Chapter 1

"Gary, you're impressive. You actually got Ann to willingly be your nanny. But aren't you afraid that Linda will find out and get angry?"

Gary let out a light sneer.

"There's no helping it. Linda is extremely innocent. I can't bring myself to touch her. Ann is different—she's clean and free, and if it's delivered to my doorstep, I'll take it."

I stood outside the door, my blood freezing, my lip bitten so hard that it hurt.

I had always thought that Gary was serious about marrying me. Otherwise, he wouldn't have forcefully dragged me into the room that night when I was drugged.

But now, he was saying that I was just a free nanny, a clean remedy.

Just a day ago…

For Linda, Gary had abandoned our seven-year-old daughter on the highway.

When I arrived at the hospital, my daughter's little legs were covered in blood.

I called Gary to question him, my voice trembling: "How could you leave Nancy alone on the highway?"

Gary replied calmly, as if Nancy wasn't his daughter: "Is this why you called me?"

"There's no choice. Fiona said she's afraid of the thunder and wants her dad to hold her."

He spoke with the same calm tone as if discussing the weather.

Fiona is Linda's daughter.

I couldn't believe how biased Gary was. Just because his first love's daughter was afraid of thunder, he had thrown our seven-year-old daughter onto the busy highway!

I angrily asked, "Just because of that?"

Gary was terse with his words, "Mm, just because of that."

Seeing me silent, Gary seemed to get anxious, "Is there anything else? If not, I'm going to read Fiona a bedtime story and put her to bed."

Holding my daughter's cold little hand on the hospital bed, my eyes watered.

Fiona was afraid of thunder, so Gary unhesitatingly abandoned our daughter on the highway to go be with her.

But Nancy was also afraid of thunder. She once asked Gary to read her a bedtime story, but Gary had said, "I don't have a habit of reading bedtime stories, it's not part of my duties."

But now, he had no concern for our daughter and was eager to read bedtime stories to Linda's daughter, Fiona.

My eyes turned red, "Then why couldn't you take Nancy with you? She's only seven."

For the first time, Gary patiently explained, "I'm afraid Fiona would be jealous if she saw other kids with me. Children want their dad to themselves, I don't want to ruin my image in Fiona's eyes."

"So, can you stop making a scene?"

In that moment, all my rationality crumbled away.

Ten years ago, I had an accidental one-night stand with Gary and ended up pregnant with Nancy. When I woke up, he coldly said he would take responsibility.

But later, when I was hemorrhaging on the operating table, he was abroad, watching the sea and the moon with his first love.

I was in excruciating pain, almost losing consciousness with my fingers wide open as I struggled to give birth to a daughter.

The first thing I wanted to do was share the joy with Gary.

But then, a special notification sound came through.

A photo of him holding hands with Linda pierced my heart.

He tagged Linda, writing: "Holding your hand, growing old together."

Under the same sky, I was struggling between life and death, giving birth, while my husband was making romantic promises to another woman, watching the flowers, snow, and moon with her.

I couldn't help but comment below: "I respect and wish you well, but I don't understand."

Gary called me immediately, scolding me fiercely: "Do you have to cause trouble every day? Linda and I are just good friends. Do you know because of your comment, Linda has been crying?"

And he had no idea that the scar from my C-section was still aching.

In his eyes, everything was just me making a fuss.

I laughed bitterly, "Do good friends say things like ‘Holding your hand, growing old together'?"

Gary, enraged, insisted, "Apologize to Linda!"

My eyes turned bloodshot, "Gary, is this what you meant when you said you would take responsibility?"

For Linda, he even threatened me using our child: "Apologize to Linda, or I'll stop all medical expenses for you and the baby in your belly. Don't expect me to pay for any future expenses either."

Chapter 2

At 1 a.m., I returned to the hospital room in a daze and stayed by my daughter's side.

Linda had posted something on Instagram.

"Even after having a daughter, someone's energy is still as high as ever, my throat's almost hoarse."

