Chapter 1

Stanley Sanchez, one of the most powerful men in Harbor City, became obsessed with a college student who sold homemade detox smoothies from a roadside stand. He spent a fortune bringing her into our home as my personal nutritionist.

Then the two of them made a bet over the baby growing inside me.

Cindy put me on an all-liquid “cleanse,” allowing me nothing but her homemade green smoothies three times a day.

“I promise you, Stanley. As long as your wife follows every instruction I give her, she’ll deliver a big, healthy baby boy.”

From that day on, every household and medical expense had to be submitted to Cindy for approval—from a three-dollar carton of eggs, a six-dollar tub of Greek yogurt, twenty-three dollars for prenatal vitamins, even the hundred-and-eighty-dollar ultrasound my doctor said I needed.

She rejected every request as “nonessential.”

Over the next three years, I became pregnant six times. Malnutrition cost me every one of those pregnancies.

When I became pregnant for the seventh time, Cindy crowed, “You’re going to lose this bet, Stanley! Once your wife gives you that big, healthy boy, you’ll finally have to let me go.”

This time, when I started bleeding heavily, I called Stanley and begged him to take me to the hospital.

Cindy merely frowned.

“Teresa, one trip in that car costs eighty dollars in gas. Do you know how many hungry children that could feed? You’re only making a scene because you want Stanley to worry about you, aren’t you?”

I pleaded with him again and again.

Stanley hung up on me.

“Cindy speaks for me. Stop testing my patience, or I’ll replace you as my wife whenever I please.”

Then he turned around and bought Cindy thirty million dollars’ worth of jewelry to placate her.

That night, I lost our seventh child.

Not long afterward, I overheard Stanley speaking to someone.

“You know Teresa has been severely malnourished for years,” the man said. “There’s no chance she can carry a healthy baby to term. Why are you still letting Cindy control everything in your home?”

Stanley was silent for a moment.

“Because I want Cindy to stay with me. Even one more day is worth the price.”

“This was the last time I was going to put Teresa through it.”

Only then did I understand.

The seven children I had lost were never accidents.

They had all been sacrifices laid at the altar of Stanley and Cindy’s love.

……

The blood drained from my face, and the pain in my heart nearly knocked me off my feet.

I called my mother. "Mom, I want to divorce Stanley."

My mother only froze for a second, then asked me in a fluster, "What's wrong with our darling Teresa? Did Stanley hurt you?"

Back when I got pregnant, my mother had been overjoyed, certain she'd finally get to hold a grandchild. She knew how much I'd loved Stanley all these years, and she was sure the two of us would make it to the end together.

In that moment, my tears fell like rain. "Mom, it's nothing. I'm just tired. Let's go abroad."

The dull ache in my lower belly hadn't stopped.

Seven years. Seven children.

My mother-in-law had mocked me as a hen that couldn't lay an egg. The people in the Capital elite circle had joked that I was a miscarriage machine.

"Teresa's been with Stanley for seven years and miscarries every single time. Who knows if she's been sleeping around out there and messed herself up so badly she can't have a baby?"

The first time I miscarried, I cried until I nearly passed out, apologizing to Stanley again and again. "I'm sorry, it's my fault, I'm useless, I couldn't keep the baby."

Stanley had gripped my hand and comforted me. "It's all right. As long as you're okay, nothing else matters."

The second time, the third time, the corners of his mouth lifted a little higher each time.

Only now do I understand that his excitement back then was never for the little life growing inside me.

It was because he had another child to use as a stake, to gamble that spending every day with Cindy would make her fall in love with him!

Stanley, how could your heart be so cruel!

I hung up the phone.

Cradling my aching belly, I meant to go back to my room, but in the hallway I ran into Stanley and Cindy again.

"What are you doing here?"

Stanley's face changed in an instant, disgust in his eyes as he looked at me.

"Are you following me?"

"It has nothing to do with you."

A whole day and night.

He never once asked whether my belly still hurt, whether I was all right. He only interrogated me.