When I returned from a five-year overseas assignment, I walked out of the airport expecting Dan Hill to finally keep his promise and propose to me.

Instead, he stood there with a distant expression.

“Stella, I’m sorry.”

Before I could even process the apology, he continued, “I was the one who arranged your transfer order. I deliberately had you reassigned to that remote project out in the desert because I needed space for Hayley and myself. She was pregnant back then, and I didn’t have any other choice.”

A long silence followed, and I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood.

Five years of scorching heat, endless dust storms, and sixteen-hour workdays in a place that felt forgotten by the rest of the world…

I finally learned it had all been a carefully constructed prison of his making.

“You’re overbearing and confrontational. I was afraid you’d go after her. I’m telling you the truth now not because I expect forgiveness, but because I hope you’ll stay calm and not make this uglier than it needs to be.”

His voice carried an air of weary resignation.

I took a step back to avoid him as he reached out toward me. I was smiling through my tears.

“Dan, this could’ve been a clean break, but you’ve ruined that.”

Dan’s car stayed behind my cab, and he flashed its headlights twice.

The driver glanced at me through the rearview mirror.

“Miss, that car has been following us. A friend of yours?”

I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth.

“No.”

“Want me to lose him?”

“It’s fine. He knows where I’m going.”

The apartment building looked exactly the same as I remembered, aside from the new advertisements plastered inside the elevator.

Dragging my suitcase behind me, I stopped at the door and pulled out my key.

The sound of the lock turning was wrong.

The door opened from the inside.

Hayley Hill stood there in a silk nightgown with a little boy of three or four in her arms.

“You’re back.”

The child wrapped his arms around her neck and looked at me curiously.

“Mom, who’s this lady?”

“She used to live here.”

Hayley gently patted his head before looking back at me.

“Would you like to come in? Dan told me you were coming back today. I just didn’t expect you this early.”

I looked past her into the living room.

Their wedding portrait hung on the wall, and the old couch had been replaced. There were children’s clothes hanging out to dry on the balcony.

“This place—”

“It’s my home.” Hayley cut me off with a soft and calm voice.

“It’s been so for five years. The moment Dan got the apartment, he moved me in.”

The wheels of my suitcase halted in the doorway.

“He told me that we’d get married once you had gone to the desert.”

The boy began squirming impatiently, eager to get down and play.

Hayley set him on the floor. He immediately ran toward a toy chest in the living room.

Leaning against the doorframe, she studied me for a moment.

“You’ve lost a lot of weight. Those years out there must have been rough.”

I tightened my grip on the handle of my suitcase.

“Is Dan coming back?”

“No idea.”

She arched an eyebrow, a hint of mockery in her eyes.

“What do you need him for? Money? An explanation?”

“I don’t want either.”

“Why have you come back then?”

I looked at her carefully maintained face and suddenly felt sick.

“I came back,” I said, forcing myself to stay calm, “to get my stuff back.”

Hayley sneered.

“What stuff could you possibly still have here? I threw out your clothes years ago. Dan said your books were taking up space, so he sold them. Oh, and those houseplants you kept? They all died.”

She paused, then added, “I stopped watering them on purpose.”

I turned and pressed the elevator button.

Her voice followed me from behind.

“Stella, don’t make this uglier than it has to be. You have nothing now. You can’t beat me.”

The elevator doors slid shut.

I leaned back against the cold metal wall and closed my eyes.

Five years.

I thought I had been climbing the ladder of my career. It turned out I had just been giving them their honeymoon.

The next day, I visited the office to complete the paperwork for my return.

When Linda Grazer from the human resources department saw me, a complicated expression crossed her face.

“Stella, about your position...”

“I know. Hayley took over while I was gone.”

I set my suitcase in the corner.

“It’s fine. Just assign me a regular post.”

Linda sighed and pulled up my personnel file on her computer.

