Hugo finally looked up and frowned. He was about to respond when his phone rang.

He took one look at the caller ID, smiled, and answered the call. "What is it, Ms. Foster? I'm stewing the soup for you. If you're bored, go play with our son."

Just then, he paused, gave me a meaningful look, and responded, "Don't worry. She doesn't know."

After hanging up, he shifted his gaze toward me. "Freda doesn't know I've told you everything. So, pretend as if you're unaware because she doesn't want to lose you as a friend."

With that, he poured the soup into a thermos and hurried out.

I stopped him and repeated, "I want a divorce."

He looked over his shoulder, confused. "We just received our marriage certificate. Why would we get a divorce? Do you want everyone in our circle to laugh at us? Be reasonable and stop kicking a fuss."

I grabbed the vase beside me and smashed it in front of him. "I'm kicking a fuss? While I was mourning my dad, you two were fooling around in bed behind my back. Did I ever cross your mind then?

"Both of you even have a child together now. Why should I be reasonable?" To my dismay, tears rolled down my cheeks before I could stop them.

Hugo knitted his brows and snorted. "You're insane!" Then, he slammed the door and left.

I watched his figure disappear into the distance and collapsed onto the floor. A moment later, my phone started buzzing with messages from Freda.

"Tee, why didn't you wait for me before you left? Have you met your godson yet? When are you and Hugo going on your honeymoon?

"Hugo's so mean! He just had to drag you off to get married while I was giving birth. Now, you can't even stay and keep me company.

"But you don't have to worry about me. The baby daddy is here to take care of me."

Then, she sent me a photo. In it, a man with long, slender fingers was holding a baby bottle, and he was wearing a wedding band identical to mine on his ring finger.

My entire body trembled so violently that I could barely even hold onto my phone. Hugo and Freda couldn't even be bothered to hide it anymore; he hadn't even taken off the ring.

Freda posted on X at the same time. "If I ask you to stay this time, will you?"

The very next second, I received a message from Hugo. "Go on the honeymoon by yourself first."

My chest tightened sharply. I was breathing hard, and my whole body was shaking.

I forced myself to comment under Freda's post. "Why bother sneaking around? I'll give you two what you want."

Right after that, I dragged myself upstairs to pack. I couldn't stay in this house, which I had put together bit by bit, not for another second.

However, before I left, I found an old phone hidden deep in the closet. Instinctively, I entered Freda's birth date, and it unlocked. The screensaver was a photo of Hugo and Freda smooching.

The notes were all about Freda. Her period, her dietary restrictions, and her prenatal checkups.

The photo album was also filled with pictures of Freda—her sleeping face, her silly smile, the way she pouted when she wanted something, her flushed face in intimate moments, and her tearful eyes as she was wheeled into the delivery room.

Photo after photo, from the age of 12 until yesterday, Hugo had documented everything about Freda.

The funniest part was that I was also visible in the background of the photos he had secretly taken of Freda. My fingers trembled violently, and no matter what I did, I couldn't make them stop.

A lifetime was only about 30 thousand days, yet Hugo had taken almost 40 thousand photos of Freda. We had been together for three years, and apart from our wedding portraits, we couldn't even scrape together a single photo of us.

Whenever I reached for my phone to take a picture of us, he would always frown and come up with excuses. "You're in showbiz. If the photo gets out, it'll cause a huge scandal."

He had never once visited me on set, yet he had never missed a single one of Freda's concerts.

The honeymoon I had planned would have taken us no farther than the dam. But the two of them had traveled across the entire country, chasing the northern lights all the way to a secluded village.

Hugo and Freda had gone to a theme park 27 times. No wonder every time I suggested spending our anniversary there, he said it was boring. If it was really boring, why had he gone there with her 27 times?

I went through all the photos as though I was punishing myself. When I finally looked up, I realized that my tears had already dried.

I put the phone back where it was and messaged my manager, Rachel Linden. "I'll take the Luminara film project. Arrange for Paul to pick me up."

