As soon as the bathroom door opened, soft, delicate hands wrapped around James from behind.

James’s body stiffened. Before he could turn around, Remi buried her face in the crook of his neck, brushing her lips gently against his skin.

“James… I…”

Looking heartbroken, he said, “Remi, you don’t have to do this. We’re not in a rush about having a child.”

Her slender fingers slid down along his abdomen. His breathing hitched instantly.

“But I want to. Right now.”

His gaze darkened. In the next second, he lifted her effortlessly and carried her to the bed, tossing her down before leaning over her. His kisses came hot and urgent. Their breathing grew heavier with each passing second.

“Remi…”

Just then, a sharp ringtone suddenly cut through the room. James ignored it, his kisses trailing down from her shoulder to her neck.

She let out a soft gasp and pushed against him lightly. “James, your phone…”

Still, he did not answer it. Instead, he pulled her back into his arms. “Ignore it. Focus on me.”

The ringing kept going, shrill and insistent, until it shattered the intimate atmosphere.

James finally pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. “I’ll take this call and come right back.”

With that, he grabbed his phone and stepped outside.

Remi slowly got up and walked toward the balcony. No matter how big or small the matter was, James had never hidden phone calls from her. So what kind of call would make him step outside?

Just as she reached for the balcony door, it was pushed open from the other side. James stood there, brows tightly furrowed, his voice lowered as he coaxed the person on the other end.

When he saw her approaching, he covered the receiver and looked at her apologetically. “Remi, there’s an urgent matter at the company. I have to go.”

Before she could respond, he grabbed the car keys from the table and disappeared into the night.

The light in her eyes dimmed instantly, and a bitter taste rose in her throat. Ever since James officially took over the company, he had rarely come home, and the time they shared a bed had grown fewer. Now, the rare moment they had almost shared was gone.

She stood there in a daze for a long time before bending down to pick up the clothes scattered across the floor. As she carried them toward the laundry room, a piece of paper slipped out of James’s pocket and fell to the ground.

She bent down to pick it up. However, the moment she saw its contents, her eyes widened in shock, and her heart began pounding. The title ‘Pregnancy Examination Report’ hit her like a truck, and it stated that James had signed it. A loud buzzing filled her ears, and her hands trembled as she picked up the report.

At first, she told herself she must be mistaken. There were plenty of people in the world with the same name. Yet, as she stared at the signature, she realized she could not lie to herself. Ever since they were young, he had signed all of her report cards, so she knew his signature better than anyone.

Suddenly, she remembered something James’s mother, Katie, had once said after pressuring her about having a baby. “If you can’t conceive, then I’ll have my son look for someone else to do it. I want a grandson this year, no matter what.”

Did he really go looking for another woman?

No. She immediately rejected the thought. How could that be? He loved her so much. The last time his mother suggested that, he had been so furious he nearly smashed up the entire mansion.

“Only Remi can bear my child,” he had declared.

His father had pointed at him and called him ridiculous, but now, his signature was right there on the pregnancy report.

Caught between doubt and denial, she picked up her phone, intending to call him. However, she hesitated. She remembered how flustered he had looked when he left. What if it really was an emergency?

In the end, Remi lowered her phone, then folded the pregnancy report and put it away. That night, she tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

After barely sleeping all night, with the balcony door left slightly open, Remi woke up feeling dazed. Her whole body was burning. Her eyelids felt so heavy that she could barely open them.

She fumbled for her phone on the nightstand and dialed James’s number. She left him more than a dozen calls, yet he did not pick up. Just when she was about to give up, the line finally connected.

“James–”

“Who are you?” A sweet, unfamiliar female voice came from the other end.

Her mind went blank. With a loud thud, her phone slipped from her hand and hit the floor. The line turned chaotic for a moment. After a while, she finally heard his voice.

“Sweetheart?”

He called her several times before she slowly bent down to pick up the phone.

She asked in disbelief, “Who was that just now?”

James quickly explained, “No one. I was discussing a project. A partner grabbed the wrong phone by mistake. Don’t misunderstand.”

Before she could press further, he changed the subject.

“What’s wrong? Why are you calling me?”

She opened her mouth, wanting to tell him she had a fever and ask if he could come home and take her to the hospital, when a sharp scream came from his side. “It’s so hot!”

His tone turned slightly anxious. “I’m still occupied here. I’ll hang up for now.”

The call ended abruptly. Maybe it was the fever, but her chest felt heavy with indignation. He had never hung up on her before. Even during urgent meetings, he would comfort her first before ending the call. Yet now…

She lay in bed for a long while, feeling miserable, before finally forcing herself up. Stumbling toward the medicine cabinet, she took some cold medicine to ease the symptoms. Soon after, she drifted back into a hazy sleep.

When Remi opened her eyes again, she found herself lying in a hospital bed, with James sitting beside her. The moment he saw her awake, relief flashed across his eyes. He pulled her into his arms.

“Sweetheart, you scared me.”

It turned out that he had tried calling her back later, but she never answered. Feeling uneasy, he rushed home and found her flushed and unconscious on the bed. Panicked, he immediately drove her to the hospital. For the rest of the day, he stayed by her side without leaving once, afraid something might happen again.

