Astrid's face went blank for a beat, and then her eyes filmed over with tears, the very picture of a wronged woman.

William frowned and shifted her behind him.

"Bella, haven't I taught you better than this? When we have guests, you mind your manners. How can you have forgotten even the basics?"

"And the state you're in right now, even if you went to a photo studio, you wouldn't be any help with the baby. You'd just give me one more thing to worry about. Don't be so difficult."

So being rude to a mistress was bad manners now?

The sting in my chest sharpened, and my throat went tight and dry.

You're the one who told me. When you meet selfish, bad people, walk away.

I slapped the divorce papers I'd drawn up down in front of William.

"William, we're done here."

He glanced at the agreement on the table and gave a short, contemptuous laugh.

Then he picked the document up.

A moment later, the contract I'd written out in black and white was two paper airplanes.

He pressed them into my hands and ruffled my hair hard.

"All right, all right, it's all my fault. Take these two paper airplanes as my apology, okay? Stop making a scene."

I stood where I was, staring dumbly at the planes in my hands.

He hadn't taken a single word of what I'd just said seriously.

I threw the planes hard to the floor, turned, and ran upstairs to pack.

Behind me came the sound of him soothing Astrid.

"She's a child, she doesn't know what she's saying. Don't take it to heart."

The bedroom door slammed shut behind me, cutting me off at last from that voice and its barbs.

Swallowing down a chest that had ached past the point of feeling, I opened the closet.

What met my eyes was a row of clothes I had never seen before.

"Sorry about that, Bella. Will moved your clothes to the guest room."

A bright voice rang out behind me.

I turned, and met Astrid's contemptuous stare just as her tone shifted.

"Bella, do you have any idea how lucky you are? You married a man as rich and devoted as Will, and not even contraceptives could stop you from carrying his child."

The envy in her eyes was nearly spilling over.

"We both came from ordinary families. So why do you get to climb so high, while I have to grovel and pass myself around as a mistress to one disgusting man after another, all for money?"

I stared at her, frowning, and suddenly thought of those few boxes of vitamins she'd pressed on me back in college.

So it had never been gratitude. It was poison meant to ruin me.

Ten years married to William with no child, and it was because of her.

The woman in front of me suddenly smiled, gloating.

"Forget it, no point explaining to an idiot like you. Don't worry, I'll be sure to raise that little bastard well for you."

"If I'm going to feed her her whole life, she'll have to pay me back something, won't she? How about taking clients at three? I know quite a few men who are into that. Want me to film it for you so you don't pine yourself sick?"

I couldn't listen to another word. I slapped her hard across the face.

"Get away from me! I will never let you take my child!"

I ran out of the room, and just as I reached the top of the stairs Astrid caught up with me.

A whisper followed: "An idiot's so easy to set off."

Then Astrid grabbed my wrist and flung herself backward.

What came next was the bruising thud of her back striking every step on the way down.

That was the scene William saw when he raced to the foot of the stairs.

His pupils contracted sharply, and he rushed to Astrid's side, calling her name over and over.

As if he were about to lose her in the next breath.

It was the first time I had ever seen William come undone.

Astrid's lips parted weakly. Her voice was small, but it landed perfectly in my ears.

"Bella, as long as it makes you happy... I'd do anything..."

The accusation came down on me out of nowhere and pinned me where I stood.

I'd just opened my mouth to defend myself when I saw he had already gathered Astrid up and was striding away.

The things she'd said to me still seemed to be ringing in my ears.

I looked at the baby lying on the sofa, and my eyes burned.

My phone buzzed. It was Christopher.

*Sis, the tickets are booked. Do you need me to come get you?*

I rubbed my dry, stinging eyes and sent him my location.

Once, I'd told myself the child still carried William's blood after all, that he would never mistreat her.

But now, I didn't dare gamble on it.

By the time I appeared in the living room again, one hand dragging a suitcase and the other holding the baby, the family doctor who'd been called over had already finished examining Astrid.

The next moment I met William's black eyes, cold enough to frighten.

He planted himself in front of me, barely holding back the fury inside him.

"Isabella, you wanted a divorce, didn't you? Fine. You'll get your wish!"

He snatched the suitcase out of my hand, hard enough that it nearly took me to the floor with it.

"Everything you have, I gave you. The child and your things stay. Get the hell out, go wherever you want!"

It was only when he reached to wrench the baby out of my arms that he met my eyes, stubborn and brimming with tears.

His movement stopped, and his face softened a little.

"Bella, all these years you couldn't get pregnant and I never blamed you. You finally did, and it was a girl, and I didn't hold that against you either."

"All these years, do you really not know how much pressure I carried to marry you? Would it make you happy to have everyone laughing that the Delgados have no heir, and are raising a half-witted little heiress on top of it?"

"Stop making a scene. Once you've given me a son, I'll love you the way I used to, hold nothing back, give you everything you want."

The eyes he turned on me were flooded with ardent love.

Watching him like this, I felt my stomach turn over.

From the moment he chose to play "child trafficker," every tender thing between us had been a lie.

I held the baby tighter and stepped back, wary down to my bones.

