I clenched my teeth so hard my jaw ached, forcing back the tears that burned behind my eyes.

So he really had betrayed me, and still had the nerve to string me along for two more years.

Her smile twisted darker:

"Valentine's Day. You waited up for him all night, didn't you? He spent every single hour of it with me in a hotel room, making this baby."

That Valentine's night, I'd waited until the food went cold and the candles burned down to nothing.

I called Stewart ninety-nine times. He didn't pick up once.

The next morning he came home full of apologies, saying he'd been entertaining an important client all night.

I hadn't doubted him for a second, especially after he told me he'd already started planning our wedding. The joy of it washed away every question I might have asked.

But later, while getting into the car for work, I found a used condom.

When I confronted him, he said he'd looked into it and it was the driver who'd picked up a prostitute. He fired the man on the spot.

I chose to believe him again.

But all those late nights at the office, all those business trips over the past two months, every single one had been spent with Vivian.

And here she was, gloating over each encounter like a trophy.

When I lifted my head again, my face was perfectly still.

"You love him that much? Then I hope you two are chained together for life."

Especially through the hard times.

I shoved past her shoulder. All I wanted was out of this suffocating room.

Stewart was already coming back with the first-aid kit.

A sharp glint flickered through Vivian's eyes.

"Ahh!"

She threw herself backward, slamming hard into the wall behind her.

I watched, stunned, as she clutched her stomach and wailed: "It hurts! My baby, the baby!"

"Leonora, even if you hate me, the child is innocent!"

The first-aid kit slipped from Stewart's hands and cracked against the floor.

He lunged forward and scooped Vivian into his arms as she sobbed.

"Vivian, don't be scared. I'm here!"

Then he turned on me, eyes savage:

"Leonora, how can you be this vicious? Attacking a pregnant woman?!"

I shook my head hard. "I barely pushed her! I didn't touch her!"

But Stewart didn't believe a word of it. He jerked his chin toward the dress:

"You hurt Vivian. That piece of trash doesn't deserve to exist anymore either."

One of his bodyguards stepped forward immediately, scissors raised.

"What are you doing?!"