two

Hearing his self-righteous yet deceptively affectionate words, I covered my face and bolted back home without looking back. I grabbed the vodka I despised most from the liquor cabinet and downed the entire bottle.

"Ethan, you're a liar. You promised that out of thousands of roses, I would be the only one you'd pick. I shed every single one of my thorns just to hold onto you, but three years later, it's all turned to ash..."

That evening, Ethan pulled his last two pairs of pajamas from the drawer. He turned, tilted my chin up, and muffled my mouth with a familiar kiss. His soft tongue teased my lips, but choking on the distinct scent of another woman clinging to his skin, I couldn't bring myself to open my mouth.

"Grace, be strong. Put away your jealousy; just bear with it for a bit!"

He then gave me an apologetic look. "Lily is under a lot of stress right now trying to conceive. She needs me close to soothe her. Starting tonight, I'll be sleeping in the guest room next door."

I sat at the vanity, staring at his unapologetic reflection in the mirror. "Soothe her? The noises you two made on the couch in the middle of the night didn't exactly sound like medical treatment."

Ethan grabbed my wrist, his fingers digging in hard. "Grace, we agreed on this in my office yesterday, didn't we?" He crouched down in front of me. Looking at the un-wiped lipstick smudge on his face, I felt a sudden wave of nausea hit my stomach.

"It's been three years, and your belly hasn't produced a thing. If there's no heir carrying the Blackwell bloodline, the unlimited black card you swipe, the sports car down in the garage, and even the astronomical fees for your monthly fertility specialists—all of it will vanish into thin air!" He leaned in, his face twisted into a mask of contrived reluctance. "Do you think I want to sleep with her every night? I'm doing this for you. Is your love really that selfish and narrow-minded?"

I stared into his blue eyes. He actually believed he was some kind of martyr, sacrificing his body for the family.

"Fine," I heard my own voice say, dry and hollow. "Then go properly soothe her."

Ethan smiled in satisfaction. He pressed a cold, obligatory kiss to my forehead and turned away. The moment the door clicked shut, I threw myself onto the bed. Beneath my pillow lay the torn stockings from our last encounter.

Ten minutes later, noises seeped through the shared wall of the guest room.

"Ah... Ethan... deeper..." It was Lily's breathless moaning, not suppressed in the slightest.

"Mmm, you're doing great, baby..."

"Lily, let's try an even better position today!"

That fierce passion used to belong solely to me. I covered my ears like a madwoman, dragging the nurse uniform, the police outfit, the leather whips, and the handcuffs out of the closet and hurling them onto the floor. These were the toys we used to play with, but today, his player two had changed.

I bit down hard on the web of my right hand. The sharp pain suppressed my body's involuntary physical reactions, as well as the overwhelming disgust rising in my chest...

Early the next morning.

I walked into the living room, dark circles bruising the skin under my eyes. Lily wore a ridiculously short silk nightgown, leaning bonelessly against Ethan's chest. From my angle, I could clearly see they were still intimately joined together. Ethan held a bowl, taking a sip of the bird's nest soup, then carefully leaned down to kiss her, feeding the soup directly into her mouth.

Hearing my footsteps, Lily hurriedly slid off Ethan's lap. As they separated, his arousal was still grotesquely exposed.

She looked at me timidly. "I'm sorry, Grace. Did Ethan and I wake you? My anxiety has just been so overwhelming, so Ethan had to stay with me to comfort me..." She put heavy emphasis on the word "comfort."

Ethan frowned, shooting a cold glare at my face. "Grace, it's early. Don't bring your negative energy around Lily while she's trying to conceive."

I walked over to the kitchen island and poured myself a glass of ice water. "My expression would be a lot better if your 'comforting' didn't involve banging the headboard against the wall quite so violently." I slammed the glass down, my gaze dropping mockingly to his exposed crotch.

"Grace!" Ethan's face darkened. "I'm going to tell you one last time. Drop this pathetic jealousy of yours."

"Oh, Ethan, don't yell at Grace!" Lily immediately hugged his arm, sobbing playfully. "It's all my fault. I'm the one ruining her sleep. Maybe I should just move out; I don't want to cause fights between a husband and wife..."

Ethan's tough exterior crumbled instantly. He wrapped his arms around Lily, kissing away her tears. "Don't say nonsense like that. You're going to give me an heir. You're making a massive contribution to this family."

With that, he turned back to me, looking down his nose with absolute arrogance. "Lily's calves are cramping again. Go to the bathroom and fetch a basin of hot water."

