Arthur Sterling got drunk one night and got a girl pregnant. By the time I found out, her belly was already six months along. He told me that if we kept this child, we could go back to the way things were. I shook my head and stubbornly asked him: "Me or this child—who do you choose?" That day, he remained silent for a long time, unable to give me an answer. But after I vanished from his life, he finally felt the crushing weight of regret. 1 Married for five years, I never imagined Arthur and I would end like this. At the hospital entrance, Arthur was carefully helping a young, beautiful girl down the steps. I stood a short distance away, making direct eye contact with him just as his face was full of tender care. His eyes darted away, stiffly avoiding my gaze. The heavily pregnant girl beside him also looked my way, tears instantly welling up in her eyes. After safely helping the girl into a car and giving her a few careful instructions, Arthur finally walked over to me. His steps were calm and composed, entirely devoid of the panic of a man who had just been caught. He reached out and took my hands, which were as cold as ice, wrapping them tightly in his warm palms. "Why are you at the hospital? Are you feeling unwell?" He spoke with deep concern, raising a hand to touch my forehead. I dodged his touch. "Who is she?" Arthur didn't answer my question. Instead, he pulled me into his embrace, trying to comfort me. "She's no one important. Let's go home and I'll explain everything, okay?" Hearing his gentle, soothing voice in this moment finally caused my tears to fall. I looked up at him stubbornly, demanding an answer. As long as he said it, I would believe him. Arthur let out a soft sigh, then gently wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes. "The child is mine." The tears froze on my face. I felt as though I had forgotten how to breathe. I bit my lower lip until it turned crimson, breaking free from his embrace and taking several steps back. Only then did a flash of genuine anger cross Arthur's face. He pulled me back to his side, looking at me with heartache. "Eleanor, you can blame me, but don't torture yourself." I couldn't understand why he would do something so devastating, yet still look at me with such profound love. Amidst our silent standoff, the girl stepped out of the car. "Get back inside!" Arthur ordered coldly, his voice devoid of any warmth. The girl looked at him timidly but didn't retreat. A hint of determination appeared in her eyes. "Mrs. Sterling, Mr. Sterling and I aren't what you think. This child was an accident." She offered a bitter smile. "If I had a choice, I would want this baby gone more than anyone." My vision was blurred with tears. Though I couldn't clearly see the expression on Arthur's face, I knew him well enough to feel that his initial coldness toward her had already faded. "Enough, stop talking!" Jealousy and resentment flooded my heart, and I screamed in a total breakdown. Startled, the girl swayed and nearly fell, but Arthur rushed forward and caught her securely in his arms. I stared blankly at the scene. A wild thought flashed through my mind. I lunged toward them. Just as I was about to collide with her swollen belly, a massive force shoved me away. I fell hard onto the pavement. Lifting my scraped, bleeding palms, I let out a miserable laugh. Arthur stared in utter disbelief at his own outstretched hands, completely stunned by what he had just done. That day, Arthur left the six-month pregnant girl behind and took me home. But I knew in my heart that he and I had no future left. 2 Once we were home, Arthur gave me his explanation. I sat on the bed, motionless for a long time. He stood on the balcony of my room and smoked for the entire night. I knew exactly what he was doing. He was using this self-destructive behavior to make my heart ache for him. When it came to me, he always knew exactly how to exploit my weaknesses. As dawn broke, Arthur turned, walked inside, and sat beside me. "Are you hungry? Tell me what you want, I'll cook." I stopped him with a hoarse voice. "Arthur, we need to talk." His footsteps halted. For a long time, he didn't turn around. He knew my personality well. He knew I cared deeply about loyalty. I cared a lot. Even if he had too much to drink that night, even if his contact with that girl was an unintentional mistake. I could never forgive him. Knowing this, Arthur had hidden the truth from me. But no one expected that this strange girl, someone he claimed was just a one-night mistake, would