On my wedding day, my fiancé left me at the altar, announcing he had already married Stella. As the crowd’s laughter echoed around me, my childhood friend, Oscar, knelt with a diamond ring, his voice thick with emotion as he begged me to marry him instead. Moved to my core, I nodded. Seven months into my pregnancy, I was in a car accident. Oscar, a surgeon, operated on me himself. When I woke up, he told me the baby didn't make it. And that I could never have children again. I was shattered. Oscar held me, his own tears streaming down his face, blaming himself for not protecting me and vowing to love me forever. But six years later, I accidentally received a recording of a phone call between him and a colleague: “Oscar, you did all that for Stella… faked her pregnancy certificate, staged a car crash just to make Mia go into early labor, and then gave her your own child. Do you have any regrets?” “Stella can’t have children. You expect me to just stand by and watch her future in-laws torment her? My only regret is that the baby was a girl. If it had been a boy, her position in that family would be unshakable.” All this time, I thought I had found true love. It was nothing but a meticulously crafted lie. … The sound of the shower was a steady hum from the bathroom. Oscar was washing away the day. In my ears, the recording played on. “But that was a huge risk. What if the crash hadn't just induced labor? What if it had killed them both?” “It wouldn’t have. Stella and I spent months testing it. We ran simulations, hired people to stage crashes on junker cars, over and over.” The colleague’s voice was tinged with a strange sort of pity. “But Mia… they had to remove her uterus because of the accident. She can never have a child now. She wanted a baby so badly, and she loves you so much… Couldn’t you have just adopted one for Stella?” “No. It had to be my own. I wouldn’t trust a stranger’s child to love Stella properly.” “Have you ever thought about what you’ll do if Mia finds out?” A long pause from Oscar. Then, a heavy sigh. “She won’t. I’ll make sure of it. But if that day ever comes…I’m prepared to spend the rest of my life making it up to her.” The recording clicked off, plunging the room into silence. I clamped a hand over my mouth, a choked sob escaping my lips. Tears streamed, hot and uncontrolled, down my face as a chill that had nothing to do with the night air seeped into my bones, starting at my scalp and freezing me all the way to my toes. I never could have dreamed it. While I was cherishing the new life growing inside me, the husband I adored was plotting with another woman to steal her away. The profound love I thought he felt for me was just a calculated move to protect the woman he truly loved. He only proposed to me to stop me from going after my ex-fiancé, Julian, and disrupting Stella’s newfound happiness. I remember him placing the tiny, shrouded body of an infant in my arms, his voice breaking as he apologized, telling me our child was gone. I thought his heart was breaking with mine. But all along, he had already given our daughter to Stella, a pawn to secure her status in Julian’s wealthy family. What, then, was all my guilt? All my years of silent, gnawing pain? “Mia?” Oscar’s startled voice came from behind me. He saw the tear tracks on my face and rushed toward me, his knee catching the sharp corner of the bedframe. Blood instantly welled, but he ignored it, scrambling to pull me into his arms. “Mia, what’s wrong? What did I do? Did I upset you?” I carefully, deliberately, extracted myself from his embrace. “It’s nothing. I was just watching a movie. The ending was really sad.” Oscar pulled me back against him, a relieved sigh escaping his lips. A light chuckle followed. “You scared me to death. You really need to stop watching those tragedies. We’re not like them. I’m going to make you happy for the rest of your life.” His words used to feel like the sweetest honey. Now, they were just bitter poison. “Your knee is bleeding. I’ll get the first-aid kit and some milk.” Oscar never slept well. I’d read somewhere that warm milk helps, so no matter how late he worked, I always got up to heat a glass for him. “Okay. You’re the best, Mia. From now on, only comedies, alright? Hearing you laugh is the only thing that makes my life feel meaningful.” As I stood, another tear escaped and traced a cold path down my cheek. So, love could be faked. It could be a performance. And I was the fool who had been applauding in the front row