Chapter 1

I had been married to Julian He for five years, truly believing I was the only woman he held in the palm of his hand.

He was the billionaire CEO of the He Corporation. He would cook for me, massage my legs, and buy me any piece of jewelry I casually mentioned liking.

Until I discovered his computer was filled with photos and videos of another woman.

Brenda Gu, the first love he had never gotten over.

Even more ridiculous, while pregnant with his child, I cried and called him thirty-one times. Yet, just because Brenda mentioned her foot hurt, he left me at home without a second thought.

That day, I lost my baby, and my heart turned to ash.

I signed the divorce agreement, retrieved my baby's ashes, and decided to take my belongings and leave for good.

Julian He, I don't want your money anymore, and I don't want your love.

But when I truly turned and walked away, what made this man—who had once treated me like an afterthought—so certain I would ever come back?

Natalie Xu's POV

The year I turned twenty-one, I married Julian He.

He was an old friend of my father's, a full nine years older than me, and in charge of the massive He Corporation.

In high society, people spoke of him as ruthless, someone who drove his business rivals into dead ends.

But when he came home, he was an entirely different person.

If I casually mentioned that a bracelet looked pretty,

the entire matching jewelry set would be sitting on my vanity the very next day.

My morning sickness was severe; I threw up everything I ate.

Julian would leave a hundred-million-dollar deal waiting in the conference room just to tie on an apron and cook oatmeal for me in the kitchen.

When my calves cramped at night, he would jolt awake no matter how deeply asleep he was. He’d cradle my calf in his palms and massage me gently until I drifted back to sleep.

For a long time, I thought I had stumbled into the greatest love story in the world.

Until that afternoon, when I found an external hard drive buried deep in the study drawer.

A faded label was stuck to the drive, written in Julian's handwriting with just one word: *Backup*.

Sitting in the chair, I plugged the drive into the computer.

The screen lit up with row after row of folders, all named with dates.

I clicked on the earliest one, dated six years ago.

The woman in the video stood by the sea, the wind tossing her long hair. Her profile, and the slight curve at the corner of her eyes when she smiled...

looked strikingly like mine.

I clicked through several more; they were all of her.

Eating, walking, daydreaming by a café window, giggling behind her hand.

The last one was an audio file.

The speakers played a woman's broken sobs: "Julian, what if I don't leave? Can I stay?"

Then came Julian's voice, raspy and trembling with a panic I had never heard in him before.

"Brenda, don't go."

Brenda. Brenda Gu.

I sat in the chair, neither crying nor smashing things.

I closed the folders one by one, unplugged the drive, and shoved it back into the deepest corner of the drawer, just as I had found it.

Dazed and out of my mind, I lost my footing and tumbled down the stairs.

Blood immediately began running down my calves.

With the last ounce of my strength, I dialed for emergency help.

"Save... save my baby..."

When I woke up, a nurse stood before me.

The nurse asked, "I'm so sorry, we couldn't save the baby. Would you like to see your baby?"

I jerked my face away, tears slamming into the pillow as I shook my head violently.

After leaving the hospital, I had a lawyer draft a divorce agreement.

I would take what was mine before the marriage, but I didn't touch a cent of the He family's fortune.

After signing my name, I picked up my phone and called Julian.

In the past, even in the middle of an international conference, he would answer within three seconds and ask tenderly what was wrong.

This time, I dialed thirty-one times in a row.

The first thirty went unanswered.

On the thirty-first try, the call finally connected.

The receiver was chaotic, filled with deafening music and clinking glasses. The voices of Julian's friends drifted through:

"As soon as Brenda Gu got back, Julian left his pregnant wife right at home."

"That girl was just a stand-in anyway. Back then, Julian drank himself into stomach bleeding over Brenda. He never let go of his first love."

"Just now, Brenda mumbled about her feet hurting, and Julian immediately scooped her up to go buy her flats."

I gripped the phone until my knuckles turned white, tears splashing onto the screen.

The other end suddenly grew quiet.

Julian's voice came through, demanding, "Who touched my phone?"

After a shuffle of footsteps, Julian's voice came through, still carrying that familiar tender tone. "Natalie, what's wrong? Are you scared being home alone?"

"Something urgent came up at the company. I'll be back later to keep you and the baby company."

I took a deep breath, my voice calm. "I called because I wanted to..."

Before I could finish, a woman's voice drifted through the receiver: "Julian, my foot hurts so much..."

Julian paused for two seconds, then rushed out, "Honey, go to sleep first. I'll get back as soon as I can."

The line went dead.

I let out a dry laugh as tears streamed down my chin.

Wiping away my tears, I looked toward the table.

On it lay a divorce agreement and a palm-sized cremation urn.

I had gone to the crematorium all by myself to bring my baby home.

I picked up the urn, placed it at the very bottom of the master bedroom closet, and slid the door shut.

In the dead of night, the electronic fingerprint lock at the front door beeped.

Julian took off his jacket, draped it over his arm, and loosened his tie as he walked in, smelling of alcohol.

"Natalie, why aren't you asleep yet? What are you looking for in the closet?"

I said nothing, just looking up at him.

Made uneasy by my gaze, Julian pulled a box from behind him. "You said a few days ago you were craving tiramisu from this bakery. I went out of my way to get it for you."

He unpacked the treats one by one, all things I craved during my morning sickness.

"Why the silent treatment?" He stepped forward, reaching out to touch my belly. "Is the little one acting up again?"

I turned aside to avoid his hand and thrust the document from the table toward him. "Sign this."

Just as Julian looked down to read it, the phone in his pocket rang.

The screen lit up with a single name: Brenda.

Julian answered, listened for a couple of seconds, and his expression instantly shifted.

He hung up, without even glancing at the document's contents.

He grabbed a pen, swiftly scrawled his signature at the end, snatched his car keys, and headed for the door.

"Honey, something urgent came up. I have to step out, but I'll be right back."

He brushed a quick kiss against my forehead and dashed out the door.

The roar of the car engine quickly vanished into the night.

"Julian He, it's over."