get pregnant. And because of a rare medical condition, she couldn't safely terminate the pregnancy. That was how we ended up here. Arthur walked out. He didn't dare face the words he knew I was about to say. I knew he loved me. If he didn't, we wouldn't have survived years of a marathon romance to finally get married. If he didn't, he wouldn't have spoiled me to the point where I felt safe enough to throw tantrums and cry over the smallest things. For the next week, Arthur didn't come home. Yet, every single day, he called our housekeeper to ask about every detail of my life and how I was doing. The housekeeper tried to persuade me: "Ma'am, you and Mr. Sterling are the most loving couple I've ever seen. Whatever happened, just talk it out and it will pass. Mr. Sterling... he's lost so much weight recently." She had worked for us for years and had never seen us have a single fight. Even Arthur's mother, who had been displeased with me in our early years, gradually accepted me as her daughter-in-law simply because Arthur and I were so blissfully happy together. My phone rang. It was one of Arthur's friends. "Eleanor, Arthur is black-out drunk. Could you come pick him up?" "Leave him be!" After hanging up, the heavy knot in my chest only grew tighter. My mind kept replaying the sight of his back as he walked out the door a week ago—his posture seemed to have bent under the weight of it all. In the end, I couldn't be ruthless enough to just leave him there alone. After a brief internal struggle, I grabbed my car keys and strode out the door. 3 The door to the VIP room was ajar. I stood outside, not stepping in. Arthur was indeed horribly drunk, sprawled carelessly across the sofa with zero regard for his image. Standing directly in front of him was the heavily pregnant girl. Arthur's friend looked incredibly awkward. "Ms. Dawson, Eleanor refused to come, and Arthur refuses to leave. I had no choice but to call you." The girl, Chloe Dawson, smiled softly and reached out to support one of Arthur's arms. He abruptly shoved her away. A few gasps in the room jolted Arthur slightly out of his drunken stupor. He looked at the woman in front of him, a smile forming on his face that looked far worse than crying. "Chloe, it's all because of you... Eleanor doesn't want me anymore..." Arthur kept repeating that sentence, looking around frantically for more alcohol. No one could stop him. He grabbed a liquor bottle and started chugging it like his life depended on it. Suddenly, Chloe snatched the bottle from his hand and smashed it violently against the floor. The room instantly fell dead silent. Even Arthur, who had just been throwing a drunken fit, stared at her blankly. "Arthur Sterling, your shouting and screaming is going to scare our child. Get up. I'm tired, and you are taking me home." Arthur was a man who could practically summon the wind and rain in Chicago's business world. Aside from me, no one had ever dared to order him around like that. Everyone in the room thought he was going to explode. They held their breath. But in that suffocating atmosphere, Arthur didn't say a word. He slowly stood up, grabbed his jacket, and silently followed Chloe out the door. I hid in the shadows of the corridor, watching the man and woman walk away. Suddenly, I smiled. But that smile tasted entirely of bitter ash. I trailed their taxi to a high-end luxury apartment complex. I watched with my own eyes as Arthur got out of the car and followed the girl upstairs. A light flicked on in a window high above. I sat in my car and watched that window for the entire night. Arthur never came out. At 7:00 AM, he walked back into the building carrying breakfast bags. I stared at his deeply familiar silhouette. Then, quietly, I drove away alone. 4 I summoned Arthur back home, but I didn't mention divorce. I looked at the man, who had visibly lost weight, and quickly averted my gaze. "I didn't pick you up last night. Where did you sleep?" Arthur's fingers twitched slightly. After a moment, he said: "I slept at the office." I couldn't quite describe what I felt in my heart. There wasn't much sorrow left. Just an overwhelming sense of disappointment. When did Arthur learn to lie to me so effortlessly? The man who once promised to treat me with absolute honesty for the rest of his life had changed. I didn't expose his lie. For me, it had lost all meaning. "How many months is she?" Arthur paused for a few seconds, as if he couldn't bear to hurt me. "Almost seven months." After saying that, he dropped to one knee in