Madison, having tasted love for the first time, was dazzled by the glittering world beyond the temple.

After bidding Walter farewell, she followed Louis to Capital City.

Walter tried to dissuade her. “The outside world is all neon and intoxication,” he cautioned. “It’s easy to lose yourself to its temptations. Life in the temple may not be as bleak as you imagine, and the world outside may not be as beautiful as you hope.”

But Madison’s mind was made up, her resolve unshakable. “I’ll come back to visit you, Walter—I promise!” she insisted.

Louis brought her into his family’s home, providing her with a life free from want. In the circles of Capital City, rumors soon spread that he was keeping a caged songbird.

For five years, Louis spoiled her, indulged her, molding her into a pampered princess.

If she threw a tantrum, he would abandon business deals worth tens of millions, flying back overnight from abroad just to calm her.

Once, after she fell into the water and developed a lung infection—with doctors warning him to prepare for the worst—Louis braved a torrential downpour to climb to the hilltop shrine. There he prayed for a protective charm to save her life. He climbed all one hundred and eight steps on his knees, bowing his head to the stone three times with each one, until his knees were bruised and battered.

Later, he spent a hundred million to buy the naming rights for a minor planet—and named it after her.

Before the temple’s matchmaking shrine, he prayed with devout sincerity, personally engraving both their names on one of the symbolic love locks.

Everyone said Louis was crazy in love with her.

On their fifth anniversary, she carefully prepared a gift and went to find him, only to overhear him talking easily with a friend.

“Christine went abroad for treatment, but her health isn’t improving,” Louis was saying. “Her greatest wish is to marry me. I promised her a grand ceremony.”

His friend teased, “Aren’t you afraid Madison will find out and raise hell?”

Louis lifted his eyelids lazily. “Madison gets jealous easily. You’ve all got to help me keep this under wraps.”

His friend scoffed. “If she knew your marriage certificate was fake, she’d be heartbroken!”

Madison’s breath hitched. Tears welled up uncontrollably.

Christine was Louis’s first love—his forever love, the one who got away, a permanent mark on his soul.

They had fallen for each other in their youth, only to be torn apart by their families. Christine suffered from a congenital heart condition. Louis’s family sent her abroad, forcibly separating the star‑crossed lovers. The exorbitant cost of his childhood sweetheart’s treatment had always been covered by Louis.

Louis’s voice softened, tender enough to drown in. “Christine loves a party. I want all of you there for the wedding!”

His friend’s tone turned mocking. “Madison has clung to you for five years—and with such desperate intensity.”

Low, vulgar laughter rippled around them. “A natural‑born siren like that must be wild in bed, right?”

Louis twisted the beads on his wrist. “Christine’s constitution is too frail. I can’t bear to touch her. So… I channeled all that pent‑up desire into Madison. She’s adventurous, full of tricks. We tried every position in the book.”

Madison felt as if she’d plunged into an abyss, a suffocating sensation overwhelming her.

His friend, speaking from experience, advised, “Louis, don’t invest too deeply in feelings. Otherwise, it’s hard to walk away unscathed.”

Louis raised a brow slightly. “I’ve been slipping contraceptives into the milk Madison drinks every day. She won’t get pregnant. There won’t be any deep ties between us.”

Madison clenched her fist. The wedding band bit into her flesh, the pain piercing to her core.

So all his kindness had been laced with cold calculation.

She pulled off the ring, crushed it out of shape, and discarded it like trash.

Then she pushed the door open and entered the private room. Inside, the laughter died abruptly.

Louis walked over and draped his still-warm coat over her shoulders. “It’s raining. What are you doing here?”

Madison bit back the questions rising to her lips. “Today is our seventh wedding anniversary.”

She emphasized *wedding*.

His tone remained gentle. “I’ve been busy with clients lately. I forgot to get you a gift.”

“What would you like? The latest Chanel bag? A Cartier ruby necklace?”

He lied so effortlessly. How many perfect lies had he told her over the years?

She had kept the pregnancy test a secret, hoping to surprise him. Now, it seemed pointless.

A sudden wave of nausea washed over her.

Stumbling to the bathroom, she retched until her vision blurred.

Louis frowned, his gaze fixed on her face. “Are you pregnant?”

Her face was ghostly pale. “Probably just something I ate. I’m not pregnant.”

Unmistakable relief washed over his features. He reached out to steady her. “Let me take you to the hospital.”

She sidestepped his touch. “I’ll just get something from the pharmacy. No need for the hospital.”

Outside, the rain fell in torrents. She walked straight into the downpour.

She couldn’t tell if it was rain or tears streaming down her face.

Within moments, she was soaked to the bone.

