For eight long years, Lin Shuyin waited.

Five years, she loved him silently as his junior.

Three years, she waited patiently as his wife.

If not for the night she turned eighteen—when he, drunk and distant, took her first time—she might’ve walked away before ever becoming his wife. But instead, she stayed. Hiding her true identity behind the mask of the perfect, obedient spouse, she remained by his side like a shadow no one noticed.

In all that time, he never once looked back.

He built an empire while turning a blind eye to her loneliness, to the whispers behind her back, to the way the world mocked her as the shameless woman clinging to a man who never cared. Night after night, she smiled through rejection, humiliation, and the suffocating silence of a cold marriage.

Until one day, she snapped.

She packed her bags, signed the divorce papers, and walked out with her dignity intact and her secret—one that had shaped everything—still buried deep in her heart.

But peace was short-lived.

Her nausea was getting worse. Her cravings were out of control. And her suspicions were growing.

Was she... pregnant?

As if the universe wasn’t cruel enough, suddenly—

“Shu, you haven’t eaten. I made your favorite—spicy hotpot, no cilantro.”

She blinked at the towering CEO holding a soup bowl and wearing her pink apron.

“What are you doing in my apartment?”

“I changed your locks for safety,” he replied with a straight face.

“You broke in, didn’t you?!”

And just like that, the cold man who once couldn’t remember her birthday was now folding her laundry, driving her to prenatal checkups, and glaring daggers at any man who looked her way.

At her OB-GYN appointment, he growled at the doctor, “You’re looking too long at her belly. Eyes up.”

When she went on a blind date (forced by her best friend), he showed up with a bouquet... and a baseball bat.

“Why are you following me?!” she screamed.

“I’m not following. I’m just coincidentally everywhere you go,” he said, deadpan.

“Coincidentally hiding behind a tree?!”

She caught him once reading Pregnancy for Dummies upside down while nervously sipping her bubble tea—one he had memorized the sugar ratio for.

“Are you sick?” she snapped one morning.

“I miss you,” he whispered.

She almost threw a slipper at his head.

Worst of all?

He sends her voice messages now.

“Don’t forget your vitamins. I warmed your milk. Left your pillow on the cool side—just how you like it.”

She stared at the screen, fingers tightening.

Where was this man when she cried herself to sleep in that same cold bed for three years?

Now he wants to tuck her in from afar?

Is he playing a game? Is this guilt? Or... is her ex-husband actually falling in love with her now—now that she’s done loving him?

Whatever it is, Lin Shuyin swears she’s not falling for it.

No matter how good he looks in that apron.

No matter how he holds her when she’s too tired to stand.

No matter how much he whispers, "Come back home. Come back... to me."

Chapter 14 - Author's Note