Rachel replied, "I'm so glad that you're making a comeback, Tione!"

After replying to Rachel, I dragged my suitcase out. However, the moment I was about to get into the cab, someone grabbed me tightly from behind.

Hugo's eyes were bloodshot, like a demon from hell. "Tione, Freda tried to take her own life because of what you said!"

I froze. "What did you just say?"

He yelled at me, "You know perfectly well she just gave birth and is emotionally unstable! Why did you provoke her?"

Before I could say a single word, he shoved me into the car. "Both of you have Rh-negative blood. You're the only one who can save her!"

He sped through several red lights in a row before dragging me into the hospital. "Doctor, she has Rh-negative blood! She can donate!"

His whole body was shaking as he said that. I had never seen Hugo look so disheveled and desperate.

I was frozen in place, my mind completely blank. Like a marionette, I allowed him to drag me into the blood donation room and let him roughly yank up my sleeve.

I didn't respond to anything around me. My mind was entirely consumed by the image of Hugo's panicked, frantic state over Freda.

I only snapped back to reality when the doctor's voice rang in my ear. "I'm sorry, sir, but this lady is pregnant; she can't donate blood."

I touched my stomach, feeling utterly lost. Then I heard Hugo bellow, "I told you to draw her blood. I don't want the baby—I only want Freda!"

In a heartbeat, it felt as though all the blood in my veins had run cold. Yet, tears suddenly poured from my eyes. "This is your flesh and blood, Hugo!"

But he simply continued to snarl, ordering them to thrust the collection needle into my hand.

"Hugo! Hugo, you can't touch my baby!" I yanked the needle out and turned to run.

I had barely taken a single step before I was pinned down with a death grip.

Hugo had completely lost his mind. Cupping my face, he spoke in a calm voice so cold it made me tremble. "Tee, go donate your blood to Freda."

I was pinned down in the blood donation room by four bodyguards. Tube after tube of blood was drawn from my body and rushed into Freda's emergency room.

The blood drained from my face until I could no longer support myself and collapsed headlong. When I came to, three days had already passed. The doctor tactfully informed me that I had fallen into a coma due to severe blood loss, and I had lost my baby.

I stared blankly at Freda, whose eyes were brimming with tears. "Tee, you know everything now, don't you? I'm so sorry! I felt so guilty toward you, and for a moment, I couldn't handle it. I never imagined Hugo would do this to you."

Then, she sank to her knees beside my bed and cried her heart out. Her cries were loud and piercing, yet the wound on her wrist was only covered by a simple Band-Aid. No matter how I looked at it, she didn't look anything like the "critical condition" Hugo had described.

All of a sudden, she straightened up, as though she had made up her mind. "Tee, from now on, my son is your son!"

Anger rose in my chest, and I forced the words through my raspy throat. "Get out of my face!"

Freda froze. With a wounded expression, she looked at me, then abruptly seized my hand and used it to slap herself across the face. "I know it's too late for me to explain, but I don't want to lose you as a friend. Hit me. So long as you can forgive me, you can take it out on me however you like!"

When she grabbed my hand and tried to slap herself with it again, Hugo appeared at the door—though I hadn't noticed when he arrived—and strode forward to pull Freda away. In the blink of an eye, I was dragged off the bed and fell heavily onto the floor.

Blood began to seep out from beneath me again. I let out a muffled groan and called for the doctor.

Hugo belatedly realized what he had done and released his hold on Freda. He was about to help me up when Freda sobbed, "This is all your fault, Hugo! Tee is genuinely mad at me now. I'm going to have no friends left!"

He hurriedly comforted her. "You're right, you're right. It's all my fault. Don't get too worked up now.

"I'll take you back to your room first. Our son needs you, after all."

I watched them leave, gritting out, "Hugo, I will never forgive either of you for as long as I live!"

He stopped in his tracks for a second, but he didn't look back.

