In the seventh year of my engagement with Nathan Galloway, he has inherited everything from his dead older brother, including his newly widowed sister-in-law, Catherine Wilkins.

Whenever Nathan is done sleeping with Catherine, he'll hug me and comfort me gently.

"Just wait for a little longer, Jojo. Once Cathy gets pregnant, we'll have our own wedding."

This is the Galloways' only condition for Nathan to inherit the family's assets.

In the six months following his return to Ravelton, Nathan has visited Catherine's room 52 times. He initially started off with just one visit per month. But slowly, the visits have been increasing to the point that he now visits her once every two days.

Finally, when I spend my 52nd sleepless night sitting in my room and waiting for Nathan's return, I receive the news of Catherine's pregnancy. But at the same time, the news of Nathan and Catherine's upcoming marriage breaks out as well.

"Mommy, is someone getting married in this household?"

As I stare at the wedding decorations in the villa, I just pull my son, Theo Huber, into a hug with a blank expression.

"Yeah. Your daddy is about to marry the woman he loves. That's why it's time for us to move out."

What Nathan doesn't know is that we Melshes couldn't care less about marriage.

Joanne's POV

After putting my son, Theo Galloway, to sleep, I tap into my phone and book the next flight back to Cloudingham.

Unfortunately, it was peak season, and the next available flight was only in seven days.

I stared at the date on the screen and found myself blanking out.

February 14 was Valentine's Day and also the seventh anniversary of my engagement to my fiance, Nathan Galloway.

It seemed like fate played a hand in me this time.

I smiled bitterly. Maybe it was for the best. Maybe it was good that we started and ended on exactly the same day.

A thick scent of gardenia suddenly enveloped me from behind, and Nathan's gentle voice sounded from the top of my head. "What are you looking at, Jojo?"

I instinctively turned off my phone screen and said dismissively, "Just reading up some news on gemstones."

It had only been half a year, but Catherine Wilkins' signature gardenia perfume was already practically marinated into Nathan's flesh by now.

I pushed him away in disgust. "Go take a shower before talking to me."

Nathan sniffed his clothes and awkwardly loosened his arms around me.

"I'm going…

"And I'm sorry for neglecting you lately. It's my fault. I won't be going over to Cathy's anymore for a few days."

Cathy?

What an intimate nickname he had for her.

He used to still refer to her by her full name in the past, but he didn't even bother pretending anymore.

If other people didn't know better, they would think that Catherine was Nathan's actual fiancee instead of me.

The bathroom door opened just then, and Nathan walked out with just a towel slung around his waist as damp air swirled into the bedroom.

He had a lean waist and a long torso, and he looked young and handsome for his age.

I suddenly felt as though I was staring at him from seven years ago again, when he painstakingly climbed up to my bedroom window, all covered in morning dew and condensation.

Back then, he used to be full of life as he declared proudly to the world, "Jojo, you're going to be mine now, starting from today.

"Let's spend the rest of our lives together—just the two of us."

When he noticed me staring at him and blanking out, he suddenly grinned widely and pulled me right into his arms.

"I'm not going anywhere tonight, Jojo. I'm going to be staying with you all night long."

The citrusy body wash mingled with the gardenia scent, forming a weird and disgusting combo that permeated my senses. I lowered my gaze in disappointment.

He was no longer the same person who proposed to me seven years ago.

There was a sudden loud knocking on the door just then that pulled me out of my reverie.

"Mr. Galloway! Ms. Wilkins is not feeling well at home. Please come and take a look at her!"

The frustrated look on Nathan's face was immediately replaced with one of worry and anxiety as he put on some clothes and hurried out the door.

"Why isn't she feeling well? Have you called the family doctor to look at her?"

He'd just taken a few steps when he suddenly realized that something was wrong.

He immediately spun around and looked at me apologetically. I was leaning against the doorframe, looking back at him.

"Cathy's not feeling well. I need to go and see how she's doing. You know that she has no one else but me to rely on ever since Norman passed away.

