Ever since Remi was locked up, she had given up on James.

Looking at the heavily guarded old family estate, she had thought of countless ways to escape. The closest she ever got was when she disguised herself as a maid and slipped into one of the service cars heading out. However, just as the car got to the main gate, another vehicle cut across and stopped them.

James stepped out, long strides carrying him straight to the car window.

“Remi,” he said calmly, “you can’t escape.”

In the end, with nowhere left to go, she chose to set the place on fire.

When news came that the old estate was burning, James was at the apartment, coaxing a sulking Sydney. It was not until he bought her an eight-million-dollar necklace that she finally brightened up, wrapping her arms around him and kissing him several times.

She pulled him down onto the couch and excitedly flipped through some baby clothes with him. However, when his phone rang, he immediately pushed her aside and walked out onto the balcony to take the call.

Sydney tried to follow out of curiosity, but one cold glance from him froze her in place. Annoyed, she punched a stuffed toy on the couch instead. Then, she saw his face turn pale, and he grabbed his coat, hurrying toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Sydney clung to him, putting on a pitiful expression. “The baby doesn’t want you to leave today–”

He did not have the patience to entertain her, but for the sake of the child's smooth birth, he held back.

“I have something urgent to deal with. You said you liked those earrings at the auction, didn’t you? I’ll have my assistant bring them to you.”

At the thought of the expensive jewelry she was about to receive, she finally let go.

With the old estate destroyed, Remi was transferred to a villa on the outskirts of the city. When James saw her again, several days later, there were injuries scattered across her body. The anger he had been holding in dissolved into a sigh.

Carefully, he carried her back to the bed and personally tended to her wounds. His movements were gentle, yet she still frowned and hissed in pain. He immediately leaned closer and blew softly on the injured skin.

“Does it still hurt?” There was a trace of concern in his eyes.

She looked at him quietly and said evenly, “It hurts, but I don’t regret it at all, because I was the one who set the fire.”

He froze, pain in his eyes.

“Do you want to leave me that badly?” he asked.

“Yes.” Her voice did not waver. “I do, even if it means I die.”

“Remi!” Hearing that, he finally lost control. He could no longer hide the pain in his voice. “Don’t say that, okay? It pains me to see you hurt. I have no feelings for her. Just wait a little longer. I’m begging you. Everything will go back to the way it was.”

After saying that, he stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Before leaving, he specifically instructed the butler to tighten security around the villa.

For the next three months, James never came back. He did not even send a single message. It was as if he intended to teach her a lesson. Meanwhile, he traveled the world with Sydney, allowing her to post their intimate photos online. In the pictures, they stood close together, feeding each other cookies mouth-to-mouth like a couple flaunting their love.

At the beach, she lay across his lap in a sheer swimsuit, running her fingers over his abs as if showing off. Under dim, ambiguous lighting, their legs were tangled together, their eyes locked on each other. For a while, the internet was in an uproar, and countless netizens flooded her comment section, obsessing over the couple.

Of course, Remi saw the photos too. In the past, she would have cried for an entire day; now she no longer held any expectations for James. All she wanted was to leave the marriage as soon as possible, and so, she did not care.

James, on the other hand, waited and waited for Remi to come to him, to soften, and to demand an explanation. However, she never did.

In the past, whenever even a harmless “close” photo of him and another woman surfaced—sometimes just from normal business events—Remi would be jealous for days. She would show up immediately, red-eyed, asking him to explain himself. That was why he was certain it would not take long this time. He thought she would come to him, eyes brimming with tears, but months passed, and no one came. There was not even a text message.

He could not sit still anymore. He secretly returned several times and checked the surveillance footage. On the screen, he saw her looking completely indifferent, playing with the dog on her own, as if she truly did not care about the scandals between him and Sydney.

Her reaction took him completely by surprise, leaving him in anguish with nowhere to vent his frustration. In the end, he could only leave in a huff.

Sydney did not think too much about James’s sudden change in attitude as she immersed herself wholly in the bliss of the moment. After all, the only reason he had treated her well before this was because of the child in her belly. He had never allowed her to show off their relationship so openly. However, things were different now.

Seeing how favored she was, the same people who used to look down on her suddenly rushed to flatter her.

“Sydney, Mr. Hudson dotes on you so much, and you’re carrying his child. It looks like you becoming his wife is only a matter of time.”

“Exactly! Sydney, when you become Mrs. Hudson, don’t forget about us, your best friends!”

Under their constant praise, Sydney gradually grew more arrogant. She clung to James even more than before, almost obsessively, and it was because she followed him so closely that she finally noticed something strange.

Every night, after she fell asleep, he would quietly leave and drive to a suburban villa. Then, he would return early in the morning, his face dark and unreadable. In the past, James had also gone home at night, but he would return to the old family estate and not the villa in the suburbs.

Curiosity gnawed at her until she finally could not hold it in anymore.

“James,” she asked one day, “why do you go to the suburban villa every night?”

His expression instantly turned cold. “Don’t ask about things you shouldn’t ask.”

In James’s eyes, she was nothing more than a tool to carry a child in place of Remi, so she needed not know more than that. However, a woman’s intuition was sharp. The less he said, the more suspicious Sydney became.

If it were not for a woman, what else could possibly draw him there every night?

The thought that he might be keeping another woman in that villa made fury surge through her veins. She had successfully seduced James, and her methods were anything but simple. Now that she was about to become the envied Mrs. Hudson, no one could steal her position.

She was just about to storm over there when she suddenly paused. James might dote on her, but he had one clear boundary: she was not allowed to go anywhere he had not permitted.

