Chapter 2

Lydia POV

The two walked away. The crowd dispersed.

It took me quite a while to struggle up from the ground in embarrassment.

The sympathetic and pitying looks from people around me shattered my heart, which had been as hard as stone.

I stared blankly in the direction where Gideon and Sophia left, and memories that had been torn apart came flying back at me like a boomerang.

No one remembered anymore how deeply Gideon loved me three years ago.

Although our marriage was arranged, it was also love at first sight.

On the night of our engagement, Gideon set off the grandest fireworks show for me across the entire city.

In the fireworks show, there were patterns he personally designed, depicting the happiness of our remaining eighty years of life, from a family of two to being surrounded by children and grandchildren in old age.

Just because I casually mentioned that yellow roses were my favorite flowers, Gideon had people plant large fields of yellow roses throughout the city.

No matter where I went, at home or out, everywhere I looked there were flowers he specially planted for me.

He even bought me 365 stars, naming each one after the letters he wrote for me.

Gideon said.

"Lydia, from now on, you are my one and only. I will spoil you into the happiest woman in the world."

And he truly did it.

In the first six months after marriage, thanks to the romance and love he gave me, those were the happiest times of my life.

Only a car accident six months after our marriage completely changed the trajectory of our lives.

I was already more than three months pregnant at that time, with my belly slightly swollen.

In that car, there were three people but four lives. In the end, only I survived

Gideon, who rushed to the scene after receiving the call, seemed crazy at that moment.

His bloodshot eyes were savage. It broke my heart to see him like that.

He shouted at me.

"Lydia, you killed my mother! You also killed our child!"

He said.

"What exactly did you do? Why was Preston in your car? Where were you two going?"

He questioned me over and over again.

"Lydia, have all your feelings for me been fake all this time? You've been unable to forget him, still harboring feelings for him, right? For your lover, you killed my mother and my child!"

My mind was in a fog. I felt helpless.

I touched my flat belly and replayed the accident in my mind. The violent impact. The blood. The way it poured down my legs.

I couldn't control it.

I didn't know how to explain Preston's presence in the car that day to Gideon either.

It was only then that I learned Preston was Linda Foster's illegitimate son, Gideon's mother. Linda had begged me not to reveal his identity.

So I couldn't speak up.

But my prolonged silence was interpreted by Gideon as confirmation.

When the doctor said I had injured my uterus and could never bear children again in this lifetime, Gideon became extremely calm.

He said.

"Lydia, this is what you owe me. You'll spend your entire life atoning for this."

It was from that moment that we began a cold war that lasted three years.

He openly flaunted other women outside.

Around that time, explicit photos of him with other women would appear on my phone.

I'd occasionally find sexy lingerie left in the corners of the house, clearly worn by someone else.

Even my car wasn't spared. Opening the door, I'd often be hit by a pungent smell.

I would always find several torn condom wrappers in Gideon's coat pockets.

I knew this was Gideon's silent declaration of war against me.

Just as Gideon said, this was what I owed him.

Only now, he already had a child with another woman.

I felt that what I owed him should be paid off soon.

On the way home, I made an important decision.