At that moment, as I gazed at the man I had loved for over ten years, I felt he now seemed like a stranger.
Noticing my silence, he grew visibly anxious.
"Honey, I know I was wrong. If you're still angry, you can take it out on me. Hit me if it helps, but please don't let your anger harm your health or affect our baby..."
Stefan grasped my hand, guiding it to his cheek.
But the image of him and Lyra touching and kissing each other flashed through my mind, so I suddenly retracted my hand and vomited in disgust.
I knew how much Stefan hated uncleanliness.
Yet, at that moment, without hesitation, he reached out to catch my nausea in his bare hands.
Luckily, I had not eaten much in days, so there was nothing to throw up.
Still, the act left me feeling weak and distressed, tears welling up at the corners of my eyes.
Through the blur of tears, I glanced at him.
I believed that the concern written in his gaze at this moment was raw and genuine.
However, the record of him cheating on me with Lyra Keene was also real.
I shifted subtly, creating a small but deliberate distance between us, curling up in the passenger seat.
The ache in my heart was sharp, but I forced myself to suppress it.
"Let's go home."
His eyes, red and brimming with distress, remained fixed on me as he bent forward to fasten my seatbelt.
In his haste, he secretly pushed a pair of stockings tucked in the corner out of view. He probably thought I had not noticed.
The scent of feminine perfume mingled with traces of cigarette smoke, filled the car. It now churned my stomach once again.
I rolled down the window and turned my gaze to the scenery outside.
Suddenly, I felt that my relationship with Stefan was just like the scenery outside the window.
Bright and dazzling on the surface…
Yet, it was irreparable at its core.
When we finally arrived home, I excused myself and claimed discomfort to avoid any conversation with Stefan.
Stefan asked the maid to prepare soup for me. Then he settled on the sofa, engrossed in a pregnancy manual.
Ever since I became pregnant, Stefan transformed from a cold, composed CEO into my personal jittery nanny.
Tasks like blow-drying my hair or bending down to pick something up were no longer permitted.
Pregnancy guides, safety precautions and postnatal recovery plans filled our shelves.
Even the maid could not help but tease, "It's rare to see a man like Mr. Miller."
"He's so protective now and Madam's just pregnant. Once you give birth successfully, I bet he'll pluck all the stars from the sky for you."
Hearing this, Stefan turned his head and stared at me.
"What's difficult about that? You don't have to wait until the baby is born. If you want, I'll contact someone to get a star for you right now."
Without hesitation, he made a flurry of calls to his connections.
For the next half an hour, his phone buzzed with activity. Finally, he sat beside me with a satisfied smile.
"It's all arranged. Tomorrow night, I'll take you to see your very own star."
Though I had little interest in this, Stefan was genuinely thrilled.
He even declined a lucrative contract worth millions of dollars just to take me to the planetarium.
Along the way, he could not stop emphasizing how special this star was.
"Honey, you've been feeling down lately. I know pregnancy is tough and there's nothing I can do to take away the burden. But I'll do everything in my power, no matter how small, to bring a smile to your face."
"Don't worry. When this little troublemaker is born, I'll take full responsibility for him so you can rest easy!"
Stefan held my hand and looked at my belly with a loving look on his face.
But there was a truth he did not know yet.
The life of the baby he longed for was already gone, killed by his own betrayal.
As the evening settled in, we arrived at the planetarium, where the curator greeted us with enthusiasm.
Yet, when his eyes fell on me, a flicker of unease crossed his face.
At that moment, Stefan was absorbed in his excitement and did not seem to notice.
"Look, the date this star was discovered matches our wedding day."
"This is fate. We're meant to be, a match made in heaven. This star is yours, a token of our love. Just like this star, our bond will be eternal..."
