Chapter 3

With trembling hands, I found a prenatal scan report deep inside Asher’s safe.

This safe held his most treasured possessions.

The last thing placed inside had been our marriage certificate.

The report sent to my grandma’s phone was from an anonymous number.

Scrolling up, there was another message:

“The kidnapping was my doing. If your daughter hadn’t been so foolishly kind, she wouldn’t have fallen for it. I never imagined their relationship would be so fragile; Asher already finds her disgusting. Your granddaughter will end up just like your daughter—a pathetic woman abandoned by her man.”

Grandma always taught me to be kind.

So when I met Seraphina, who had been persecuted for so long and suffered from severe depression, I believed her.

She pleaded with me to save her, to not call the police, claiming it would ruin her future.

I agreed.

Neither Grandma nor I ever imagined that my kindness would drag me into hell.

When Asher married me, he knelt before my mother’s tombstone and swore an oath: never to betray me.

But that vow had finally been worn away by reality.

I dry-heaved, spitting out streaks of blood, unable to stand any longer. My vision went completely black.

When I next opened my eyes, Asher was wiping my face.

Seeing me awake, he immediately pulled his hand back, a strained smile on his lips.

“The moment I leave, you turn yourself into this. Are you only happy if you force me to constantly revolve around you? What is this, you despise me, but can’t live without me?”

Asher looked exhausted.

“Tomorrow, the family estate is hosting a party. I’m begging you, just for my sake, don’t throw up. Don’t let anyone laugh at me for being useless again.”

This was the first time in years Asher had begged me.

Seeing the few strands of gray already sprouting at his temples, my heart ached.

Soon.

Once I leave, your life will return to its original path.

When I appeared, clinging to Asher’s arm, a ripple of surprised whispers went through the room.

“Her inability to touch men… it’s finally gone?”

Asher’s expression finally relaxed a little.

But in the very next second, I uncontrollably bent over and started dry-heaving.

Seraphina walked past, innocently holding a basin of raw chicken blood.

“Oh, don’t get the wrong idea, everyone. Iris probably just threw up from the smell of blood. It has nothing to do with Asher.”

After being pregnant and then witnessing Grandma die right in front of me, I truly couldn’t stand the slightest whiff of blood.

But no one believed Seraphina’s explanation.

“Who throws up just from smelling blood? Her illness clearly isn’t cured. She held it in for so long, but she’s still disgusted by Asher.”

Asher flung my hand away, his eyes filled with disappointment.

“If you’re so disgusted, then stay away from me.”

Asher pulled Seraphina closer.

Seraphina was dressed head to toe in designer clothes, nurtured and pampered into delicate beauty.

There was no trace left of her former gloomy, cowering self.

Meanwhile, I was pale and thin, hiding in a corner, vomiting in a pathetic heap, avoided by everyone around me.

“They look so perfect together. Seraphina is a truly good woman. She overcame her trauma on her own and found happiness.”

“That’s the kind of woman Asher deserves. Not the other one, who’s still half-dead.”

The quiet murmurs drifted into my ears, but Asher made no move to refute them.

The whispers exploded when Seraphina flashed the diamond ring on her hand.

My pupils contracted, my gaze fixed on her ring finger in disbelief.

“Iris lost too much weight, so it didn’t fit her anymore. Asher just gave it to me instead. Don’t misunderstand, he hasn’t proposed yet.” Seraphina giggled as she explained.

After I lost over ten pounds, Asher had taken off my wedding ring. He’d carefully put it away.

“When you’re better, we’ll wear it together again.”

But now, that diamond ring, symbolizing eternity, gleamed on Seraphina’s hand, its dazzling light stabbing at my eyes.

She covered her mouth, mocking me.

“You couldn’t keep your family, and you can’t keep your husband. Iris, your life is truly a failure.”

Not wanting to cause any more commotion, I leaned on the sink, pretending not to hear her words.

But Seraphina lowered her voice, leaning close to my ear.

“Tell me, if your grandma in heaven saw you and your mom, both abandoned women that nobody wants, would she be so angry she’d come back to life?”

I lunged, my hands clamping around her throat.

The next second, a fierce shove sent me reeling. Asher flung me aside, and I slammed into the wall.

“What are you doing to Seraphina?”

My phone suddenly rang. It was the funeral home.

I ignored the crippling pain in my body and answered.

“Ms. Jiang, your grandmother’s and mother’s ashes have been picked up by a woman.”