Watching him busy himself around her, taking care of everything, her heart warmed. For a moment, she felt like the old him was back. However, just then, his phone rang again. His hand paused slightly as he looked at the screen. He glanced at her before turning away and stepping into the hallway to take the call.

The hospital corridor was not well soundproofed. From the other end, a coquettish female voice drifted faintly into the room.

“I don’t care. I want you to be with me right now! Otherwise, I’ll take your son and leave! Do you believe me?”

There was no trace of impatience on James’s face. Instead, he said affectionately, “I have something to deal with here. Once I’m done, I’ll come over and be with you…”

Perhaps he was too focused on the person on the other end of the call to notice the shock on Remi’s face. Remi could not believe her ears. Her heart sank, and her body began trembling uncontrollably.

What had she just heard? Was she hallucinating? What did the person mean by “take your son and leave”?

Her mind flashed back to the pregnancy report she had once glimpsed, the pregnant woman he had helped up the stairs, and the conversation she had overheard at the obstetrics and gynecology department that day… Her grip on the blanket tightened.

At that moment, the hospital room door pushed open again. She quickly closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep. Seeing her like that, James relaxed. He leaned down and kissed her forehead before quietly leaving the room.

The second he was gone, she opened her eyes, yanked out the IV needle, and hurried after him. She followed him down the corridor, turning left and right, until he stopped in front of the obstetrics and gynecology department.

Just as she was about to step closer, James was holding a young woman who had just come out of the exam room, cradling her gently.

“Was the baby good today?” he murmured. “Did he give his mommy any trouble?”

Remi’s eyes widened in disbelief. The girl in his arms lifted her head as well, still clinging to him. As if sensing something, she looked in Remi’s direction, and in that moment, Remi finally got a good look at her face, which looked almost exactly like hers when she was younger.

In that instant, the entire world went silent. It felt as if an invisible hand had reached into her chest and seized her heart, yanking it so hard she could barely breathe.

She stood frozen in place, as if nailed to the ground, watching blankly as James held the girl in his arms, coaxing her gently, kissing her softly, and smiling as he spoke to her. Then, just like that, the two of them disappeared from her sight. The only thought left in her mind was: James had someone else by his side.

Rain poured down, soaking her from head to toe, but she felt nothing. She stumbled forward through the storm, eyes hollow and unfocused, her mind replaying that devastating scene over and over again.

It had been twelve whole years. Other than her parents, James had been the person who treated her best in the world. He had been so good to her—so good that sometimes she felt merely meeting him must have used up all her luck.

How could he be the boy who had climbed up to her bedroom window in the middle of the night, eyes shining with confidence as he promised to treat her well forever, the boy who had thrown himself over her to shield her when street thugs surrounded her, or the man who had stood firmly in front of her when his mother pressured and humiliated her about having children?

The eyes that had once only held her reflection now reflected someone else. The lips that had once kissed hers alone now intertwined with another woman. The hands that had touched only her body now roamed across someone else’s. The thought of those tore a sharp pain through her chest, as if her heart were being ripped apart.

The mansion was dark. The heavy, suffocating silence surrounded the figure curled up on the floor. Numbly, Remi scrolled through the information the housekeeper had sent her on her phone.

As it turned out, after it was confirmed that she could not conceive, Katie had repeatedly demanded that he seek another woman to carry his child. At first, James refused her again and again, for he loved Remi too much. However, Katie began threatening him with suicide by slitting her wrists multiple times. The last time, she had even lain in a bathtub filled with blood. Thus, in pain and desperation, he compromised.

He chose Sydney Parker, a girl who looked like Remi but came from a poor background. He chose her for two reasons. For one, she resembled Remi, so the child would likely look like Remi, too. Secondly, it was because Sydney had neither power nor money. When the time came, she would be easy to dismiss.

At the beginning, out of love and guilt toward Remi, James had no intention of being intimate with Sydney; he had planned to undergo IVF. That was until one night, after being forced to drink too much by business partners, he, in his drunken state, mistook Sydney for Remi. That night, lines were crossed, and that night, it was Remi's birthday. Yet, her husband had been in another woman’s bed!

Remi laughed and cried at the same time. She did not know whether she was crying at her own misery or laughing at his so-called devotion.

It was he who had said that not having children did not matter. He had said, “Sweetheart, you’re all I need.” Yet, it was he who climbed into another woman’s bed for the sake of a child.

‘James, is this what you meant when you said you loved me so much you could give up your life?’ Remi questioned.

If he truly wanted a child, he could have told her openly. Although it would have hurt her, she would have chosen to divorce him herself and leave him. What he never should have done was claim to love her while secretly creating another family of three with someone else.

With her hands trembling, Remi slowly lowered her phone and looked up at the home she had once shared with James. The house was their love nest. Every corner held evidence of their affection. She had once looked around it, happiness in her eyes, and told him that when they grew old, they would pass the house down to their child. Now, all she felt was pain.

Her gaze turned cold. She walked to the storage room and took out a hammer. Then, she swung it hard at the wedding photo on the wall, at the furniture they had chosen together, and at every gift James had given her over the years. She smashed them all until every last piece was shattered.