The man I called controlled the entire economic lifeline of Gunnerson. He was also the husband my father had chosen for me.

Back then, my father treated Jason like a close friend despite the age gap, but he never approved of us.

"Diana, you're soft, just like your mother. Jason isn't a man you can trust your whole life to. He's insecure and arrogant at the same time. He likes the chase, but he'll never be satisfied. One day, he'll grow tired of you."

At the time, I thought love was everything. I didn't take a single word to heart.

I even defied his final wishes as he lay dying.

"Diana, you're still my daughter. I've left you one last way out. When you regret this, go find this man. He'll protect you."

Even with his last breath, my father was still planning for my future.

I told the staff to start packing my clothes. I was moving back to the old house, the one where my father and I used to live.

"I told you she was just putting on a show. And you were worried she'd actually leave," Maddy said as she walked out with Jason, her arm looped through his, looking pleased with herself.

Jason gave a quiet hum. He glanced at the busy staff and said, "Move Diana's things to the guest room for now."

"Keep packing. I'm moving back to the old house," I cut in.

"The old place is cold. You hate the cold," Jason said without thinking.

Neither of us backed down.

The staff froze, too afraid to move.

I picked out a few changes of clothes myself and stuffed them into a suitcase. Anything I couldn't take, I left behind.

Jason's gaze darkened.

"Diana, don't push me."

Maddy let out a soft laugh.

"Jason, can you not be so dense? She's just playing hard to get. So what if she's pregnant? Like she's the only one who's expecting." Her hand brushed over her flat stomach as she looked at me, eyes full of provocation. "Jason, are you still planning to keep this from your precious little wife?"

I had already decided to walk away from him. But the bitterness still rose up, sharp and sudden.

I grabbed the vase beside me and hurled it straight at Maddy.

Jason kicked it aside and pulled her into his arms. "Diana, that's enough."

A shard of the shattered vase sliced across my calf. I sucked in a breath from the pain.

For a split second, panic flashed in Jason's eyes. He stepped forward, but Maddy grabbed him.

"It's just a scratch. Does she really need to make such a big deal out of it?" Maddy leaned into him, her body brushing against his. "Jason, my shoulder still hurts. If you hadn't shown up late, that old man wouldn't have gotten me like that."

Jason's gaze moved away from my wound. He turned to the staff.

"Get the first aid kit. Take care of Diana's injury."

As the staff wrapped my leg, a memory hit me out of nowhere.

Once, I had cut my hand. I cried from the pain, and his eyes went red as he pulled me into his arms, promising over and over that he would never let me get hurt again.

But this time, the one who hurt me was him.

"Uncle Jason, I've already contacted a lawyer. The divorce is in motion."

Before he could respond, Maddy laughed.

"Putting on that innocent act again?

"I remember the night Jason spent my birthday with me. You called in the middle of the night, crying about a blackout, saying you were scared.

"Drop the act, Diana. It's embarrassing! Jason doesn't need someone like you. He needs a woman who can stand beside him and handle things on her own, not some clingy vine that can't survive without a man."

When Maddy first met Jason, she had offended the wrong people and was about to have both her hands cut off.

Jason stepped in and saved her without breaking a sweat.

"So what if they cut off my hands? I'd still survive," she had said back then.

Jason always said Maddy wasn't like the rest of us.

After that, it was one coincidence after another.

At a gala, Maddy showed up as a server and spilled wine all over a guest. When she was being blamed, she still held her head high, stubborn as ever.

Every time she caused trouble, Jason appeared like some kind of savior.

She never bowed her head.

That pride in her only grew stronger under Jason's attention.

This time, she crippled the young heir of the Chambers just because he didn't step aside for her.

The Chambers weren't people you could mess with. Jason had taken a whole crew to pull her out. He lost a lot of men. He even gave up several territories and business lines to smooth things over.

The people under him were already unhappy. Now, the resentment ran even deeper.

"Maddy, who the hell do you think you are, talking to me like that?" I snapped.

Maddy raised her hand, furious.

I caught her wrist and slapped her across the face.

I hissed, "I've held back before. That doesn't mean I'm afraid of you."

