Chapter 3

Bella Hayes POV

Early the next morning, Grace Carter came to the villa with her slightly visible baby bump.

She wore a pitiful white dress, and the moment she came in and saw me, her eyes reddened. “I came to see Bella Hayes. If Eric Foster hadn’t gotten into that accident trying to save Evan, the Foster family wouldn’t have ended up like this...”

With a single sentence, she put all the blame for Evan’s “death” on me.

“Eric Foster” walked out of the study. The first thing he looked at wasn’t me, but Grace Carter’s belly.

“Didn’t I tell you to stay home and rest during the pregnancy? Why did you come all the way here?”

Grace Carter bit her lip and leaned weakly against him, as if she had no bones. “I dreamed about Eric Foster... I was afraid Bella Hayes might do something reckless, and I was also afraid that once the baby is born, there won’t be a father to love them. I’m scared...”

“Eric Foster” held her and comforted her gently. “Don’t be afraid. I’m here.”

“Grace Carter, don’t worry. I won’t let anyone hurt you, and I won’t let anyone hurt the child.”

Grace Carter leaned softly in his arms, her eyes filled with dependence and trust. “You’re so good to me. I want to be with you forever.”

I stood on the staircase, coldly watching this adulterous pair compete in their acting.

All I felt was a wave of nausea rising in my throat.

If, before today, I had still held even the tiniest expectation for Evan, then today, every last bit of that expectation had been ground into sand.

I had completely, utterly given up.

I would never have the slightest fantasy about him again.

This person was no longer the Evan Foster who had once loved me.

Or perhaps I couldn’t even be sure whether Evan Foster had ever felt even the slightest love for me back then.

“You call him Eric Foster so smoothly,” I said, slowly walking down the stairs and looking at Grace Carter with a half-smile.

Grace Carter’s face went pale. In panic, she grabbed “Eric Foster’s” sleeve. “Bella Hayes, what do you mean by that?”

“Eric Foster” immediately frowned and stepped in front of Grace Carter. “Bella Hayes, Grace can’t handle any shock. Watch what you say.”

I looked at his protective stance and only found it absurd. “It was just an offhand comment. Why are you two so nervous?”

Grace Carter lowered her eyes and timidly changed the subject. “Bella Hayes, tonight is the anniversary of the day Eric Foster and I originally set our wedding date. I want to ask you for one thing. At tonight’s family dinner with the elders, could you please not mention trying to jump off the cliff again? Grandpa and Grandma can’t handle the shock.”

“Eric Foster” immediately chimed in as well. “That’s right, Bella Hayes. You should come sit with everyone tonight too. This family can’t keep being weighed down by your depression.”

Depression.

He faked his death, and I was destroyed by grief for him. In the end, it somehow became my sin in this family?

I looked at Grace Carter’s face, wearing that manipulative innocent act to the extreme, and suddenly laughed. “Sure. I’ll be at tonight’s anniversary dinner on time.”

I wanted to see with my own eyes just how far Evan Foster would trample the Foster family’s dignity into the mud for this woman.