Chapter 3

Ever since Reuben became the guarantor, he'd been monitoring the project's progress almost around the clock.

To make sure it went smoothly, he even excused me from all the housework.

Which stirred up serious resentment in his mother.

One weekend, she had just finished mopping the floor and was passing by the bedroom when she saw me leisurely sipping a coffee.

She flew into a rage on the spot, snatched up a teacup, and hurled it at me.

"You useless piece of trash who can't even have a child. If it weren't for this family being soft-hearted, do you think you'd still be sitting here living the good life?"

"Before, you put on this fake act of taking on all the chores, and now you dump every bit of it on me, an old woman. You little vixen!"

I couldn't dodge in time, and the cup cut a raw gash across my hand.

The wound ran the whole length of my palm, a sight that made your stomach turn.

Hearing the commotion, Reuben came over from the other bedroom.

Seeing the mess all over the floor and my bleeding palm, he knit his brows, but the first thing out of his mouth wasn't concern.

"You hurt your hand? How could you be so careless? Can you still move it?"

I tried to close my hand, and a sharp pain shot through it at once.

"It hurts a little."

"Hurts? So can you still work like normal?"

Hearing that, I sneered inside, though on my face I wore a look of pain I could barely stand.

Seeing Reuben still fussing over me, his mother only got angrier.

"Reuben, I'm your mother! Instead of asking after me, you go worrying about this outsider!"

"What kind of seductive tricks did she use? She can't even bear a child, and you still shield her like this!"

Reuben's expression turned slightly awkward, then was quickly replaced by irritation.

"Mom, this is between my wife and me. Stay out of it."

Seeing that the standoff wasn't going anywhere, in the end it was me who spoke up and said I needed the wound bandaged, which finally put a stop to it.

On the way to the hospital, my mother-in-law's parting words kept echoing in my head.

"I'm telling you both, no grandson, and this marriage is over. You will get divorced!"

I'd never questioned it before, but the moment I thought about how Reuben had kept himself untouched by me for three years for the sake of the one who got away—

A single thought kept screaming in my mind.

I had never once looked at that medical report from back then. Was I really unable to have children?

While the wound was being bandaged, Reuben was called away by a phone call, and I took the chance to have my high blood pressure rechecked.

Reuben had no idea about it—it had been caught last time, brought on by overwork.

The doctor kept warning me not to do anything strenuous and to keep a healthy routine.

When all of that was done and he still hadn't come back, an unexpected person turned up beside me while I waited.

She held her report in her hand and talked as if only to herself.

"He hasn't come to see me these past few days. That's your doing, isn't it? Don't think that just because you hold the title of wife, you can keep him trapped."

"I'll tell you the truth—you're nothing but a stepping stone."

I stayed silent and said nothing. Serena Lisandro, the one who got away, the woman Reuben had said was dead for seven years.

I just really hadn't expected that she'd be the first one to lose her composure.

The thought of Reuben sticking by my side every step of the way just to monitor my progress—

and her mistaking it for me clinging to him to climb my way up—I couldn't hold back a scoff.

Maybe my mocking look was too obvious, because Serena shot to her feet and slapped the report against my face.

"Quit the act! I'm already a month pregnant! You probably still don't know—to keep from touching you, he even forged a fake certificate saying you couldn't have children!"

"If you know what's good for you, then—"

Those two words, fake certificate, hit me so hard I couldn't come back to myself for a long time.

So over these three years, what exactly had been real?