“Your five years in the desert are recorded here as a voluntary posting to support the border region, with successful completion of the mission despite harsh conditions.”

“That’s true.”

“But...” She lowered her voice. “On the final reports for the three projects you led, every first author is listed as Hayley.”

I was stunned.

“How’s that possible? Those were my…”

“You signed off on it.”

Linda opened a document and turned the monitor toward me.

“Look. This agreement was filed five years ago. You signed it and approved shared ownership of the project results.”

The signature was mine.

However, I had no memory of ever signing such a document.

“You were leaving in a hurry back then. A lot of the paperwork was handled by Mr. Hill on your behalf.”

Linda hesitated, as though considering whether to say more.

“Stella, there are some things... Never mind. You should head to your desk.”

My desk was tucked away in a corner beside the printer. Its surface was piled high with random office clutter.

As coworkers passed by, some pretended not to see me. Others offered a brief nod in acknowledgment before moving on.

Only Susan Brooks came over.

“How are you back?”

“The project ended.”

“Then, you...”

She glanced toward Hayley’s office.

“Be careful. She’s the department head now, and Mr. Hill is her husband.”

I set my bag down.

“I know.”

That afternoon, my phone rang.

Dan’s name flashed across the screen.

I ignored it.

He called again and again.

I answered on the fourth call.

“Stella, we need to talk.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

“Hayley is pregnant with our second child. The doctor says the pregnancy is unstable, and she needs to avoid stress.”

He sounded exhausted.

“Could you stay away from us for a while?”

A child’s voice echoed from somewhere in the background. “Dad! Mom’s throwing up again!”

“Coming, buddy.”

Dan hurriedly spoke into the phone one last time. “That’s all. I’m asking you as a favor.”

He hung up.

I stared at the dark screen and found myself thinking back to five years ago.

The day the transfer order came through, I called Dan in tears.

He had said, “I’m on my way. Just wait for me.”

When he arrived, he pulled me into his arms and said, “Go. Think of it as an opportunity. When you get back, we’ll get married.”

That day, there had been a faint trace of perfume on him. It was not the cologne he usually wore.

I finally knew why. It was Hayley’s perfume.

I went to the hospital for a full medical examination.

The doctor frowned as he studied the report.

“Ms. Elba, your condition...”

“Just tell me.”

“Endometriosis. Your ovarian function has declined significantly.”

The doctor adjusted his glasses.

“The chances of conceiving naturally are close to zero.”

I gripped the report so tightly that the edge of the paper bit into my palm.

“Is it because of my working conditions?”

“Years of high-intensity work, chronic stress, and the climate in the desert…”

The doctor paused.

“You’re still young. If you start treatment now, there may still be a chance.”

I walked out of the examination room and into a hallway filled with expectant mothers.

They sat with their hands resting on their swollen bellies. Their faces were glowing with quiet happiness.

A husband knelt down and pressed his ear to his wife’s stomach to listen for the baby’s movement.

I edged past them and pushed open the door to the emergency stairwell.

The stairwell was empty.

I crouched down and buried my face in my knees.

I told myself not to cry.

If I cried, it would mean they had won.

Three days later, the company held its annual gala.

I had no intention of going, but Susan said, “You’re a longtime employee. It’ll look bad if you don’t show up.”

I wore a simple black dress and kept to a corner of the ballroom.

The lights were bright, and the music was loud.

When Dan and Hayley arrived together, they immediately became the center of attention.

“Mr. and Mrs. Hill, congratulations!”

“A second baby! That’s wonderful news!”

Hayley thanked everyone with a smile. Her hand never left her stomach.

Dan kept an arm around her waist. Every time he looked down at her, his eyes were full of tenderness.

Someone spotted me and subtly nodded in my direction.

The room fell quiet for a brief moment. Then, the chatter resumed as if nothing had happened.

With one hand resting on her pregnant belly, Hayley made her way toward me.

“Stella, it’s been a long time.”

