My silly brother was still unaware that he had been made into a fool in these text messages.

My phone suddenly rang. It was Shane.

"Honey, did I accidentally leave my phone at home?" he asked while panting heavily.

"Did you? I haven't noticed."

It sounded like he exhaled in relief.

"Why're you still awake? Be a good babe and go to sleep. Don't wait up for me."

I was standing on the balcony as I continued to ask, "Where did you go for your jog?"

"The park close to us."

My voice lowered while I tried to restrain myself. "I saw on the news this morning that they've cordoned the area off to fix the paths."

He paused for a bit, before continuing in a chipper tone. "I went around it. You don't have to worry about me."

He soon hung up the phone, but not before I caught a soft chuckle in the background.

My heart wrenched in pain. I had to grip the railing with both my hands to support myself, and it was a long while before I finally calmed down.

Leonard was extremely pleased with Robyn, and it was clear from how he spoke that he wanted nothing more than to marry her as soon as possible.

However, that was not the case for Robyn. We had met each other a few times at company dinners. His colleagues would usually refer to me as Mrs. Sanderson, but Robyn was different. She called me Miley.

That time, while in the bathroom, I got a cramp in my leg. As I was waiting for it to pass, I coincidentally overheard a conversation she had with another lady.

Robyn had nothing but praise for Shane.

"Shane is such a considerate gentleman. Why are all the good men someone else's husband?"

She then shifted gears and chuckled. "No wonder Miley was so anxious to get pregnant. She's probably worried she can't hold on to him."

The other lady hurriedly shushed her. "Watch what you say. I heard it was an accidental pregnancy."

Robyn snorted. "That's just a ruse married women pull."

That was probably what Shane thought too. To be honest, if she had not purposely been obvious about it, I would not have caught on so quickly.

Two weeks ago, Robyn posted a photo on her social media. Their company had gone on a hiking trip, and it was a photo of them then, at the summit watching the sunrise.

In the photo, there was another person in between her and Shane, but she was leaning in his direction while beaming widely. Everything about her screamed youthful energy.

The oversized men's T-shirt she was wearing was one I recognized immediately. I had personally packed it for Shane.

Underneath her shorts were two long, shapely legs. The two red patches on her knees were particularly eye-catching in comparison with the rest of her porcelain skin.

I stared at the photo for a whole afternoon, a sense of unexplainable apprehension coursing through me.

Once the seeds of doubt start to sprout, they shoot up at an alarming rate.

I started to notice how Shane would unconsciously smile when replying to text messages. Then, the time he spent in the bathroom grew longer and longer.

Multiple times, when his phone was buzzing incessantly, it was always messages from the same profile picture—a baby chick wearing sunglasses.

I witnessed the ugly side of humanity while reading their conversations. Robyn would describe everything that happened between her and my brother in detail to Shane.

She would even tease, saying, "If I marry him in the future, then it'll be fun to have the four of us go on double dates."

Shane responded with a few smiley faces, seemingly not repulsed by the possibility of such an outcome.

Robyn continued to make her plans. "How about I have your child in my belly when getting married to him? Miley swindles you, I swindle her brother."

"Silly goose."

Those two words were dripping with affection.

I did not know up from down anymore. Shane believed that I had gotten pregnant on purpose, thus ruining his dream of living life as a DINK.

We had slept next to each other for so many years, yet he did not even bother to verify this with me and just made his own assumptions.

I shook my head and gave a self-deprecating chuckle. Once love had run its course, nothing seemed to be worth lingering on.

Thinking back to two months ago—when his mother held my hands and begged me tearfully—I could only shake my head in incredulity.

"His father has end-stage cancer, and the only wish he has is to have a grandchild. Miley, please forgive me. I only came up with this admittedly ill-conceived plan because I had no other choice."

My pregnancy had never been an accident. I turned and tossed through the night, not getting any sleep.

By daybreak, I saw a message in the family group chat.

Yesterday, Shane had asked his mother some questions when making chicken stew. Today, she tagged him in the group chat and said, "I cooked up a batch. I'll send some over later."

I got up and went to the living room, but there was no one in sight. He had not returned. My heart sank instantaneously.

I splashed some cold water on my face, then called a cab and went straight to the hospital.

I got a number for a consultation, then while waiting for my turn for the surgery, I added my own family members to that group chat as well.

My brother was on his way to work, and he sent a question mark to the group chat out of confusion.

The nurse called my name. Before I was wheeled into the operation room, I sent all the screenshots I had taken into the group chat.

When I lay down, the operating lights were a little too bright, so I closed my eyes.

I felt a peace inside me. I instinctually ran my hands over my not-yet-showing belly.

It was still so early in the pregnancy. Would the tiny life in me know that that was my way of saying goodbye to it?

Tears streamed down my cheeks and onto the pillow.

Shane had said this was a gift from the heavens, but he was only trying to brainwash himself. We had agreed that for the rest of our lives, it'd be just us against the world, and we'd be each other's support.

We once saw an elderly gentleman pushing an elderly lady in a wheelchair down the street. We were so envious and said that we needed to do the same when we got older too.

When one of us could no longer walk, the other person would then be in charge of wheeling them around wherever we went.

After I found out I was pregnant, I had hesitated. But seeing how joyful he was, I gradually became excited for the birth of this child too.

My brother had bought all sorts of cute clothes for the baby, and this warmed my heart greatly. He even appeared to be more excited than Shane.

"I'm going to be the best uncle in the whole world!"

Closing my eyes, I could not help but feel sorrow on my brother's behalf.

I could not even imagine how crazed he would be when he saw those disgusting text messages during his commute through the morning rush hour.

After the surgery, I was still in a bit of a daze when I opened my eyes. I walked out of the building and saw how the sunlight was shining over the paths, but there was only emptiness in my heart.

When I took out my phone, I saw that there were numerous missed calls. Shane was still calling, so I answered.

"Where are you?" he asked in a trembling voice.

When he did not hear my response, he yelled angrily, "Miley Hephman! Where in the world are you!"

"At the hospital. Tell your mother the baby's gone."

I hung up the call right after that, not wanting to hear his voice for even one second longer.

I continued walking as I scrolled through the thousands of messages that had piled up in the family group chat.

The first person to finish going through the screenshots had probably been my brother.

His first message was directed at Shane. "You bastard! Where are you?"

No one responded to him. It was only much later that my mother-in-law, Susanna, made an appearance.

"Miley, are you at home? I'm heading over there now. Don't make any impulsive decisions regarding the baby."

She continuously tagged Shane, but no one responded to her. My mother was initially merely enjoying the piping-hot tea and had only just realized what was actually happening.

"Who is this girl?"

At this point, my brother had completely lost it and was now sending long voice messages into the group chat.

"Shane, you son of a bitch! You went and introduced a slut to me? How can you even look me and my sister in the eye?"

Shane did not make a peep throughout it all and just had his elderly mother continuously try to explain and appease everyone.

I continued to scroll to the bottom. It was as if I was watching a shit show that had nothing to do with me at all.

There were notifications of new messages down my list of chats. Everyone was trying to get a hold of me.

When I got to the hospital's main gate, I saw Shane stumbling through in a rush.