To make up for past regrets with his first love, my husband, Pierce Ronan, lied that he could see everyone’s lifespan.

He told me I had sixty years left, but his first love, Jessica Stone, had only seven days to live. So, for those seven days, he said he had to fulfill the promises of their youth.

He brought her home, cared for her, and when they went back to their old college campus to relive their love, I didn’t protest.

When he confessed his love to her and planned the wedding of the century, asking me to be the bridesmaid, I didn’t raise my voice.

It wasn’t until he wanted to break the final taboo — in our marital bedroom — that he looked at me with guilt in his eyes and begged me to move out.

The housemaids watched, snickering behind their hands, but I only smiled and nodded in agreement.

I packed my bags, carried our child, and moved into the guest room next door.

Seeing how obedient I remained, Pierce was touched.

“I promise, this will be the last time I wrong you. Once Jessica passes, I’ll make it up to you.”

What he didn’t know was that I had already seen through his lies.

What he also didn’t know was that the one truly dying of cancer, the one with only seven days left to live, was me.

Three days remained.

Then, I would be gone.

“Did Mrs. Ronan just slink off to the guest room like that? If she has to listen to them through the walls tonight, won’t she die of a heartbreak?”

“You want to help her or something? Didn’t you see how much Mr. Ronan dotes on Ms. Jessica? Mrs. Ronan is nothing to him now. You should know better who to flatter.”

“True, Mr. Ronan and Ms. Jessica is a perfect match.”

I cradled my child, Holly, as I pushed boxes out of the master bedroom into the guest room.

My eyes searched for help, but no one offered it.

On the fifth day after my diagnosis, Pierce Ronan planned to sleep with Jessica Stone in our marital bedroom.

The housemaids carefully removed every trace of me. Photos of us, our bedsheets, and the little tokens of our life together were all quickly stored away.

They replaced the bedsheets, brought in Jessica’s personal belongings, and the couple’s wedding photo.

Pierce swept his cold gaze over the room, not sparing me a single glance.

He knelt by the sofa, tenderly feeding strawberries to Jessica, his voice thick with affection.

“I promised you everything a bride deserves — you won’t be shortchanged, sweetheart. Come on, open your mouth…”

In my arms, Holly sensed something was wrong and whimpered softly, but Pierce acted as if he didn’t hear.

His heart and eyes had a place only for Jessica, while Holly and I were left to be mocked by everyone around us.

I rocked Holly gently as a deep, bitter ache flooded my chest.

But what could I do?

I was dying.

The boxes scraped across the floor as I worked.

Once I finished, I didn’t want to speak, I just wanted to retreat quietly to my room.

As I walked through the living room, Jessica stubbornly refused to let me go.

Pierce coaxed her for a long time before she tearfully spoke up.

“I don’t have many days left, and I can’t have children. I just want to take Holly for a few days to feel what it’s like to be a mother. But… I’m afraid of offending you, Lorien.”

In an instant, every gaze in the room turned and fixed on me.

I locked eyes with Pierce, my gaze unrelenting.

He had already let Jessica parade openly into our home, and I had become the maids’ private joke.

Could he truly be so heartless as to snatch away our child, leaving me unable to even look at Holly in my final days?

The moment Pierce saw the sorrow on the delicate face before him, his heart softened.

“Lorien, since you’ve already given up our room, you won’t mind letting Jessica have Holly for a few days, right?” he pleaded.

I almost forgot, Jessica was the woman he had sworn to marry in his youth.

If Pierce hadn’t loved her so deeply, if he hadn’t broken up with her back then just to avoid holding back her future, they would have long been husband and wife.

Instead, I had merely picked up what had been left behind.

I became his wife because I was convenient, not because he loved me.

Once you removed the duty, there was nothing left between us.

I fought through the dull ache pounding in my head and asked, “What if I do mind? She’s our daughter. She’s only a month old.”

Pierce froze, then turned to me coldly.

“I told you, it’s just three days. Jessica is not well. She’s never been a mother. What’s the harm in letting her keep Holly for a while?

“You still have so many years left! You’ll have plenty of time to be with Holly.”

“She’s my daughter! Without my consent, no one can take her away!” I snapped.

I had given birth to Holly while fighting for my life, yet now I had only three days left to live.

She would never see me again.

“I didn’t think you could be so selfish,” Pierce growled, his brows knitting, his voice dark.

“Can’t you even wait for just three days?”

I couldn’t.

Of course, I couldn’t.

But before the words could leave my mouth, he ordered the maids to seize me. They pried Holly from my arms and passed her to Jessica.

I clenched my teeth, eyes burning red as I glared at him.

It felt as if my heart had been ripped out of my chest.

Meanwhile, Jessica smiled radiantly, her eyes brimming with triumph as she looked at me.

At that moment, no physical pain could compare to the agony inside my body.

I struggled fiercely against the maids, lunging forward to grab Holly, desperate to take her back.

The moment my hand caught the edge of the swaddle, a flicker of joy flashed through me, but then I caught sight of the sly curve at the corner of Jessica’s lips.

I hesitated, and in that instant, Jessica suddenly let her body fall backward, her arms releasing the swaddle without warning.

