Chapter 5

"I want her to keep it."

I stared blankly at Ethan sitting across from me. My mouth opened and closed. My hand resting on my lower abdomen involuntarily twitched.

"Have you thought this through?"

"If you really have, I'll make room for her."

Ethan looked up at me in disbelief. Perhaps he hadn't expected things to go so smoothly either.

But his joy was fleeting. He grabbed my hand and demanded:

"Lily, have you never loved me? Not even once?"

"Are you still hung up on that damn first love of yours?!"

"Cheating, divorce—even if I brought her home today to have the baby, you wouldn't care at all, would you?!"

I watched Ethan throw his tantrum, watched him smash an entire cabinet of liquor.

I let him pin me down and take what he wanted without restraint, without any resistance.

"Lily, could you just... even just a little bit, love me even just a little..."

I said nothing.

In the days that followed, Ethan often didn't come home. He brought Sienna to all kinds of occasions.

At events where I wasn't present, Ethan would shield her from drinks, hold umbrellas for her, drive her to and from work—looking exactly like a couple deeply in love.

Scandals flew everywhere, and each time I'd step in to smooth things over, buying off those tabloid stories.

I sat securely in the position of Mrs. Morris, cleaning up Ethan's mess. But Sienna couldn't sit still.

Or perhaps it was the baby in her belly that couldn't wait.

"Miss Lily, when will you agree to the divorce?"

"I don't want my child to be called a bastard when it's born."

I stirred the coffee in front of me, finding it both laughable and pathetic.

"Miss Dawn is too naive. Marriages of convenience in families like ours involve too many interests. Divorce isn't that simple."

"Besides, it's not that I won't divorce—it's your Mr. Morris who refuses."

Perhaps my words hit too close to home.

That very night, Sienna attempted suicide.

The baby in her belly wasn't saved.

Ethan came home with bloodshot eyes, nearly strangling me to death.

"Lily, who told you to go see her!"

"Do you know she almost died! Because of what you said, the baby in her belly is gone!"

"Lily, do you want a divorce that badly?"

"Fine! Let's divorce!"

I only learned later that Sienna had slit her wrists to pressure Ethan into divorcing, resulting in a miscarriage.

She said it was me who went to see her.

Her words "I love you so much" kept Ethan's heart captive.

Her words "Lily doesn't love you at all" also severed the last thread of hope between Ethan and me.

"Sienna wasn't actually pregnant."

"She's just a gold-digger trying to climb the social ladder, staging this whole drama herself."

"Speaking of which, Mrs. Morris is truly magnanimous—ready to divorce just like that. If it were me, I'd make that scumbag and homewrecker miserable for years before I'd be satisfied!"

When these words reached my ears, the hand signing the divorce agreement stopped cooperating.

"I'm not divorcing anymore."

"Ethan Morris, you're the one at fault. I want you to leave with nothing."

And so, the lawsuit dragged on for two years.

Long enough for Adrian to appear by my side.

Actually, I didn't care how much money I got from the Morris family. I just wanted to spite Sienna.

Adrian's appearance, the trap Adrian set—it suddenly all seemed pointless to me.

I couldn't even be bothered to investigate the relationship between them anymore.

"Let's sign."

I pushed the documents toward Ethan.