"Divorce? What are you playing at now?" Jasper was startled when I mentioned divorce.

He flung down the baby's things he had just packed up and began hurling abuse at me. "All you do is make a fuss! Haven't you had enough? Will you only regret this if I agree to divorce you?

"Didn't I already explain things to you? Nicole's baby is gone, and she doesn't want anything. All she wants is a baby. She's already in such a pitiful state. Why can't you just give her the baby?"

The wound on my abdomen was hurting again. I forced myself to endure the pain and looked up at him. "She can have whatever she wants. Give me my baby back."

Jasper immediately threw the things he was holding down in front of me angrily. "Aria, have you had enough? I've explained this to you countless times. She and I are innocent! Nothing is going on between us!

"Normally, I don't care if you get jealous, but why must you make things difficult for me at a time like this? Nicole is right. You're just too jealous, and you're so cold-blooded! You have no compassion at all!"

I was in so much pain that I could not speak. I had broken out in a cold sweat.

Just then, the doorbell suddenly started ringing incessantly. Seeing that I was sitting on the sofa without moving, Jasper went to open the door.

"Hello. Is Ms. Carlton at home? I'm the nurse who's come to take care of her—"

But before the nurse could finish, Jasper said harshly, "She doesn't need you! Get lost!" Then, he closed the door with a loud bang.

He turned and saw that I was leaning against the sofa, tears streaming down my face from the pain.

Jasper's expression changed, and he walked straight over to me. "What's the matter with you? You've been training as a dancer since you were young. Haven't you always been healthy?

"Nicole's always had a weak constitution, and she's always sick with something or other. She even had a stillbirth, but even so, she wasn't as in much discomfort as you are now.

"You're not faking it, are you? I think you are faking it. Don't you normally get up to all kinds of things because your health allows you to? I've never seen you get hurt.

"You only gave birth to a baby. Why did you have to be so pretentious and get a nurse? Nicole's so much stronger than you are. I sent her to a sanatorium, and she was actually worried about wasting money."

So I wasn't even worthy of having a nurse after giving birth? Nicole only had to whimper for her to take my place at the sanatorium and take everything that had originally been mine!

I clenched my teeth and forced myself to hold on as I stuffed the painkiller on the table into my mouth. I lay back on the sofa and caught my breath.

Jasper brought me a bowl of soup that was already cold. It had a film of oil floating on its surface.

"Drink this. Nicole asked the people at the sanatorium to pack this up for you. She said that you just had a baby as well, and you'll need nourishment to get your strength back.

"However, you can't be as unwell as Nicole is. She was at death's door when she gave birth, and she even lost her child. Despite that, she's still showing concern for you. You should apologize to her for what you said at the time."

I looked at the layer of oil on the soup, and the limp garnish floating on it. It was in a transparent plastic container, and I could even see a half-gnawed chicken drumstick sunk at the bottom. Plus, the smell of onions made me move my face aside in discomfort.

"I won't drink it."

I don't know if it was because of the pain or the disappointment, but tears were gathering at the corners of my eyes. In the end, they leaked out.

Jasper had once treated me very well. He used to remember that I hated onions, and whenever we went out to eat, he would pick out any onions in the food.

However, he had changed ever since Nicole came back pregnant from overseas.

When Jasper saw that I was not moved by the gesture, he slammed the soup heavily down on the coffee table. It splashed everywhere.

"Aria, don't be so stubborn! If you keep causing a fuss, you'll never see the baby or me again!"

I was so stunned that I momentarily forgot the pain. I had never imagined that the man I had loved for so many years would threaten me with my own child.

"I want to see the baby." I thought about the birth and how difficult it had been, and I hadn't even gotten to see the baby before it was taken away.

It made my heart hurt so much that I felt like I was suffocating.

Jasper seized the chance as if he had found my fatal weakness. He became smug at once and pulled out his phone, getting ready to dial Nicole's number.

"Apologize to Nicole first! If you apologize to her and sign the agreement, I'll let Nicole allow you to see the child, which already belongs to her."

"Apologize? The child that belongs to her?" My disbelief was growing. "You snatched my baby away to give to her, and you want me to apologize to her? What gives you the right to do that?"

