Chapter 1
When I was twenty, I brought an old, faded marriage contract to the gates of the illustrious Middleton Family.
On our wedding night, Alaric’s eyes burned red as he whispered, “My mother was poisoned during childbirth. I’m sorry… I was born flawed. I can’t please you that way.”
My heart twisted with sympathy and I pulled him into my arms. From that night on, we became the most admired couple in the capital. Alaric treated me with unwavering gentleness and devotion. To the world, I had married the perfect man a once–in–a–lifetime kind of love.
Until that day, when I reached under the passenger seat of his car and found a pair of black lace underwear, soaked in fluids. They weren’t mine.
When I confronted him, he looked genuinely remorseful “The new secretary,” he said, “she’s just naturally seductive. She came on to me. She said if we did it 99 times, it could cure
me.”
I believed him. Even though it tore me apart, I gritted my teeth and allowed their so–called “treatment.”
Their traces were everywhere, in the living room, in the kitchen, even on the vanity in our
bedroom.
Three months later, I stood outside a baby store and saw him picking out infant supplies.
A friend of his teased, “Aren’t you afraid your wife will find out? You’re clearly not ‘defective‘ at all.”
He replied flatly, “She’s too dumb to notice.”
The friend sighed. “Eleanor loves you like her life. Why won’t you give her a child?”
Alaric curled his lips into a mocking smile.
“If it weren’t for the Sinclair Family ‘s favor, I’d never have married her. She wants a child? Then I’ll never give her one.”
My whole body trembled. I dialed a number with shaking hands.
“You once said you wanted to have a child with me, does that offer still stand?”
Inside the store, Alaric was still carefully selecting baby items. Graham, his personal assistant, standing beside him, lowered his voice, “So Ruby’s pregnant now. Aren’t you scared your wife will find out you’re perfectly fine?”
Without even glancing up, Alaric said calmly, “She’s too slow. How would she find out? And even if she does, so what?”
Russel sighed. “Eleanor’s devoted to you. Why won’t you give her a child? The other socialites are already laughing at her.”
Alaric sneered. “If it weren’t for that little debt the Sinclair Family owed me, why would I
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have married her at all? She wants a child? Then I’ll make sure she never gets one.”
Suddenly, I felt chilled to the bone.
All these years he’d been acting. All the tenderness, all the gentleness, it was all fake.
I was a fool, dancing in the palm of his hand.
I staggered out of the mall, barely holding myself together, when my phone rang.
It was Alaric.
“Where are you? Let the driver take you back to the estate.”
As soon as I arrived at the gate, I saw his black Maybach rocking strangely in the driveway.
My heart felt like it had been torn apart. His words from the baby store still echoed in my mind.
All these years, I’d been nothing but a colossal joke.
The car door suddenly opened. Alaric looked up and froze when he saw me standing there.
Ruby slowly stepped out of the car. The red marks on her neck stung my eyes like blades and her cheeks were still flushed from passion.
Alaric gently said to her, “Go freshen up.”
Then he walked toward me, frowning.
“Eleanor, why do you look so pale?”
He paused, then continued as if it were the most natural thing in the world, “You know Ruby has a special constitution, she can help fix my issue. I’m doing this for us, can’t you understand?”
I forced a smile more painful than tears.
At dinner, his mother tapped the edge of her bowl with her chopsticks.
“You’ve been married for nearly three years now and still no sign of a baby.”
My fingers trembled around the chopsticks.
I used to think she was bitter because of Alaric’s “condition.” That she was just heartbroken. But now I finally understood, he had been lying to me from the start.
And he let me carry all the humiliation alone.
Chapter 1
