Chapter 1

Prologue

I was once the woman Zachary Shaw cherished above all else.

When I was twenty, I was kidnapped. He spent three days searching for me without eating or drinking before rescuing me from the remote hills. Everyone thought I would be the only woman he ever loved.

Until Vivian Sullivan came along.

To make her smile, he nearly died in an underground fight club. To punish me on her behalf, he poured scalding water over my shoulder with his own hands, forced me to kneel and apologize, and even had my skin forcibly grafted onto her.

What he didn't know was that I was already carrying his child.

Only after losing the baby did I finally see where his heart truly lay.

Since he loved Vivian so much, I would let them have each other.

The man I would get engaged to in a month would no longer be Zachary. It would be the Shaws family's eldest son, who was in a coma—Raymond Shaw.

Pearle's POV

Everyone in New York knew I was the woman Zachary Shaw loved, whom no one dared hurt, a flower he cradled in his hands and carefully tended. When I was kidnapped at twenty, even my own parents thought I wouldn't make it back alive. Even the police believed there was little hope.

But Zachary spent three whole days without eating or drinking, searching the remote hills alone until he found where the kidnappers were holding me.

Yet just as our engagement ceremony was drawing near, a girl appeared by Zachary's side.

On the first day she appeared, Zachary nearly got himself killed in an underground fight club.

All to win her a necklace. All to make her smile.

On the seventh day after she appeared, I reported Zachary missing to the police.

In the end, I found him in a hotel bed after he had been missing for five days.

And lying in his arms was that very girl.

On the twentieth day after she appeared, Zachary brought her home—to the house he had always called our home.

Suddenly, the people who had been watching the drama unfold and telling me not to worry all fell silent.

Because no one had imagined that Zachary, who had once treasured me as much as his own life, would actually bring that woman home.

When he was younger, Zachary had been something of a womanizer. Even when we first got together, he hadn't entirely reined himself in.

Back then, a woman had shown up at our door to flaunt her relationship with him in my face.

By the next day, every trace of her had vanished, as though she had disappeared from the face of the earth.

After that, everyone understood that my place in Zachary's heart was different.

I was at the office when I heard the news. I immediately drove home as fast as I could.

The moment I stepped through the door, I froze. At last, my composed expression cracked.

In the living room, Zachary was on top of a woman.

Their clothes were half off, and the sounds of their intimacy kept reaching my ears.

I drew a deep breath and looked around, my gaze settling on the kettle on the table.

I walked straight over, picked it up, and flung the water at them.

"Ahhh!"

The water in the kettle seemed to have been boiled recently. It was still scalding hot.

Zachary realized it too and immediately shielded the woman.

My grip on the kettle tightened. It felt as though an invisible hand had clenched around my heart.

I hadn't realized he cared about her this much.

"Are you okay, Vivian? Are you hurt?"

His voice was overflowing with concern.

But the more he cared about her, the more it hurt.

Because the way he fussed over that woman looked exactly like the way he used to care for me.

Vivian Sullivan shook her head, clinging tightly to his arm.

"I'm fine. But you... Does it hurt?"

Watching them, I let out a cold laugh.

"Stop putting on this disgusting little show in front of me. Get out!"

Vivian's face turned several shades paler.

Zachary stood in front of her, looking down at me as he said coldly:

"Apologize."

My nails dug deep into my palms, but I couldn't seem to feel any pain.

Through gritted teeth, I said coldly:

"Not a chance."

With that, I turned and went straight upstairs.

The moment I shut the door, I could no longer hold back my tears.

I had never known Zachary could be so gentle with another woman.

He was my boyfriend.

He had done that with another woman, yet he wanted me to apologize.

Why did I have to see this today, of all days?

Why did they have to do that in this house?

Slowly, I pulled a sheet of paper from my pocket. I had clutched it so tightly that it was crumpled.

But the words were still clear: eight weeks pregnant.

I knew Zachary had been getting close to this woman named Vivian Sullivan lately. I had looked into her in secret.

Before she got together with Zachary, she had been nothing more than a woman with a middle school education who worked at a bar.

I had thought he would come back once he'd had his fun.