William's cold eyes fixed on me, his face darkening by the second.

In the end all of it broke loose in one shout.

"You really can't bear to give up this little waste? Fine. I'll let you keep it until you've had your fill!"

Just then a sharp scream tore out of the next room.

A maid stumbled out of the suite, her face drained white.

"Mr. Delgado, Miss Pruitt just took a delivery, and it's... it looks like... a dead cat."

William frowned on reflex.

"Didn't I have Astrid's cat sent somewhere else to be kept? Why would there be any other animal in this house?"

Before the maid could answer, Astrid came running out of the room barefoot.

She burrowed into William's arms as if she'd found her shelter, trembling, crying like rain on pear blossoms.

"Will... I just upset Lily, and I thought I'd order her an iced latte to make up for it... I never imagined the delivery bag had a cat's body in it..."

"And... and there's more..."

She turned suddenly frantic, looking up at William, nearly breaking apart as she spoke. "The ones who used to torment me are back... it's them... they sent me a threatening letter!"

The menace around William grew heavier, his thin lips pressed into a hard line, his eyes sharp.

The next second, that gaze, cold enough to kill, landed on me.

"It was you?"

I froze without thinking. It hadn't even crossed my mind that any of this could be pinned on me.

But William wore the look of a man already certain.

"Only you know how to let people into the complex, only you know Astrid keeps a cat, and that she's staying here with me now."

I listened, disbelieving, as he stacked the charge on me, and forced out an explanation.

"It wasn't me. I don't even know where that cat is."

He let out a cold laugh.

"You think if you drive Astrid out, I'll just let you have your way and keep this child? Isabella, no wonder you're in such a hurry to leave. You really have schemed for everything."

His words dropped into my ears, and the heart already sour inside me went a few degrees colder.

I'd chosen to leave because I didn't want to keep tangling myself in this.

"I'd like to see how many days you can keep this little waste alive without me!"

In the end William threw the baby and me into the basement.

Damp seeped down the corner of the basement walls, faint light leaking through the gaps in the boards, like a cage there was no escaping.

This was the space we'd once planned to turn into a play paradise for our daughter.

The half-assembled toys were heaped in a corner, long since gathered with dust.

Just like the love between William and me, discarded long ago.

He gave the order to the bodyguard behind him.

"Until she realizes her mistake and hands the child over willingly, no one is to let her out!"

The basement was pitch black, a chill wind moving through it.

It set my heart shaking with fear I couldn't hold back.

But William showed no sign of softening. After all, he still had to comfort his frightened sweetheart.

Once it was done, he walked out without looking back.

The dark hid the tears at the corners of my eyes.

I felt around on the floor for a few small toys and clumsily soothed the baby in my arms, who had already cried herself breathless.

I don't know how long it took, but the room slowly went quiet.

I used the phone William had forgotten to take and called my brother.

"He's locked me in the basement. I'm so cold."

William used the security cameras to track down the few thugs who had once tormented Astrid, and only after he'd reported them and had them taken away did he remember me, shut in the basement.

He leaned back on the sofa and rubbed wearily at the space between his brows.

"Has she admitted she was wrong?"

The butler's voice shook a little.

"Mrs. Delgado and the young miss vanished an hour ago."

"Vanished? What do you mean?"

William still had his eyes closed, and he let out an indifferent cold laugh.

"The whole basement has only that one door, and I posted a full five bodyguards on it. A fool who understands nothing, with a baby that only knows how to cry, how could they vanish into thin air? Don't joke with me."

He waited a long while for the rest, but the assistant beside him said nothing.

He opened his eyes, looked at the faintly trembling figure at his side, and something tightened in his chest.

A sickening rush of panic took over his mind.

He stood, pushed the assistant aside, and walked alone to the basement, kicking the door open.

Inside, there was nothing but silence.

He had a flashlight brought in, but even after searching every corner, he never saw the faintest shadow of me.

William knitted his brows, an unreadable emotion in those deep eyes.

"She's still hiding somewhere in this house."

"Lily's timid. In a room this dark she can't even walk straight. She couldn't have gone far."

Before he finished, his body had already gone rigid.

That was it. He knew his wife was timid, afraid of the dark.

And still he had locked her, with his own hands, into a place like an abyss.

William suddenly thought of the freight elevator years ago, when he asked me why I told jokes with my back turned to him, and the next second met my eyes brimming with tears.

In that moment he finally understood that I was afraid too.

The heartbeat that had skipped years ago caught up now.

The image in his mind shifted.

It was the first time he'd burst into my home with the police.

Because of the fire, my father had whipped me with a belt until the skin split open.

I had curled into the corner, my teeth biting down hard on my lip, refusing to make a sound no matter how much it hurt.

Only two silent trails of tears down my face declared the fear and the wronged ache.

In that moment the fury that flared up almost swallowed him whole.

From then on he swore he would never let me suffer again.

Then William thought of what he himself had just done, and regret tangled with panic took over his reason.

Just then the assistant came running in from outside, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"Mr. Delgado, we've checked every camera. Mrs. Delgado... she really is gone."