Chapter 1

I found my husband, Daniel Carter, had gotten a hooker pregnant. By the time I discovered , her belly was as big as mine.

Right in front of me, she cradled her belly and sat on Daniel's lap.

"I heard Miss Sherman used to ride horses as well as any man before she got knocked up," his mistress—Candice Monroe, purred, her eyes hungry with desire. "I wanna watch her ride... Mr. Carter, make her show me. If she puts on a good enough show for me..."

"Tonight, I'll do all those nasty little tricks that drive you wild, daddy."

Daniel's eyes wandered over her curves for a moment before he looked up at me.He didn't say a word, but everyone at the party understood his meaning.

I stood there, protectively holding my stomach as I pleaded:

"Daniel, please, no! I could miscarry!"

The crowd erupted in cruel laughter. Daniel gave me a look of disgust.

"It's not like you haven't lost one before.Why are you still standing there? Get on that horse! If you can’t make Candice happy, just stay the stables tonight!"

With that, the group roughly dragged me to the horse.

The horse spooked and bolted forward wildly, each jarring motion sending waves of pain through my pregnant belly.

I looked back toward the viewing platform where Daniel and Candice were already passionately kissing.The drunken crowd whistled and cheered them on.

In the chaotic wind, I tightened my grip on the reins and smiled bitterly.

Daniel Carter, this is the seventh time, and it will be the last.

The smell of disinfectant stung my senses as I gradually regained consciousness in the hospital bed.

The room was empty except for Daniel Carter lounging on the sofa with Candice draped across his lap. Not a single other member of the Carter family was present.

Seeing my eyes open, he asked lazily, "Awake?"

My face was pale as my gaze fell to my now-deflated belly.

Daniel was silent for a moment before he tsked disapprovingly..

"Oh, you miscarried again."

"What a shame, so close to full-term." Candice added.

I numbly pulled at the corner of my mouth. Yes, seven months along.

Last night Daniel had summoned me to the stables just because something Candice said. I couldn't count how many laps I'd run on horseback, only remembered that by the end, even breathing was painful.

Finally, when Daniel and Candice had their fill of fun on the viewing platform, Daniel buttoned up the last button of his shirt and tossed six dismissive letters down to me in the arena:

"Enough."

I dismounted the horse, white-faced and barely conscious.

Pain and a sticky wetness enveloped my lower body. I looked dazedly at Daniel, surrounded by his entourage.

Staggering forward, I collapsed onto the grass and reached out my hand toward him.

"Daniel... help..."

I clutched my belly as large beads of sweat dropped from my forehead.

The rich boys with Daniel noticed my condition and gathered around:

"Come on. You just rode a horse for a couple of laps. Is that necessary?"

"Daniel, man, she's a good actress. I almost believed her."

"Hey, doesn't she look exactly like when she pretended she didn't cause your grandmother's death? Nice work, Lena Sherman! Your acting skills haven't slipped a bit over the years!"

Daniel approached with his arm around Candice, looking me up and down with a frown.

He thought I was faking, just like everyone else. He probably had forgotten what I looked like during my last miscarriage.

Candice stepped forward first, looking at me with disgust, feigning surprise at the sticky fluid between my legs:

"Oh my God, did you pee yourself?!"

She deliberately raised her voice, directing everyone's attention between my legs.

Overwhelming shame engulfed me, I could barely breathe.

Instinctively, I reached out to Daniel for help: "Daniel, please, my stomach hurts so badly."

But Daniel slapped my hand away in revulsion.

"Disgusting."

Then he left with his entourage. Even the stable staff ignored me, leaving me alone on the grass, crying for help.

Eventually I passed out, and when I woke up, I was here already.

My eyes burned with unshed tears. Again. I had lost my child again.

Candice rested her head on Daniel's shoulder, gently stroking her pregnant belly.

"How bad luck between Miss Sherman and her babies. Just a few laps of riding. I had so much rougher sex with Daniel while I’m pregnant, but my baby is still perfectly fine here."

Daniel laughed at her comment and planted a kiss on her lips.

"She’s nothing compared to you. Even if that bastard born, he’d just end up shining our kid’s shoes one day."

I'd heard such hurtful words countless times before. In the past, each time cut deeper into my heart.

I used to foolishly question Daniel: "This is your child too! How can you say that?!"

