Chapter 1

At fifteen, I was a piano prodigy destined for greatness.

That future died when I took a kidnapper's blade to my wrist to save Landon Blackwood.

Since that day, he kept me tucked away in his shadow, vowing to be my shield forever.

When he proposed at twenty-three, I looked him in the eye with absolute seriousness.

"Landon, I need you to never fail me. Can you do that?"

He responded by renting every digital billboard in Manhattan to broadcast his promise.

"For all eternity, you are my only love."

After we married, the entire city knew how much he adored me.

I truly believed he was my forever.

But three years into our marriage, Landon abandoned me at the scene of a pile-up.

I was three months pregnant, trapped in the wreckage, while he ran to save a new intern.

Once the reality set in, I summoned the System to erase every trace of my existence from this world.

When I finally vanished, he went utterly insane.

1

"Host, have you truly decided to leave this world?"

The System's voice echoed in my mind.

I nodded mechanically.

A few hours ago, I was trapped inside a crushed car in a multi-vehicle collision.

A familiar figure had suddenly appeared in my blurred vision.

Seeing my husband, Landon, running toward me with a panicked expression, I summoned every ounce of strength to cry for help.

To my horror, he didn't even glance at my car.

He sprinted right past me toward a girl sitting on the curb.

The girl burst into tears the moment she saw him.

"I was so scared! I thought I'd never see you again!"

Landon pulled her into his arms with a look of pure agony and tenderness.

I recognized her instantly.

She was Sierra Vance, the intern assistant Landon had hired six months ago.

I watched them through the cracked windshield, my heart fracturing into a thousand pieces.

In that moment, the physical pain from the crash became irrelevant.

Landon's betrayal was the blow that truly dragged me into hell.

The whole world knew Landon loved me.

He had been devoted to me for ten years, from the age of fifteen to twenty-five.

At our wedding, he said, "Yara Sterling, I will love you for a lifetime and never fail you."

I never imagined his "lifetime" would only last three years.

I must have been staring in shock for a long time.

The paramedic sighed and patted my shoulder.

"Where is your husband? Why isn't he here for you?"

"We need a family member to sign for the surgery. If we don't operate now, you might lose the baby."

My thoughts snapped back to the cold reality.

"I don't have any other family," I whispered, my voice raspy. "Just get rid of the child."

Ever since I got pregnant, Landon had been perfect.

He attended every prenatal checkup, claiming he wanted to witness every second of the baby's growth.

He'd wake up in the middle of the night to massage my legs if I felt uncomfortable.

He even started cooking all my meals himself, worried the housekeeper wouldn't be careful enough with my nutrition.

Who would have guessed that the CEO of the Blackwood Group, this devoted husband, had another woman?

And that he was expecting another child with her.

Seconds ago, Sierra had updated her social media.

"Thank God he came to save me just in time. Both I and our little one are safe."

The post included a photo of a man's hand resting gently on her stomach.

The face wasn't visible, but I recognized the bespoke cufflink with the silver obsidian pattern.

I had hand-stitched that specific pattern onto his shirts myself.

Then, a private message from Sierra popped up on my phone.

"Mrs. Blackwood, did you see my post?"

"He chose me over you at the crash site. Isn't it obvious which baby matters more?"

The words felt like a serrated blade carving through my chest.

I felt a chill so deep it reached my marrow.