Jasper looked displeased at once. He grabbed me by the collar and said menacingly, "That baby is born with my genes. Without me, where would you have gotten a child from? Since it's mine, I'll decide who gets to raise it.

"Keep giving me attitude if you dare. You're not willing to call and apologize to Nicole? Then go straight to her and apologize to her face!"

He yanked me up by the collar and dragged me away.

"Jasper! Let go! It hurts!" The wound on my collarbone was covered with gauze, and as it chafed against my clothes, blood and pus oozed out. The gauze had slipped off.

I'd gotten the wound a month after he went to get Nicole from the airport. He hadn't returned home for ages, but he must have remembered that he had a pregnant wife at home, because he suddenly came home after being gone for a month.

He had cooked me a pot of soup, which he had never done before, and bought me several gifts. He'd apologized to me in a soft voice and told me that things had been very busy at work and that he hadn't had time to send me a message.

Could anyone be so busy with work that they didn't even have a few seconds' time to send a message?

Despite this, I still believed his clumsy excuse, like an idiot. I even felt sorry that he was working so hard whenever he came back smelling like perfume. It was just that, at the time, I had never imagined such a thing.

From the time I got pregnant, he never attended even a single doctor's appointment with me. I was understanding because he worked hard, and I never let him see any discomfort I was suffering from pregnancy.

Now I knew that on all those days when he didn't come home or didn't reply to my messages, he had been meticulously taking care of another pregnant woman.

He had served up the soup he made and said that he wanted to feed me, but then he was interrupted by a call from Nicole. When he heard her crying, he panicked at once and spilled the scalding hot soup all over me.

However, he didn't have any time for me. He'd grabbed his keys and rushed out.

Jasper finally noticed the wounds on my face and the blood and pus that was oozing out relentlessly. He stopped pulling at me and stared at the wounds. The look in his eyes grew less ferocious.

"Why hasn't your wound healed yet?" He crouched down and brushed his fingers over my wound. He swallowed with difficulty. "I'm sorry. I-I didn't know."

I swatted his hand away, feeling only disgust. It seemed that he really had forgotten. He had forgotten that my injuries always healed slowly.

When we were dating, he had announced that he would protect me thoroughly and never let me get hurt. He had even laughed and said that I was like a porcelain statue that had to be handled with care.

However, now he had forgotten it completely.

"I'll take you to the hospital."

My breathing quickened, and I could not even refuse before he pushed me into the car.

I got into the passenger's seat for the first time in a long time, and I realized that the interior of Jasper's car was now decorated in a cartoonish pink.

When Jasper saw me looking around, he rubbed his nose rather guiltily and explained. "Nicole is just childlike. She whined about wanting to change the decor to pink, and I was afraid that she would get angry if I refused and that it would affect the baby, so I changed it."

The interior of the car had once been black and gold. I had found a professional designer to design it for Jasper.

He had liked it very much, and whenever we drove out together in this car, he would compliment my taste and say what a thoughtful wife I was for even thinking about his car interior.

However, how much he liked it and how thoughtful I was as a wife had counted for nothing when faced with Nicole's childlike nature.

There was an ornament on the console with a photo on it. It was a photo of Jasper and Nicole together. They were leaning very close to each other and smiling very happily.

The ornament could be voice-controlled and relied on solar power. They didn't only have one photo together.

Photo after photo of the two of them together revolved and flashed in front of my eyes, looking particularly jarring in the sunlight.

Jasper noticed what I was looking at, and he followed my gaze. As his eyes alighted on the rotating ornament, music started playing.

"If you sneeze, I must be missing you…"

It was Nicole's voice.

"Ahem. The crystal you gave me shattered somehow, and Nicole felt that the car was a little empty, so she put that there. If you don't like it…"

The sunlight was stinging my eyes. I closed them slowly. "It's alright. Let's go to the hospital."

In the past, I would have made a fuss. However, I no longer wanted this man, and I would not care anymore about anything that concerned him.

However, the car had only gone some distance forward when Nicole called, crying. I heard the sound of a baby wailing, and my heart twisted violently at once.

