Chapter 3

That day was the company gala.

Paige had been with the firm less than a month when she deliberately tore up a contract worth ten million dollars.

Then she turned around and, in tears, told Nigel it was because she envied me, that she'd destroyed the contract in a fit of anger.

Nigel didn't ask me a single question.

In front of the entire company, hundreds of people, he pointed at my face and called me vicious.

I was so furious I raised my hand and slapped him.

He froze for two seconds, then slapped me back.

The blow landed hard, and my lip split open at once.

Paige came over pretending to help me up, but her hand shoved me, hard.

I lost my footing and fell backward, my hand coming down right on a utility knife lying on the table.

The blade sliced open Paige's arm, and blood welled up instantly.

She screamed, collapsed into Nigel's arms, and wept like a wilting flower.

Nigel's eyes went red. He grabbed the cigarette still burning in his hand and pressed it into the back of mine.

The hiss cut clearly through the silent office.

Flesh scorched, and the pain left me shaking all over.

He stared at me and warned me, word by word:

"You lay another finger on her, and I'll ruin you."

That night, I sat on the couch until morning.

The blister on the back of my hand had burst, oozing pus, the pain boring straight to the bone.

He didn't come home.

The next day, he knelt in front of me and apologized.

His eyes rimmed red, slapping himself again and again.

He said he'd acted on impulse, said I was the only one in his heart.

I didn't believe him, so he held a knife to his own wrist.

He pressed down slightly, and blood beaded up along the cut in an instant.

I thought of how he'd sworn to me seven years ago, lying half-dead in that hospital bed.

And in the end, I softened again.

Thinking back on it now, it's almost laughable.

A soft heart, given to the wrong person, is just a knife you drive into yourself.

Nigel's gaze fell on the back of my hand, and his voice went a little softer:

"I was wrong that day. I already apologized to you. And you cut Paige too, so we're even."

I could have laughed in his face.

"Even?"

"She started it, she pushed me first. Mine was an accident. And you? You did it on purpose."

He frowned, impatient, and reached out to touch my face.

"It's all in the past. Stop clinging to it."

"Paige is pregnant now. She can't handle any stress. Stop giving her trouble from now on. Just be a proper Mrs. Delgado. Would that be so bad?"

I turned my head away from his hand, sick to my stomach.

"And if I insist on giving her trouble?"

His eyes cooled, degree by degree, until he was that cruel man again.

"Alma, don't push me. You know what I'm capable of."

Of course I knew.

He'd built everything from nothing, ruthless, capable of anything.

Before, all that ruthlessness had been aimed at outsiders.

Now it was all pointed at me.

I didn't argue with him anymore. I turned, went into the bedroom, and locked the door behind me.

I rested my hand lightly on my stomach.

There was a small life in there.

I'd meant to surprise him with it on our seventh anniversary.

Now it looked more like a nightmare.

I took out my phone and messaged my lawyer:

"Dig up everything on Paige Fox. And find out exactly how much money Nigel has transferred to her these past six months, how much property he's bought her. Don't miss a single item."

After sending it, I deleted every message that had anything to do with my prenatal checkups.

This child, no one could be allowed to know.

The next morning, I arrived at the conference room right on time.

Nigel was already there, the pressure coming off him frightening.

Paige sat beside him.

Her face pale, the picture of someone too frail to stand.

When she saw me come in, she called out timidly:

"Alma."

I ignored her and tossed a stack of documents onto the table.

"Divorce agreement, plus the plan for dividing the shares. Take a look."

"I hold forty percent of the original stock. The company's appreciated over these years, so by market value, either you pay me in cash or I sell off my shares."

Nigel flipped through two pages, then slammed the documents down. Papers scattered across the floor.

"You really have to take it this far?"

I pulled out a chair and sat down.

"I built this company with you from nothing, went through all the bloodshed of the business world at your side, and now you get another woman pregnant and expect me to walk away with nothing?"

"There's no such thing as that."

Paige's eyes reddened. She stood and bowed to me.

"Alma, it's all my fault. Don't blame Nigel. I can get rid of the baby. I'll leave right away. Please, don't divorce him..."

As she spoke, she started to sway again, looking like she might faint at any second.

Nigel reached out to steady her, and when he turned to me, all that was left in his eyes was ice.

"You won't be satisfied until she's dead?"

I let out a scoff and leaned back in my chair.

"I didn't force her into anything. She chose her own path, and those were her own words."

He got Paige settled, then walked over to me.

"I've said it before. Nigel Delgado doesn't get divorced in this life. He only gets widowed."

"You want to walk out of this home? Only over my dead body."

The words had barely left his mouth when his phone buzzed.

It was a call from a business partner.

He frowned and answered.

Before he left, he shot me a vicious glare.

"You stay put. Touch her once and I won't let it go."

The door closed, and it was just me and Paige left in the conference room.

The woman who'd looked too frail to stand a moment ago dropped the act instantly.

"Alma, you made a bet and you lost. Stop wasting your energy."

I said nothing.

She leaned in closer and murmured:

"You're too domineering. You have to win at everything. What man can stand that? Whatever you did for him seven years ago wore off a long time ago."

"You think he won't divorce you because he loves you? It's because you're capable. You can help him run the company, you can be his free business partner."

"But the softness, the comfort, only I can give him that."

She stroked her stomach, her smile turning smugger.

"Once this baby is born, the position of Mrs. Delgado will be mine sooner or later."

"You? You can just hold on to your empty title and wither into a worn-out old wife."