for six years, never once seeing through the act. I quietly dissolved a small piece of a sleeping pill into his milk. After he drank it, Oscar fell into a deep, untroubled sleep. As I began searching for any other evidence, his phone, left on the nightstand, began to vibrate violently, the screen flashing with an insistent light. I’d always known he had special, high-priority alerts set up. He’d always said they were for his colleagues at the hospital, that he couldn't risk missing an emergency call, a patient in need. But now, a cold certainty settled in my heart. I used his thumb to unlock the phone. Just as I suspected, a new voice message from Stella. I pressed play. It wasn’t her voice, but the high, lilting lisp of a little girl. “Daddy, Mommy wanted me to tell you that she loves the dove’s-egg diamond necklace you gave her!” My hand clenched around the phone, my entire body trembling. That voice… was that my daughter? Forcing myself to remain calm, I started scrolling through their chat history. The more I read, the colder I became. After Stella and Julian humiliated me at my own wedding, I cut off all contact with them. I’d only heard vaguely that after Stella discovered she was pregnant, Julian had sent her to the States to rest and be cared for. He was too busy with work to be with her constantly, but they’d filled social media with their long-distance romance until she returned home after the baby was born. During those same months, while I was wasting away from grief, so thin I looked like a skeleton, so lost in my pain I didn’t want to be a burden on Oscar, he was using “business trips” as an excuse to fly to America. To visit Stella. Oscar was a surgeon. I always believed his hands were for holding scalpels, for healing, for saving lives. I never let him touch a dish or a piece of laundry. But in the photos on his phone, there he was, wearing an apron, clumsily but earnestly simmering soup for Stella, not even flinching when he burned his fingers. He cooked for her. Did her laundry. Walked with her and the baby under the warm glow of a setting sun. In one photo, Stella’s head rested on his shoulder. They looked like a perfect, happy family. There were countless photos and videos like this, an unbroken chain of conversation stretching back six years. Not a single day was missed. And Oscar always, always replied instantly. No wonder he never let his phone out of his sight, even taking it into the shower. It wasn't just to hide it from me. It was so he’d never miss a message from her. I had dreamed a thousand times of watching my child grow, step by step. I just never imagined I’d be watching as an outsider, a ghost in her life. And then I saw it. The message from Oscar that shattered what was left of my world. “Stella, Mia just delivered the baby. I’ll bring her to you soon. You can be a mother now.” Then what about me? I can never be a mother again. Wiping the tears from my face, I called my friend, a lawyer. “I need a divorce agreement. Get it ready for me by tomorrow.” “And that translator job you mentioned to me a while back? I’ll take it. I’ll be in France in five days to start.” Oscar, since you love Stella so much, I’ll grant you your wish. The next morning, Oscar woke up, mumbling about how quickly he’d fallen asleep. He nuzzled my neck affectionately. “Mia, I’m sorry. I’ve just been so tired lately. I didn’t mean to pass out on you.” “I’m heading to work,” he said, kissing my cheek. “Tonight, we’ll go to Mom’s birthday dinner, and when we get back, I promise I’ll make it up to you.” He used to say things like that, and I’d blush and playfully call him shameless. Now, after seeing the torrent of affection and sweet nothings he poured out for Stella, his words just made me feel sick. After Oscar left, I went to the law firm. As I walked out with the divorce papers in my hand, my friend’s words echoed in my mind. “Getting your daughter back won’t be easy, Mia. She’s legally registered as Julian and Stella’s child. They’re her legal guardians.” “You’ll need a DNA test, either from you or Oscar. And even then, it will come down to whether the child wants to go with you.” I never even saw my baby after the accident. I had nothing of hers to use for a DNA test. My only option was Oscar. When I arrived at the hospital, the nurse at the front desk gave me a dismissive look. “Dr. Chen isn’t here. He’s downstairs on the playground with his wife and daughter.” “His… wife?” “Yeah. We’ve all seen her. She’s gorgeous, and her figure