Chapter 1

It was only after I married Sebastian Sever that I learned his ex-wife hadn't just taken away custody of his daughter.

She'd also walked off with a promise from him.

Every season, he had to spend half a month on a family trip with the two of them, mother and daughter, with the ex-wife deciding the time and the place.

So on the day of our honeymoon, I was left alone on the plane.

For three years running, our wedding anniversary always ended with me stood up.

Until his daughter mailed me a prank gift that frightened me so badly I tumbled down the stairs.

The fall caused an on-the-spot miscarriage with heavy bleeding, and they needed to reach a family member to sign off on surgery.

But it took more than a dozen calls before Sebastian finally picked up.

His voice was tired and impatient.

"Shelagh Cooley, you're so jealous now that you've learned to lie and sling mud at my little girl?"

"Today is the first day of the fall family trip. There's no way I'm leaving the two of them to come back and keep you company."

"Oh, and tomorrow you go get your tubes tied. I promised her mother I'd only ever have one child, and that's Nina Abbott."

So it turned out that even if I hadn't miscarried.

He'd never intended to keep the child in my belly at all.

I hung up calmly and signed the surgery consent form myself.

Since he couldn't let go of his ex-wife and their daughter.

Then the title of Mrs. Sebastian was one I'd simply hand back.

...

Three days after the surgery, Sebastian and the others came home unexpectedly early.

I was sitting at the dining table, drinking the nourishing soup Sara Lambert, the housekeeper, had made for me.

Tania Pruitt smiled at him, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

"What did I tell you? Even with you gone, she wasn't about to go without. I've seen plenty of these little-girl jealousy tricks."

"To think you and Nina were actually scared something had happened to her and insisted on rushing back to check. Well, I don't care. We agreed on half a month, and we're still thirteen days short."

"You owe me those. Let's leave next Wednesday. I want to go skiing in Switzerland."

Sebastian said flatly, "Understood."

Instinctively, I glanced at the calendar on the wall.

That day was our fourth wedding anniversary. Sebastian had promised he'd spend this one with me.

It looked like he was about to break his word again.

Tania shot Sebastian a look, as if prompting him about something.

Sebastian asked me, resigned.

"Shelagh, did you get the tubal surgery done?"

That was the first thing he said to me the moment he walked in, and even the way he addressed me had changed.

Because one time when Tania came to pick up Nina, she'd heard him call me 'Shellie,' and she'd made a scene right then.

Her face wounded and furious.

"Sebastian, if you want to flaunt your love with your sweet young wife, could you at least pick your moments?"

"Being this affectionate in front of my daughter, are you trying to make her think her own mother is a failure?! Have you ever once considered how I feel?!"

So from that day on, whenever she was around.

Sebastian always called me by my full name, but with Tania.

He still fondly called her 'Tan.'

I said calmly.

"No. And there's no need for it anymore.

That hemorrhage surgery didn't just take the two-month-old fetus.

It also took my womb."

Tania's face fell at once, and Sebastian's brow furrowed too.

He caught sight of the box on the chair.

Inside sat that 3D doll, its features bloody and horrifying, and unnervingly lifelike.

"Why would you bring something like that into the house? Aren't you terrified of these things?"

I looked at Nina, who had been quiet and withdrawn from the moment she stepped in.

Yet kept sneaking cautious little glances at my belly. Without any expression, I said.

"You'll have to ask your daughter about that."

Nina tensed and instinctively looked at Tania.

At once Tania jabbed a finger in my face and snapped.

"Shelagh, have you no shame? A grown woman like you, slinging mud at a child?"