I grabbed Jasper's arm hard. "The baby! What's wrong with the baby? Why is he crying so loudly?"

However, Jasper had no time for me. He flung my hand aside and stopped the car at once before turning it around.

"Get out of the car." His voice was filled with urgency. "Hurry up! Nicole's in such a state that she's crying. I've got to rush over there to see her!"

I yelled with all my strength, "I'm asking you what happened to the baby!"

If he had even shown any concern for the baby, I wouldn't have been so agitated, but all he cared about was how Nicole was. My baby was just a tool for him to make Nicole happy.

"I'm not getting out of the car. I want to go and see the baby."

Jasper dragged me out of the car and looked disdainfully at me. "If you're there, Nicole will overthink. Besides, your current state is going to scare Nicole and the baby. Get a cab to the hospital. When I've dealt with everything, I'll come and take you home."

He looked at the wound on my face and neck, and the contempt in his eyes did not seem to be an act. He did not say anything else and just got into the car before speeding off.

The wound on my abdomen had burst open, and the hand that I held to my stomach was stained with blood. I was so worried about the baby that I was overwhelmed with anxiety, and I fainted.

If a kind-hearted passerby hadn't sent me to the hospital, I would probably have died on that road.

When I'd had the wound rebandaged at the hospital and gotten a prescription, I went home. Jasper rushed angrily toward me. "Who is he?"

My friend Bryan Earnshaw had been helping me along, and he stood in front of me to shield me. I pushed him aside gently and looked straight at Jasper.

I said honestly, "I met him when we both joined the same university club. He works at the hospital and just dropped me off at home on his way back."

Jasper did not believe me. He yanked me over to his side. "Your friend from university? We've been together for so many years. Why have I never heard you mention it before?"

He glared ferociously at my friend.

I gave Jasper a long look. "I also never knew that whenever you went on a business trip overseas both before and after we got married, you were going to see Nicole."

Jasper's expression changed at once. When he saw how cold my expression was, his voice softened slightly.

"Are you still angry about what happened this morning? Nicole was crying so sadly and so urgently that I didn't have time to think about anything else. That's why I made you get out of the car in such a rush.

"Once I was done with Nicole, I called you, but you didn't answer on purpose. I went to several hospitals, but I couldn't find you.

"The moment I get back, I see another man touching you. Are you doing this on purpose, Aria?" There was actually a note of jealousy in his tone.

Bryan saw the weariness in my eyes, and he interrupted Jasper. "Mr. Smith, your wife is currently feeling very weak. If you have the energy to accuse her, why don't you take her home so she can rest?"

Jasper narrowed his eyes and looked Bryan up and down. "These are our family affairs. We don't need an outsider like to you intervene."

Bryan opened his mouth to say something else, but I interrupted him. "You should get going, Bryan. I'm sorry for troubling you so much today. Thank you."

"Are you going to be okay?" Bryan was still worried. He only left when I nodded.

I watched Bryan's figure retreat into the distance, and I turned around to open the door. Behind me, Jasper asked darkly, "Aria, aren't you going to explain things to me?"

I turned around to look at him, and the corners of my mouth twitched slightly. "What do I need to explain?"

"Why didn't you answer my calls? Why are you in an ambiguous relationship with a man?"

I couldn't help snorting with laughter. "When you rushed off to see Nicole and tossed me out of your car, you forgot to toss out my phone with me.

"If you really had gone to the hospital to look for me, you wouldn't have missed me. You would have seen for yourself what I was doing with another man, and you wouldn't have to lob empty accusations at me.

"After all, I'm not you."

How could he say that he had gone to the hospital to get me and that he'd waited for a long time?

It was raining so heavily outside, and Bryan had only helped me along for a few steps, but half his shoulder was already soaked.

If Jasper really had gone to several hospitals to look for me, he wouldn't have turned up to accuse me while looking so neat, without a hair out of place.

Jasper turned white, then red. He pressed his lips together and said impassively, "Nicole—"

But before he could finish, I turned and walked into the house. I did not want to listen to him speak. I only wanted to get divorced as soon as possible and get my baby back.