Chapter 1

"This pregnancy test is fake! You're really going all out to get Hunter, aren't you?"

Hunter's fiancée stomped my pregnancy test report under her heel.

I wanted to argue, but Hunter just had the security guards throw me out.

"It's my boss's big day! Get this fraud out of here, now!"

That same day, I became headline news, subjected to everyone's ridicule.

"Hunter is a billionaire! No way he'd ever look twice at a cheap gold-digger like her!"

"Who even knows whose bastard child that is?"

"She's pulling stunts right in front of his fiancée? She's clearly a professional homewrecker!"

He didn't know it, but everything was about to end.

This baby was the only thing I'd leave behind in this world.

Three days after the scandal broke, Hunter never came to find me again.

He was always like that.

I opened SnapChat, and his profile picture had changed to a wedding photo with Brianna.

Their most recent update was about their engagement ceremony.

At the end of our chat history, there was my desperate plea.

"Hunter, can we talk?"

I tossed and turned all night, thinking, and then spent the entire night vomiting in the bathroom.

I wasn't sure if it was the torment of early pregnancy symptoms or the agony of late-stage stomach cancer.

When I woke up again, Hunter was already sitting on the sofa, quietly watching me crawl weakly out of the bathroom.

"Skylar, you shouldn't cause trouble."

"My marriage to her is for business interests. You're still my woman."

He was terrifyingly calm, dismissing his infidelity in a few words, as if everything was my fault.

After three years together, it felt like I was meeting him for the first time.

Hunter was still wearing his engagement suit, his hair meticulously styled. He looked like a perfect gentleman, but I found him utterly repulsive.

He raised a hand to brush a strand of hair from my forehead, then pulled out a gift box. A delicate, high-end necklace lay inside.

"Alright, that's all over. Just stay by my side, and I can give you anything you want, except marriage."

I suppressed the nausea churning in my stomach, but still dry-heaved violently.

His brow furrowed slightly, a hint of impatience in his eyes.

"Feeling unwell?"

I clutched my stomach, a bitter smile twisting my lips.

"I'm really pregnant."

Hunter pushed me away, his gaze turning sharp.

"Skylar! Don't joke with me like this. We've always been careful. Manipulative women trying to get ahead always pull these kinds of stunts. When did you start playing their games?"

I looked up at him, searching for any trace of the love he once had for me.

Sadly, there was only suspicion in his eyes.

"If you're really unwell, I'll take you to a doctor. Don't lie."

Hunter's phone suddenly rang. The ringtone was Brianna's saccharine hum.

"Hunter, pick up! Your little baby misses you!"

I curled my lip, shaking his hand off.

He put a finger to his lips, signaling me to be quiet, before answering the call.

"Hunter, darling, help me choose a wedding dress! I'm completely overwhelmed."

"Just buy all the ones you like."

After the intimate call ended, only dead silence remained in the air.

That sweet, coquettish tone, that patient expression on his face.

When Hunter and I first got together, those were the words he’d whisper day and night, holding me close.

"Skylar, you're so perfect."

"So perfect that I want to spend my whole life with you, forever, no pressure, no shackles, just a simple life, that's all I want."

"If that person isn't you in the future, then I'll definitely die alone."

Three years later, what I got was him with someone else.

My eyes welled up, and I sank to the floor.

People change.

My voice trembled with a cry, forcing out a smile.

"Just go. Go be with her."

Hunter sighed, then knelt down and pulled me into his arms.

"That's a good girl."

"I've already arranged for a doctor to come check on you. I'll see you in a few days. Don't eat takeout if your stomach is upset, it's not healthy."

The lock clicked shut.

I clutched my lower abdomen, looking at the room that was once filled with tender warmth. Those intimate memories turned into sharp blades, piercing me over and over again.

Hunter had promised me a home, to keep me safe and secure forever.

Every word sincere, filled with genuine emotion.

"If you betray me, may you have a terrible end."

He had agreed.

But I believed him, and now I was scared.

"Never mind. Little Hunter, be safe and sound. I'll pay all the debts for him."

I never thought this day would come so soon…

I called my childhood friend, Dr. Ryan.

"I've made up my mind."