is incredible. They make a perfect couple.” A few other young nurses overheard and swarmed around, their faces alight with gossip. “Totally! His wife is always decked out in designer clothes, the limited-edition stuff. I heard Dr. Chen buys it all for her. The other day, I saw him give her a pink diamond the size of a dove’s egg. He spoils her rotten. I’m so jealous.” “The wife is stunning, and their daughter is adorable, like a little porcelain doll. How is anyone else supposed to compete with a family that perfect?” One of them finally turned to me, her eyes sweeping over my simple clothes with disdain. “And who are you, anyway? Don’t tell me you’ve got ideas about our Dr. Chen. I’ve seen plenty of delusional female patients like you. Do yourself a favor and take a good look in the mirror. He and his wife are deeply in love.” Their contemptuous stares made me feel small. I nervously tugged at the hem of my shirt, a bitter taste rising in my throat. Oscar rarely let me come to his hospital. And when I did, he never introduced me as his wife. He said the nurses were gossips who loved to stir up trouble, and he didn’t want me to be the subject of their talk. He never bought me designer labels or massive diamonds either. He said such things were too flashy, that they didn’t suit the pure, simple image I held in his heart. All excuses. I saw that now. I found him on the ground floor. Stella was standing beside him, her arm linked through his, as they watched the children playing in the hospital’s private playground. “Oscar,” Stella murmured, “are you sure Julian doesn’t suspect anything?” “He doesn’t. Ever since we had Lily, he’s been even more devoted to me. He treats me like a queen, buys me anything I want. He holds me tight when we sleep and calls me his treasure. He kisses me when he leaves for work and when he comes home… He’s nothing like the ruthless CEO everyone thinks he is. Oscar… thank you. For everything.” Oscar was silent for a moment, then a sour, pained smile touched his lips. “As long as you’re happy, I’d do anything.” Just then, a little girl in a frilly princess dress came running toward them, launching herself into Oscar’s arms. “Daddy! Mommy! I’m hungry!” She tilted her head, her bright, curious eyes landing on me. “Huh? Who’s this lady?” Only then did Oscar notice I was there. He quickly handed Lily to Stella, his expression a mask of awkwardness. “Mia! What are you doing here?” “Don’t get the wrong idea,” he stammered. “This is Stella’s daughter. I… I just thought she was so cute, I became her godfather.” Stella offered me a saccharine smile, her eyes gleaming with unconcealed triumph. “That’s right, Mia. Lily’s still little, she doesn’t quite understand the ‘godfather’ thing, so she just calls him Daddy. Please don’t be upset.” It was the same condescending expression, the same false sweetness she’d used at my wedding, all those years ago. She had stood there, clinging to Julian’s arm, saying the exact same thing: “Mia, Julian just loves me so much. Please don’t be upset.” Rage boiled up inside me. I raised my hand to slap her, but two hands shot out and grabbed my wrist. Oscar’s and Julian’s. Both of them, shielding Stella. That was the day Oscar had proposed to me in front of everyone, turning my day of humiliation into a wedding. But he didn't love me. He just couldn't stand the thought of me causing a scene and embarrassing Stella. Oscar pulled me away, making sure there was a safe distance between me and Stella and Lily. “Mia, is something wrong?” I tore my gaze away from Lily, my heart aching. “No… I just wanted to ask you what we should get your mom for her birthday tonight.” “Oh, is that all?” He sounded relieved. “Whatever you think is best, Mia. You always have the best taste.” He noticed the folder in my hand. “What’s that?” I took a breath. “Oscar, I need to talk to you. I want to… Can you give me L—” “Oscar, my stomach hurts,” Stella called out, cutting me off. “Can you come hold Lily for me?” Oscar didn’t hesitate. He rushed back to her side. “I told you not to drink that iced tea. It’s your time of the month, why can’t you listen, you big baby?” He glanced back at me over his shoulder. “Mia, you head home first. I’ll take care of Stella, it’s not easy for her with the kid. We’ll see you at the hotel tonight.” Of course. He remembered everything about Stella. That evening, I had just arrived at the hotel when Oscar walked in with Stella and Lily in tow.
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