Clarissa picked me up from the hospital and took me home.
She stayed by my bedside all night, her eyes often falling on my flat stomach. Every time her gaze lingered, her eyes would fill with tears. Gregorycretia's family, one of great prestige, placed immense importance on the continuation of the family line.
Once, she came to visit the Lu family, and before she had a chance to greet me,
She saw Gregory's mother ordering two maids to pin me to a chair, forcing me to drink a foul-smelling medicinal concoction. Clarissa was horrified by the scene and immediately rushed in front of me, shielding me with her body.
"What are you doing?! What did you make her drink?!"
Gregory's mother calmly lowered her eyes and sipped her tea, not sparing us a glance.
From her perfectly maintained lips, she spoke with words sharper than knives.
"A woman who can't have children is sick."
"I'm treating her illness. You should be grateful to me."
The medicine churned painfully in my stomach.
I was so humiliated that I wanted to vomit.
But for Gregory, I could only endure the shame and lower my head.
"Sorry to trouble you," I said softly.
Gregory's mother scoffed. "It's not just me who's worried, the entire Lu family's ancestors are worried for you!" She ordered me to kneel before the family's ancestral shrine.
I knelt from noon until evening before I was allowed to leave.
Clarissa saw me limping and was furious. "Kasey, are you insane? It's not your fault you can't get pregnant."
"If you hadn't taken that knife for Gregory back then, how could your womb have been injured?"
"How can you let them treat you like this?"
The second year I was with Gregory, he offended someone in business.
As the only son of the Lu family, they didn't dare to harm him, so they hired kidnappers to teach him a lesson through me. But as the kidnappers were about to take me away, Gregory, who had gone across the street to buy hot drinks, noticed. He chased after the car and single-handedly took down four of the kidnappers.
But as he knocked them all down and rushed to untie me, one of the kidnappers suddenly lunged at him with a knife.
The events happened too quickly for me to think, and without hesitation, I pulled Gregory behind me.
The knife stabbed deep into my abdomen.
I bled profusely, and after a hospital check-up, the doctors informed Gregory that my womb had been injured, and I might never be able to have children. Gregory fought with his family over the years because of this. He said he owed me his life and, without children, he would accept it.
But the result of this was that Gregory was sent to Africa to open a branch, and his father whipped him nearly to death. He felt sorry for me, and of course, I felt the same for him.
So after we married, I took on the pressure from the Lu family to have children, never once complaining to Gregory about his mother's treatment of me.
But Clarissa knew my pain.
She grieved for me, having to give up this hard-earned child.
As I placed my hand on my flat stomach, my heart felt just as barren.
When a person gets something, they forget the effort it took to reach for it. Gregory had forgotten how hard it was for us to be together at first.
That's why he betrayed me.
And I hadn't forgotten.
That's why I couldn't forgive...
---
At Clarissa's place, I managed to get a rare good night's sleep.
But the next morning, before I was fully awake, my phone beside the pillow vibrated constantly, several messages popping up.
Gregory's messages exploded on my screen.
"Darling, are you alright? Darling, don't scare me!"
"Kasey, please reply. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have left you and the child! It's all my fault." I looked at the messages, confused.
Then, a notification popped up at the top of the screen.
[J Hospital suffered a sudden explosion last night, causing many casualties!]
It turned out that shortly after I left the hospital last night, there was an explosion there, followed by a raging fire.
Many patients, who couldn't escape in time, were burned beyond recognition, reduced to charred remains.
Gregorycretia saw the news and wanted to confirm my safety. But as I looked at his screen full of regret, I found it laughable.
He loved me, yet kept his secretary downstairs from me.
He seemed more devoted than anyone else.
But in reality, he was neither a good father nor a good husband.
He couldn't even be called a good lover.
A man like Gregorycretia deserved to suffer.