Before, my whole world revolved around Jason. I just wanted to win him back, so I lowered myself, tried to please him.

In Maddy's eyes, that made me look like someone anyone could step on.

But I grew up digging through corpses just to survive. Even a rose like me still had thorns.

Maddy shrank back against Jason, clutching his shirt as she stomped her foot. "Jason, are you just going to let her treat me like this?"

Jason rubbed his temple. "Diana, your family doesn't run things in Gunnerson anymore. Drop the princess attitude."

That was all the encouragement Maddy needed. She straightened up again.

"Exactly! Everyone in Gunnerson answers to Jason now. If you behave and stop showing up in front of us, I might even let you carry that baby to term in peace."

Maddy's words reminded me of something.

A man like Jason didn't deserve to have a child.

If I was marrying that other man, then I should get rid of everything that shouldn't remain, including this child.

When I set a date with Terence Howe for the procedure, I didn't expect to run into Jason and Maddy at the hospital.

"I thought your checkup was tomorrow." Jason frowned slightly.

Maddy was practically melting into his arms.

"She's been following you. She got caught, so she's pretending it's a coincidence." She then turned to me. "Diana, can you stop being so paranoid? You shouldn't make men the center of your universe."

I didn't bother responding. I turned to head into the department, but Jason grabbed my wrist.

"Are you feeling sick? Is something wrong with the baby?"

This pregnancy hadn't come easily.

When he found out, Jason had been terrified we would lose it like before. He stayed in church long after the lights dimmed, lighting candles, bowing his head in quiet prayer, asking God to watch over us both.

I pulled my hand free. "It's just a routine check."

Terence was my father's trusted doctor. He had been taking care of me for years.

"Ms. Hart, because of your previous injuries and the miscarriage you had before, if you terminate this pregnancy, it may be very difficult for you to conceive again in the future."

I didn't hesitate. "I've made up my mind."

Keeping this child would mean reliving the past over and over again.

This time, I couldn't afford to be soft.

When I walked out of the hospital, Jason was leaning against his car. The ground around him was littered with cigarette butts.

When he saw me, he instinctively put out the cigarette.

"Come home with me. We're married. It doesn't have to be like this."

I looked at him. "We're married? Then what about you and Maddy? And all those other women? Are they your wives, too? Jason, bigamy is illegal."

A flicker of impatience crossed his face. "I told you, don't push me."

Maddy stepped out of the car then, draping herself over him.

"Are we going or not? The baby's hungry." Her eyes slid toward me as her tone shifted. "The doctor said our baby's perfectly healthy. I guess women like us, who fight our way through life, are just built differently. We're not like some delicate wives who can't even hold onto a pregnancy."

I raised my hand, but Jason caught my wrist midair. "Diana, that's enough. Maddy's not wrong."

Cold spread through me, inch by inch.

The calm I had been holding onto these past few days shattered. I turned back into that woman who used to grab his collar and lose control.

"Jason, she might not know how we lost our child, but you do, don't you?"

He just looked at me coldly as I unraveled in front of him. When I finally burned through all my anger, he calmly opened the back door of the car.

"If you're done, come home."

Ever since Maddy showed up, the front passenger seat had become hers. Every time I protested, Jason would coax me like I was a child.

"Maddy gets carsick. Be good. Don't make a fuss."

But he forgot that I would sometimes get carsick, too.

"I've got plans tonight. I'm not going back."

Jason paused, one hand still on the car door, then let out a low laugh. "Diana, this kind of playing hard to get doesn't suit you."

I smiled. "This time, I mean it. I don't want you anymore."

The man I was supposed to marry was back. I wasn't going to be Jason's delicate rose anymore.

-

After Diana left, Jason couldn't stop thinking about the way she smiled when she walked away, especially when she didn't reply to a single message for days.

The unease in his chest kept growing.

Then his phone rang, sharp and sudden, cutting through his thoughts.

"Check the news. Now."

He opened the video.

"Gunnerson Elite Ryan Morton to Marry the Harts' Heiress."

In all of Gunnerson, there was only one Hart heiress.

Diana.