Yet she walked away as if I were invisible.
The way she'd thrown herself under Grandma's cane without hesitation, shielding Noel behind her—it made every word of comfort she'd offered me moments ago feel like a cruel joke.
"Grandma! It was my idea, and I did it for the family! Don't hurt innocent people!"
Evelyn froze, her gaze instinctively drifting toward me.
When she saw the white bandages on my arm soaking through with fresh blood, her expression twisted with frustrated anger.
"You wretched girl! He just had over a hundred acupuncture needles yesterday—can't you see the wounds all over his body?"
Panic and regret flickered in Greta's eyes. She started to rush toward me—
But Noel collapsed behind her.
She whipped around in alarm, and despite her own injuries, wrapped her arms around him to help him leave.
Grandma Evelyn planted herself in her path.
"You're not going anywhere! You just gave birth—do you have a death wish?"
"Your husband is still in there! Do you even want this family anymore?"
Hesitation clouded Greta's eyes.
"I do! But you hurt Noel—I can't just abandon him! Bob... he has you. He'll be fine!"
Once upon a time, she would have moved mountains for me like that.
Once upon a time, I was never the one she chose to leave behind.
I looked at her, my gaze hollow.
"Grandma, let her go."
She seemed startled by my magnanimity.
After all, there was a time I'd thrown tantrums, groveled, even hurt myself to keep her from leaving—shredding every last scrap of my dignity as a man.
Something complicated passed through her eyes. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but in the end, she left.
The nurse re-dressed my wounds.
The baby was soothed to sleep.
Then my phone buzzed with her message.
[Sorry. I just didn't want to cause a scene at the hospital and damage the Jenner family's reputation.]
[Noel is still unconscious and needs someone with him, so I won't be coming over. We're recovering together. Don't worry.]
I stared at the screen for a long time.
Once, when I learned she'd been injured on a business trip, I flew eleven hours to be by her side. I went with her to every examination, never leaving for a moment.
She'd been so moved she could barely speak. She told me she would never let me down—not in this lifetime.
Seeing me sigh, Grandma Evelyn snatched the phone from my hand.
She read the cold words on the screen and let out a scornful huff.
"That wretched girl! Just wait until she gets back—I'll deal with her then. Bob, don't worry. Grandma will—"
I cut her off with a quiet laugh, meeting her eyes with a calm I no longer had to fake.
"You allowed all of this, didn't you?"
"I've stopped caring what she does. You promised me once this child was safely born, you'd help me get the divorce. I hope you intend to keep your word."
Her expression faltered, guilt pooling in her eyes.
"I've failed you, child."
"I've already tricked her into signing the divorce papers. Focus on recovering. Once she's finished her postpartum confinement, you can leave."
Grandma Evelyn took the baby into her own care, personally arranging for someone to look after him.
I quietly returned to the apartment I'd lived in before the marriage, staying out of the public eye.
But that night, the gossip still tore through the business world: Jenner Group heiress defies matriarch for her brother-in-law, risking her postpartum health to protect him.
The Jenner family's stock plummeted. Greta was drowning in damage control.
Noel's lifestyle influencer account was swarmed by furious netizens. The scandal I'd once personally exposed—him seducing his own brother's wife—the one Greta had buried, resurfaced and spread like wildfire.
The platform was flooded with condemnation. If Greta hadn't intervened, his account would have been terminated and he'd be facing breach-of-contract penalties.
Seven days passed before I saw her again.
The moment she laid eyes on me, disappointment carved itself into her features.
"Bob, does destroying us like this really make you happy?"
I blinked, then understood.
She was pinning the leaked gossip on me.
