Chapter 2

"So what if that dream is real?"

"You and your mother are about to be thrown out on the street. You can't even save yourselves. What makes you think you can come after me?"

Ada jumped in right behind him.

Her eyes turned vicious as she looked at me.

"Ivy Swanson, I'm the real heiress of this family. I'm your father's real daughter!"

"You stole twenty-five years of the happy life that should've been mine, and it's time you gave it all back, Tristan included!"

"Let me spell it out for you. You're the mistress who came between us!"

My brows drew together. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Ada wore a smug look.

"Tristan and I have been lovers for three years now."

"If you hadn't forced your way in and taken him, the two of us would already have a kid old enough to run errands!"

Something heavy pressed down on my chest, a dull, suffocating weight.

No wonder he'd been out all night, over and over these three years.

No wonder every time he came home late, there was an unfamiliar perfume clinging to him.

Back then I was lost in the fantasy of being in love.

I never let myself think about it too hard.

Looking back now, I really had been slow. I never once realized the man beside my pillow was also warming someone else's bed.

I already knew, plainly, that Tristan was rotten to the core.

And still, humiliatingly, my eyes went red.

Three years of feeling.

I couldn't switch off from him in a single instant.

This time, Tristan didn't gently wipe my tears away the way he always used to.

"Enough! What are you crying for? I'm not going to coax you like before."

He held Ada against him, softly stroking her belly.

Then he gave me his order.

"I know you love me more than your own life. So here's the deal. Serve as Ada's maid, wait on her properly until she gives birth, and I'll go easy and stay married to you. I won't even tell your father about your mother's affair."

My face stiffened.

I'd once told Tristan I wanted a child of our own.

He'd said, "Having a baby would ruin your figure. I only want you beautiful."

He'd said it was precisely because he loved me so much that he couldn't bear to put me through the pain of childbirth.

Only in this moment did it finally hit me.

He simply never wanted to have a child with me. That was all.

Once I'd gotten myself back under control, I shot back at him, sour and sharp.

"I was born to be honored, never to be a servant."

"Tristan, telling my father won't do a thing. The ones getting thrown out will be the two of you."

"Because in this house, my mother is the one in charge."

The pair across from me froze for a second.

Then they burst out laughing.

"Oh, please, Ivy Swanson. If you're going to lie, at least use your head."

"Your family's company is run by your father. Your mother's just a woman. How could she possibly build a company?"

But my father was nothing more than a secretary running errands for my mother.

My mother was the real boss behind it all.

"Tristan's right. Your mother isn't out working street corners, is she? How else would money come that fast?"

Ada folded her arms across her chest.

Her face full of contempt.

That tired little judgment drove straight into my heart.

It struck me as unbearably ironic.

This world had truly lost its mind.

The bar for a woman's success was set so impossibly high.

And the cost of dismissing a powerful woman was so cheap.

As if the moment a woman rose above the crowd, it had to be her family's doing, and if not that, her husband's, and if not that either, then she must have sold her body...

I couldn't hold the fury down anymore. My hand flew up and cracked across Ada's face.

Ada cried out and stumbled back into Tristan's arms.

Her eyes went red, brimming with tears.

"Tristan, it hurts so much. You won't let me and the baby suffer, will you?"