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

got home, Yvette tossed the report into

around this time, she would feel

herself. She just leaned back on the couch, blearily drifting

in her

Xavier hated her-she was hard of hearing, which,

would never allow her to carry

5 o'clock in the morning, the pendulum clock

be home

realized too late that she had fallen asleep on the couch. She got up hastily and went to

meticulous man who was strict about punctuality, not only

home at six

man. Clad in a smart

Yvette, he was cold

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

the same things over and over again. She wore the same dark clothes and replied to his messages with the same singular

it hadn't been for the business alliance and the Snyders' deceit, Xavier would

the rumbling in Yvette's ears returned. She swallowed, feeling a lump in her throat,

His eyes darkened. "What do you mean by

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

she could finish, Xavier interrupted her. "You're

...

Xavier left, Yvette sat on the balcony alone,

took off her hearing aids, letting the world around her fall

a pathological change in your auditory nerves and some of your cranial nerves, causing your hearing to worsen. If this goes on,

silent world, Yvette went to the living room and turned on the television. She turned up the volume to the max, which

showing an interview with Daphne Reyes, an internationally renowned

as she gripped the remote

Xavier's

seen her, but Daphne was still as pretty as ever. She was confident and relaxed in front of the cameras, unlike the shy and frightened

Daphne why she had returned to her home country, her answer was bold. "I came home

control slipped out of Yvette's hands. Her heart also fell to her

outside seemed to get

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

it up and saw the unread messages

you must have been unhappy

How about we meet up tonight? I've missed

blankly at the messages until the screen went

called a cab to

The rain fell incessantly. It felt like it

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

Mark Xyrax, saw her,

wife. She

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