Chapter 1

On our third wedding anniversary, I opened the birthday gift my husband, Julian Vance, gave me.

It was a photo album.

When I opened it, my heart stopped.

Every single page was filled with explicit photos of him and a younger woman.

When I slammed the album onto his desk and demanded an explanation, Julian just shrugged, completely unfazed.

"I sent it to the wrong person. This was meant for Chloe." He leaned back in his leather chair, a cold smirk playing on his lips. "But since you've found out, I guess there's no point in hiding it anymore."

I didn't cry. I didn't scream. I just looked at him and said, "I want a divorce. And I'm taking Leo with me."

He let out a sharp, mocking laugh.

"Are you trying to threaten me with my own son? Don't worry, Clara. I won't fight you for custody. Chloe is much younger than you. We'll have our own children soon enough."

He stood up, walking past me without a hint of remorse. "But remember this—if you take Leo and walk out that door, don't expect to get a single penny of my money."

When the news broke, my friends all thought I was out of my mind.

I had been married to a billionaire for three years, and now I was leaving with absolutely nothing.

But what they didn't know was that Julian had a severe case of asthenozoospermia.

If I hadn't been one of the top reproductive endocrinologists in the country, he would never have had a child in the first place.

He had ten mistresses before and during our marriage.

Not a single one of them had ever gotten pregnant.

And this pretty little Chloe Miller was not going to be the exception.

Even if we divorced, the sole heir to the multi-billion-dollar Vance empire would only ever be my son, Leo.

Twenty minutes later, the master bedroom door clicked open.

A young girl stepped out, wearing nothing but one of Julian's white button-down shirts.

It was Chloe Miller. She was Julian's newest toy, a college student sponsored by the Vance Family Foundation.

When she saw me sitting in the living room, she froze for a second, but then quickly lifted her chin defiantly.

She posed as if she were already the mistress of this penthouse.

I gave her a polite nod. "Take the back elevator. There are reporters near the lobby."

She bit her lip, glared at me, and hurried away.

Julian walked out next, a bath towel loosely tied around his waist.

He glanced at Leo sleeping in my arms, then at me. A playful, arrogant smirk crept onto his face.

"Well, you're acting very mature today."

I didn't answer. I gently carried Leo back to his crib and tucked him in.

When I walked back out, Julian was lighting a cigarette.

"Clara, if you'd always been this compliant, we wouldn't be here," he said, blowing a cloud of smoke that blurred his handsome face.

Suddenly, my mind drifted back to a night four years ago.

He had stood under my apartment building in the pouring rain, soaking wet, holding a bag of takeout from the late-night diner I loved.

"Dr. Bennett," he had smiled, his eyes shining with a sincerity I had never seen again. "I've been chasing you for three months. Won't you give me a chance?"

Julian's harsh voice snapped me back to reality.

"You haven't forgotten why we got married, right?"

He walked over, his fingers pinching my chin, forcing me to look up. "That night I drank too much and forgot protection. You got lucky. Pregnant on the first try."

He sneered. "The Vance family cares about bloodlines. Otherwise, with your background—a common doctor—how could you have ever married into old money?"

"I know," I said, tilting my head to escape his grip.

His eyes went cold. He pulled his hand back and took another drag of his cigarette.

"Good. Keep being a good Mrs. Vance, take care of our son, and I won't treat you badly. But Clara, don't expect me to be loyal to only one woman."

"Understood," I whispered, keeping my eyes down.

Satisfied, he turned to leave. "Oh, by the way, for my father's birthday gala tomorrow, wear that champagne gown."

The door shut.

I stood in the silence for a long time.

When my legs started to feel numb, I slowly walked back to Leo's crib.

Leo rolled over, his little lips pouting as if he were having a sweet dream.

There were so many things Julian didn't know.

For instance, I was the doctor who personally handled his pre-marital health screening.

I had the highest security clearance in the hospital.

His semen analysis report had clearly stated: Severe asthenozoospermia. The probability of natural conception is virtually zero.

I had quietly deleted that page.

Back then, I loved him so much that I couldn't bear to let his pride be crushed by his own physical defect.

It was only later, when I consulted my former medical mentor, that I realized I possessed an extremely rare hyper-fertile physiology. I was literally one in a million.

Without me, Julian Vance would have been biologically destined to be childless for the rest of his life.

During my pregnancy, I gained twenty pounds. That was when Julian stopped coming home.

The first time I smelled foreign perfume on his collar, I confronted him.

He had shoved me away impatiently. "Clara, can you stop being so hysterical?"

Then came the lipstick marks, the long hairs on his car seat, and eventually, he started bringing women straight to our home.

I used to cry and scream. Until six months ago, when I caught him in our guest bed with another woman.

Julian had slowly pulled on his pants, grabbed my jaw, and said, "Clara, know your place. You're only in this house because your uterus was useful. Other than that, you are nothing."

In that exact moment, something inside me shattered completely.

Since then, I stopped crying. I stopped fighting.

I even started leaving the house whenever he brought someone home.

It wasn't because I accepted my fate.

It was because I finally understood the rules of the game.

I bent down and gently kissed Leo's forehead.

"Don't worry, sweetheart," I whispered, my voice as soft as a sigh. "Everything in the Vance family will belong to us sooner or later."