Chapter 1

I had been married to Clara for seven years. It was a business arrangement, but she had still gone through the agony of giving birth to our son. Yet, she treated him like a stranger.

"My only job was to give birth to him," she would say coldly. "Anything that happens to him now is none of my concern."

No matter how hard our son tried to please her, she remained a wall of ice. Everything changed the day her first love, the man who got away, returned to the country.

Clara, who usually stayed out until the early hours of the morning, actually came home early that night. She reached out and pulled our son into her arms, giving him a rare, smiling kiss.

My son was both shocked and overjoyed. He looked at me with shy, hopeful eyes.

"Daddy, what happened? Does she finally like Jamie now?"

My heart broke as I pulled him into my own arms.

"No, Jamie. It is because the person she truly loves is back. It is time for you and me to leave."

1.

Jamie hung his head, clutching the gold star sticker he had earned at school. He pouted stubbornly.

"I do not care if she likes me. I only need you, Daddy."

His small shoulders were shaking. I knew he was just trying to be brave.

I ruffled his soft hair and pulled him closer. Clara Sterling's coldness toward our son was beyond anything I could have imagined.

When Jamie was born, she refused to hold him even once. When he was learning to walk and tripped right in front of her, she looked away as if he were invisible.

When he first started babbling, he would excitedly cry out, "Mommy! Mommy!"

She would simply walk away with a look of disgust. It was as if Jamie's very presence poisoned the air she breathed.

But Jamie was persistent. He would call out to her again and again, chasing her small shadow until he was ignored so thoroughly that he would come back to me, defeated.

Even then, his love for her never faded. Watching him broke my heart, but I was powerless to change her.

Later, when Jamie first learned to write, he scribbled the word "Mommy" in shaky letters. He was so excited to show it to Clara.

He stood outside her bedroom door, holding that piece of paper like a treasure. His eyes were full of hope.

But then, he heard Clara talking to a friend on the phone. Her voice was dripping with resentment.

"If I had not been worried about the medical risks of ending the pregnancy, I never would have had him. He is not the child I wanted."

"But I guess he is useful for one thing. At least he secured my position within the family empire."

Jamie's little body froze. The paper slipped from his fingers and drifted to the floor.

From that day on, he never called her "Mommy" again.

Now, he curled up in my arms and whispered, "Daddy, do we really have to leave?"

"She just kissed me. Maybe she finally realized I am a good boy?"

I looked into his eyes. They were clear and full of a painful mixture of hope and fear.

He carefully opened his hand. In his palm sat a small chocolate shaped like a superhero.

"Look, Daddy. She gave me this candy. She must like me."

"She is going to start loving me now. I will be so good, okay?"

He was desperate to prove to me that he was a child who could be loved by his mother. My heart felt like it had been pierced by a dull needle.

How could I tell him that his mother was only happy because the man who owned her soul was finally back?

I hugged him tight and whispered in his ear.

"Jamie, the person Clara loves is moving in. She won't be happy if we stay here."

"Let Daddy take you away, okay?"

I knew leaving would be cruel for Jamie. He needed time to adjust and accept the truth.

But a quick break was better than a slow, agonizing one. I couldn't let him live in a false dream where he would only get hurt more.

Jamie hesitated, his small hand gripping my shirt.

"Daddy, my birthday is in four days."

"If she still doesn't like me by then, we can go. Can we please wait?"

"I... I have never had a birthday with my mom."

His voice was as light as a falling feather, but it crashed into my heart with the weight of a mountain. I sighed and finally gave in.

"Fine. We will give her a little more time. If she still doesn't love you, we leave for good."

I stroked his head, my voice carrying a hidden edge of finality.

Years ago, Clara had been desperate to marry a penniless guy named Dante Miller. She had even fought with her family and cut ties with the Sterling name.

But the day after she gave up her inheritance, Dante ran off to France with a rich older woman. He didn't even look back.

Broken-hearted, Clara crawled back to her family and accepted their arrangement to marry me.

As for Jamie, he was the result of one night when she climbed into my bed after drinking too much.

Maybe Jamie still had hope. But these seven years had shown me exactly how cold she could be.