Chapter 1

I married Gideon Foster three years ago, and he gave me the cold shoulder for nine hundred and ninety-nine days.

To please his new lover, he personally beat me half to death with a salt-soaked whip.

Everyone thought I died in that brutal attack. He knelt at my grave in repentance for three years.

Then came the day I removed my mask at my book signing in London. He rushed up, eyes red, arms open. But the man beside me smiled and pulled me close.

"Let me introduce you. This is my wife. And you are?"

Lydia POV

Three years into my marriage, on the 999th day of the cold war between Gideon and me, I received a call from the hospital.

"Mrs. Foster, your prenatal checkup scheduled for this week has been arranged for Friday afternoon. Please remember to arrange your time in advance. You're already two months pregnant. Your last checkup was very healthy. Have you experienced any discomfort recently?"

My heart lurched. Even my breathing felt painful.

I opened my mouth, about to say something, when another voice came from the other end of the line.

"Hang up quickly, you called the wrong number!"

"I didn't call the wrong number. This is Mrs. Foster's phone!"

"Oh my, this Mrs. Foster is not that Mrs. Foster!"

"What do you mean?"

The girl who called me was clearly confused.

The next second, the call was disconnected.

My chest felt tight, a dull ache slowly spreading through my chest.

Counting the days, the child Gideon and I lost was also conceived around this time three years ago.

On Friday, I went to the hospital emergency room for severe abdominal pain.

The rolling screen in the hospital lobby continuously displayed intimate photos of Gideon with another woman, Sophia Mitchell.

In the photos, Gideon looked at her with such tenderness it made my eyes burn.

"To celebrate Mrs. Foster, the wife of our hospital's largest shareholder, being pregnant, all patient expenses at our hospital this month will be covered by Mr. Foster."

"Mr. Foster is so good to his wife."

"That's nothing. Did you hear? Mr. Foster is also investing ten billion to establish a school here, saying it will be named after his future child!"

I held the test results, slightly dazed.

Suddenly, several security guards walked over.

"Sorry everyone, Mr. Foster is bringing his wife to the hospital for a prenatal checkup. This passage is temporarily closed to the public. Please take an alternate route."

The crowd stirred, and I was accidentally pushed and fell to the ground.

I struggled to get up, but was stepped on several times by people behind me and pushed down again.

"Out of the way! What are you doing, coming here to play the victim?"

The security guard's baton pressed against my shoulder.

"Stop pretending, get up quickly! Get lost! If you delay Mr. Foster and his wife's business in a moment, can you afford to compensate?"

"She's probably using her looks, waiting here to catch Mr. Foster's attention. Does she even know her place?"

People around were pointing and gossiping at me.

"Girls these days have no shame. She's just trying to ruin someone else's marriage!"

Someone took advantage of the chaos to push me hard again. My arm hit the ground, and the skin on my elbow was torn open in a long strip.

I gasped in pain. Looking up, the exclusive VIP elevator door on one side opened.

Gideon walked out with a gentle expression, holding her in his arms.

Sophia's cheeks were flushed with shy redness as she cooed.

"There are so many people. Put me down quickly. I can walk by myself."

Gideon refused without hesitation.

"How can that be okay? Didn't the doctor just say you need to be careful now?"

"That's all because of you. I'm already pregnant, and last night you still couldn't help yourself, insisting on..."

"That's because you're too tempting."

The two were saying explicit sweet nothings. Looking up, Gideon saw me on the ground, and his expression changed drastically.

Although I had already tried very hard to minimize my presence.

But in the next second, Gideon's icy voice still poured down on me like a basin of cold water.

"What are you doing here?"

I clutched the test results in my hand tightly. Just as I was about to speak, Sophia beside him spoke up first.

"She must also be here for a checkup, right? She should take good care of her body and try to get pregnant soon!"

My fingers stiffened slightly. The convulsing pain in my heart covered the pain in my arm.

Gideon also, because of her words, instantly looked at me with a hundred times more disgust and loathing.

He walked past holding Sophia, his foot crushing hard over my delicate fingers.

He didn't even look at me once, leaving only an extremely cold remark.

"She's not worthy!"