"I'll be back in a while. Thanks, Jojo. You're the best for being so kind and understanding."

Kind and understanding?

He'd been using it on me for six months, and I'd put up with it 52 times already.

He was from the Narcy tribe, and they were accustomed to couples co-parenting without actually marrying or staying together. However, it could be considered a "marriage" if the person spent the night at their partner's place instead.

I called out to him nonchalantly. "Nathan Galloway."

Nathan frowned at me as words of comfort began forming in his throat. However, the words died when he was stunned by the sudden weight on his shoulders.

I'd just draped a coat over him.

"It's chilly at night. Don't forget your coat when you go out."

He clutched the coat on his body, an unreadable expression in his eyes. "Jojo, you…"

However, before he could even put a name to the bitter feeling surging in his chest, I'd already closed the guest bedroom door on him.

I only had to wait for another seven more days. And when the time came, I wasn't going to wait for Nathan to come back anymore.

Just as I had expected, Nathan never came home for the entire night. Yet, when I turned over and felt the cold on his side of the bed, I still couldn't stop my heart from aching.

A series of rapid knocks sounded at the door, every knock louder than the last.

I went over to answer the door, and Robert Wiley, the butler, simply glared at me with contempt.

"Mrs. Galloway Senior wants you to bring the kid to Galloway Manor."

Marina Boyle, Nathan's grandmother, had never liked me and always looked down on me. No matter how much I explained things to her about my co-parenting arrangement with Nathan, she refused to accept it and simply treated me as a promiscuous prostitute who hated the idea of settling down.

She also looked down on Theo.

And since Nathan's family all treated me with disrespect, naturally, the butler and maids in the household also looked down on Theo and me.

When I arrived at Galloway Manor, I realized that all of the Galloway relatives were also present.

Nathan, who'd disappeared the entire night, was standing there with Catherine in his arms, his eyes gentle as he looked at her with tenderness and care.

Marina smiled so widely whenever she looked at Catherine's stomach that it was almost blinding.

"Catherine is finally pregnant. Since all of our relatives are here today, it is now time for us to fulfil our part of the deal from half a year ago!"

The oldest and most influential member of the Galloway family, Moses Galloway, then stood up and formally declared Nathan as the official heir and new head of the Galloway family.

"Since we now have another little heir coming along, it's time to pick a date for the wedding."

I looked up and realized everyone, including Nathan, was looking at Catherine instead.

He caressed her stomach like there was no one else in the room and said affectionately, "I'm going to be a father…"

He didn't say that he was going to be a father "again"—only that he was becoming one.

I suppressed the bitterness in my heart and tightened my fist.

Theo suddenly whimpered quietly in the silent hall. "Mommy, it hurts."

I hurriedly released his hand from my grasp, noticing that his little hand was now red all over.

"I'm sorry, Teddy. Here, let me blow on it to make it better…"

However, it was precisely Theo's sentence earlier that had everyone in the family suddenly turn their attention toward us, mostly looking at us out of the corner of their eyes.

Moses frowned. "If news of the head of the Galloway family having a child born out of wedlock gets out, the entire family's reputation will be destroyed.

"That kid is nothing but a prostitute's bastard child anyway."

Nathan's mother, Doreen Stanton, scoffed coldly at me and said, "We'll just tell the public that this kid was adopted into the family for charity."

Doreen didn't like me. She didn't like Theo either. Back then, it had been her idea for Nathan to sleep with Catherine and produce an heir before he could inherit the title of the head of the family.

And since Catherine was really pregnant with an heir now, Theo was naturally out of the picture altogether.

Nathan let go of Catherine's hand and said, "Mom, don't you think that's too much?"

He was just about to walk over to me when Catherine silently tugged him back to her.

I witnessed everything with my own eyes. So, I brought Theo over to Doreen and said, "Understood. From today onward, Theo won't be Nathan's son anymore."

I then crouched before Theo and explained to him with red-rimmed eyes, "Teddy, you can't call him 'Daddy' anymore, okay? You can only call him 'Uncle Nate'."