Seeing Holly slip from her hands, I instinctively reached out and snatched her safely into my arms.

The force of the motion sent me crashing to the floor, pain shooting up my elbow.

Gasps of alarm filled the room.

Pierce, however, had caught Jessica.

She nestled in his embrace, her voice trembling with panic.

“If you didn’t want to let me take Holly, you could’ve just said so, Lorien! There was no need to use her just to push me down and hurt me.”

One of the maids stepped forward and glared at me. “You were so reckless, Mrs. Ronan! Holly is so tiny…if she had fallen and hit her head, no one could’ve saved her!”

Pierce’s eyes had softened for a moment when he saw me fall to the ground, protecting Holly without a thought for myself.

But at the maid’s words, his face twisted with fresh disappointment and anger.

“You’re just cruel, Lorien. How could you use Holly to bully Jessica! A woman like you doesn’t deserve to be a mother!”

As he spoke, he snatched Holly out of my arms.

“These next few days, you can stay in the maids’ quarters. You can serve Jessica properly, just like the maid you are.”

As he finished, he noticed the tears pooling at the corners of my eyes as I curled up on the floor.

For a moment, I saw a flicker of concern cross his face.

Off to the side, Jessica shrugged lightly. “You didn’t hit your head or anything, so why pretend like you’ve got a concussion? Are you trying to gain sympathy from Pierce?

“Holly isn’t even crying, but you, a grown woman, are crying in pain. Isn’t that a bit much?”

Pierce’s fleeting concern vanished, replaced immediately by a look of disgust.

“Stop pretending you’re some pitiful dying woman. Your sixty bright, shining years of life are written clear as day. You can’t fool me.”

My heart ached as I knew that he was the one who had been lying to me all along.

I thought back to the whirlwind marriage between me and Pierce, to the sweet, intimate days we had shared.

Now, it all felt like nothing more than a dream.

In my last trimester, he had set aside his work every day to make soup for me, and rub oils on my belly so I wouldn’t get stretch marks.

He kissed and cuddled me even when I was swollen and unattractive from pregnancy.

But the moment Jessica reappeared just five short days ago, everything changed.

Pierce now shielded Jessica at every turn, and even the maids in the house all sided with her.

I stood utterly alone, abandoned and cornered.

When the pain gradually faded, I pulled myself up from the floor.

The living room had emptied as I lay there.

Pierce had ordered that, for the next few days, I was not to see Holly, not even once.

Even the luggage I had just moved into the guest room had been tossed into the maids’ quarters.

Feeling weak, I tried to head back to the room, but Jessica called out to me.

“Lorien, I’m planning to let my puppy stay here, so why don’t you make do with the basement for a few days?”

I clenched my jaw, shooting a furious glare at Pierce, who stood quietly behind her.

Pierce pressed his lips together, and for once, he stopped her from driving me out again.

“Enough,” he said. “The guest room next door is for your dog. The maids’ quarters are for her.”

Hearing that, Jessica happily ran upstairs, already busy arranging the dog’s little home.

Only then did Pierce turn to me.

“Lorien, I just want to make the best of her time here. I promise, I’ll only be with Jessica for three days,” he explained.

“After that, we’ll have many decades together. She’s just a passing shadow. You’re still my wife, and nothing will change that.”

He reached out to pat my head gently.

“Be good. Be a little more generous. From now on, I swear, I’ll never let you suffer like this again.”

With those words, he turned and left.

But he didn’t know that I didn’t have the time to be generous.

We had no future left.

Five days ago, I was diagnosed with brain cancer with only seven days to live.

I had told Pierce about the cancer, but he hadn’t believed me. He claimed I was just copying Jessica, mocking her.

Since he didn’t believe me, I had stopped explaining.

The pounding pain in my head left me limp and powerless, my body heavy as lead.

Half-conscious, I heard a knock at the door.

When I opened it, I saw that Pierce had sent the senior maid, Margery Higgins, to deliver a bouquet of everlasting gold roses.

He even had Margery relay a message that the flowers were compensation for giving up the master bedroom and for taking Holly away from me.

Margery was the only person in the villa who still truly cared for me.

She forced a smile, hiding her distaste for Jessica, as she tried to console me.

“Mr. Ronan has just been blinded by that vixen. Giving you such an expensive gift shows he still has you in his heart.

“Maybe after this, everything will be fine again. Be strong and just endure a little longer, Mrs. Ronan.”

I silently placed the roses in the corner.

There were already four identical bouquets. I nodded perfunctorily.

Ever since the day Pierce had lied to me, he had secretly sent Margery every day to deliver such flowers.

Margery couldn’t see through it, but after sharing a bed with him for three years, how could I not?

This was just his way of easing his guilt as he continued his charade.

He didn’t even deliver the flowers himself. It seemed that he didn’t believe he had done anything wrong.

Looking at the corner where the flowers sat, I thought: only two more bouquets left.

Once they were all here, I would likely be dead. What would their symbolism even matter?

Brain cancer was torturous.

After enduring an entire night of splitting headaches, I had barely fallen asleep at dawn.

Suddenly, the piercing ring of my phone jolted me awake.

