Chapter 1

My best friend and I married into the prominent Mercer family on the very same day.

I married the elite chief surgeon, while she married his younger brother, a Hollywood A-lister.

On our third wedding anniversary, I fell down the stairs while pregnant. At that exact moment, my husband was across town helping his first love deliver her cat's kittens.

When I begged him through tears to come home, he scoffed and said, "Can you stop being so dramatic? Cynthia's cat is in critical condition. Have some basic empathy."

That night, the kittens survived. My baby did not.

I looked at my best friend, who had stayed by my hospital bedside all night. "Gigi, I'm getting a divorce."

She gripped my hand tightly. "I'm right behind you. If you leave, I leave too. Let those trash men rot with their fake-innocent snakes."

The moment both men received the divorce papers, they completely lost their minds with regret.

001

Shortly after sending out the divorce petition, Logan called me, his tone overflowing with irritation.

"Tessa, can you stop throwing these childish tantrums? Do you really have to be so petty and try to trap me by your side forever?"

Before I could even speak, he hurled his impatience at me like venom. "I already told you Cynthia's cat had complications during labor. It's her favorite pet, and those are innocent lives. How can you be so cold and heartless?"

"Don't you know what priority means? Do you really have to pick a fight and act jealous right now?"

Hearing his icy tone, I let out a bitter, hollow laugh.

My husband, Logan Mercer, had finally graced me with a phone call after vanishing for an entire week.

Yet last night, when I tumbled down the stairs while pregnant, I called him eighteen times in agonizing pain.

Every single call was ruthlessly rejected.

He had only bothered to send a cold text: "Busy. What is it?"

I sent him a voice message in tears, my voice trembling violently. "Logan, I'm pregnant! I felt dizzy and fell down the stairs... My stomach hurts so bad, and I'm bleeding everywhere. What do I do? Are we losing our baby?"

Logan hadn't even bothered to open the voice message before sending an impatient reply.

"Can't you handle household things yourself? Do you always have to bother me?"

"I'm at Cynthia's place delivering her kittens. What could possibly be more important than these little lives?"

Logan rarely listened to my voice notes, and he hardly glanced at my texts.

Yet he had all the patience in the world to listen to his first love, Cynthia, whine and cry about her menstrual cramps for hours.

Meanwhile, when I was trapped in an elevator for two hours despite severe claustrophobia, calling him was treated as a nuisance.

I supposed I could never compare to Cynthia.

Logan once told me I didn't even measure up to a single strand of Cynthia's hair.

Naturally, our baby couldn't compare to Cynthia's precious little cat either.

Gigi snatched the phone from my hand and screamed into the receiver.

"Logan Mercer! Tessa fell and had a miscarriage last night! If you have any shred of humanity left, get your ass to the hospital right now!"