Chapter 2

2

The wedding veil was lifted, and I looked into Preston's eyes.

"Don't be afraid, my love. From now on, I am your husband. I'll protect you for the rest of your life."

He sounded so sincere back then.

For a year, I was his entire world, and he gave me the best of everything.

He would rush home from the office just to bring me my favorite pastries from the bakery across town.

When I was sick, he would stay up late making me soup with his own hands.

We spent a beautiful year together without a single argument, the envy of everyone in our circle.

Then, Josie was brought into our lives, and everything started to rot.

"She's the daughter of a business partner," Preston had promised me. "I couldn't refuse. She'll stay for a while, and then I'll find her a place of her own."

I believed him.

But within days, Josie began her campaign of manipulation.

If Preston was having dinner with me, Josie's maid would suddenly appear, claiming Josie had cut her finger.

He would leave me alone at the table to rush to her side.

In reality, it was always a tiny scratch that barely bled.

Even if we were already in bed, Josie could always find a reason to call him away.

She was homesick, or she had burned herself making tea, or she just needed him to talk to.

It happened so often that I eventually stopped fighting it, not wanting to seem petty.

But Josie saw my patience as a weakness.

She started acting like I was a cruel, overbearing wife in front of Preston.

She cried to him, claiming I was cutting her allowance or that the staff was mistreating her on my orders.

At first, Preston didn't believe her, but the constant whispers eventually poisoned his mind.

He began to see me as a narrow-minded woman who couldn't handle having another person in the house.

To maintain appearances, he stayed civil, but the warmth was gone.

Then we both got pregnant around the same time.

At nine months, Josie knelt before him and begged for her child to be the firstborn.

She claimed she didn't care about titles for herself, only for the baby's future.

Preston promised her everything.

Because I was further along, it was likely I would give birth first.

Josie took labor-inducing drugs to beat me to it, but it backfired and threatened her pregnancy.

Preston blamed me, calling me jealous and cruel.

I was naturally going into labor, but he saw it as a calculated move to spite his mistress.

And so, he forced those ten bowls of poison into me.