Winter had settled over the city, the air biting cold.

For a long time, Madison stood on the street corner before numbly walking into a pharmacy.

She approached the clerk, her voice flat. “I need the abortion pill.”

The clerk looked her over. “The one for early pregnancy?”

“You know what it does?”

Madison placed a hand over her lower abdomen. A tiny life was growing inside her.

It took her a moment to find her voice. “Give me a box. I want to end it.”

After five years with Louis, she’d never gotten pregnant. She had cherished this unexpected gift—had wanted to pour all her love into this child, to let it grow up safe and loved.

But its father didn’t want it.

He was building a family with his first love. He wanted neither her nor their child.

Not long after swallowing the pills, a dull, heavy ache settled in her belly.

Madison struggled to her feet—then felt a sudden, warm gush between her legs.

A trickle of blood, stark and crimson against her skin.

Each movement brought a sharp, scraping pain, less like cramps and more like a brutal evacuation.

In the end, her dream of love had shattered, leaving nothing but bitter ashes.

Madison dialed Louis’s number. “Louis… I want to go home.”

Hearing the strain in her voice, he rushed back.

He found her collapsed in a pool of blood, the crimson stain stark and terrifying beneath her.

His heart lurched.

Panic surging through him, he scooped her up and raced to the hospital.

The doctor handed him a consent form. “Mr. Louis, there’s residual tissue in your wife’s uterus. She needs a D&C.”

“Please sign here.”

The harsh glare of the operating room lights flooded her vision.

Cold, metallic instruments scraped and tugged inside her—a pain so visceral it felt like being torn apart.

A tear traced its way from the corner of Madison’s eye. She closed her eyes against the agony.

As her womb was emptied, something hollowed out inside her as well.

After the procedure, she sat for a long time on a bench outside the operating room.

Finally, she took out her phone and dialed a number she hadn’t called in years.

“Walter… I want to come home.”

Walter was right—the human heart is the world’s most unfathomable thing.

If Louis couldn’t forget the one who got away, she could step aside. She wouldn’t cry or make a scene.

She could accept that he didn’t love her, and that he loved someone else. What she could not accept was his pretense of devotion while he remained tangled with another.

He carried someone else in his heart, yet he had spoken words of love against his own conscience—words that captured her, heart and soul.

Louis could walk away from this relationship unscathed. But she was the one stuck in the mud, unable to move.

After dragging her weakened body home, Madison found her space invaded.

Christine stood timidly behind Louis, a flicker of challenge in her eyes.

“Christine just returned to the country and has nowhere to stay,” Louis said coolly. “Clear out the master bedroom and move to the guest room.”

The maid, Barbara, muttered under her breath, “Since when does a guest take the master bedroom while the host sleeps in the guest room?”

Christine’s gaze toward Madison grew more contemptuous.

She reached up, her fingers brushing Louis’s cheek with tender concern. “Louis, being with a woman you don’t love… it must be so painful for you. If only your father hadn’t torn us apart back then—we would have been the happiest couple!”

Madison had just come home from the procedure. Leaning against the wall for support, she barely kept her feet.

Standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, she felt like a fool.

In the middle of the night, sounds drifted from the next room.

Christine clung to Louis like a delicate vine, soft and pliant.

They were tangled together, kissing as if they couldn’t bear to part—reunited after so long, whispering words of longing.

Nestled against his chest, Christine murmured softly, pleadingly, “I don't like being disturbed. Make her move out.”

Louis’s gaze was indulgent. “The doctor said you need peace and quiet to recover. I'll have her out tomorrow.”

Madison stood outside the door for a long time, letting the bitterness settle within her.

Late that night, Louis pushed her door open.

He'd just come from Christine’s bed, and now he was here to confront her.

“Madison, why didn't you tell me you were pregnant?”

Her face was pale, but her voice held an edge. “My body, my choice. I have the right to decide whether to carry a child or not.”

The string of beads Louis had been fidgeting with snapped. “My family has had only one heir for three generations. Our line is dwindling—and you hid it from me and took abortion pills!” Fury burned in his eyes. “Did you even think to discuss this with me?”

Madison pressed her lips together, stilling their faint tremor. “The milk I drank every day tested positive for contraceptives. A child conceived under those conditions would most likely have been born with severe defects.”

Contraceptives have side effects; long-term use causes irreversible damage to a woman’s body.

The doctor had told her that her ovaries were failing. That she'd conceived at all was nothing short of a miracle.

This abortion meant that having a child in the future would be next to impossible.

A flicker of guilt passed through Louis’s eyes. “Just focus on recovering. There will be other chances.”

Madison’s voice was hollow, almost a whisper to herself: “There won't be another chance.”