Pressing hard against my temples, I answered the call from my attending physician.

Dr. Frederic Watson’s excited voice burst through the line, “Ms. Lorien, a new drug has just been released overseas, and it can suppress brain cancer cells!

“Supplies are limited, but I pulled some strings and got a bottle. It might help extend your life a bit longer. If you need it, come pick it up at the hospital.”

I wept tears of joy at the news.

Even if it was just for Holly, I had to hold on a few more days.

I agreed and rushed to the hospital for the medicine.

Dr. Watson reminded me repeatedly that the new drug was one of a kind, so I had to safeguard it carefully.

He told me it could help me survive the next two days, maybe even last until the next production batch came through.

Eyes brimming with tears, I paid for the medicine and clutched it tightly in my palm.

As I left the hospital, I ran into Pierce and Jessica. The moment Pierce saw the bottle in my hand, he hurried over and anxiously grabbed my arm.

“Are you sick? Why are you at the hospital getting medicine?”

He turned me this way and that, scrutinizing me carefully to figure out what illness I had.

These past few days, he had kept flipping between me and Jessica, his behavior so inconsistent that, for a moment, I almost believed he still cared.

I found it quite laughable.

“Yeah. Cancer. I don’t have many days left.”

Pierce froze in shock, but Jessica reacted first.

Her tears fell instantly, streaming down her cheeks.

“You know I have cancer, Lorien. I live every day in agony, and you still joke about this with me?

“Of course, the sooner I die, the less I’ll burden Pierce with caring for me. I’m just a cursed, short-lived wretch! Let me die!”

As she spoke, she darted toward the corridor window, trying to climb up and jump. Pierce rushed forward and stopped her just in time.

When he turned to me, I could see that his face was twisted in anger and heartache.

“Why do you always use cancer to provoke Jessica? You’re alive and well! Do you even understand how torturous having an illness can be?” he hissed at me.

“You selfish woman — always pretending you’re about to die! Even the Devil wouldn’t associate with someone like you. Idiot!”

Then he snatched the medicine from my hands.

“I want to see exactly what kind of ‘terminal illness’ you’re claiming to have!” he said angrily.

“Don’t touch my medicine!”

Knowing how rare and precious the drug was, panic surged through me.

I lunged forward, desperate to grab it back, but Pierce shoved me aside in one swift motion, his eyes narrowing as he examined the bottle’s blank label.

The drug was still in its trial phase, so the bottle bore no markings.

Jessica, standing coyly at his side, sneered, “If you’re going to fake cancer, at least put some writing on the prop bottle. This is so clumsy.

“How’s Pierce supposed to believe you? Who knows what’s inside this thing, Pierce? You can’t let her take it. What if it kills her?”

I shot her a cold, biting glance. “Whether it kills me or not is none of your concern—”

Before I could finish, Pierce raised his hand in a sharp sweep and flung the bottle straight out the window.

Outside lay the artificial lake.

“Pierce! That was my medicine!”

My vision turned red and I let out a hoarse, guttural scream.

Pierce flinched under my fury.

Since we married, I've always been soft and gentle.

Even when I gave birth alone while he was away on a business trip, I hadn’t once raised my voice.

This was the first time I had ever lashed out at him.

I thought, just for a moment, that maybe he’d feel a flicker of guilt.

When he came back to his senses, he merely brushed my reaction off.

“Have you been pretending so long you’ve convinced yourself you’re dying of cancer?” he asked, looking completely unfazed by my outburst.

“Drop the act. You can’t fool me, Lorien. You’re disgusting!”

At that moment, my heart went cold.

Then Jessica came closer and leaned in with a cruel smirk.

“Now that the medicine’s gone, you might as well wait for death,” she whispered.

My head suddenly throbbed as blood rushed furiously to my skull.

Jessica knew I was telling the truth?

I stared at her in stunned silence.

She understood how important that medicine was to me, yet she’d deliberately helped destroy it.

And Pierce blindly followed her lead. Did that mean he knew too?

A wave of dizziness crashed over me.

My legs gave out, and I slumped to the ground.

Through the haze, I vaguely heard the two of them leave, but their voices still echoed clearly in my ears.

“What if she’s really sick, Pierce?”

“If she’s sick, she can get it treated. If it can’t be treated, then she should just die.”

Ah. What timeless, ancient wisdom.

The hope of life had been crushed under the hands of the one I loved most.

I felt as if I’d been cast into an abyss, one I could never climb out of.

I had thought heaven had granted me a chance to stay alive for Holly but now, that sliver of hope had been snuffed out.

I couldn’t even protect a single bottle of medicine.

Perhaps the Devil truly had his eye on my miserable life, telling me not to hold on any longer.

And perhaps… It was finally time to go.

I left the hospital and went straight to my lawyer’s office.

I gathered and consolidated all my real estate and investment funds, handing everything over to an appointed trustee.

Then I transferred all my liquid assets into the private account I had set up for my daughter.

With burning determination, I finalized my will.

Before I could even leave, Pierce called.

His voice, though serious, carried an unmistakable thread of panic.

“Why were you at the lawyer’s office?”