Whenever I did, Daniel would just stare at me coldly, driving me crazy with his silence.

But now, I felt nothing, completely numb.

Perhaps it was due to my weakened state after the miscarriage, the cool breeze from the window made me feel cold.

"Daniel, could you please close the window? I'm cold. Doctor said I shouldn't catch cold during the postpartum recovery period. Thank you."

My voice was hoarse, my tone distant and detached.

The doctors had given me the same suggestions after my previous miscarriages.

Daniel's face hardened as he delivered words sharp as winter knives.

"You just had a miscarriage, not a baby. What recovery period? Were you using this miscarriage as another excuse to avoid taking care of my mother?"

With that, Daniel prepared to leave. He'd been here for half an hour, and his patience had long since run out.

Before leaving, he deliberately opened all the windows.

"Can't catch a cold? Let's see what happens if you do."

I silently absorbed these words, just as I had for the past five years, bearing the brunt of Daniel's hatred alone.

But now, I was exhausted. I no longer wanted to carry the burden of his grandmother's death or be the punching bag for the entire Carter family.

Chapter 2

Five years ago, a Cinderella story unfolded between Daniel Carter and me.

When our love was at its deepest, Daniel brought me to the Carter family estate.

The Carters were this huge business dynasty where marriages were more like business.

Daniel was the only one who refused, insisting on marrying me.

Nobody in the Carter clan accepted me. Except for Grandma Carter.

In her nineties, her health had gone downhill fast.

The failure of her organs forced this once-powerful matriarch to step down from her position of authority and use a wheelchair.

She was the only person in the Carter family who supported our marriage.

Grandma absolutely liked me and was always asking Daniel to bring me over to keep her company. She raised Daniel herself, and always told me stories about his childhood.

Through these fragmented stories, I learned that before her arranged marriage, Grandma Carter had been deeply in love with James Thornton, her childhood sweetheart.

However, her family left her no choice—she had to enter a business marriage with the Carter family.

Eventually, her condition worsened until she couldn't even speak anymore.

Even so, she strongly overruled every family member's objections and gave her approval for our marriage.

The week before our wedding, Daniel and I took Grandma for a walk in the park.

At a sloped section of the path, she scribbled that she was thirsty. Daniel ran to get water while I stayed with her.

During those few minutes alone, she suddenly became agitated, her eyes fixed on something—or someone—in the distance. She was frantically trying to gesture.

I held the wheelchair and looked around but couldn't see anybody.

"Lena!" Daniel called from behind. I turned for just a second.

In that split second, the wheelchair rolled down the slope...

My negligence caused the tragedy.

After Grandma's funeral, Daniel still married me, but not because he loved me anymore—he hated me.

"Lena Sherman, you'll spend the rest of your life trapped in this house, suffering and paying for what you did!"

The entire Carter family directed their rage at me, making me their scapegoat for everything.

During this time, Daniel met Candice Monroe, a call girl from a bar.

He pampered that hooker excessively.

As for me, I watched myself sink deeper into the Carter family quicksand, losing four pregnancies one after another through stress and misery.

And now.

"Miss Sherman, I need straightforward with you. Most women shouldn't get pregnant for two years after a miscarriage, but you had four in five years. This has seriously damaged your reproductive system. I'm afraid... you may not conceive again."

The doctor's words were gentle, but the message was clear.

I nodded without emotion or surprise.

"Should we inform Mr. Carter ?"

This was a private hospital owned by the Carter empire. Despite my rocky relationship with the family, we kept our drama behind closed doors.

The public only knew I wasn't the favored Carter wife, but they still showed me the proper respect in public."

"Don't bother him."

Just then, Daniel called.

His voice was lazy and cruel as always.

"Still breathing? If so, swing by the villa. Candice and I ran out of condoms, and I won't use anything but Trojans. You know the ones with the blue box. Bring them over. I'm texting you the address."

He hung up before I could say a word.

Seconds later, the villa location pinged on my phone.

Before, out of guilt and desperation to atone, I would have swallowed any humiliation, rushing to fulfill his demands. All to make him hate me a fraction less.

But now, my face showed nothing as I calmly opened DoorDash to send his condoms via courier.

Rachel Williams, my best friend since college, set down a bowl of hot soup beside me. She'd rushed over as soon as I called her from the hospital.

