family would gang up on her with their snide remarks, calling her a useless woman who couldn't have children, telling her to know her place and step aside. She swallowed all the grievances and complaints alone, transforming herself from a bright, sunny girl into a weak person who feared people's words and looks.

She thought it was all worth it. For the man she loved, she wasn't afraid of hardship or exhaustion. But it turned out it was all a script for their revenge.

She was like a clown who had performed the show they wanted to see, yet still had to bear the blame of bringing it on herself.

But she had never harmed Sophia, never used dirty tricks on James. They were the ones who owed her. They were the ones who should give her an explanation.

"Sophia, you're not my friend anymore! And I will never forgive you!"

Sophia's delicate body trembled violently. She reached out, trying to grab Emily.

Emily found her disgusting and stepped back two paces. Sophia suddenly collapsed to the floor.

James immediately helped her up with concern, his icy gaze falling on Emily. "Emily, how long are you going to keep this up?"

"You've enjoyed all the honor that should have been mine. So what if there's no child? According to Smith family rules, heirs can't divorce. You'll be my wife for life. Isn't that enough?"

"Hahaha... hahahaha..." Emily laughed loudly. The tears she'd been holding back for so long finally fell.

She didn't want them to look down on her. She roughly wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and said seriously, "James! You really disgust me!"

"I want to divorce you, to fulfill your great and noble love with Sophia, to legitimize your illegitimate child. I wish you'll be together forever."

With that, she turned to leave, but Sophia grabbed her, her tone even more pitiful than before.

"Emily, I never wanted you to divorce James. I just really wanted a child of my own. You can understand that, right?"

"You know how much I want a family member who shares my blood. You can't have children, so how about I give you my child to raise?"

The absurd, almost sickening question made Emily gag.

Suddenly, with a scream, Sophia clutched her stomach and cried out.