Chapter 1

After losing my baby, I fulfilled our contract and asked Emmett for a divorce.

I had failed to give him a child, breaking my end of the deal.

But he fell to his knees in front of me, begging in a hoarse voice.

"I stopped caring about that contract a long time ago. Why are you taking it so seriously?"

It wasn't until Emmett got drunk and spilled the truth that I realized he just wanted to get rid of me.

He was the one who slipped those pills into my drink to end my pregnancy.

Later, I erased every trace of myself from our home.

I handed the man I loved for seven years over to his first love.

On his wedding day, Emmett sent me an invitation.

And I sent him a notice of my terminal illness.

1

When his friends dropped Emmett off at our house, he was completely blacked out drunk.

I walked out of the kitchen with a hot cup of hangover tea.

I overheard him mumbling something under his breath, his eyes wet with tears.

Maybe it was because I brought up the divorce a few days ago.

For the past few weeks, Emmett had been acting like a soulless ghost.

He went out to drink himself into a stupor all the time.

Just half-joking, I leaned into his ear and whispered a question.

"If I was gone one day, would you marry another woman?"

I hoped he would, so he wouldn't be lonely for the rest of his life.

To my surprise, he suddenly opened his arms and pulled me into a tight hug.

The strong smell of whiskey instantly rushed into my nose.

"I would die without you."

My heart ached with sadness when I heard that answer.

I really didn't know how to tell him that my days in this world were numbered.

"What if... I mean, what if that day really comes?"

I bit my lower lip, holding back my tears as I asked again.

But Emmett's answer instantly plunged me into an ice-cold abyss.

"It won't happen. Harper already asked for a divorce, and the baby in her belly is gone anyway."

"Blair, there is nothing stopping us from being together now."

For a moment, I thought I was the one who was drunk.

Why else would I hear something so absurd?

With just a few words, Emmett opened the floodgates.

He confessed to swapping my prenatal vitamins to make me lose the pregnancy.

After all, there was a specific clause in the contract I signed before marrying him.

If I couldn't give the Crawford family an heir within seven years, the marriage would be annulled.

The breaching party would have to pay millions in damages.

I took several deep breaths, slumping on the couch and trembling slightly.

The day I asked for a divorce, Emmett knelt before me crying his heart out.

His deep, affectionate devotion was all a damn lie.

He was just waiting.

Waiting for the contract to expire so he could end the marriage openly.

And keep his good reputation intact.

It had been seven years, and I thought he had forgotten about Blair.

I thought he forgot that I only married into the family as her stand-in.

And that he had truly accepted me from the bottom of his heart.

To get pregnant, I went to countless clinics across the country.

I took endless hormone shots, leaving my stomach covered in dense, dark bruises.

Taking all kinds of weird herbal remedies long-term almost destroyed my sense of taste.

Knowing the truth, I thought I would be furious.

I thought I would slap Emmett awake and ask him what all this meant.

If he never loved me from the very beginning.

Why did he trick me for seven long years?