I locked myself in the master bedroom and didn't come out for the whole afternoon. The sounds of laughter coming from the living room were too piercing for my ears.
Later that afternoon, Fiona knocked on the door and let herself in. She told me that Debbie had insisted on taking over the master bedroom, but Sandra stopped her.
"She said that you came from the Sallow family, after all, and they still needed your help with other things around the house, so they couldn't afford to get on your bad side. She even said…"
Fiona had been my nanny growing up in the Sallow household. She knew my temperament well, so she paused midway through and looked at me, trying to gauge my expression before she continued.
Seeing that I didn't interrupt her, she said, "She even said that all of Debbie's postnatal expenses will be borne by you, since you can't give birth, so this was one of the ways that you could be part of the pregnancy too."
When Fiona said this, my face darkened immediately. I adjusted my sleeves and asked, "Anything else?"
Fiona went on. "She said that since you're childless, everything you own will also go to this child in the future."
I couldn't stop myself from laughing out loud. The Jepsons sure knew how to plan ahead.
Although I was fuming with anger, I never let it show on my face. I knew that this wasn't the time.
Fiona asked me what my next plans were. I just smiled at her and told her to treat everything as usual.
She then brought me lunch. After eating, I sat at my bedroom window and looked out downstairs. Harvey was taking Debbie out right then.
Memories of the past started flooding my mind. It was also an afternoon like this, five years ago, when I went home to my parents and tearfully begged them to let me marry Harvey.
Mom and Dad already had another candidate in mind for my future partner. They were particularly fond of Adrian Lysander, the only son of the esteemed Lysander family who owned Lysander Group.
Lysander Group was one of the top companies in Jennerville, and the family was likewise held in very high regard. I had been neighbors with Adrian since young, and Mom and Dad had always liked him. They even often invited him over for lunch.
However, I had never had any romantic feelings for Adrian. After getting to know Harvey, I spent all of my days pursuing him and dating him, obviously not caring about marrying into the Lysander family to supposedly strengthen our business relationships or anything of the sort.
I kept telling my parents that it was the 21st century now, and I was going to be in charge of my own love life. I wanted control over who I was going to marry. Also, I insisted that Adrian didn't like me like that either.
Still, Mom and Dad tried changing my mind, saying that Adrian would never have offered to send me home every time I went out if he didn't harbor any feelings for me.
To be honest, I hadn't cared about what Adrian thought of me back then, or whether he liked me or not.
I first met Harvey on the first day of college, when we both reached for the same application form to register for our social clubs.
Harvey had apologized like a gentleman and offered me the form instead. He had been wearing a gray athleisure set that day and looked like a total college heartthrob. He was very tall too, and his smile was warm and bright like the sun's rays.
He also had a pair of the most beautiful hands I had ever seen in my life. I had a sort of hand fetish, and I just couldn't resist him.
Our meeting had been so sudden and fateful that I just couldn't forget his phone number, even if I wanted to.
I added him on WhatsApp after that. When I finally told him my name, he replied instantly without hesitation. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Sallow. I've been hearing good things about you."
From that day onward, I would find myself wanting to create "coincidences" where I'd bump into him on the way to classes. In fact, I did everything I could to get myself into the student council because I wanted to be in the same room with him just for a while more.
Time passed quickly, and I had always been content with living in his shadow.
After getting married, Harvey offered to take up all of my responsibilities at my company, helping me manage it while I spent my days at home however I wished, like any other billionaire's wife.
I didn't turn him down. After all, I thought that spouses should help each other out. Since Harvey came from a middle-class family, I thought that I should give him a hand if he wanted to improve himself by taking up responsibilities at the company.
My parents and my best friend, Kelly Finch, all told me to carefully think it over. After all, Mom and Dad had already warned me before marrying Harvey that he hadn't married me simply because he was in love with me. He was also in love with my wealth.
I had then told them that I didn't care. There wouldn't be a problem as long as he still loved me with all his heart.
So, after our wedding, Alex's and Sandra's lives also took a major turn for the better. They both resigned from their day jobs and spent the rest of their days frolicking wherever they wanted with the monthly allowances from us.
They would even proudly show off to the world that Harvey was a big shot now, being the CEO of a huge corporation, and this caused plenty of their own relatives to come around asking for handouts.
Those relatives of theirs even managed to get Harvey to arrange blind dates for them, wanting him to set them up with other big shots and wealthy people in Jennerville.
I never felt anxious about the Jepsons doing any of these. My thought back then was that I was wealthy enough to help them with whatever they needed. These handouts would barely cause a dent in our net worth.
However, Harvey never knew that Adrian had come looking for me once, just before the day of our wedding. He then handed me an Equity Transfer Agreement, telling me that he hoped I would sign the agreement so that if my marriage went south, I would still have the guts and support I needed to leave Harvey.
He had even clenched his fists beside him and told me sincerely, "You don't just have the Sallows supporting you—I will also always be there for you. If that man ever harms you one day, I will never forgive him!"
I chuckled and told him that he was overthinking again. I had always been confident about my taste in people, and I believed that Harvey would never let me down.
Now, it seemed as though everyone had been right about Harvey. They had been warning me about him. It was just that I'd been so blinded by love in the past that I couldn't care less about what they said.
After getting married, Harvey would always try to pick faults with me, no matter how much I tried to please him. He would criticize me for not knowing how to properly do household chores, tell me off for having a temper, and compare me with his other friends' wives, saying that I couldn't even compare to them.
I had been so smitten with Harvey back then that I tried changing all of my ways to suit him.
He liked it when I came to greet him every time he came home from work, so I often stayed at home to welcome him back. I would even try my hand at his favorite dishes so that I could recreate them for him.
Kelly often told me that I had lost more and more of my own identity after marrying him. I used to be a huge shopaholic and traveled often, but I was slowly getting rid of my hobbies and interests, changing myself for another man.
Alex and Sandra were very satisfied with me. They would often praise me, calling me sweet, kind, and beautiful in front of their relatives at dinners and events.
In fact, the only person in the Jepson family who would ever criticize me was Harvey.
I had always thought that I was the problem. But now, I finally understood that I had been nothing but a mere stepping stone for Harvey after all. He had never truly loved me. So, of course, he never thought that I was ever good enough for him.
