Chapter 1

At eight months pregnant, Duncan Gilbert gave me a necklace and fastened it around my neck with his own hands.

I couldn't stop touching it, and for once I felt like taking a selfie.

Duncan watched me edit the photo, then said, almost idly,

"Doesn't it get boring? Lying to yourself like this."

My hands went still.

He pointed at the slimmed-down version of me on the screen.

"Hair falling out, all puffy, and those dark blotches on your face."

"You've got that pregnant look all over you. No matter how much you edit, you'll never look as good as a young girl's raw, unfiltered photo."

I gripped the phone tighter.

I thought of the press-on nail I'd found in his coat pocket the night before, while doing laundry.

Last week he said he was working late, so I went to bring soup to the office, and the front desk told me he'd left at six.

Last month he was late to the prenatal checkup, and when he finally rushed in, there was a faint, sweet fruity scent clinging to his collar.

So it wasn't just pregnancy making me paranoid.

I closed the editing app. My voice was calm.

"Who is she, this young girl?"

He blinked, then let out a soft laugh.

"Don't they say pregnancy makes you slow for three years? You're still as sharp as ever."

"She's an intern at the company."

"She's thin-skinned, so don't go giving her a hard time."

His fingertips brushed the necklace at my throat.

"As long as you behave, I'll never let anyone take your place as Mrs. Gilbert."

The baby kicked me from inside.

I stroked my belly gently and lowered my eyes.

"I understand."

...

I unfastened the necklace from my neck and dropped it into the bottom of the drawer.

Just like that, I didn't like it so much anymore.

Duncan went quiet for a moment, then a soft laugh echoed through the bedroom.

"Angry? Because I said you don't look good?"

"I'm just being honest. If you finish editing and then see how far off it is from the real you, you'll only feel worse."

"As for that girl, don't worry. You'll always come first in my heart."

"Let's sleep." I turned off the light and lay down on the bed.

He turned it back on, exasperated. "Marianne Matthews, get up and soak your feet before you sleep."

I pulled the blanket over my head.

He sighed, and in the end he lay back down too.

Tears soaked into the pillow soon enough, and my eyelids grew heavier and heavier.

The next thing I knew, my calf seized up in a hard cramp.

Duncan heard me cry out in pain and sat up at once.

He pulled my calf toward him with practiced ease and began to massage it.

"I told you to soak your feet and you wouldn't listen. Cramping again, aren't you."

His head was down, his voice rough with sleep, but his hands were gentle.

My calf had been knotted tight as stone, and slowly the aching eased.

I looked at the top of his head, and my nose stung.

"If she got pregnant, would you be this good to her too?"

His hand paused. His voice came low.

"Don't overthink it. I won't let her get pregnant."

He slipped a calf sock onto my leg so I wouldn't get cold and cramp again.

He patted my shoulder lightly. "Sleep now."

When I woke the next morning, Duncan had already left for the office.

On the dining table, as always, was the pregnancy breakfast he'd made.

I bit into a piece of French toast. It tasted like wax.

I opened my phone and messaged Florence Walker, a woman at the company.

【What's the deal with that intern of Duncan's?】

She replied with an exclamation mark.

【If you'd waited any longer to ask, I was about to come find you.】

It turned out Duncan and that intern had been an open secret at the company for a long time.

Before meetings, she'd straighten his tie in front of everyone, like no one else was there.

During lunch breaks, he'd keep her in his office to eat with him, and through the door left ajar the staff could see him doting on her, eating whatever she fed him.

At work dinners, he'd take her drinks for her, laughing as he smoothed things over. "She just graduated, she can't handle that much."

I listened to one long voice message after another, and my heart went cold.

The last thing she sent was a photo.

It was a full set of high-end pearl jewelry.

Necklace, bracelet, ring, earrings, all matching, the pearls fine and warm with luster.

【It was her birthday yesterday. Mr. Gilbert threw her a celebration at the office and gave it to her in front of everyone.】

I stared at the photo for a long time.

Then I got up, went back to the bedroom, and dug out the necklace he'd given me the day before.

Same design style, same setting.

Only my pearls were smaller, their shine duller.

So his sudden gift of a necklace wasn't him finally coming to his senses.

It was that after giving her a whole expensive set, he'd pulled a single freebie off the top and tossed it to me like charity.

【Marianne, come by the office and see us. Those of us who've been here from the start miss you too.】

I turned off the phone and sat down at the vanity.

The woman in the mirror looked dull and worn.

The symptoms of pregnancy had worn me down until I had no heart for grooming, and it had been a long time since I'd paid any attention to how I looked.

Every day I wore loose maternity clothes, hair tied back any old way, no energy even for toner and lotion on my face.

I'd struggled with it too, and it was Duncan who held me and murmured softly,

"However you change, you're just as beautiful to me."

In the space of a few short months, his verdict on me had become "hair falling out, all puffy, dark blotches" and "that pregnant look all over you."

I dug out the makeup gathering dust in the corner.

Half an hour later, I finished my lipstick, pressed my lips together in front of the mirror, and it was as if I saw the old me again.

I went out and took a cab to the office.

On the way, I messaged the lawyer.

"May I ask, for a divorce during pregnancy, what do I need to prepare?"

They replied:

"If the husband is at fault, I'd advise against tipping him off. Quietly hold on to any relevant evidence."