Theodore Delgado, one of the most celebrated professors in the country, had pursued me for ten years. Everyone in the city knew how deeply he loved me.
When he proposed, he presented three betrothal gifts.
The first was his family's heirloom bracelet, passed down for over a thousand years.
The second was a sacred jade charm consecrated with his own blood, obtained after he climbed 999 stone steps on his knees to pray for it.
The third was the highest-level security key from his research career, containing master authorization to every core project under his name.
Later, when I found out I was pregnant, he was overjoyed. He personally traveled to a renowned medical family to obtain herbal remedies for a safe pregnancy, but fell off a cliff and went missing.
It was his female graduate student who saved him and nursed him back to health over the course of a month.
I had always been grateful to her for saving my husband.
Even when Theodore kept siding with her again and again because of that so-called “life-saving debt,” I never truly held it against him.
Until the day I was eight months pregnant.
I went to campus to bring Theodore lunch and found him pressing his graduate student against a wall, kissing her.
She asked him in that breathy little voice of hers：
“Do you think your wife will make a scene when she finds out I'm carrying your baby?”
Theodore let out a low laugh.
“Her father's dead. She's an orphan. Who's going to stand up for her? She's completely under my thumb.”
Bitter tears slid down my cheeks. I turned and walked away. In that moment, I made my decision: keep the baby, lose the man.
I refused to share a man's love with another woman. And my child would never have to survive on half a father's affection.
1
I pulled out my phone and called a man I hadn't spoken to in a long time：
“Jack, my thirty-day divorce cooling period ends in a month. Let's get married.”
His voice came back rough, hoarse：“Summer Simmons, are you messing with me?”
“You insisted on marrying Theodore back then. I couldn't stop you no matter what I said. And now you regret it?”
Jack Summers was my childhood sweetheart, the boy I'd secretly loved growing up. He was overseas now, running his own business.
The day I got together with Theodore, Jack called me and cried all night. That was when I learned he'd felt the same way about me.
But by then, I had already chosen Theodore.
Facing Jack's sharp questions now, shame burned through me. “I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking. Forget what I just said.”
He sounded furious.
“Summer, what do you take me for? A dog you can call and dismiss whenever it suits you?”
“One month. I want to see you and the baby standing in front of me. If you don't show, I'm flying back and coming to get you myself!”
Then he hung up.
I smiled faintly, but my eyes were wet.
I didn't hesitate any longer. I went straight to file the divorce papers.
Reading through the clauses one by one, I thought of every vow Theodore had made on our wedding day.
Who could have guessed that the man who swore he'd love me for the rest of his life would change his heart three years into our marriage.
I still hadn't finished processing what I'd seen that afternoon, Theodore with Hilda.
Then that evening, one of his students texted me saying Theodore had had too much to drink and needed someone to pick him up.
Out of habit, I walked out the door. It wasn't until I was standing outside the private room that I caught myself. I was planning a divorce. Why was I still looking after him?
But in the next second, through the glass panel on the door, I saw Theodore slumped in Hilda Shepherd's arms.
He used to refuse anyone's touch when he was drunk. Only I was allowed near him.
Now he leaned against his student without reservation, clinging to her like she was all he needed.
The pain split me open. I stood there and watched, punishing myself with every second of it.
The room was full of Theodore's colleagues and students. Every one of them knew. I was the only one who'd been kept in the dark.
Laughter erupted from inside the room.
“Professor Delgado's really building a dynasty!”
“Though it looks like you favor Hilda's kid more.”
Theodore's lips curved. His voice was low but perfectly clear：
“Naturally. Summer's carrying a girl. She'll just be someone to spoil.”
“Hilda's child will be my only legitimate heir.”
My ears rang.
Then I heard Hilda's voice, soft and small：
“Professor, if your wife finds out you took her father's surgery money to pay for my prenatal treatments, do you think she'll refuse to let me stay with you?”
“I've never asked for a title. I just want to be by your side.”
Her words hit me like a mallet to the skull. My vision blurred.
What did she just say?
Theodore's response was offhand, almost bored.
“What right does she have to object? What's she going to do, divorce me? Who'd want her? She's damaged goods.”
“The old man was going to die anyway. That fifty thousand was better spent keeping my son alive than wasted on him.”
My heart felt like it had been cracked open with bare hands, the rot inside exposed to the air.
My father had died because his surgery came too late.
Theodore told me it was because my father had gotten addicted to online gambling and lost everything, leaving nothing for treatment.
For three months afterward, Theodore cared for me while I drowned in grief. He comforted me, held me together, pulled me back from the edge.
Now I knew the truth. He was the one who'd pushed me into that darkness.
He lied to me.
I had thought Theodore simply fell out of love.
Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine he would take the money meant to save my father's life and spend it protecting another woman's unborn child.
The room warped around me. Every inch of my body felt like it was being flayed.
Inside, Theodore was still addressing his colleagues and students.
“Don't tell Summer yet. I'm planning to come clean after she delivers the baby.”
Ten years of pursuit. Three years of marriage. Thirteen years of love, and all of it popped like a soap bubble at the slightest touch.
He wouldn't even let me go cleanly. He planned to wait until after I gave birth to confess, certain I'd stay for the sake of the child.
I didn't want a husband who had betrayed me and stolen the money meant to save my own father.
And my child did not need a father like that.
I cried until there was nothing left, then dragged my stiff legs away from that door.
Two hours later, Theodore stumbled home, reeking of alcohol.
The moment he walked in, he reached for me. I started to pull away, but my phone buzzed.
A message from Jack：“Summer, what do you think for the wedding? Island or estate?”
Theodore's face went dark.
“What wedding?”