front of me and buried his face deeply into my lap. His tears soaked through my skirt. "Ellie, I was wrong. Please don't throw me away." In my entire memory of him, Arthur had never cried. Now, he was sobbing uncontrollably. Watching him cry made my heart physically ache. But I knew that, in this moment, I couldn't afford to be soft-hearted. "Arrange a meeting for me and that girl." We chose to meet at Chloe's apartment. Arthur waited outside the door. Chloe gently caressed her lower belly, her eyes brimming with pure anticipation for the child. "That night, the lights were off in the room, and I was genuinely terrified." "But the next morning, when I saw Mr. Sterling sleeping beside me... for a split second, I actually felt lucky." Chloe smiled as she spoke. She looked up at me, still maintaining that gentle, innocent facade. "Mrs. Sterling, Arthur and I are going to have a child very soon. Why don't you just step aside and let us be together?" Without Arthur around, this girl was like a completely different person. Honestly, I wasn't that surprised. Because the night I went to the bar to find Arthur, I saw Chloe glance toward the door crack. I knew she had seen me watching them that night. She slowly stood up and pushed open a closed door in the apartment. Inside was a beautifully decorated, warm nursery. "Arthur personally picked out everything in here. He decorated this room himself." "It's not that he has no expectations for this child." I really wanted to maintain my last shred of dignity and composure in front of this woman flaunting my husband's fatherly love. But she still managed to enrage me. So, Arthur did look forward to this child. He wasn't as indifferent as he claimed. All the strength drained from my body. I leaned heavily against the dining table, accidentally knocking over a glass of water. It shattered with a crisp crash, mirroring the fracturing of my own heart. Hearing the noise, Arthur burst in. What he saw was me swaying unsteadily on my feet, while Chloe lay on the floor crying out in pain. I will never forget that day—the day Arthur's first choice was no longer me. Chloe shot me a triumphant smirk, convinced she had won the war. As he brushed past me, Arthur hesitated for only a fraction of a second. Ultimately, he bypassed me entirely, scooped Chloe up in his arms, and rushed her to the hospital. 5 When he left, Arthur didn't even look back at me. I stood rooted to the spot for a long time before slowly digesting the reality that he had abandoned me. I followed them to the hospital. By the time I arrived, Arthur's parents were already there. It turned out I was the only one kept in the dark. His parents had known about this for a while. Seeing me approach, Arthur's mother slapped me hard across the face. "If anything happens to my grandson, I will make you pay!" Arthur instantly stepped in front of me, shielding me completely behind his back. Seeing this, his mother grew even more furious. "Arthur, I don't care if you protect her normally, but right now she's trying to kill your son!" Arthur laughed, his voice thick with suppressed rebellion. "So what? If the kid dies, he dies." If his parents hadn't gone behind his back to help preserve this pregnancy, Ellie wouldn't be this heartbroken right now. No one knew that when he saw Chloe fall, his very first instinctive reaction was... relief. He deeply regretted the existence of this 'accident.' The doctor came out of the room and announced the baby was safe. Arthur's parents rushed inside to coddle and comfort Chloe. But Chloe kept her pitiful, teary gaze locked on Arthur, who was standing by the door. She dared to scheme against me. Why would I let her get what she wanted? I tilted my face to show Arthur my red, swollen left cheek, ensuring his heart would ache for me. "I don't want to be here anymore," I told him. Arthur left with me. As we walked away, I looked back at Chloe lying in the hospital bed and returned her victorious smile with one of my own. At least for now, Arthur's bias still favored me. Even if it was a bias I no longer wanted. During the days when Arthur believed I was slowly accepting the existence of his child, I was actually preparing for my departure. I packed up my belongings and had my lawyer draft the divorce papers. I was just waiting for the day to leave. Yes, I was going to leave on the exact day Chloe gave birth. Didn't she want me to step aside so they could be a happy family of three? I was going to grant her that wish.
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