She was holding a glass, pretending to need water.
Her lips curled with mockery. “So, tell me, are you really Mrs. McMillan? Or just a maid here? Even your scent stinks like this kitchen.”
I gripped the ladle tightly, forcing my voice to stay calm.
“Don’t get too proud just because you’re carrying a baby. One day, when they find your weakness, they’ll crush you, the same way they crushed me.”
Her smile vanished. “What did you just say?”
She lunged forward, yanking my hair back hard. I stumbled — the ladle slipped from my hand, and the boiling soup toppled from the stove.
Splash!
The scalding liquid hit my feet. Belinda screamed, her arm splattered too.
“Ahhh!”
“What’s going on?!” Andreas shouted.
Belinda burst into tears on cue, “Andre, I… I was just trying to help Selena, but she threw hot soup at me!”
Not this performance again. I was so tired of this act. “It was you…” I began.
But before I could defend myself, Andreas’s mother slapped me hard.
“You are so inconsiderate!” she snapped. “If you can’t give us anything, at least stop bringing disaster into this house!”
“But I…” I tried to explain again, but cut off again.
Andreas’s mother’s voice dripping with urgency. “Take Belinda to the hospital immediately! Can’t you see how much pain she’s in?”
Andreas swept Belinda into his arms and shot me a look filled with disappointment and contempt. “I never knew you were this cruel, Selena.”
Then he rushed out the door, leaving me standing there barefoot, the skin on my feet blistered from boiling soup.
If he hadn’t lost himself, Andreas should have known—seeing someone hurt always made me cry. I was too soft-hearted to hurt anyone.
But now, I wasn’t even allowed to explain.
In this house, everything I did was wrong, and Belinda was always right.
The maid hurried to me, kneeling with trembling hands as she pressed a damp towel to my burned skin.
“I’m so sorry, ma’am,” she whispered, pity filling her eyes.
Her pity hurt more than the burn. Was I that pathetic at that moment?
I treated the wounds myself at home.
Since Andreas didn’t return home that night, I also decided to pack my things.
As I walked past the new decorated nursery, I found the three ultrasound photos we had once displayed laid in the floor.
I remembered Andreas saying, with such gentle hope, “Let’s hang them here, so our future babies will know they once had siblings. I’m sure someday we’ll meet them again.”
Such a sweet moment… one of many. Now every sweet memory had become a blade in my chest.
“Don’t worry babies, Mom will take you with me forever.”
I took the ultrasound photos to my room and began packing, leaving behind everything Andreas had given me—even the gifts that matched Belinda’s.
That night, I printed the divorce papers Neil had sent through the family lawyer and signed them.
Only Andreas’s signature remained.
The next day, I went to the hospital, that was the day for my abortion appointment.
But the moment I stepped into the ob-gyn department, I saw Andreas and Belinda walking out together.
“Thankfully, our baby is healthy,” Belinda said sweetly
But then she pouted, “But Andreas, you need to comfort Selena more. I’m starting to feel scared to face her.”
“Don’t worry,” he replied calmly. “Selena is still emotionally unstable from her last miscarriage. She loves children—she’ll accept this baby.”
Belinda smiled. “She has to. Especially since we tried to terminate her last pregnancy and change her supplements, so she’d agree to the pregnancy program. We…”
Hearing such a cruel thing, I stepped closer, and cut off, “Is that true?”
They froze, shocked that I was there and had heard everything.
“I asked you. Is that true?” I roared, making people nearby turned to stare.
“Selena, lower your voice. You’re making a scene,” Andreas hissed, while Belinda covered her face, pretending to be embarrassed.
Being public figures, they quickly guided me to the emergency stairwell. Andreas apologized to the onlookers, “Sorry, my wife is mentally unstable after her miscarriage.”
The crowd lost interest and returned to their business.
Once the door shut behind us, I shook his hand off and screamed, “Don’t touch me! Let everyone hear how you killed your own child for this bitch!”