"Tell him to keep it down, or our daughter will hear."

The picture showed red scratch marks on a man's bronzed back.

Gary commented below: "If I don't do this, how can I prove I love you?"

Linda shyly replied: "So annoying!"

Seeing their intimate interaction felt like a knife slicing through my heart. My gaze slowly fell onto my sleeping daughter.

I could barely breathe, and my stomach started to churn.

How much did Gary love Linda? Enough that even though Fiona was Linda's daughter with her ex-husband, he still treated her as his own.

His signature on Instagram was even: "Linda is my little princess, Fiona is my little treasure."

Someone once asked him why Fiona was a treasure and Linda was a princess. Didn't he fear Linda would get jealous?

Gary smiled faintly, "Because a princess is meant to be pampered."

He even created a separate account just to document Fiona's daily life, as well as their family's vlog.

Every little detail—big or small.

From Linda's period to Fiona growing an extra centimeter, he would excitedly post it on his Instagram every time.

But he didn't even know how old our daughter was this year.

When he first returned to the country, he came to visit our daughter once, gave her a princess dress, and she was so happy she couldn't let go of it. But when she wore it, she found it was too big.

Later, I learned from Linda that the dress was actually something Fiona had worn and didn't want anymore.

His Moments background was a family photo with Linda and Fiona, the three of them smiling happily together.

My daughter innocently asked me: "Mom, why is dad in someone else's family photo? Fiona said that's her dad and that he loves her most."

"Mom, does dad not want Nancy anymore?"

In an effort to win over her father, my seven-year-old daughter decided to make the mango mille-feuille that Gary liked the most.

But he audaciously carried Fiona in his arms, bringing Linda back to our home, saying he wanted to celebrate Fiona's birthday here.

Watching Fiona in her father's arms for the first time, my daughter's eyes turned red. Since her birth, Gary had never once held Nancy.

There was even that one time when Nancy tried to give him an orange, but Gary slapped her hand away, coldly saying, "Sorry, I don't eat oranges from strangers."

But now, Fiona was feeding him oranges while smiling, saying, "Dad, eat it, I peeled it just for you."

Gary ate one after another, saying, "The oranges that our little treasure Fiona feeds me are always sweet."

My daughter's eyes filled with tears of injustice, and my heart ached as I asked, "What are you bringing them back home for?"

Gary's attitude was one of complete entitlement: "Fiona said her birthday wish was to celebrate here. You wouldn't be mad over something so small, would you?"

I tried to control myself, but my hands trembled uncontrollably.

My daughter, after finally seeing Gary, excitedly handed him the mango mille-feuille she made with her own hands. "Dad, this is for you…"

But before my daughter could finish her sentence.

She had spent three to four hours making the cake, only for Gary to slap it onto the ground! The cream splattered everywhere.

Gary angrily pointed at Nancy's head, "Do you know that Fiona is allergic to mango?!"

"How could you be so spiteful?"

But how could Nancy have known that Gary would bring another daughter home?!

Nancy cried helplessly, her eyes red with injustice.

I held her in my arms, "Gary, do you know that this cake was made by Nancy…"

Before I could finish, Linda stepped in, offering a gracious, but condescending, suggestion: "Gary, don't be angry, she's just a little kid. She doesn't know anything about allergies."

Gary immediately turned to me, his anger seething: "Ann, did you teach her this? I only wanted to celebrate Fiona's birthday, and you tried to harm her?!"

Gary slammed the door and left.

Before leaving, Linda provocatively smiled at me: "Ann, Gary isn't some stray cat or dog that'll eat whatever is given to him."

Fiona stuck out her tongue and made faces at Nancy: "I'm not like you, a wild child no one wants. Dad's going to celebrate my birthday now."

In the hospital room, a small pair of hands desperately tried to wipe away my tears.

"Mom, don't cry. Nancy doesn't hurt."

I didn't realize when Nancy had woken up.

