The day I found out I was pregnant, Lawrence James came clean.
“I've been cheating on you. With your secretary.”
“She's younger, you know? More adventurous. Exciting.”
“Not like you, raised with all those rules and etiquette. It's refreshing.”
I stood there, the lab report crumpling in my fist.
Lawrence looked like a man who had finally set down something heavy. His tone was so casual it was almost cruel.
“But don't worry. I'll be a good father.”
“Just don't think that being pregnant means you get to chain me down.”
“A man needs a little excitement on the side. It's normal.”
I laughed.
Lawrence married me and actually believed that made him one of us?
I already had an heir. The family legacy belonged to me and this child.
As for who the father was, how much did that really matter?
——
I glanced down at the wrinkled lab report in my hand.
“How long has this been going on?”
Lawrence hesitated.
“Six months.”
Elise Henson smiled and added：
“Longer than that, Mr. James.”
“The first time was the night Pauline Swanson left for the rural highlands.”
“You were drunk. You held me and said Pauline was perfect in every way, except she was always so stiff.”
Something clenched around my heart like a fist squeezing shut.
I had gone to the rural highlands for Lawrence. To hike the pilgrim trail and pray for his well-being.
Forty miles on foot. Millions of prayers for his peace and happiness.
And while I was gasping through altitude sickness, head splitting with pain, Lawrence had been tangled up with someone else.
Elise tilted her head and looked at me, her eyes bright with undisguised triumph.
“Mr. James, didn't you say that morning that I knew all the right moves?”
I stared at Elise's familiar face and couldn't find a single word.
Ten years ago, I had gone to the mountains for a charity trip.
She didn't go by Elise Henson back then. She was just Little Elise.
Skin and bones, too weak from hunger to even cry.
I paid for her medical treatment. I put her through school.
After she graduated, I brought her into the company and made her my secretary.
I taught her how to write emails, how to handle clients, how to pin her hair up when she wore an evening gown.
At a company gala, she had raised her glass with tears brimming in her eyes and said：
“Without Pauline, I wouldn't be the person I am today.”
So this was how she repaid me.
Covered in marks, sitting on my husband's lap.
Lawrence noticed me staring at Elise and frowned.
“Pauline, this doesn't have much to do with her.”
“I'm the one who caught feelings first.”
Elise's eyes turned red on cue, as if she'd just heard the most romantic confession of her life.
“Mr. James……”
I nearly laughed from the sheer disgust.
Lawrence looked at me and softened his tone.
“Don't blame her. Elise is young. She's innocent.”
“She's not like you, groomed since birth to do everything the proper way.”
“Being with her is easy. And exciting.”
He paused there.
His gaze finally landed on the lab report in my hand.
“Pauline, if you're pregnant, I'll take responsibility.”
“I'll be a good father.”
“Elise won't threaten your position as Mrs. James.”
He sounded like he was negotiating a deal he had already settled in his head.
His tone was almost reasonable.
“But don't think that being pregnant means you get to tie me down.”
“In your condition right now, it's not exactly convenient.”
“I can't just hold it in forever.”
Elise lifted a hand and touched the necklace at her throat.
That was the graduation gift I had given her.
She had told me she was nervous about attending her first company dinner, afraid she'd embarrass herself.
I had clasped it around her neck with my own hands.
She let out a soft laugh and looked at me, satisfaction written all over her face.
