Chapter 1

To be with my college sweetheart, I hid my identity as an heiress to a multibillion-dollar empire.

For three years, I lived in poverty beside him, eating cheap takeout in a moldy apartment. Yet he stood by and let his mother beat me until I suffered a miscarriage.

Worse, he blamed me for contributing nothing to his career, declared I wasn’t good enough for him, and ordered me to pack my bags and get out of the run-down rental he supposedly paid for.

Three years of devotion turned into a sick joke.

He looked at me with pure disgust and screamed at me to get lost. At that moment, my heart finally died.

I must have lost my mind. Why had I given up a life of luxury just to rot in the gutter with a parasite?

Fine. I took his advice and got lost without looking back.

While I was lounging in my multi-million-dollar estate, living my absolute best life, he showed up on his knees, begging me to take him back.

I was a victim of domestic abuse.

Right now, I lay in a hospital bed, staring blankly at the ceiling, overwhelmed by humiliation and rage.

The door pushed open. I glanced over. It was Tyler.

He looked at me in the bed and scratched his head in irritation.

"Cry, cry, cry. That’s all you ever do! Don’t you ever get tired of it? My mom broke her back raising me and putting me through college. She suffered her whole life. So she criticized you a little—couldn't you just suck it up? Can’t you even manage that much?"

There was no comforting embrace. No apology. Only deep annoyance and blame etched across his face.

After venting, he asked with total impatience, "Is the baby still there?"

Tyler and I had been together for three years, transitioning from college into the real world. He had decent looks, but he was dirt-poor, hypersensitive, and hated the rich. Yet he used to treat me so well. To stay with him, I hid my wealthy background and lived a penny-pinching life with him in a tiny apartment.

Never could I have imagined that bringing his mother from the countryside to live with us would completely destroy our lives.

Just like now. My eyes were swollen, my face bruised. My baby was gone, an IV needle stuck in the back of my hand. Yet his eyes showed not a flicker of remorse.

"It's gone," I choked out, fighting through the lump in my throat before losing control and bursting into tears.

Tyler froze.

Then, a vicious slap cracked across my face. My head spun, my ears ringing violently.

Before I could even process the pain, Tyler completely snapped, screaming at the top of his lungs.

"You worthless bitch! You killed my son! You couldn't even keep a baby safe—why don't you just go die instead?!"

He glared at me with bloodshot eyes, his expression twisted with malice. He wasn't looking at the woman he loved; he was looking at his worst enemy.

My cheek burned like fire, but my entire body felt frozen.

I stared at him in a daze.

His lips kept moving, throwing out endless insults.

He looked the same, yet entirely unrecognizable.

"Sir, please calm down! This is a hospital..."

A nurse rushed in, alerted by the commotion, and pulled Tyler away.

"Chloe, you wait and see! Just wait till we get home, I'll teach you a lesson!"

"You destroyed my family's legacy! Ten of your pathetic lives wouldn't be enough to repay this! You're a criminal to my family!"

His furious roars echoed down the corridor, filled with vile curses. Surrounding patients and visitors turned to stare. I felt their eyes burning into me, drowning in shame and embarrassment.

Tyler had never been like this before. He had a temper, sure, but he had never spoken so harshly to me, let alone screamed profanities in public like a rabid dog.

Ever since his mother moved in from her small hometown, the three of us had been crammed under one roof. At first, she was polite enough. But gradually, her attitude shifted. She began nitpicking and making my life miserable. For Tyler's sake, not wanting to put him in an awkward position, I endured it all.

Yet my silence only fueled her cruelty.

This morning, I cooked dinner, and she claimed it tasted terrible, demanding I redo it. I pushed back with a few words, and she attacked me. She was a heavy, burly woman, and when she swung her fists, she was like a maniac. I stood no chance.

And she had known full well that I was carrying Tyler's child.