Chapter 1

It was Celine's birthday gala. Just because she frowned slightly while stepping down from the carriage, Alaric forced me to kneel.

He wanted me to be her human footstool.

He didn't care that I was six months pregnant with his child.

As the blood began to pool beneath me, Alaric didn't even look back. He simply sneered, "She is just a plaything I kept on a whim. Don't be so dramatic. You're getting Celine's shoes dirty."

While they celebrated all night, I was left to find my own way back to the estate. On that lonely road, a reckless rider trampled me, and I lost my baby right there in the dirt.

When I finally crawled back, covered in blood, Alaric was blindfolded, playfully applying makeup to Celine's face. He ignored my screams and pleas from outside the door.

In that moment, I finally gave up.

I smiled as I swallowed the rare toxin that would mimic death. I would rather be a ghost than ever see him again.

1.

After I spent a night alone in the freezing tool shed, Alaric finally seemed to remember I existed. He casually sent a servant to fetch me.

When I entered the bedroom, I saw Celine leaning softly into his arms. Alaric was patiently blowing on her medicine, coaxing her to take every sip.

"Alaric, this medicine is so bitter," she pouted. "What do I get if I finish it?"

Alaric looked at her with pure adoration. "Anything in this estate is yours, Celine. Just name it."

Celine's eyes darted around until they landed on the jade pendant hanging from his waist.

That was the last thing my grandmother left me before she died. It was the only precious thing I had left after the Beaumont family fell into ruin.

Even during my darkest days working in the underground clubs, I never had the heart to sell it.

I had given it to Alaric as a token of my love, yet he was handing it over to another woman so easily.

I still remember how his eyes lit up when I gave it to him. He told me it was the most precious gift he had ever received.

Now, Alaric looked at me with total indifference. "Lyra, Celine is just being playful. She'll give it back when she's bored with it."

His gaze shifted downward, and his expression froze when he saw my flat stomach.

"Lyra... your belly..."

At the party, he was so afraid I would ruin Celine's shoes that he forced his pregnant mistress to be a rug.

I had gripped my stomach and begged him for mercy.

But Alaric had only said, "Lyra, don't forget your place."

He wanted me to remember that I was just a bird he kept in a gilded cage.

When he was happy, he would whisper sweet nothings to me. But in front of his true love, I didn't even have the right to speak.

The stress had caused a hemorrhage, and my blood had stained Celine's designer heels. That was why he abandoned me to walk home alone in the storm.

A horse had trampled my abdomen in the crowded street, and my baby was gone instantly.

When that tiny, broken life slipped away from me, it was still warm.

In my pocket, I was still carrying the tiny shoes I had knitted for him.

Alaric's voice actually trembled for a moment, sounding lost.

The room smelled of the expensive incense he had lit for Celine. She gave a small, fake cough, and he immediately panicked. "Celine? Are you feeling unwell?"

She replied in a sugary tone, "If you're going to do my makeup, don't get distracted. I'm sure Miss Lyra is fine. She's a survivor, after all."

With those few words, Alaric stopped in his tracks.

Through the crack in the door, I saw him wearing that black blindfold again. Celine gave me a predatory smirk before pulling him into a kiss.

I watched Alaric with numb eyes, my tears falling silently. "Our baby is gone."

His face turned ghostly pale for a second, but Celine quickly grabbed his hand.

Alaric gave me a brief, pained look before turning back to feed Celine her medicine.

"What's done is done. Just go and rest. You're young; we can have another one later."

He didn't even bother to look at me again. He just waved his hand, dismissing me like a nuisance.

A sharp, stabbing pain filled my chest. I clenched my sleeves and turned to leave.

But as I reached the door, I tripped over something.

It was a small wooden horse. Alaric had carved it himself when the doctor first confirmed my pregnancy.

In the blink of an eye, the child was gone, and the toy he made had been kicked into a corner, covered in scratches.