After remarrying him, he got my best friend pregnant, so I decided to destroy them

### Chapter 1

At the birthday banquet celebrating the second year of our remarriage, Otto Delgado told me, in front of everyone, to take off my imperial-jade ring and give it to my best friend, Wendy Fox.

I stood frozen, certain I'd misheard.

But Otto just looked at me, perfectly at ease.

“That's right. The woman I've been hiding is Wendy. She's pregnant now, and I have to take responsibility.”

“Relax. She gets the role of Mrs. Delgado. Your name stays on the marriage certificate.”

Everyone was sure of it: after fighting so hard to remarry him, there was no way I'd hand that position over willingly.

But I didn't cry. I didn't make a scene. I watched Wendy sway toward me with that sweet, delicate smile of hers, and I quietly slid the ring off my finger and onto hers.

That night, I ordered ninety-nine toys and ninety-nine sets of lingerie and delivered them personally to their bedside.

Wendy let out a shriek. Otto pulled her behind him in one motion and turned on me, roaring.

“What the hell is wrong with you, Zara Gilbert? Wendy is carrying a Delgado heir for you. If anything, you owe her.”

“Know your place. You leave me again, and there won't be a single person willing to take you in.”

I looked at this face, so foreign it might as well have belonged to a stranger, and felt a coldness I had never known.

Ten years ago, Otto Delgado was nothing more than an illegitimate son no one gave a second glance.

I threw myself in front of his grandfather to block the blade while I was still pregnant. The assassins stabbed me over thirty times. I lost the baby. My womb was destroyed. And that was the price that bought him his seat at the head of the Delgado family.

In the end, what I got were photos of him tangled up with another woman in a car. When I confronted him, he beat me until my face was swollen beyond recognition. So I clenched my teeth and chose divorce.

A year ago he came back, begging to remarry. Saying I was still the one he loved.

Now I finally knew: that woman had been my best friend all along.

After I left the room, I dialed my father.

“Dad, I need you to get proof of his corporate crimes. I'll gather the evidence of the affair myself. I'm taking back everything.”

Otto had no idea.

Two weeks ago, every memory from before my amnesia had come flooding back.

I was the long-lost daughter of the Gilbert family, the wealthiest house in the Capital.

In one week, my father would release evidence devastating enough to destroy Otto Delgado, and come to take me home in person.

1.

The moment I walked into the second bedroom carrying those ninety-nine toys and ninety-nine sets of lingerie, my gaze caught the cross necklace swinging against Wendy's collarbone, and the pain hit me like a knife.

Years ago, Otto had been stabbed and left with barely a breath in his body.

I knelt outside the church for an entire day and night, my forehead bleeding against the stone, before the old priest finally agreed to give it to me.

Even through the divorce, Otto had never once taken it off.

Now that Wendy was pregnant, he'd handed it over without a second thought.

My throat felt sealed shut by something solid, and it was a long time before I managed to speak, my voice shaking：“Why did you lie to me? If you'd both just told me, I would have stepped aside.”

If I'd gotten out sooner, before the double betrayal had time to cut this deep, I wouldn't be this torn apart.

A trace of pity flickered in Otto's eyes, but his voice stayed light — offhand, even：

“Well, we did feel guilty about you. The night you were getting stabbed dozens of times, I was in the car with Wendy. Having sex.”

“She was so scared afterward. To calm her down, I got even more carried away. That's why I forgot to come save you.”

It felt like being gutted all over again.

That night, I lay in a pool of my own blood, clinging to my last breath to call him. I believed, completely, that he would come. That he would save me and his unconscious grandfather.

When I woke, I was in a hospital. The baby was gone.

The doctor said if I'd been brought in ten minutes earlier, they could have saved my womb.

Otto had burst through the door, held me, and sobbed like a broken man, swearing he would avenge me.

And later, he had kept that promise.

Hearing him say it all now, light as air, I finally understood. Every ounce of that devotion had been a performance.

If a passing stranger hadn't stopped to help, I would have been dead.

“Then why did you come back to remarry me?!” I was nearly screaming.

“Because those old fossils on the Delgado board only recognize you. And besides……” He paused, and his voice went a shade softer. “I do love you. I can't live without you.”

Nausea crawled through my stomach like maggots. I grabbed the ashtray off the nightstand and hurled it at him.

He swung his arm up in an instant, shielding Wendy.

The glass exploded. Shards scattered across the floor.

I stared at him through bloodshot eyes and screamed：“You love me? By screwing my best friend over and over again?!”

A month ago, he'd suddenly announced he was quitting smoking. I thought he'd finally seen my lung-disease diagnosis.

It was only because Wendy was pregnant.

He'd known perfectly well what secondhand smoke could do. He just hadn't cared when it was me.

Otto's expression darkened.

He got out of bed and clamped down on my arm, squeezing so hard I thought the bones would splinter.

“You want to resent me, fine. I'll take it. But don't you dare blame Wendy.”

“She cares about you. She's carrying a child. You should be showing some compassion instead of standing here losing your mind!”

Every word dripped with open, undisguised favoritism and blame.

I clenched my fists until my nails drew blood. I almost wanted to laugh.

What right did he have to tell me to show compassion to the woman who had taken everything from me?

Before I could speak, Wendy put on a magnanimous smile：“Otto, let it go. Zara's just jealous that I'm the one having a baby. I understand.”

“Zara, thank you for the toys. Otto and I will put them to good use.”

Her fingers drifted across her belly, and the look she gave me was pure, triumphant superiority.

Otto let go of my arm and leaned back with an idle, contemptuous smirk：

“A man in my position, you really think he'd have just one woman?”

“But my heart belongs to you. Even if you can't bear children, I'll take care of you for the rest of your life.”

That tone, like he was granting me a gift, made me see my own stupidity with perfect clarity.

He was so good at pretending. He'd kept the act going right up until Wendy's belly couldn't be hidden anymore, and only then did he tear off the last mask, choosing my birthday to lay it all out without a shred of restraint.

Because he was certain I had no way out. That I could never fly beyond his reach.

“Stop making a scene.” He looked down at me with that cold smirk, like a man watching a caged bird. “You're an orphan, Zara. Without me, you'll actually starve on the streets this time.”

Life after the divorce had been brutal, and so when he'd crooked his finger, I'd gone back to him, obedient as could be.

But he didn't know.

This time was different.

The tiny camera embedded in the stud on my earlobe was silently recording everything.