Chapter 3 Lydia‘POV

Ivor's brow furrowed, his expression laced with impatience: "You should just get rid of the baby. The Lydia family is still useful to me..."

"I won't!" The woman's eyes reddened, her voice trembling. "I've been with you since I was sixteen. I don't care how many women you have — can't I just keep this baby?"

I looked at the woman's belly, my heart sinking.

I had always known Ivor's personal life was a mess, but I never expected he'd gotten someone pregnant and still refused to take responsibility.

What a piece of trash.

I took a deep breath and walked over.

"Ivor, what a coincidence," I said softly.

Ivor looked up and saw me. His expression stiffened for a split second. By reflex, he pushed away the woman holding his arm and began explaining in a fluster: "Don't get the wrong idea — this is my cousin. She's not feeling well today, so I came with her to get a checkup."

My gaze passed over him coldly and landed on the pregnant woman.

Under my stare, the woman grew visibly uneasy. She instinctively stepped back half a pace, while her hands unconsciously moved to shield her belly.

"Cousin?" I let out a cold laugh. "Ivor, do you think I'm gullible, or do you think I'm blind?"

I didn't give him the chance to keep lying. I snatched the test report right out of his hand.

The father's name was written there, clear as day: Ivor Winster.

I held the report up in front of his face and looked at him with contempt. "What exactly do you have to say for yourself?"

The color drained from Ivor's face entirely. He opened his mouth, but no words came out.

At that moment, the pregnant woman suddenly stepped forward and grabbed my hand, her voice soft and aggrieved: "Miss Lydia, Ivor and I truly love each other. Please, won't you let us be together?"

I looked at her with the deepest pity. Even now, she still thought I wanted to fight her for this piece of garbage?

Her crying was grating on my nerves.

Honestly, whether this woman truly loved Ivor or was just after his money — it didn't matter to me either way.

What mattered was that I could use this opportunity to break free from this engagement I had never wanted.

I let out a sigh and softened my tone slightly toward Ivor: "Since things have already come to this, why don't you just tell my father and call off the engagement between our families?"

Ivor froze.

He clearly hadn't expected me to say something like that. His eyes were filled with confusion and hesitation.

"Lydia, you know the engagement isn't something I can just decide on my own. Our two families have always had financial dealings." Ivor frowned, looking reluctant.

"Ivor! You're a man!" I cut him off, my voice sharp with anger. "You got someone pregnant — don't you think you owe it to her to step up? Don't worry, as long as you bring it up to my father, I'll handle the rest. I promise it won't affect the business between our families."

Ivor went quiet, his brow creasing deeper and deeper.

I could see my plan was almost working. The corners of my mouth curled up in a satisfied smile.

Then the woman's gaze suddenly dropped to my neck. "Lydia, what happened to your neck? Are you hurt?"

My heart lurched. I instinctively reached up to tug at my turtleneck collar and said flatly, "It's nothing."

Damn it.

Ivor's eyes immediately sharpened with suspicion. He yanked my collar aside, and the dense cluster of hickeys was exposed without question.

Ivor's face darkened instantly.

"Oh, I see now!" He ground out the words through clenched teeth, his eyes blazing with fury. "No wonder you're suddenly so eager to break off the engagement — you've got someone on the side!"

My collar was now askew from where he'd pulled it. I shook off his hand and stopped pretending. I let the indifference show: "So what? You got someone else pregnant, and I'm not allowed to see another man?"

"You—" Ivor's face went ashen, his eyes bloodshot as he glared at me.

After a long moment, a chilling smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. "You think finding yourself some lowlife means you can get away from me?"

He stepped forward, looking down at me: "Let me make this clear — you are going to marry me. And not only that, I'm going to make your life hell. I'll make sure you learn what happens when you betray me."

My fingers clenched tight, my knuckles going slightly pale.

Just as I was about to fire back at him, the woman suddenly clutched her stomach and cried out in pain: "Ivor, my stomach — it hurts so much..."

I watched Ivor quickly reach out to steady her, then lead her in rapid strides toward the obstetrics ward.

So this woman did carry some weight with Ivor after all.

I turned it over in my mind for a moment, picked up my prescription from the pharmacy, and left the hospital.

The whole way home, I was trying to figure out how to get Ivor to willingly back out of the engagement.

Ivor was a born obsessive. If he couldn't have something, he'd rather destroy it than let it go.

But I had no intention of hiding anything.

Seeing how furious he'd gotten even gave me a small rush of satisfaction.

The moment I stepped through the front door, Hector's roar came from the living room: "Look at what you've done!"

He threw his phone down in front of me. On the screen was a text message — from Ivor's father — essentially accusing me of indecent behavior and threatening to add a 40% penalty clause to the contract they had already signed.

Hector was shaking with rage. "Do you have any idea what you've done? Do you know how many years it took me to get the Ivor family to agree to sign that contract? And you destroyed it all in one night!"

"Isn't that convenient then?" I replied calmly. "I didn't want to marry him anyway. We might as well use this chance to break off the engagement."

"What did you say?" Hector's eyes went wide.

"I said I don't want to marry Ivor!" I shouted. "Didn't you already see it for yourself? Ivor has a child on the way with another woman, and you still want me to marry into that? Are you my father or my pimp?"

Smack —

A hard slap landed across my face.

My cheek burned instantly. I turned my head and stared coldly at Hector.

Marlo stepped in to smooth things over: "Lydia, look at yourself — making your father angry again. Your father and I have already talked it over. Next week, the Levitt family — the wealthiest in New York — is hosting a banquet, and Ivor will be there. You just dress up nicely, apologize to Ivor, and won't the contract issue be resolved?"

Hector followed up with a sigh of his own: "Ivor said that if you're willing to show remorse, he'll act like none of this ever happened. So at next week's banquet, you need to behave yourself."

Levitt?

I'd heard of that family. Rumor had it their new CEO was a young man who had gone from nobody to the wealthiest person in all of New York in just five years — a genuinely mysterious figure that everyone wanted to get close to.

Ivor was no exception.

Marlo kept rambling on: "You should bring your sister along too. I heard that billionaire isn't married yet. If he takes a liking to her, you'd benefit as well, wouldn't you?"

"Since when do you remember you have a daughter?" I said coldly. "What's the matter — not willing to marry her off to a lowlife like Ivor, so now you're setting your sights on New York's richest man? Do you honestly think she's in his league?"

"Lydia! You rude, ungrateful little brat!" Marlo shrieked, abandoning all pretense of elegance.

I didn't bother with her. I turned and went upstairs.

The moment I closed my bedroom door, I finally couldn't hold it together. I sank down against it, buried my face in my knees, and cried without making a sound.

Why was everyone pushing me like this?

Mom, Grandma — I wish you were here with me.

Just then, my phone buzzed. I picked it up and saw a text from an unknown number.

I opened it. Inside was an invitation to the Levitt family charity gala, followed by a single line of text:

【Be there on time. Otherwise, I can't promise those photos won't find their way around.】