Ten minutes later, he sent me a message. "I'll send Freda and the baby away and cut all ties with her. Once you recover, we'll go on our honeymoon."

I apathetically switched off my phone and ignored Hugo. My tears soaked the pillow as I thought about the baby I had lost.

I had never had much family. After my father passed away, I had no relatives left in this world. Consequently, I constantly dreamed about having a child of my own, someone who was related to me by blood.

Yet, Hugo had personally killed my child.

I lay there with my eyes wide open until morning. Then, I called for a nurse to help me arrange my discharge from the hospital.

Right then, Hugo walked in, his expression stormy. Without saying a single word, he reached out and slapped me across the face.

The blow left my ears ringing and my mind a complete blank. I only realized what had happened when I tasted the metallic tang of blood at the corner of my mouth.

He grabbed me by the hair and shoved his phone into my face. There was a trending topic on it. "Popular Singer Freda Foster Gives Birth Out of Wedlock. Lewd Photos From Her Past Exposed."

Beneath the headline, the feed was filled with photos of Freda from years ago, taken when she had been abducted and assaulted.

His voice was ice cold as he spat out, "I've already compromised, Tione. Why did you do this? Do you have any idea that this will destroy her? It took me ten years to help her overcome her depression, and you've just ruined everything!"

After hearing that, I denied it flatly. "I didn't do it."

Yet, he was no longer capable of listening to my explanations. He dragged me into a room, where the lights were as bright as day, and a row of naked men stood before me. Cameras had been set up on tripods in every corner of the room.

My heart sank to the bottom of my stomach in an instant. Clutching his arm, I asked, "What are you going to do to me?"

The corners of his mouth curled into a grotesque arc. "You're in showbiz. Don't you understand? The fastest way to bury a trending topic is to replace it with an even bigger scandal."

Right after saying that, the look in his eyes became even more unhinged. "You're an award-winning actress. Once photos of you being assaulted get leaked, no one will care about Freda's business anymore!"

At that moment, I forgot how to breathe. I stared at the man before me in disbelief.

I was his wife. I had just lost our baby because of him. Yet, for Freda's sake, he wanted me to be defiled by these men.

Hugo shoved me aside and walked to the door, coldly ordering the men, "Make it quick." With that, he left the room.

I lunged forward and pounded on the door with all my might. "Let me out, Hugo! I didn't do it! I'm begging you. Please, let me out!"

Yet, there was no response outside the door except for the roar of an engine.

My body slid down against the wall. As those men closed in on me, pinned me down, and stripped off my clothes, I closed my eyes in utter despair...

I had no idea how much time had passed before the lights finally dimmed. I lay in the middle of the room like a lifeless fish. There wasn't a single patch of unblemished skin left on my body. Blood pooled beneath me, gradually staining the floor a deep crimson.

Inch by inch, I crawled toward the vase near the door and used the last of my strength to knock it over. After hearing it shatter, I picked up a shard and, without a moment's hesitation, slashed my wrist.

As my consciousness began to fade, the door was abruptly kicked open. The very next second, a tall figure rushed in, gathered me into his arms, and snarled, "Who did this? Who did this to you? I'll kill him!"

Meanwhile, when Hugo walked into the hospital, he saw an uncensored video playing on the giant LED screen in the lobby. My bloodcurdling screams filled his ears, piercing his eardrums.

His eyes widened as he stared at the screen in disbelief. He had only instructed the men to take a few photos, just for show. Why had a video been leaked?

Panic surged through him. With trembling fingers, he called his assistant, Atlas Barrett, and yelled into the phone, "Take it down! Get every single video of Tione off the internet right now!"

At that very moment, the screen cut to an emergency broadcast of an obituary. "Triple award-winning actress Tione Sloane has passed away. After being sexually assaulted, she committed suicide out of shame and indignation. Despite emergency efforts, she could not be saved."

Hugo swayed, and he staggered, nearly losing his footing entirely.