Chapter 1

After seven years of a long-distance marriage with River Dustin, I finally got pregnant.

I quit my job and went downstairs to his company building, planning to surprise him.

"Honey, where are you?" Seeing him come out, I called out excitedly.

"Just got off work. What's up?" His voice was warm.

I was about to wave when I saw a pregnant woman walking out behind him.

He turned, pulled her into his arms, and kissed her on the mouth.

Then he said into the phone.

"Something came up. I'll call you back."

The line went dead.

I stood in the cold wind, tears streaming down my face, falling onto the pregnancy test report in my hand.

My blood pressure spiked.

My vision went black, and my exhausted body drifted down like a leaf.

Before I lost consciousness completely, I thought I heard a woman's startled cry. I barely caught the shock and panic on River's face.

When I woke, I was in the hospital.

River sat on a sofa across the room, staring intently at a report in his hands.

Dressed in a suit. Polished. Refined.

Nothing like the low-level office worker he'd pretended to be.

Seeing me open my eyes, the woman enthusiastically approached me.

"You're awake! I'm Summer Fields. You fainted from low blood sugar last night."

"The doctor said you just got pregnant, and your condition is very unstable. You can't run around alone."

"Where's your husband? Why isn't he with you?"

The woman's voice was sweet, with an unconscious lilt.

She was clearly already pregnant, yet she still radiated the aura of an innocent girl who knew nothing of the world.

I could tell she'd been very well taken care of.

Worlds apart from me, who haggled loudly with vendors at the farmers market over a few cents.

"He's dead."

Dead in my heart.

Dead the moment I saw the truth.

As soon as I spoke, a burning gaze shot toward me from across the room.

I stubbornly and silently turned my head away. I didn't want to look pitiful, but my eyes still reddened despite myself.

"Oh no, don't cry! You just got pregnant, you need to take good care of yourself!"

"River said that when you're pregnant, you can't cry, can't get angry, can't do housework, and also can't..."

Summer bit her blood-red lips, trying hard to remember, and finally had to turn to River for help.

"Honey, I forgot...what else am I not allowed to do?"

That word made my chest tighten.

Something flickered in River's eyes, just briefly. Then his expression softened into that familiar, doting look he saved for Summer.

"Silly. You also can't eat crab, can't get cold, and definitely no coffee every day."

"What! I don't even drink coffee. I'm a milk tea girl!"

Summer wrinkled her nose and hummed coquettishly, blaming River for forgetting her preferences.

But I understood.

That last sentence was actually meant for me.

After all, I loved gulping down cup after cup of coffee when pulling all-nighters on reports, just so I could get ahead faster and transfer to the city where he was.

But now it seemed that all that desperate effort and struggle was just a joke.

Even this kind of casual concern came as an afterthought while he was loving another woman.

My chest ached unbearably. I just wanted to leave as quickly as possible. I threw back the covers to get out of bed.

River's body moved, but ultimately he didn't stand up.

Instead, it was Summer who hurried over to stop me.

"Where are you going? You're not worried about the money because this is a VIP room, are you?"

"Don't worry, my husband is the richest man in New York. This little bit of money is nothing to him."