My hand, resting on the glass, froze in mid-air. "Excuse me?" I stared at him.

"Go fetch a basin of hot water. Make sure it's exactly one hundred and thirteen degrees, and add two drops of lavender oil." Ethan stepped right up to me, dropping his voice to a low, threatening whisper meant only for me. "Grace, be the bigger person. Her belly is the future of our entire family! Go massage her legs. Consider it a show of gratitude for her sacrifice. Don't make me cut off your credit cards."

He used money as a noose around my neck, forcing me to haul foot-bath water for his mistress. He really knew exactly how to force me to drag my own dignity through the mud.

My fingertips trembled violently as I turned on my heel and walked toward the first-floor bathroom. I carried the steaming basin back into the living room, dropping it onto the rug in front of the sofa with a heavy thud.

"Grace, I'm so sorry. Thank you for doing this..." Despite her apologetic words, Lily shamelessly dangled her pale feet right over the water.

"Wash them," Ethan ordered, barely glancing at me.

Ignoring the furious expression I wore, I forced my knees onto the carpet. I lowered Lily's feet into the water and began to gently massage her calves.

"Ah! Grace, not so hard!" Lily gave an exaggerated kick, shoving me backward onto the floor.

Ethan furiously grabbed the basin and splashed the remaining hot water all over me. "You useless bitch! You can't even do one simple favor—"

"I barely touched her!" I defended myself weakly, but he acted as if he hadn't heard a word, grabbing a fistful of my hair.

"Ethan, it's not her fault. My skin is just too sensitive right now. Why don't you go to the kitchen and cut me a lemon, please?" Lily cooed persuasively.

Ethan instantly released his grip, his tone softening back to irresistible sweetness. "Sit tight. I'll be right back." The man's silhouette disappeared around the kitchen corner.

The fragile, pitiful act vanished from Lily's face in an instant. She raised a provocative eyebrow, leaning back comfortably against the sofa cushions.

"Face reality, Grace," she hissed, her voice low and venomous. "Three years, and you're still a barren hen. Such a waste of space. Do you honestly think he loves you? You know what he says most when we're in bed? 'Grace is as loose as a slab of dead meat. I have zero interest in touching her; only you can drive me crazy.'"

I looked at her with a deadpan expression. "You'd better pray you push out a boy. Otherwise, you won't even qualify for a severance check when they kick you to the curb."

Lily sneered, pointing toward the guest room they had trashed last night. "Go clean my room. You'd better use a black trash bag for the tissues on the floor and the used bedsheets, just in case you lose control and try to pick up your useless pride along the way."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then I'll tell Ethan you shoved me to the floor while he was gone." Lily's lips curled into a smirk, her eyes overflowing with unbridled malice.

I matched her toxic stare for a moment before turning silently toward the guest room.

I wasn't surrendering. I just knew exactly where Ethan's bottom line was right now—if Lily pitched a fit and claimed she was in pain, there was no telling what kind of psycho logic he would justify.

The guest room door was pushed open. The air, once strictly filled with the familiar scent of Ethan's cologne that used to belong to me, was now choked with a heavy, pungent musk. The bed was a disaster zone. The couch was stained. Scattered across the floor was the fatal lace lingerie Ethan had confiscated from my closet, mixed with crumpled tissues soaked in milky-white fluids.

Holding my breath to fight off the nausea, I bent down to pick up the trash off the rug. Just as I grabbed a crumpled suit skirt, something slipped out of the pocket and clattered to the floor.

It was Lily's burner phone.

I picked it up. The second my finger brushed the screen, it lit up. A new text message notification popped onto the lock screen. Just a few short words, but they sent a violent jolt through my system.

[Almost done. Don't blow your cover.]

Almost done? What was almost done?

If she was simply trying to secure the trust fund cash through Ethan, why use such a guarded, conspiratorial tone? I stared hard at the blocked caller ID, my heart rate accelerating.

Lily wasn't acting alone. Someone else was pulling the strings behind the scenes.

Meanwhile, Ethan—the fool who actually believed he was sacrificing his body to protect his fortune—was out in the kitchen slicing lemons for her like an obedient lapdog.

I peered through the half-open door, watching Ethan carry a plate of fresh lime wedges out to Lily, beaming with desperate eagerness to please.

Suddenly, the suffocating grief in my chest vanished entirely.

"What kind of look will that idiot Ethan have on his face when he finds out?"

If this was just a hunting game built on mutual deception... Fine. The game had only just begun.