"Lena," she said, wiping her eyes as she tucked the blanket around me, "why have to be Daniel Carter? This is your fourth miscarriage! What more does he want from you? Does he need to see you completely destroyed before he's satisfied?!"

I wiped away a tear and gave her the most reassuring smile I could manage. She'd been crying since she arrived at hospital an hour ago.

"Don't worry, Rach. From now on, he can't hurt me anymore."

Chapter 3

Daniel lost his shit over me not personally delivering the condoms to the villa.

He froze my V-CARD and had the doctor kicked out of me out of the hospital.

I grabbed my stuff and headed straight to the Carter family estate.

The staff started whispering the second they saw me.

"Ugh, she's back. Look at that belly – flat again. God, what a train wreck."

"I swear, how many babies has she lost now? Four? Five? And she's still got the nerve to show up here! If I couldn't keep a baby again and again I'd be hiding at my mama's house, not showing my face in public."

"That's why we're maid and she's wife—we don't have skin that thick. Otherwise, could someone like her marry into a wealthy family?"

I walked through the front hall pretending not to hear. Their gossip meant nothing to me now.

My timing couldn't have been worse. Daniel had brought Candice to visit his mother when I come back.

When she spotted me, Mrs. Carter slammed her cup down and shouted to me."Lena Sherman! Get over here right now and kneel before Grandma's memorial!"

II paused on my way upstairs. When it came to Grandma Carter, I always felt deeply guilty.

I turned around and walked over to her memorial.

Mrs. Carter was so angry she didn't even offer a cushion. The cold floor sent pain through my knees. I hadn't fully recovered, when the discipline rod struck my back, my lower abdomen started aching too.

“How many friggin' times is this now? Even a stray dog could pop out puppies every year! You're worse than a female dog!"

"Honestly, you'd be more useful completely barren—at least the house would be peaceful!"

“Just look at yourself! You really think you're worthy of all the love Grandma gave you? If she were alive right now and saw you couldn’t even have one baby in five years, she’d have told Daniel to divorce you ages ago! But now you still living in our house, calling yourself Mrs. Carter.”

Every insult screamed the same message: get the hell out of the Carter family.

I looked up at the man responsible for every single miscarriage.

My first pregnancy happened a month after our wedding. He was so rough during sex that I ended up hospitalized with vaginal tearing.

When I found out I was pregnant, I was ecstatic. I thought a baby might soften his heart.

Dead wrong. Daniel just gave me a ice-cold smile. "You were never becoming my kids’ mother."

He forced abortion pills down my throat. Within thirty minutes, I lost our first baby.

With my second pregnancy, Daniel had just started hooking up with Candice. She casually mentioned wanting to see me drunk, and Daniel ordered ten bottles of Ace of Spades. When I said no, he held me down and poured it down my throat.

During my third pregnancy, Mrs. Carter made me kneel outside the villa for twenty-four hours because I didn't bring Vibrator to Daniel fast enough.

And that night, Daniel fucked Candice right in front of me.

After kneeling all day and then suffering that heartbreak, I lost my third baby.

Then the riding incident—seven months along. I really believed this baby would survive.

Nope...How did it come to this?

And there sat Daniel, totally checked out, like none of this had anything to do with him. Next to him, Candice looked down at me with this smug smile.

When Mrs. Carter finally ran out of steam, she tossed the rod aside and fell back on the sofa."I should never have let this marriage start, even with Grandma pushing for it! Now we're stuck with this walking disaster in our family!"

I smiled bitterly and bowed three times to Grandma Carter's memorial.

In this house, I'd been through absolute hell—her death, Daniel's affairs, five dead babies in five years...

"If that's how you feel, Mrs. Carter. Daniel and I can divorce, then the Carter family can be completely rid of me."

Daniel's head snapped toward me. After a long moment, he let out this chilling little laugh.

"You think you can get to divorce me?"

Before I could move, Daniel , slammed me against the table beneath his grandmother's memorial. His grip was crushing, like he actually wanted me dead.

"You haven't paid for what you did yet and you want to leave. Kill someone and just walk away? Nothing in this world comes that easy, Lena Sherman!"

He threw me and I crashed into a stone planter. I felt this sharp pain explode in the back of my head, then something warm trickling down my neck.

Then I fainted.