Nathan was stunned. He knew very well that I'd only been able to remain on amicable terms with his family for the past six months largely because of Theo.

He tried listening for any hint of indignation in my voice, but he couldn't.

Theo couldn't understand the gravity of the situation and began to cry. I hurriedly picked him up in my arms to bring him out, but Catherine stopped me.

"Jo, I heard that it's good for pregnant women to wear purple amethysts as it's good for their health. Nathan had been searching everywhere for one for days to no avail, but I just realized that you have one on you!

"Do you think you can give it to me?"

I stared straight at Nathan and asked, "Is this what you want too, Nathan Galloway?"

I then glanced at the series of hickeys littered all over Catherine's neck when she cocked her head at me. It felt like there were a million needles jabbing into my heart at that moment, making me numb with pain.

The purple amethyst necklace had been Nathan's engagement gift to me.

We'd met at the Cloudington Gemstone Conference back then, when we both laid our eyes on this amethyst at the same time. And on the day of our engagement, he personally wove the amethyst into a necklace with a leather cord and put it around my neck, vowing to love me for the rest of my life.

I knew that Catherine had always been coveting it, asking Nathan for it time and time again, but he never gave it to her.

This time, though, Nathan just averted his gaze when I stared at him, deliberation and guilt appearing in his eyes.

"If you don't—"

"Okay."

I chuckled aloud as I yanked the necklace off and handed it to Catherine. I watched her put it on gleefully and even said, "It suits you really well."

Then, I picked Theo up in my arms and left the manor, with Nathan staring at me in complete confusion.

Theo still wouldn't stop crying even after we'd gotten back to the villa. I suppressed my heartache for him and asked, "Teddy, would you want to leave this place with me? I want to take you away."

He just sobbed even more loudly after that. "Can't we stay, Mommy?"

"But Teddy, your dad and grandma both wouldn't like it if we continued staying here. Do you really want to call him 'Uncle Nate' for the rest of your life?"

I looked at him gently and suppressed my own tears.

I selfishly wished that Theo belonged only to me and would only love me as well.

However, that wasn't how it worked in the real world.

Theo hugged the Lego in his arms. It had been a birthday gift from Nathan last year.

"Mommy, can I spend one more birthday with Daddy? Please?"

Theo stubbornly refused to back down. So, I closed my eyes in surrender and pulled him into a hug instead, nodding.

"Okay."

…

Theo's birthday was on February 12. I had purposely reminded Nathan about it two days before so that he could prepare adequately.

After all, this was most likely the last birthday he would spend with Theo. So I hoped that Theo would get his wish.

On his birthday, Theo woke up early and changed into his favorite outfit. He then asked me cautiously, "Mommy, Daddy will be coming back to celebrate my birthday with me, right?"

"Of course," I said, gently comforting him as I texted Nathan.

"It's Teddy's birthday today. Where are you?"

I sent the text, but I never got a reply. It was as if I were texting a blank wall instead.

Theo lowered his head, tightly clutching the ribbon on the cake box.

"Daddy's not coming after all, is he?"

A short while later, Theo seemed to have thought things through. He comforted himself, saying, "It's okay. Uncle Nate's busy. We shouldn't be disturbing him.

"Let's cut and eat the cake, Mommy."

This was the first time Theo had ever referred to Nathan as "Uncle Nate".

He seemed to have finally accepted the fact that Nathan didn't care about him anymore. However, the huge pout on his face and his red-rimmed eyes betrayed how upset he really was about it.

I watched Theo fight to put on a brave face and felt something ignite in my chest. It burned and blazed in my chest, filling me with heartache and pain.

I grabbed my phone and tapped into the chat window with Nathan.

"You can't even spare some time to attend your own son's birthday party, can you? Do you really like Catherine so much that you have to glue yourself to her hips every second of the day?"

My finger hovered over the "send" button, but I couldn't find it in myself to actually send it out.

Just then, a new text message arrived from him.

"Come to Galloway Manor now."