Chapter 1

It was a dreary day with constant rain.

Yvette Snyder stood at the entrance of the hospital, her body frail, clutching a pregnancy report in her thin hands. Three words on the report stood out: "No pregnancy detected".

"You've been married for three years. How are you not pregnant?" Her mother, Yara Cadwell, demanded, jabbing a finger in Yvette's face disappointedly. Yara was dressed lavishly and wore high heels.

"Why are you so useless? If you don't get pregnant soon, the Lanes are going to kick you out of the family. What's going to happen to our family then?"

Yvette looked at Yara blankly. She had a lot to say, but the words were stuck in her throat. In the end, all she could manage was, "I'm sorry."

"I don't want you to be sorry. I want you to give birth to Xavier's child. Do you understand me?"

Yvette's throat felt tight; she didn't know how to answer Yara.

In their three years of marriage, her husband, Xavier Lane, had never slept with her.

How could she ever have his child?

Yara stared at Yvette. The latter's weak demeanor was so unlike her own.

Finally, she said coldly before leaving, "If you really can't give him a child, then find him a woman who can. At least he'll appreciate you for that."

Yvette stared after Yara's retreating figure in disbelief.

Had her own mother just told her to find another woman for her husband to sleep with?

Her heart felt as cold as the freezing rain.

As Yvette made her journey home, she couldn't stop thinking about Yara's parting words. Suddenly, a loud ringing in her ear drowned out her thoughts.

She knew that her condition had worsened.

Just then, she received a message on her phone.

It was from Xavier, and the content was the same as always. "I'm not coming home tonight."

In the past three years they had been married, Xavier had never spent the night at home before. He had never so much as touched Yvette either.

Yvette could remember their wedding night three years ago. He had told her, "Since your family is bold enough to trick me into marrying you, you'd better be prepared to spend the rest of your life in loneliness."

Spending the rest of her life in loneliness...

Three years ago, the Snyder and Lane families had decided to form an alliance through marriage.

Both families had agreed to mutually beneficial terms in the agreement. But when the day of the wedding came around, the Snyder family went back on their word and transferred all of their assets away, including the billions of dollars that Xavier had paid to marry Yvette.

Yvette's eyes dulled at the memory. She replied to Xavier's text with her usual response: "Okay."

it, the pregnancy report she was holding got scrunched

home, Yvette tossed

around this time, she would

back on the

in her

her-she was hard of hearing, which, to the rich and powerful, was no better than

never allow her

in the morning, the pendulum clock on the wall chimed

home

She

not

arrived home at six o'clock

Clad in a smart tailored suit, his demeanor was

to Yvette, he

to look at the food on the table and said with a scoff, "You do this every day.

Yvette had been doing the same things over and over again. She wore the same dark clothes and replied to his messages with the same

Snyders' deceit, Xavier would never have

She swallowed, feeling a lump in her throat,

eyes

her head and stared at him, swallowing the bile rising in the back of her throat. "If you love someone else,

Xavier interrupted her. "You're

...

left, Yvette sat on the balcony

the raindrops drifted in and out of clarity. She took off her hearing aids, letting the world around

doctor had told her, "Ms. Snyder, there's been a pathological change in your auditory nerves and some of your cranial nerves, causing your hearing to worsen. If this goes on,

used to a silent world, Yvette went to the living room and turned on the television. She turned up the volume to the max, which allowed her to hear

with Daphne Reyes, an internationally renowned singer

as she gripped the

was Xavier's

her, but Daphne was still as pretty as ever. She was confident and relaxed in front of

to her home country, her answer was bold. "I

Yvette's hands. Her heart also

outside seemed to get

television and went to the table to clean up the uneaten breakfast. When she got to the kitchen, she found that

it up and saw the unread

have been unhappy over the past few

you don't love her. How about we meet up

the messages until the screen went dark

she called a

of the window. The rain fell incessantly. It felt like it would

at his office, so whenever she was there, she would take the

Xavier's assistant, Mark Xyrax, saw her, he just greeted her impassively, "Ms.

one around Xavier considered Yvette his wife. She was nothing but

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