After having a crush on someone for 10 years, out of love, my father drugged his friend and placed him on my bed.

When he woke at dawn the next morning, his eyes were ice-cold. But he still accept our engagement.

However, life after marriage wasn’t as good as I thought.

Mike Ashton would frequently fly abroad and stay there for a long time.

I gave birth to our daughter on my own as I waited for him to return home.

After four years, when I heard that he was returning home, I postponed everything and went to the airport expectantly with our daughter in my arms.

Our daughter reached out her little hand and was hoping for a hug from him.

He just looked at me indifferently and said in a cold voice, “I’m sorry, but I’m a neat freak.”

From then on, my daughter and I would wash our hands at least three times every day and the house would be spotless. However, he still rarely came home and never gave our daughter a warm hug.

That was until when I accidentally saw a video with Mike in it.

“Mike, what do you think is the happiest thing in the world?”

He answered casually, “I think it’s when I tucked Oliver into bed and dragged Jennifer into the bathroom when I was abroad last week.”

The people around him all laughed, but my heart felt ice-cold.

Jennifer Bundred was Mike’s ex-girlfriend who he still had an entanglement with and Oliver was her son.

It seemed that he had been living with them during the time that he was abroad for the past four years.

This fact finally made me give up all illusions. I left a divorce agreement for him, gave up my and our daughter’s identities, and went abroad to start a new life.

When the nanny brought my daughter home from nursery, the latter's eyes were swollen and red from crying. Such a site made my heart ache.

"Mommy, do I not have a daddy..."

As she sobbed, her body would tremble. This made her look extremely aggrieved.

"Daddy promised me that he would go to the nursery's parents' evening, but when he arrived, he told everyone that he's Oliver's daddy."

As Melanie said those words, tears continued to trickle down her cheeks.

"Mommy, my classmates all said that I don't have a daddy..."

Her words made my heart ache. My heart felt like there was a hand squeezing it. My eyes instantly turned red and I quickly pulled Melanie into my arms.

I opened my mouth in an attempt to comfort her, but when Mike Ashton's cold face appeared in my head, no words came out.

At that moment, I was overwhelmed by regret and hatred. I regretted marrying Mike.

I thought that after enduring those four long years, Mike had finally had a change of heart and returned to the country to enjoy life with Melanie and me.

However, it turned out that it was simply because Jennifer mentioned she wanted to come back. With just one word from her, he acted like a puppet, booking plane tickets without hesitation. He also obsessed over every little detail and even enrolled his ex-girlfriend's son in the best local nursery.

When Melanie and I went to the airport to pick Mike up, she was wearing her favorite dress and was jumping happily around me.

She also asked nervously, "Mommy, will Daddy like me?"

I forced myself to remain calm and nodded with a smile. "You're Daddy's only daughter, Melanie. Of course, he'll like you."

However, when we arrived at the airport expectantly, the site we saw made our hearts ache.

Mike cast me a cold glance, but his hand clutched Jennifer's tightly, and in his arms, he steadily held a little boy around four years old.

That gentle, doting expression of his stung my eyes and made them ache with tears.

"Sorry, I’m going to settle Jennifer and Oliver first. You can head home," he said.

His voice carried not a trace of warmth. He didn't spare Melanie even a single look—his gaze remained locked on Oliver from beginning to end.

Thinking of this, I shut my eyes in despair, my heart filled with bitterness.

After washing Melanie’s face and coaxing her to sleep with great difficulty, I noticed her tiny brows still furrowed tightly.

Even in her dreams, she murmured softly, “Daddy, I want a hug…”

That faint voice was like a sharp needle piercing straight into my already shattered heart.

I couldn’t help but wonder—if it hadn’t been for that absurd night four years ago, maybe Melanie could have grown up carefree like any other child, wrapped in her father’s love, without suffering such injustice and pain.

The days from four years ago still haunted me like a nightmare.

Back then, Mike and my father were close. Though he was barely older than me, his talent and drive had forged a deep bond between them—one that left me secretly pining for him for ten long years.

No one could understand the bittersweet ache of it, except my father, who saw it all and felt sorry for me.

At last, he gritted his teeth and made a bold, outrageous decision—he drugged Mike and, while he was in a dazed state, sent him straight into my bed.

When I saw what happened, I widened my eyes in shock, my voice trembling. “Dad, are you trying to kill me?”

My father let out a heavy sigh, his eyes full of helplessness and affection.

