Chapter 1

On the night of my wedding to Pierce, he dragged me to the cemetery to apologize to his pure love, Seraphina.

The girl on the tombstone looked peaceful and gentle, a stark contrast to her frantic escape that day.

I knelt with my palms facing up, allowing the candle wax to drip onto my hands without making a sound.

Pierce stood nearby holding a candle, his face dark and unreadable:

"Does it hurt? Three years ago tonight, Cadence suffered a hundredfold, a thousandfold more pain than this."

"She probably never knew that the one who sent her to her fiery grave was her own beloved little sister!"

In front of me, he confessed to Seraphina's tombstone that our marriage was just a means to keep me by his side.

"Don't worry, Cadence. I'll make sure Archer suffers a fate worse than death!"

I kept my head down, struggling to hold back a smile.

Pierce had no idea that the big fire was a show orchestrated by Seraphina herself.

And I? I had simply made a deal with her to get information about my birth parents.

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1

It was three years after Seraphina's death in a fire when I, as the adopted daughter of the Ashford Family, married Pierce in her place.

On a typhoon day, with rain pouring down, the yard was flooded.

Yet he made all the servants watch from the floor-to-ceiling windows as I waded through the water alone, pulling tarpaulins and clearing drainage ditches.

Aunt Channing, feeling sorry for me, asked Pierce: "Sir, the rain is too heavy. Can we let the madam come back in?"

Pierce said nothing, watching as I stumbled and fell, my entire arm a mix of blood and rainwater, without even furrowing his brow.

I could only feel my way in the dark, enduring the pain as I moved potted flowers back and forth across the courtyard, one after another.

In the end, when I had no strength left, my hands slipped, and I broke a flowerpot.

"Deduct the cost of the flowerpot from her card," he said, then turned and walked away with a cold expression.

When I finally collapsed in the garden with no strength left, Aunt Channing, disregarding Pierce's demeanor, braved the rain to help me back inside.

She anxiously said, "Sir, the madam has a fever, and her stomach is also unwell."

Pierce carelessly turned a page in his book and casually replied, "Noted."

Struggling to stay conscious, I pleaded with Pierce: "Mr.Prescott, I'm in such terrible pain..."

He glanced at the clock and said, "It's time. Go kneel as punishment first."

With that, Pierce closed his book and turned to enter the room.

Every night at 10 o'clock, I have to kneel before Seraphina's memorial portrait as punishment.

This is the rule Pierce has set for me.

Aunt Channing is one of the few people in the mansion who treats me kindly.

Her warm hands massage my lower abdomen in circles, as the minute hand on the clock also turns in circles.

"I don't know what the master is thinking. Even though the mistress is adopted, she still grew up with Miss Forrester."

"If Miss Seraphina were still here, she would surely be upset to see the mistress like this."

Aunt Channing suddenly felt something and asked seriously, "Mistress, have you had your monthly visitor lately?"

"It's about ten days late," I replied weakly, "but my cycle has always been irregular. Why do you ask?"

"Mistress, you've gotten so thin you're almost unrecognizable, but your belly seems quite swollen. Could it be..."

"That's impossible." Pierce has never touched me, so there's no way I could be pregnant.Just as Lila, who had come to the ancestral hall to offer incense, overheard my conversation with Aunt Channing, she immediately went to tattle to Pierce.

He looked down at me condescendingly and said:

"You just want to slack off, don't you? I can't believe you'd stoop so low as to use pregnancy as an excuse. I've really underestimated you."

Aunt Channing stood protectively in front of me and said, "The lady really isn't feeling well, sir. I beg you to let her off just this once."

"Call the private doctor."

It was typhoon season, and the doctor couldn't come. He could only make a diagnosis based on experience through a video call.

"We can't rule out the possibility of an ectopic pregnancy. It's best to get a full body check-up."

Upon hearing this, Pierce slammed the door violently, leaving with a parting shot of "Shameless!"

I screamed with all my might, "Pierce, divorce! I want a divorce from you!"

I don't know how long it was before my phone started beeping, and I finally woke up in bed.

My team leader had bombarded me with messages: "Archer, where's the manuscript?"

"The deadline is approaching, where are you?"

I hurriedly went to check, only to find that the USB drive I had left on my desk yesterday had been soaked by the rain.

I tried several computer ports, but still couldn't open it.

"Sorry, team leader, I'll definitely have it uploaded by this afternoon."At this moment, my private doctor called, still advising me to go to the hospital for a full-body check-up once the rain stops.

I dismissed him as an incompetent physician, giving a few perfunctory responses before hanging up.

After a grueling eight-hour battle, I finally submitted my work within the deadline.

Not only was the bandage wrapped around my arm soaked in fresh blood, but the pain in my abdomen struck again.

Looking at the trees outside bending under the wind's pressure, I decided to tough it out a bit longer.

Just as I swallowed a painkiller, the team leader sent another message:

"Archer, your submitted work doesn't meet our standards."

As the lead artist, I had recently been commissioned to design characters for a game.

Though my newly revised artwork was barely different from the draft, the client deemed it vastly dissimilar.

I couldn't figure out where the problem lay.

Until today, when I saw Pierce sitting at the head of the conference table with a grave expression.

Upon learning that I was the artist he had specifically assigned, he angrily slammed his hand on the table and shouted at the team leader:

"I don't understand why your company would entrust such a second-rate artist with the role of lead artist. This is absolute nonsense!"