Chapter 2

He cooed a few sweet nothings at me before leaving the hospital room. I spat out the caramel in my mouth, its cloying sweetness making me nauseous.

I'd rather not have such fake concern!

During my hospital stay, Dashiell stayed up with me until the early hours every night, his dark circles growing deeper. He showered me with honeyed words as if they cost him nothing.

That evening, he fell asleep hunched over by my bedside. Suddenly, his phone lit up with a new message.

I picked it up. It was from Vivienne: "Honey, I miss our baby. I'll even be a live-in nanny at Carlisle Manor if I have to. I can't bear to be apart from you."

Seeing that Dashiell had saved Vivienne's contact as "My Soulmate Vivienne, the Goddess," I felt a hollowness in my chest, as if my heart had been ripped out.

I thought I could let it go, but my body's reaction was unexpectedly intense. I clutched my chest and broke down in tears.

Droplets fell one after another, forming rivulets down my face.

Dashiell, how cruel you are. Sweet-talking me while placating Vivienne – you're truly a master of time management.I opened Dashiell's cloud storage and noticed a folder named "Beloved". On a whim, I tried entering Vivienne's name, and to my shock, it actually opened.

The first thing I saw was a video recorded by Dashiell.

I clicked on one, and surprisingly, the background was my hospital room. The recording time was yesterday!

In the video, Dashiell looked blissfully happy. He spoke softly: "Another day of loving my angel Vivienne. I hope our sweetheart grows up healthy and safe. Vivienne, I love you."

I turned the phone's volume to its lowest, terrified of waking Dashiell.

Five years of marriage, and my trust in Dashiell was repaid with his betrayal.

I never checked his phone, but I never imagined he would do this to me.

I covered my mouth to stifle any sound. The folder was full of videos of Dashiell professing his love for Vivienne.

There were even lists of things to remember during Vivienne's pregnancy.

First on the list: Vivienne doesn't like apples, but loves durian.Second, Vivienne said today that the chicken noodle soup I made for her was delicious. She's already instructed her assistant to get up early every day to buy free-range chickens.

Third, Vivienne is beauty-conscious and wants me to apply stretch mark cream on her every night.

Fourth, Vivienne uses fairy water, and I need to buy her a bottle every month.

Looking at the list of precautions Dashiell had enumerated one by one, tears blurred my vision.

My whole body felt cold, and my heart was filled with sorrow. That night, I didn't sleep for even a second.

The next day, when I woke up, there were more than a dozen caregivers standing in the hospital room, each holding various postpartum meals.

Seeing me open my eyes, Dashiell gently helped me sit up. "Seraphina, it's time to eat."

I heard envious voices from the nurses behind me, all praising Dashiell as a model husband, saying how lucky I was.

I smiled sarcastically, thinking about the folder on Dashiell's phone filled with files about Vivienne. I felt nothing.

Dashiell took me home and told me he had named the baby Xavion and hired a postpartum nanny for him.I asked him where he found the postpartum nanny. He stammered and mumbled that he found her online, saying she was quite reliable.

I watched him lie, feeling a mixture of sourness and heaviness in my heart. I turned my head away, unable to bear it.

As soon as I walked in, I saw Vivienne holding the baby. She had lifted her shirt and was breastfeeding.

Beside her, my mother-in-law wore a loving expression. In her hands, she held the heirloom jade bracelet of Carlisle Manor, about to place it on Vivienne's wrist.