"Sorry, Nancy. Mommy couldn't get Dad to come and be with you…"

Before passing out, she had been begging to see Gary. For her sake, I sent Gary hundreds of messages and called him ninety-nine times.

But he never responded. That's when I overheard him talking to his friend.

I had thought that my daughter would continue crying.

But instead, she matured beyond her years and said, "Mom, can we not want dad anymore?"

I immediately pulled her into my arms, my voice choked, "Okay."

"We don't want him anymore."

Chapter 3

When my brother heard that Nancy was in trouble, he brought a lot of supplements with him.

"Why didn't you tell me about such a big incident?"

At the time, for Gary's work, I was willing to hide everything, but what I got in return was his cold indifference.

I didn't want my child to grow up without a father's love, so I stayed here willingly.

Later, the whole family moved abroad, and as a result, my brother grew distant from me, and my parents severed ties with me.

My brother didn't know that the man who made me pregnant before marriage was his good friend, Gary.

Seeing me silent, my brother couldn't help but laugh in anger. "Where's that man? He left his own daughter on the highway—can a person really do such a thing?"

"Ann, is this the man you're willing to throw yourself at and marry?"

Feeling my brother's closeness after such a long time, my eyes turned red in an instant.

After all, he was my brother. We grew up together, and when he realized he had said something harsh, he quickly tried to comfort me.

"Ann, Nancy has grown up now. You've raised her on your own for seven years. You almost died from childbirth complications, and that man didn't even show up!"

"Nancy had a fever, and you couldn't find a taxi in the middle of the night. You carried Nancy through the pouring rain to the hospital by yourself. No one at home could take care of her, so you had to hold the child in one arm and cook with the other…"

"But where was he? Where was he? Has he ever even cared about you once?"

"Come home, Ann."

"He doesn't care about you, but I do."

Over the years, being a single woman raising a child alone, how difficult it was, I had written it all down on a secret Weibo account.

I had always thought my brother hated me for it.

But at this moment, I realized, I still had family who cared about me.

I couldn't hold it in anymore, and tears streamed down my face. "Brother…"

Taking advantage of my vulnerable moment, my brother brought up the idea of taking me and Nancy abroad.

There, I would have better opportunities, and Nancy could get a better education. My parents were also waiting for me to reunite with them.

"Brother, let me think about it. I still need to ask Nancy's opinion."

My brother didn't press the matter further but suddenly mentioned, "By the way, there's something important this time. Do you remember Gary?"

My heart skipped a beat, and I pretended not to care. "What's wrong?"

My brother smiled. "That guy actually wants to move Linda's daughter's household registration to his own family. I think he's completely lost it."

Hearing this, I instinctively clenched my fist. Nancy was still here, and Gary was thinking of transferring Linda's daughter's household registration? What exactly did he think of Nancy?!

"What's wrong? Why do you look so pale?"

My brother looked at me with concern.

I forced out a faint smile. "Nothing. I was just thinking, if Nancy's dad wanted to transfer another child's household registration, what would we do?"

My brother immediately sneered three times.

"If I find out who that bastard is…"

"I'll kill him."

Just as he said that, Gary suddenly entered the door.

The two men locked eyes, and I could see a flash of panic and fear in Gary's eyes.

"Gary?"

My brother eyed Gary with suspicion. "What are you doing here? What's your relationship with my sister?"

Gary nervously explained, "I heard you're going back to the country, so I thought maybe you'd come here to Ann."

My brother and Gary were good friends, so he didn't question the truth of this statement.

He patted him on the shoulder, "As expected of my good brother. Don't worry, when you and Linda get married, I'll definitely send you a wedding gift."

Hearing this, a flash of guilt crossed Gary's eyes. He hesitated and looked at me, stammering, "Actually…"

I instinctively turned my gaze to him.

I thought he would tell my brother that we had already registered our marriage and had a daughter, Nancy.

But now, facing my brother, he said, "Actually, I've been wanting to invite you. When Linda and I get married, you must be our best man."