Chapter 2

Ethan worked quickly, and the investigation report soon appeared on my computer.

I opened it and began reading carefully.

When I saw the name of Claire’s first love, my breathing caught.

I had been thirty-two and Claire twenty-seven when we got married, which meant it was this very year.

But according to the investigation report, she and Marcus Reed had fallen in love when she was twenty.

In other words, she had already been lying to me when we met, claiming she did not have anyone she liked.

If I had known she was already in a relationship, I never would have fallen for her at first sight and pursued her so recklessly.

We had first met at my alma mater.

At the time, I had been invited back as an outstanding alumnus to attend the school’s anniversary celebration.

Claire had been chosen as the outstanding student representative, standing onstage and reading her speech.

Her cool, youthful voice echoed through the auditorium, and all the other sounds around me seemed to disappear until only her voice remained.

That first glimpse had not immediately stirred any romantic thoughts in me.

It was only after I saw her interning at my company that I decided to pursue her.

Although I no longer loved her, I still felt a pang of sadness when I saw those details.

I was not sad because she did not love me.

I was sad for the man I had once been.

Marcus’s love had treated her like a precious jewel, while Adrian Cole’s love had been nothing but a pile of trash.

I took a deep breath, trying to pull myself out of those emotions.

The sadness did not last long.

Especially after I saw the next section of the report, I felt as though I had fallen into an icy abyss.

It said:

“Claire Bennett is more than three months pregnant and is currently staying in the inpatient department of St. Mary’s Hospital. The child registered under the couple’s names is listed as Sophie Bennett.”

Sophie Bennett?

Wasn’t that the name of the child Claire and I had in my previous life?

It felt as though someone had slammed a hammer into my head, and scenes from after my death in my previous life flashed through my mind.

At Claire and Marcus’s wedding, Marcus had announced to everyone that he would treat Sophie as his own and would not neglect her because of me.

My daughter had also cried as she called him Dad, the word flowing from her lips as naturally as though she had been calling him that for decades.

Everyone had praised him again, saying that Marcus was so magnanimous that he could accept even the child left behind by someone like me, unlike a petty man such as myself.

In my previous life, I had wanted a child between Claire and me to tie her to me.

At first, she had been completely unwilling.

Then, one day, she suddenly changed her mind and agreed.

I had always thought I had finally touched her heart.

I never imagined she had wanted something else from me.

No wonder she had become sleepier as her pregnancy progressed, sometimes sleeping through the entire day without waking.

Claire had insisted that I sign the cesarean-section consent form for her.

I thought she was trying to spare me worry and protect the baby, which was why she had said those things.

After the birth, she had remained groggy throughout her recovery.

Claire kept telling me it was a side effect of the pregnancy, and since her health really had deteriorated after that period, I believed her.

I never imagined it.

None of this had been accidental.

It had all been planned.

The child she gave birth to had probably never been ours.

Or perhaps our child had never even survived.

Large tears fell from my eyes, hitting the floor and shattering into countless pieces.

Claire, Claire, did you really have no heart at all?