Chapter 3
882words
The password was Adrian's birthday.
Inside was a decade-long secret love affair that spanned Adrian's entire adolescence and young adulthood.
Of course, it also included the past two years of our marriage.
There they were, galloping majestically across the African savanna, and exchanging promises while deep-sea diving.
It turns out that long before I married Adrian, they had already loved each other deeply and passionately.
I saw footage from last year when he promised to accompany me to Paris for a fashion show on my birthday, but canceled at the last minute.
Vanessa's video recorded:
【Adrian, I hope you'll always remember that today is your wife's birthday, yet you're here with me on a private island helping me heal my broken heart. You even swore that nothing in this world matters more than a single tear from my eyes.】
My eyes burned with unshed tears. I sniffled hard and continued scrolling through the footage.
Then I saw this year's May 20th, our wedding anniversary.
He called me and said:
"Mira, we should have a child now."
"I'm sorry, it's my problem, so you'll have to go through IVF."
That day I was so excited I even bought clothes for the baby.
Not knowing whether it would be a boy or girl, I bought a whole collection of both blue and pink outfits.
It was all there in Vanessa's video.
During the days when I was commuting to the hospital for injections and blood draws, tormented by medication side effects to the point of wishing for death...
My husband, who remained as unmoved as a monk in my bed regardless of my seduction attempts, was accompanying Vanessa for three days and nights of passionate horseback riding on the great plains.
This notorious workaholic of the business world even put aside the group's billion-dollar merger for this.
His excuse to me at the time was that the acquisition was at a critical stage, he was stretched too thin, and he would make it up to me later.
I was still naively understanding of his busy schedule, worrying about his health.
But the truth is, in every video recorded by Vanessa, his eyes burned with a passionate love and intense desire I had never seen before.
It turns out he wasn't devoid of desire; his desire and love simply never belonged to me.
What chilled me to the bone even more was a clip in which Vanessa, nestling coquettishly in his arms, said:
"Adrian, I allow you to get an heir through other means, but your body and your heart must completely belong to me alone."
He tenderly kissed her forehead:
"Vanessa, except for the title of wife, I can give you even my life."
"I also promise that in this lifetime, I will remain faithful only to you."
I stood frozen in place, everything I cherished turning into the sharpest knives slicing through my heart.
So what did that mean?
What I thought was mutual devotion, my marriage—were they just props in their love story?
I didn't watch anymore, just calmly walked into Grandfather's study.
I accidentally answered a video call from Vanessa.
On screen, Adrian was visibly drunk, cursing with disgust.
"Mira Sinclair, that bitch!"
Enduring the stabbing pain in my chest, I turned off the phone and spoke to my grandfather.
"I've decided to divorce Adrian."
My father slammed the table angrily:
"Nonsense! This involves the cooperation between our two families. You can't just decide to divorce as you please!"
My brother also tried to persuade me:
"Sis, you can divorce, but of the compensation I helped you secure, I want ninety percent."
I looked at them and smiled coldly:
"I only want freedom."
When I walked out of the Sinclair family mansion, snow was falling heavily, and I suddenly didn't know where to go.
In the end, I returned to the small villa my grandmother had left me.
But just as I reached the entrance, I heard bursts of laughter coming from inside the courtyard.
It was Vanessa's voice:
"Adrian, go comfort Mira, don't let her actually abort our child."
"Fortunately, the hospital director is your man and gave you advance warning."
I was thunderstruck, looking in disbelief through the crack in the door!
Adrian had actually brought Vanessa here?
He clearly knew this villa was the last memento my grandmother left me, my only safe haven.
After my grandmother passed away, except for him, I had never allowed any outsider to set foot here.
And now, he brought in this woman who had trampled all my pride into mud, entering as if she belonged!
What made me tremble all over was what Vanessa said next.
How could this be!
This was clearly my child, conceived through IVF after hundreds of injections, countless nights of vomiting and sleeplessness, and all my desperate efforts!
What did this have to do with Vanessa?
Adrian gently drew her into his arms to comfort her.
"Don't worry, I know Mira too well. She loves me to the bone, so she absolutely won't get rid of it."
"Even if she does abort it, we'll just have her carry another one."
"After all, we're just borrowing her womb to let your egg take root and grow."
