Chapter 1

The day after Adrian Gray claimed the top spot on the billionaire list, he went to my parents and asked for my sister Clara Wells's hand in marriage.

That night, my parents deliberately led me into his room while he was drunk.

I cried and screamed the entire night.

The next morning, Adrian looked at the marks he'd left on my body. His face went white. In the end, he gritted his teeth and accepted the marriage.

But I had never wanted to come between him and Clara.

Shortly after the wedding, Clara joined Adrian's company as his personal secretary. Every month, she traveled with him on business for ten, sometimes fifteen days at a stretch. When the two of them came back, one would bring me my favorite maple candies, and the other would have hunted down rose quartz for me from wherever in the world they'd been.

Clara's two children called me Mom.

And I always made sure to tell them they should respect Clara.

That was how we lived for eight years.

Until one day, Clara suggested I have a child with Adrian.

"Once Mom and Dad pass away, Adrian will probably marry me anyway."

"When that happens, what will you do all by yourself?"

"You love children so much, and you don't have anyone you love. Why not borrow his genes and keep a child of your own?"

So Adrian and I began what was, for all practical purposes, our first real married life.

He was cooperative enough.

But six months went by, and I still wasn't pregnant.

The doctor ran through everything I'd been eating. Then he pushed the box of maple candies across the desk toward me.

"Where did you get this medication?"

His brow furrowed, and his voice dropped low.

"This is an unapproved contraceptive drug. It's not even authorized for market distribution."

"Its contraceptive effect is certainly potent, but you've been taking it continuously for eight years. Your body can't hold out much longer."

Eight years.

So from the day we got married, Adrian had been drugging me?

I looked down at the words "liver failure" on the diagnostic report, and I couldn't help but laugh bitterly.

Adrian Gray had three people he hated most in this world.

One was my father. One was my mother.

As for the third, the public had always speculated.

But it didn't matter anymore.

Because every person he hated was about to die.

"Why on earth would you take a banned drug?" the doctor asked, staring at me with deepening concern. "Haven't you felt unwell all these years?"

Unwell?

Of course I had.

But I'd been in poor health since I was little. Even when something felt off, it never occurred to me to question it.

The doctor sighed, his voice edged with barely suppressed anger.

"Did you really not want your husband's child that badly? Regular contraceptives are perfectly fine. Why would you risk your life with something like this?"

My hands wouldn't stop shaking as I clutched the report.

He was right.

Regular contraceptives would have done the job.

So why give me an unapproved experimental drug?

By the time I got home, the servants hadn't heard my footsteps and were still whispering in the living room.

"Mr. Gray's biomedical company doubled in value again."

"The missus really hit the jackpot. A clueless, naive little thing like her, and she lands a man like Mr. Gray."

"He doesn't love her. Haven't you seen these past six months? Not a single sign of pregnancy."

"I heard she climbed into his bed back then and forced Mr. Gray to take responsibility. Maybe even God couldn't stand it and won't let her have children."

"Shh, she's here!"

Everyone went silent at once.

I never knew how to fight back with words.

I looked at the servants, every one of whom had taken countless favors from my hands, and all I did was slowly clench my fists and walk back to the bedroom in silence.

Outside the door, someone lowered their voice again.

"See? I told you. Guilty conscience."

"Even if she's upset, she wouldn't dare report it to Mr. Gray."

"What are you all talking about?"

Adrian's voice.

The hallway fell instantly quiet.

Before long, he pushed open the door and set an elegant box of maple candies in front of me.

"Who upset you? You look terrible."

As he spoke, he peeled the wrapper off a candy and held it to my lips.

"Come on, open up."

I turned my head away.

His hand froze.

After a moment, he sat down beside me.

"Those servants who were running their mouths, I'll let them go."

I said nothing.

He took my hand and rubbed his thumb gently across my knuckles.

"Don't be upset. If something's bothering you, don't bottle it up. Tell me."

I didn't know when it had started, but we'd been acting more and more like a real married couple.

The way he looked at me had grown more and more tender.

Of course, I'd been gullible since I was a child. Nearly thirty years old, and I still couldn't tell how much of what people said was real and how much was a lie.

I pulled my hand back.

"Can you stop pretending?"

He stiffened. Something that looked almost like hurt flickered in his eyes.

"Lily, what's gotten into you today? I come home and you're not happy to see me. You won't even touch your favorite candy."

I looked at the box of maple candies on the table.

In the corner, stamped right on the box, was the logo of his pharmaceutical company.

So the drugs that couldn't make it to market had been used on me all along.

I raised my hand and knocked the box to the floor.

The candies shattered across the tiles.

Adrian stared at me, frozen.

"If you don't love me, you can just divorce me."

My voice broke.

"My parents are already on their deathbeds. They lost any say in Clara's marriage a long time ago."

"So why would you—"

I stared at the shattered candy scattered across the floor, and my throat burned as if a blade were dragging through it.

"Why are you still making me eat this?"

Adrian frowned.

He crouched down and picked up the broken candy pieces one by one, placing them back in the box. He looked at the cracked heart-shaped candy in his palm and slowly closed his fingers around it.

"Who said I don't love you?"

Before I could react, the bedroom door swung open.

Clara stood in the doorway, smiling.

"Adrian, the children both want me to take them to the next charity gala."

I froze.

That upcoming gala was one where whoever a man brought on his arm was assumed to be his wife.

Adrian had already had a gown prepared for me.

"The children said that?" Adrian turned and smiled faintly. "That works. You haven't been to one before."

Clara's smile brightened.

Then she noticed the candy scattered across the floor, and her expression stiffened for just a second.

"Did you two have a fight?"

"It's nothing. Let me take you to pick out a dress first. Lily's gowns run small. They won't fit you."

Adrian left with Clara without another word.

I sat alone in the room and wiped my eyes.

I still didn't want to die.

But I'd taken my medical records to every major hospital in the city. Every doctor was stunned at how I'd managed to destroy my body this completely in just a few years.

"It's too late," the last doctor told me.

"Even with treatment, it would only be machines keeping you alive."