Her friends, however, dismissed her hesitation.

“Sydney, you’re the future Mrs. Hudson. Where could possibly be off-limits to you?”

That was all it took. Encouraged by her friends, Sydney gathered a group of them and headed straight to the suburban villa.

At the villa, Remi was asleep, but she could already hear the noise outside.

“James comes here every single day. Today, I shall see what exactly he’s hiding in this villa!”

A bodyguard stood in front of the door, looking troubled. “Miss Parker, Mr. Hudson gave strict orders. No one except him is allowed inside.”

“What do you mean that no one is allowed?”

“Do you know who Sydney is? If Mr. Hudson finds out you stopped her, you’ll be fired!”

“Exactly! You blind idiot!” Sydney let out a cold snort.

At the last dinner party, someone had accidentally scratched her face, and James immediately destroyed that person financially. So, unless the bodyguard had a death wish, he would know better than to stand in her way.

After hesitating again and again, the bodyguard finally stepped aside. The moment the door opened, Sydney saw a face that looked almost identical to her own. She froze in her tracks.

“Oh my God, Sydney, she looks just like you!”

“What do you mean, identical? If you ask me, she probably had plastic surgery to look like you.”

“I think so too!”

Sydney’s eyes turned sharp with rage. Before Remi could even say a word, Sydney stepped forward and slapped her hard across the face.

The slap came out of nowhere. Remi’s head snapped to the side, and for a moment, she could not even process what had just happened.

Across from her, Sydney had rolled up her sleeves, her expression twisted with fury.

“Where did you crawl out from, you shameless woman? How dare you get plastic surgery to look like me? Are you trying to scheme your way into replacing me because James’s been favoring me lately?” She sneered. “Let me tell you something. That will never happen. I will be the only Mrs. Hudson. Today, I’ll show you what happens when you try to seduce James.”

Only then did Remi connect the dots. This must be the substitute James had chosen, and clearly, he had never told Sydney about her existence. That was why Sydney thought she was just another woman trying to steal the position of Mrs. Hudson.

Remi took a deep breath and was just about to explain. However, before she could speak, Sydney suddenly kicked the back of her knee. A sharp pain shot through her leg, and she collapsed to her knees instantly. When she tried to push herself up, Sydney’s friends rushed forward and pinned her down tightly, making it impossible for her to move.

“There I was, wondering why James would head out every night,” Sydney spat. “As it turns out, it’s because of you, you filthy woman! You know he’s crazy about me, don’t you? And that’s why you used a face like mine to get his attention!”

The accusations were so ridiculous that Remi laughed. However, seeing that Sydney was also being deceived, she forced down her anger and said as calmly as she could, “You should leave now. If James comes back and sees this, he won’t let you off.”

What was meant to be a warning made Sydney burst into laughter. “He won’t let me off? That’s hilarious. Who do you think you are to threaten me with James? Do you know how much he loves me? Do you know I’m carrying his child?”

She placed a hand over her belly, her eyes gleaming with arrogance. “Even if I killed you today, he would only dote on me and help clean up the mess. Instead of worrying about me, you should worry about yourself.”

A chill ran down Remi’s spine.

“What are you trying to do?” she asked.

Sydney grabbed her hair and forced her head up, studying her face carefully. Then, she smiled—sweet on the surface but filled with malice.

“You did a pretty good job on this face. For a second, even I could not tell us apart. But soon, it won’t be yours anymore.”

As she spoke, her sharp nails dug viciously into Remi’s cheek.

“Ah!”

Remi felt like her flesh was being torn apart, piece by piece. The agonizing pain was crushing her until she could barely breathe. She struggled desperately, but with several people holding her down, she could only endure as Sydney’s nails dragged across her skin. Blood began to stream down along those crimson lines.

Sydney’s friends swarmed in next, kicking and punching her without restraint. The pain was so intense that her entire body started to go numb. Watching her curl up in agony, Sydney smiled in satisfaction.

Finally, Remi shouted hoarsely, “You’ve got it wrong! I’m not some woman seducing James. I’m his wife, the legally married Mrs. Hudson!”

Her words, however, were met with more laughter. Sydney withdrew her hand and held her stomach as she threw her head back, laughing even harder.

“You’re his wife? Then what am I?”

“Yeah, right!”

“We’ve never heard of Mr. Hudson being married.”

Her friends chimed in mockingly.

Sydney wiped away tears of laughter and looked at her with blatant contempt. “If you wish to climb into James’s bed, just say so. Aren’t you afraid he’ll skin you alive for making up lies like this? You say you’re his wife? Quit dreaming.”

Remi looked at them with a heavy heart. Back when she and James got married, she had insisted on keeping things low-key. Outside of their inner circle, almost no one knew she was his wife. Now, that secrecy had become the very proof people used to deny her identity. On top of that, after their recent fight, James had deliberately taken so many intimate photos with Sydney. To outsiders, it was obvious who he intended to marry in the future.

However, how could Sydney not realize? She came from an ordinary family and was mismatched in status with the Hudson family. Out of countless women, why would James choose her, let alone allow her to bear his child?

Remi’s hands slowly tightened into fists as she struggled to rise.

“I really am his wife. If you don’t believe me, call James right now!”

Before she could stand, Sydney stepped down hard on the back of her hand. The pointed heel of Sydney’s heels ground mercilessly against her fingers.

“Are you still trying to lie to us? It seems the lesson I gave you wasn’t enough. Someone, go to the kitchen and bring me a sharp knife. I’d like to see just how long this woman can keep up her act.”