“Sweetheart, I’ve seen it all—how much you love Mike. I could tell he had feelings for you too, but he’s just too stubborn to admit it.”

He paused, seemingly remembering something, then continued, “He was drunk that day, and I even heard him mumble your name. My heart was burning with anxiety. Seeing you two dragging things out, I decided to give you a push.”

I was both furious and horrified, filled with resistance. Just as I was about to scold him for his recklessness, an intense wave of heat surged through me like a tidal wave.

I turned to my father in panic, only to see him smirking slyly.

“Sweetheart, I added something to your drink too. Make the most of tonight,” he said.

With that, he turned and slammed the door shut, locking it with a loud bang.

When that night finally ended, Mike slowly woke up.

His eyes shifted from dazed confusion to icy coldness in an instant.

He looked at me with cold eyes and said, “Shannon, I’ll be responsible. I’ll marry you.”

At that moment, my heart swelled with complicated emotions.

I was secretly overjoyed by his promise, but also filled with anxiety over how it all began.

I thought that maybe I was going to live a happy life, but reality turned out to be far crueler than I had imagined.

One encounter at a gathering shattered my fragile hope like a bolt of lightning.

I had unintentionally overheard him talking with a friend.

The friend’s voice was tinged with disappointment and frustration.

“Mike, man, don’t you know how lucky you are? That girl, Shannon, she’s got the looks, the figure, the money—and most importantly, she’s head over heels for you. Just settle down with her already.”

Mike took a drag from his cigarette, a cold smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

But that smile was sharp as a blade.

"At first, I did have some feelings for her—but I never expected her to be someone who sleep with others so easily."

He paused, took a long drag from his cigarette, and through the swirling smoke, his expression grew even colder.

"Just thinking about how she drugged me that night and threw herself at me… it makes me feel disgusted."

I stood frozen, overwhelmed by a tide of grievance and sorrow.

I opened my mouth, unsure how to even begin explaining the truth, but before I could say a word, he had already applied for a visa and left the country just two weeks later.

And as if fate was mocking me, that absurd night had left me with a child.

In the days that followed, I bore the hardship of pregnancy alone.

I brought my daughter Melanie into the world in solitude, and every day since, I waited in that empty house, endlessly hoping for his return.

But after all the waiting, what I got instead was the sight of him entangled with Jennifer and her son—that scene cut into my heart again and again like a blade.

In this echoing, empty villa, loneliness clung to me like a shadow.

Feeling utterly desolate, I slowly pulled out my phone.

My fingertips trembled as I hovered over Mike’s number, wanting to ask when he was coming back.

Just then, the door creaked open.

Mike walked in with large strides, his expression cold and distant.

His eyes casually swept over the sleeping Melanie as he said indifferently, “Oliver is coming over to play tomorrow. You and Melanie should go out.”

Seeing the confusion on my face, he gave a faint smile—but it didn’t reach his eyes.

He explained blandly, “Oliver gets possessive. He can’t stand other kids calling me ‘dad’.”

The anger that had just been simmering in my chest suddenly ignited like a barrel of gunpowder, exploding all at once.

I trembled with rage, but my lips curved into a mocking, bitter smile as I stared at Mike and said, enunciating every word, “Mike, do you even know who your real child is?”

I paused, taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm myself, though my voice still quivered uncontrollably.

“Do you have any idea what happened to Melanie at nursery today…”

Before I could finish, Mike furrowed his brows slightly and raised his hand to cut me off impatiently.

“Shannon, there’s no need for you to remind me about this kind of thing.”

He turned his head slightly, his tone detached, as if stating something utterly inconsequential.

“It was my oversight at the nursery today. I’m sorry for that. But Oliver also had a parents' evening. Jennifer is raising him alone after the divorce—she’s overwhelmed, and she really couldn’t handle it on her own.”

He let out a soft sigh, and a flicker of emotion I couldn’t quite decipher passed through his eyes.

He continued, “Besides, I made a promise to Jennifer long before I ever met you—that no matter what happened, I would never let her suffer.”

At that, his gaze suddenly became sharp.

When he looked at me, there was distance and coldness in his eyes.

“I already married you, just like you wanted. But don’t try to stop me from caring for them. I owe them that.”

With those words, he casually tossed his jacket onto the couch and headed straight to the bathroom.

The bathroom door slammed shut with a loud bang, and the sound of rushing water roared to life.

That sound—it felt like an impenetrable wall, drowning out my helpless sobs, swallowing them whole.