Chapter 2

“...Chloe...I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…”

I was decisively packing my suitcase when Damian, his eyes red-rimmed, burst in and frantically pushed my luggage away. He grabbed my wrist, his voice trembling.

“I’ll send them all away… just don’t leave me, Chloe, I’m begging you!”

“Believe me! Those women are just tools for having children. As soon as the babies are born, I’ll send them away. We’ll go back to how we were before…”

Before?

I didn’t answer. I closed my suitcase, ready to leave, but Damian stubbornly refused to let go. As we struggled, his large hand cupped my face, and a torrent of panicked kisses rained down.

“Chloe… tell me, what can I do to make you stay…?”

“Please, just say something…”

His voice cracked with a sob, his hands frantically gripping me, trying to reignite my love with passion. But he was wrong. He couldn’t keep me. Just this morning, when I saw him circling those pregnant women, kissing each of their swollen bellies… My once vibrant, beating heart had turned into a pool of stagnant water.

“Damian, I’m tired…”

The moment he pushed me onto the bed, I whispered, barely audible, and reached out to push him away.

“Mr. Thorne…!”

The door burst open with a crash.

Skylar, caught off guard, stumbled into the bedroom, shattering the fragile intimacy Damian had tried to create.

“Get out!”

A glass cup shattered at her feet as Damian roared, his voice hoarse with rage.

“Mr… Mr. Thorne, Lily and Dawn went into labor early!” Skylar stammered, trembling.

At that, Damian’s expression changed instantly. He pulled away from my lips but didn’t leave right away. Instead, he grinned at me, full of excitement.

He grabbed my forehead and kissed it hard. “Chloe! Our home is going to be lively now!”

“I’m going to check on them. If you’re tired, rest well. I’ll be back!”

He quickly got up and left, but my heart suddenly clenched in pain, and cold sweat instantly broke out on my forehead. My heart condition was flaring up again.

“Damian!” I bit my lip and called out to him, my voice trembling like a leaf.

But Damian didn’t seem to hear. He didn’t look back and just walked away. My lower lip was bitten through, and I curled up in pain, but then I smiled through my bloodied mouth. I smiled, and then I cried…

After stumbling to take my medication, I silently wiped the blood from my mouth, called my lawyer to draft a divorce agreement, and drove to the hospital. There, I learned that the two pregnant women’s premature labor was due to an accidental overdose of oxytocin.

“Mr. Thorne… it was Mrs. Thorne! We drank the soup she sent, that’s why this happened!”

The two pregnant women pointed at me, accusingly, their eyes glinting with cunning calculation. I looked at Damian, not defending myself with a single word.

The next second, two sharp slaps rang out. Damian’s voice was icy.

“Shut up! Chloe is not someone you can slander! Now that the babies are born, you two can leave.”

The two women’s screams as the bodyguards dragged them away made Skylar’s face turn pale. After Damian left to see the babies, I turned to Skylar, getting straight to the point.

“You put the oxytocin in, didn’t you?”

Hearing my question, Skylar’s eyes instantly reddened, and she feigned innocence. “Mrs. Thorne, what are you saying?!”

She choked, her shoulders trembling, as if she had suffered some immense grievance. But after four years of college together, I knew exactly how many little tricks Skylar had up her sleeve. Too lazy to watch her act, I directly handed her an agreement.

“Want to be Mrs. Thorne?”

“Get Damian to sign this, and I’ll give you this position…”

At the sight of ‘Divorce Agreement’ on the paper, Skylar’s tears instantly dried on her face. She bit her lip in humiliation and glared at me.

“Give it? Chloe Reed, you’re truly shameless! Why would I—”

I started to pull back the agreement. “Forget it, then. As long as I’m here, Damian will never get a divorce, and you’ll never get your chance…”

I made to retract the agreement, but Skylar anxiously snatched it from me. After confirming the divorce agreement was legitimate, she cast an uneasy glance at me.

“…I’ll help. Anyway, you can’t have kids, so it’s only right for you to make space.”

My heart suddenly throbbed with a dull ache, and every breath felt heavy with pain.

“Then… I wish you both well. Have plenty of children.”