I held my glass of champagne.

“Congratulations.”

“Thank you.”

She gently rubbed her stomach.

“We consulted a psychic. She said it would be a girl, and Dan was over the moon. He said he hoped our daughter would take after her mother.”

She looked at me and suddenly lowered her voice. “You know, Dan said if he hadn’t sent you away, he probably would’ve stayed torn between us for a long time.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“What I’m saying is...” She smiled sweetly.

“Thank you for stepping aside back then. Without your sacrifice, we wouldn’t have the life we have today.”

My hand was trembling.

A few drops of champagne splashed out and stained my dress.

“Hayley, do you know that when you were pregnant with your first child, I was out there working in freezing temperatures, running a dangerously high fever, and almost died?” I looked her straight in the eyes.

She blinked.

“What about it?”

“I called him seventeen times, and he never answered. It was our anniversary.”

She smiled.

“He was helping me choose a wedding gown.”

I took a deep breath.

Then, she added, “It was a limited-edition Vera Wang gown—the one with the pearl embroidery around the waist.”

I had tried that gown on five years ago.

Back then, Dan had said, “We’ll buy this for our wedding.”

It turned out that when he said “we,” he had never meant me and him.

I set down my glass and turned to leave.

At some point, Dan had appeared behind us.

He looked at me with a mixture of emotions in his eyes.

“Stella—”

“Don’t say my name, it makes me sick.” I cut him off.

I walked out of the ballroom. Rain was falling outside.

I stood beneath the eaves and watched the downpour blur the city into a single grey haze.

Footsteps sounded behind me.

Dan had followed me out.

He held an umbrella in his hand and offered it to me.

“Take it. You’ll catch a cold.”

“Why do you care?”

He fell silent for a moment.

“I know you hate me.”

“I don’t hate you.”

I said, “I just think I wasted five years on someone who wasn’t worth it.”

“Those five years—”

I cut him off. “I worked sixteen-hour days during those five years in the middle of nowhere. My periods stopped for months at a time. My hair was falling out in handfuls. I endured all of it because I kept telling myself that I would finally marry you when I came back.”

The color drained from his face.

“As for you, in those same five years, you got married, had a child, and now, you’re expecting another.” I let out a laugh.

“I’m sorry.”

“What good is your apology?”

I looked straight at him.

“Dan, you’ve made it impossible even to hate you. You’ve made me feel like a fool.”

The rain came down harder.

He opened the umbrella and tried to angle it over me.

I pushed his hand away and stepped into the downpour.

The rain was freezing, and it soaked through my clothes within seconds.

One week later, I received a call from home.

Mom was crying on the phone.

“Stella, your dad’s in the hospital!”

I rushed home immediately. My father, who had struggled with heart disease for years, lay in the hospital bed with a gray, ashen face.

Mom grabbed my hand.

“Someone sent your dad a letter. It said that you... that you were the other woman and that you broke up someone’s family.”

“I did no such thing!”

“There were photos!”

Mom wiped away her tears. “They included text messages between you and Dan. There were even statements from people at your company.”

I snatched the envelope.

The photographs inside were doctored, and the chat logs were fabricated.

However, they were alarmingly convincing.

“Dad, please, let me explain...”

Dad opened his eyes and looked at me for a long moment.

“I believe you,” he said.

Then, he closed his eyes.

A shrill alarm erupted from the heart monitor.

Doctors and nurses rushed into the room.

I was pushed out of the ward.

Outside the door, Dan stood there.

He held a fruit basket in his hands.

“I came to see Mr. Elba,” he said.

A nurse passed by and murmured under her breath, “Mr. Hill is such a good man. He even visits his ex-girlfriend’s father.”

I stared at him before I snapped. I lunged forward and slapped him.

The fruit basket fell to the floor, and fruit rolled everywhere.

“You did this!”

“I don’t know what—”

“You don’t know?”

I grabbed the front of his shirt.