"Val, I have to say this one more time—something about Hazel Qiao doesn't sit right with me. She's not as simple as she seems." Ethan's voice dropped low. "You nearly died getting Renee to marry you. You know her. If she ever finds out the truth, she'll never forgive you. Not in this lifetime."

Val laughed, the sound dripping with certainty.

"Relax. She'll never know."

His tone softened, almost tender. "Hazel is pure. Devoted to me completely. She doesn't want status or recognition—just a child to keep her company for the rest of her life. How could I possibly deny her something so small?"

He couldn't bear to deny Hazel a child.

But he had no problem giving me and my baby every ounce of pain and betrayal.

All those days and nights I thought I was being saved—

I thought it was light breaking into my darkness.

It wasn't.

It was an arrow through my heart.

The warmth was a lie. His love was a lie.

Only the deception and the damage were real.

I stared at my wrist—at the scars layered over scars, old wounds crossed by new ones.

Tears blurred everything.

My body had given out.

I'd become a paranoid wreck, a mental patient haunted by delusions.

Even the child in my belly had been branded a bastard of unknown origin.

And all of it—all of it—because of one photo of Hazel that trended for ten minutes.

For this woman who swore up and down she was innocent, just a poor scholarship student he'd sponsored out of charity—

Val had destroyed me without a second thought.

He watched me drown in nightmares of violation.

He watched me choke on guilt and revulsion for carrying an innocent life.

And he thought it was just a little punishment.

My whole body trembled.

A wave of nausea I'd never felt before crawled up from the soles of my feet.

I couldn't hold it back. I stumbled into the bathroom and retched until my muscles seized.

Val burst in just as I collapsed beside the toilet, tears streaming down my face.

He scooped me up immediately, eyes brimming with concern.

"Sweetheart, did you have another nightmare?"

He crouched in front of me, gripping my hands, his eyes reddening at the edges.

The worry in his gaze was so convincing it cut like glass.

"I found a new hypnotherapist. Just hold on a little longer—you'll forget all the pain soon."

His hands were warm against mine.

But I felt nothing except bone-deep cold.

I moved my cracked lips. "Val... can we stop the hypnosis?"

His brow furrowed. His hand slid to my stomach, his voice low and heavy. "Be good. You need to forget that pain. It's the only way we can start over with no shadows between us." He paused. "I'll raise this child as my own."

What a flawless performance.

I wanted to laugh but couldn't.

No wonder he'd gotten the vasectomy without hesitation.

He already had children—one at home, one outside it.

But because of this act, this counterfeit devotion—

I had drowned in guilt, over and over.

Hating myself for being dirty.

Hating myself for betraying his "true heart."

Hating this demon child for ruining everything.

But reality slapped me awake.

Every patch of skin I'd scrubbed raw until it bled.

Every sleepless night tangled in nightmares.

Every jagged scar carved into my arms.

All of it was punishment—crafted for me.

For Hazel's sake.

The Val who loved me was already dead.

When I didn't respond, he pulled me into his arms. "Sweetheart, tomorrow is Mom's birthday banquet. Let's go together."

I didn't want to go.

But Val insisted it would help me clear my head, and he all but dragged me into the car.

What I didn't expect was to see Hazel Qiao at my mother-in-law's party.

She wore the latest haute couture from Chanel—a fitted dress that cinched deliberately at the waist, showing off the gentle swell of her belly.

Lisa Gilbert's eyes locked onto that bump and didn't leave.

The joy on her face was impossible to hide.

Lisa fussed over Hazel endlessly, showering her with warmth and concern.

She'd even had the kitchen prepare blood bird's nest soup—and insisted on feeding it to Hazel herself, spoonful by spoonful.

I used to wonder why. We were the same, weren't we? Both carrying children whose fathers were supposedly unknown. Yet Lisa doted on Hazel while treating me with nothing but contempt.

Now I understood. She must have known all along that Hazel and Val were together.

The moment I stepped into the room, the warmth drained from Lisa's face like water down a sink.

Hazel noticed immediately. She let out a theatrical gasp and scrambled to her feet, head bowed in that practiced, submissive way of hers.

"Renee, I know my place. I know I shouldn't be here." Her voice trembled just enough. "Please don't be angry with Mrs. Gilbert or Val on my account. I'll leave right now."

I hadn't said a single word since walking through the door.

Yet here she was, performing as if I'd already drawn blood.

It was always like this. I'd do nothing—nothing—and she'd somehow twist it until I looked like the villain and she the helpless victim.

Val's brow creased. "You're already here. Sit down." His tone was clipped, irritated—but laced with something softer underneath. "You're pregnant. Stop making everyone worry."

Every word dripped with annoyance. Every word hid devotion.

Hazel met his eyes. The corner of her mouth curved—barely, almost imperceptibly.

I swallowed the metallic taste rising in my throat and forced a smile. "Being pregnant without a husband must be difficult. Do you even know who the father is?"

Val's hand slipped against the spoon he was warming for me. Metal shrieked against porcelain.

Before he could speak, Lisa cut in with a cold snort.

"As if you know who fathered the thing in your belly."

She didn't even look at me. "Hazel has always been pure. Her child is precious. But some people?" A cruel smile twisted her lips. "They claim they were violated, but who's to say they didn't throw themselves at their captors to stay alive?"

The blood drained from my face. The room tilted.

When I first married into this family, Lisa had been decent to me. Not warm, but civil.

Everything changed after the kidnapping—after they discovered I was pregnant.