Even if he wasn't ready to come back to our life together yet, surely seeing this medical report would bring him home.

But I had never imagined he would do something so filthy with that woman in our house, then go to such lengths to protect her.

I collapsed onto the bed, clutching the medical report as my tears kept falling, soaking the pillow.

In my daze, I felt a powerful force dragging me out.

As my senses slowly returned, I was thrown to the floor. Zachary's cold face appeared before me.

"What are you doing?"

I struggled to get the words out.

Zachary said nothing. He simply reached out and pulled my clothes down off my shoulder.

I tried to fight back, but he was far too strong.

"The water burned her today. It'll probably leave a scar on her shoulder."

I froze for a moment, then laughed.

"So? What are you going to do now? Pour boiling water over me?"

Zachary stared at me without speaking.

After a long while, he let out a soft sigh.

"Why did you have to treat her like that? I promise you, no matter what I do with her, I'll still get engaged to you in a month."

Then his voice turned cold.

"But you have to apologize to her for what happened today."

Before I could react, a searing pain shot through my shoulder.

Steaming water poured over it.

But what I hadn't expected was that Zachary would also make me kneel and apologize to Vivian.

The agonizing pain in my shoulder made me break out in a cold sweat.

I swallowed my cry of pain and forced the words out between ragged breaths.

"Zachary... I'm not... apologizing to her!"

Zachary's expression darkened. He crouched and seized my chin.

"Think about your family's company. Think about your parents. Now answer me. Are you going to apologize or not?"

I felt as though I'd been struck by lightning. I stared at him in disbelief.

"You know exactly what matters most to me, and you're still using my parents to threaten me?"

A complicated emotion flickered in his eyes, and his tone softened a little.

"Vivian isn't like you. She never had a good life growing up. You were spoiled and pampered from the day you were born. You have so much. Why do you have to hold everything against her?"

"So I have to give her my man too?"

Zachary paused.

"I told you, no matter what I do this month, that won't change who my fiancée is. You'll always be the woman I marry."

I closed my eyes.

When I opened them again, there was nothing in them but numb despair.

"Fine. I'll apologize."

I was held down on my knees. The moment I apologized, I heard my own heart shatter.

Once the video was recorded, Zachary nodded in satisfaction.

Looking at the smile on his lips, I felt a terrible ache deep inside.

I had thought that would be the end of this farce.

But the next day, Zachary's men tied me up and took me to the hospital.

Without even looking at me, Zachary ordered them to take me into the operating room.

I had no idea what was happening. Panic was written all over my face.

The cold operating table. The glaring surgical lights. The expressionless doctor. The needle gleaming coldly.

I looked at everything before me in confusion.

Before I lost consciousness, I heard Zachary say, "Vivian is upset about the scar on her shoulder. Give her a skin graft using your skin."

When I woke again, all I could see was a white ceiling. Someone slowly helped me sit up.

But it wasn't Zachary. It was a close friend of his.

"You're awake. I... I'll go get the doctor!"

He left in such a hurry that he forgot his phone on the chair.

A notification sounded. With some difficulty, I reached over and picked up the phone.

"Zachary, what's going on with you and that Vivian Sullivan? Are you really giving up on Pearle Foster? Your engagement is only a month away..."

"I never said I was giving her up. But I've honestly never met anyone like Vivian. She's sweeter and more innocent than any woman I've ever met.

Every time I see her, I can't help being drawn to her."

"What about Pearle, then?"

"Don't worry. Her family's company still needs financial backing from mine. She won't leave me."

The moment I read those words, my grip on the phone tightened until my knuckles turned white.

A flash of self-mockery crossed my eyes as countless emotions swept through me.

Unease, doubt, and sorrow finally gave way to a calm resolve.

I took out my phone and called Zachary Shaw’s mother, Yvette Thorne.

“Mrs. Thorne, I don’t want to marry Zachary Shaw anymore.”

The person on the other end seemed to say something anxiously.

I gave a faint laugh and spoke softly.

“No, I’m not saying I won’t marry into the Shaws family. I just want to marry someone else.”

“I want to marry Zachary’s older brother, Raymond Shaw.”