Belinda stepped forward, offended. “Selena, I’ve been patient. How can you call me by that?”
Anger was fulfilling my body, so my hand moved before reason could stop it—I grabbed her hair. “You’re indeed a bitch. A parasite.”
She cried out and tried to push me away. Andreas rushed in, pulling at my arm. “Selena, stop! Don’t act insane. Let me explain.”
“No explanation needed. You’re a bastard, and she’s a bitch!” I roared.
What I didn’t expect was that in anger, Belinda deliberately shoved me hard, making me stumble backward—straight down the emergency stairs.
I rolled, hitting step after step, until my body slammed into the wall at the bottom with a sickening sound. Gasps filled the stairwell as people rushed to look.
I felt warm liquid beneath me and grabbed my aching stomach. “No, no...”
The last thing I heard was Andreas screaming, “Call the doctor!”
I woke up in the hospital ward. The first thing I heard was the doctor telling Andreas that the baby had died.
He didn’t mention the abortion, but Andreas also learned that I had gotten pregnant again… and miscarried again.
“The mother survived, but the baby didn’t.”
“Thank God,” Andreas said.
I was stunned. How could he say that?
The doctor left, and Andreas soon followed, leaving me alone in the room with Belinda.
“I know you’re awake,” she said coldly. “No need to pretend.”
Mocking, as always.
The moment I opened my eyes, she leaned closer and said, “Tell me, Selena, how was today’s show? Exciting, right?”
“You probably thought he would cry again after finding out you lost another baby. Do you still think he loves you?”
She laughed. “Oh, Selena… poor you. From the beginning, you were nothing but a replacement. He married you just because I rejected him five years ago.”
“You were just his revenge.”
“And when I came back,” she continued, “he chose me again. It looks like you never managed to take him away from me.”
I already knew the truth. The divorce agreement came with the proof that their relationship wasn’t just something that happened on set—it started long ago.
Belinda was the woman Andreas had wanted five years ago.
Their recent movie together was just a chance to rekindle their long-standing relationship.
Under her mockery, I forced myself to sit up, even though pain exploded through my lower stomach.
I placed the document in front of Belinda.
“If that’s the truth,” I said calmly, “Then, I think you will be glad to see this.”
Belinda unfolded it, expecting divorce papers.
“I’m not asking for a cent of marital assets,” I continued. “Just make sure he signs it tonight. Preferably without reading the contents.”
Her brows lifted, impressed. “And after he signs it?”
“I’ll leave this town. Disappear. Even Andreas won’t be able to find me.”
“Deal,” she said before turning and walking out of the ward.
That day, everything became clear. If from the beginning, I was just a replacement.
So, I texted my brother and told him to pull all my shares out of Lenz Agency—Andreas’s pride, the number one agency in Los Angeles, built with my name, my money, and my sacrifices.
I also asked him to help me disappear.
I almost pitied Andreas. I wondered what his face would look like when he found out the empire he bragged about no longer belonged to him.
In the middle of the night, she returned and handed me the signed document. I didn’t care what methods she used—what mattered was that I finally had the result I wanted.
“You’d better keep your promise,” she warned.
I gave a small smile. “Don’t worry. I have no intention of staying with cheaters. You know me better than that.”
Belinda smirked. She knew I’d hated cheaters since college.
“Well then, Selena,” she said smugly, “when the baby is born, I’ll send you his cute photos, make sure to see it.”
I smiled back. “No need, but I really wish you a good luck, new Mrs. McMillan.”
The next morning, in another hospital room, Belinda sat peeling an orange while Andreas fed her gently. She giggled when the nurse entered.
“Mr. McMillan,” the doctor said heavily, “I’m sorry, but your wife, Selena McMillan, has passed away due to infection following a miscarriage.”
The orange fell from Andreas’s fingers.
“What?” he whispered, his face going pale.
The world he thought he controlled… finally began to crumble, exactly as I intended.