Val had insisted on keeping the baby. My baby. He'd even gotten a vasectomy to prove his commitment, to show the world he believed the child was his.

His public defiance, his obvious favoritism toward me—it had infuriated Lisa to the point of illness.

After that, she never looked at me the same way again.

"Mom." Val's voice sharpened. "It's a happy occasion. Can we not do this?"

He reached over and gently rubbed my head, his touch familiar, almost tender. "Don't be scared, sweetheart. Your husband's here. No one's going to hurt you or our baby."

Then, as if it were an afterthought, he added: "And maybe... don't interrogate Hazel about her situation. You've been through enough to understand. She's just a young girl. Whatever happened, I'm sure she had no choice."

I stared at the man before me.

Same face. Same voice.

A complete stranger.

How pathetic.

The man who always stepped in front of me, who shielded me from every storm—he was the one who'd brought the storm in the first place.

And he didn't even know it. He was still playing the devoted husband, so deep in his own performance that he'd fooled himself as thoroughly as he'd fooled me.

I set down my chopsticks. My appetite had turned to ash.

"I need to use the restroom."

I'd barely risen when Lisa's voice sliced through the air behind me.

"Bonnie. Get the disinfectant. I want every inch of this house sanitized. Three times."

I turned just in time to see Bonnie Chavez grab a large bottle and aim it directly at me.

The spray hit my face, my chest, my arms. I stumbled backward, eyes streaming, lungs burning, choking on the chemical fog.

Through the tears, I looked at Val. Help me. Please.

He took my hand—then his expression crumpled into something apologetic and weak.

"Sweetheart, Mom's just upset. It's her birthday. Can you just... bear with it? For today?"

Before the last word left his mouth, Hazel coughed softly.

I didn't even have time to react.

Val's warmth vanished from my hand.

In the space of a heartbeat, he'd pulled Hazel into his arms.

One moment, he'd been all gentle persuasion, coaxing me to be patient.

The next, his eyes turned glacial as he roared at Bonnie, "Are you blind? Watch where you're spraying that thing! If anything happens to Hazel's baby, I'll skin you alive."

Bonnie's face drained of color.

I couldn't move either. My whole body felt flash-frozen, trapped in a sudden arctic wasteland.

The air went silent for a heartbeat.

Val finally seemed to register his own outburst. He released Bonnie and reached for me, flustered. "Renee, it's not what you think—"

I flinched away from his hand on instinct and bolted out the door.

He didn't follow. I didn't go far—just a few steps past the threshold, close enough to hear everything.

Without me there, the laughter and chatter inside drifted out in fragments.

"Hazel's carrying so high—definitely a boy."

"I had a gold luck pendant made for the baby, Hazel. Take it. This is the first grandchild of the Gilbert family."

"Val, you can't keep a tainted woman around. Girls as pure and kind as Hazel are rare these days. You need to treasure her."

"You're both still young. Hurry up and give me a few more grandchildren."

Val's voice carried a smile. "I know, Mom. I'll make it happen."

Hazel's soft voice chimed in, sweet as syrup. "As long as Val wants them, I'll give you as many grandchildren as you'd like, Mrs. Gilbert."

"Mrs. Gilbert? Call me Mom."

"Mom."

Laughter erupted inside, warm and familial.

I leaned against the cold wall outside, my heart carved open while still beating.

Vasectomy?

Another lie. Just another lie.

In that moment, the last flicker of warmth inside me guttered out completely.

I scrubbed a hand over my face, then pulled out my phone and dialed a number.

I went home alone and started packing my things.

But before long, the bedroom door slammed open. A brutal grip seized my arm and wrenched me out.

I barely caught my balance before I met Val's bloodshot eyes.

"Renee Summers." His voice was barely human. "Just because you're filthy, you have to drag Hazel down with you? When did you become this vicious?"

I frowned. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Hazel stood nearby, tears still glistening on her cheeks. She pointed a trembling finger at a phone on the coffee table, voice breaking with sobs. "Renee, why would you post those things online? Saying I was kidnapped, that I was so scared they'd kill me I... I stripped to seduce the kidnappers? That I'm carrying some stranger's bastard?"

Her breath hitched. "This baby is innocent. This baby is a product of love between me and his father. How could you slander me like this?"

She collapsed into Val's arms, weeping so hard she could barely breathe.

I stared at this pathetic performance, and something in me snapped. I laughed—a cold, brittle sound.

"Hazel Qiao, why would I bother smearing you? How long are you going to keep playing these cheap tricks?"

"You have every reason." Val cut me off, his voice like a blade, his eyes heavy with disgust. "Because you're the one who stripped for those kidnappers to save your own skin. You're the tainted one. And you can't stand seeing any innocent girl stay clean when you couldn't."

"I accepted that you were carrying a bastard. Wasn't I good enough to you?" His jaw tightened. "Why can't you just leave Hazel alone?"

"If I'd known you were this depraved and vicious, I never would have married you."

I stood frozen, struck by lightning.

Val's contemptuous sneer. The smirk Hazel was barely hiding at the corner of her lips.

A thousand needles, all piercing my heart at once.

This. This was the man I'd loved for five years.

I laughed until tears spilled down my face.

Something about that—my laugh, my tears—seemed to snap something in Val. He grabbed my arm and dragged me through the house, shoving me into the pitch-black basement.

"Stay here and think about what you've done." The door groaned on its hinges. "When you're ready to admit you were wrong, I'll let you out."

The lock clicked into place.

Darkness swallowed me whole.