"You said, 'Alaina, you're free.'"

"But what did you do after you got out?"

"You gave another woman her freedom."

"You let her freely move into the house you bought, freely spend your money, freely carry your child, and call your wife to demand she step down."

"Ethan, where is my freedom?"

He let go of me.

Stepping back two paces, he pulled out his cigarette case, drew one out, and held it between his lips without lighting it.

"I didn't intend to keep that child anyway."

His voice returned to a flat calm.

He picked up his lighter, the flame flickering twice.

"Don't touch her again."

"This matter ends here."

He lit the cigarette.

He turned to leave.

"Stop right there."

I didn't chase after him, and my voice wasn't loud, but he stopped in his tracks.

"Your dear friend Harvey called Seraphina 'Sister-in-law' in front of hundreds of people at your company's annual gala the day before yesterday."

His back stiffened slightly.

"Half the people in that room have done business with me."

I leaned against the sideboard, crossing my arms.

"Do you really think the dignity of the CEO's wife can be swept under the rug just because you say 'ends here'?"

He didn't turn around.

Wisps of smoke drifted over his shoulder.

A heavy silence stretched for a few seconds.

"I'll handle it."

He went upstairs.

I looked down at my shoulders where he had gripped them, where faint red finger marks were already starting to show.

Mrs. Higgins walked over carrying a dose of medicine, saying nothing as she placed it right by my hand.

I pushed the medicine away.

I picked up my phone.

I dialed a number.

"Felix, look into someone for me."

Chapter 4

Felix was always highly efficient.

By noon the next day, the file was delivered to my hands.

Seraphina, twenty-three years old, registered resident of Savannah.

Three years ago, she came to Washington from a third-tier city.

She had no real job and no steady income; her bank statements were entirely supported by Ethan's wire transfers.

A fixed monthly payment of fifty thousand dollars.

In addition, there was an apartment under her name and a car—not a top-tier luxury brand, but by no means cheap.

Her ID photo was attached to the file.

She looked very young.

Her features weren't exactly stunning, but she had a clean, innocent look about her.

The exact type that made men feel an overwhelming urge to protect her.

The complete opposite of me.

My finger paused over the family relations column.

Father: None.

Mother: Madeline.

The information following her mother's name had been completely blacked out.

Felix had scribbled a note next to it: This section has been intentionally locked down; requires higher clearance to access.

I stared at that blacked-out name for a long time.

"Keep digging."

"Someone is blocking this line," Felix's voice sounded a bit hesitant over the phone. "Ethan's people tampered with it."

Ethan.

He had even gone so far as to seal her family background.

Protecting her to this extent.

I snapped the file folder shut.

"I don't care who is blocking it. Find it for me."

Not long after Felix left, the doorbell rang.

Mrs. Higgins went to answer it and quickly hurried back.

"She's here again."

She didn't need to say the name for me to know who it was.

Seraphina stood right in the center of the living room, wearing a pastel yellow dress.

There was no longer any visible trace of the procedure on her flat stomach.

She had certainly recovered quickly after the surgery.

The moment she saw me, her eyes turned red.

"Alaina, do you have any idea what you've done?"

I sat down on the sofa and poured myself a glass of water.

"I do."

She bit her lip. "That was a human life."

"If you want to count it that way," I took a sip of water, "I've lost a life too."

"Carried for seven months, and it didn't make it."

The expression on her face froze for a split second.

But she quickly recovered that pitiful, victimized look of hers.

"But you can't strip me of my right to be a mother just because of your own tragic past."

"Your right to be a mother?"

I set my water glass down.

"Let's get one thing straight first. You were carrying my husband's child. Under the absolute fact that my husband and I are still legally married, do I really need to spell out what exactly that makes you?"

She was completely choked by my words, unable to utter a syllable.

A few seconds later, she suddenly laughed.

The smile carried the exact same delicate entitlement from her phone call, but it had an extra layer I hadn't noticed before.

A sharp, venomous edge.

"Alaina, I didn't come here to argue with you today."

She reached into her bag, pulled out a credit card, and placed it on the coffee table.

"Ethan asked me to return this to you. He said that tea set you smashed the other day was bought at an auction for eight hundred thousand. There is a million dollars on this card. The extra two hundred thousand can count as my formal apology to you."

She stood up, smoothing down the hem of her skirt.

"Ethan also said that if anything comes up in the future, you should take it up with him directly. Stop making things difficult for me."

She walked to the door, then turned back to cast a final glance at me.

"Oh, right. He asked me to let you know that he won't be coming home tonight."

The door closed.

Mrs. Higgins stared at the credit card on the coffee table, her face livid.

I picked up the card.

I snapped it in half.

And threw it into the trash can.

Chapter 5

As expected, Ethan didn't come home that night.

He didn't return the next day either.

On the third day, his secretary called to say that the boss was away on a business trip and would be back in about a week.

I checked his itinerary.

There was no business trip.

He was in Washington, staying at the apartment he had bought for Seraphina.

When I put my phone down, my hand was steady.

My breathing was perfectly calm, too.

During his third year in prison, when my landlord threw me out and I slept under a pedestrian overpass for a week, I didn't even cry.

Why should I cry now?

On the fourth day, Harvey showed up.

He was Ethan's business partner and the brother who had fought alongside him to build everything from scratch.

He walked in with a bright grin, carrying a fruit basket.

"Hey, long time no see."

I had Mrs. Higgins pour him some tea.

He sat on the sofa with his legs crossed, making idle small talk for ten minutes before finally getting to the point.

"Look, Ethan's been under a lot of pressure lately, so don't take things too much to heart."

"Men can be complete fools sometimes."

"But I can promise you, you're the one who holds his heart."

I held my teacup without moving.

"Harvey, who exactly were you calling 'Sister-in-law' in front of hundreds of people at your last annual gala?"

His smile froze.

"Oh, that... well, hadn't I had a few too many drinks?"

"Too many drinks."

I nodded.

"Then make sure you remember clearly the next time you're sober: the person sitting right in front of you is the only one you should be calling that."

His smile crumbled completely.

He stood up awkwardly.

"You're right. That was my mistake. I've already spoken to the team, and it won't happen again."

He stopped at the door, hesitating for a moment.

"Look, I probably shouldn't be saying this, but Ethan asked me to pass along a message."

"He says he hopes you'll just drop this and stop causing trouble for Seraphina."

"He said he can give you anything you want, as long as you leave the people on that side alone."

"Anything I want."

I repeated his words back to him.

"Harvey, go back and tell him that I don't want a single thing."

"I only want him to sign that agreement."

After Harvey left, I sat on the sofa for a long time without moving.

Mrs. Higgins stood beside me, finally unable to contain herself.

"Miss Alaina, why don't we just let it go? Why put yourself through..."

"Higgins."

I cut her off.

"Do you remember the year he was released from prison?"

Mrs. Higgins fell silent.

"He went to haul bricks at a construction site. On his very first day, his hands were rubbed raw and bleeding. When he came home, he wouldn't even splurge on iodine; he just poured salt water straight over the open wounds."

"I told him I would get a job to support him, but he refused."

"He told me, 'Lana, you waited ten years for me while I was inside. Now it's my turn.'"