From First Love to Second Betrayal

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Before I married my childhood friend Ethan, I had been married once before.

My ex-husband Victor was my first love.

Three years into our marriage, I came home early from a business trip. When I opened the door, I caught him kissing another woman right there in our living room. It was my father's illegitimate daughter.

The shock caused me to miscarry. Ethan was the one who took me to the hospital for the procedure and personally handled my divorce case. The day I got my divorce papers, Ethan gave me a solemn confession. He said:

"Leah, I've had a crush on you for years. I would never do this to you."

The year after my divorce, I married him.

This year marks our third anniversary.

On this business trip, I managed to wrap things up with the client ahead of schedule and came home early, planning to surprise him.

However, when I opened the door, I found him having sex with my father's illegitimate daughter on the couch.

The moment Ethan saw me, he frowned and moved to shield her behind him. His muscular upper body was covered in red marks.

"Leah, don't blame her. I started it."

Looking at him, I suddenly remembered when Ethan sat with me in the hospital corridor that day. I was trembling from crying so hard. He draped his jacket over my shoulders and said:

"I'll always be on your side. I'll always love you."

Always.

Turns out his "always" was the same as Victor's.

Standing in the doorway, I suddenly found this scene laughable.

The same door, the same woman, the same bed. Only the man standing by the bed had changed, while the woman standing at the door was still me.

Leah, you really know how to pick them.

I let out a mocking laugh and said coldly:

"Move."

He didn't budge. In fact, he defensively took half a step forward.

"Leah..."

"I said move."

My voice was calm. "I'm not going to hit her."

Ethan hesitated for two seconds. Perhaps my crazed reaction when I caught Victor cheating four years ago had left him traumatized, because he didn't quite trust me.

Even as he stepped aside, his entire body still leaned protectively toward that woman.

I took two steps closer. My father's illegitimate daughter, Claire, was huddled at the head of the bed with the blanket pulled up to her chin, revealing a face I knew so well it made me sick. She looked exactly as she had four years ago, even her panicked expression hadn't changed.

Her eyes were red as she looked at me pitifully, her lips moving as if she wanted to say something.

I didn't give her the chance:

"Your mother stole my father, and you slept with my husband. Is scavenging trash the only trick you two know?"

Tears immediately spilled down her cheeks.

Ethan stepped between us, bent down to pick up some clothes, handed them to Claire, and patted her gently:

"Get dressed first, don't catch a cold."

Then he ushered her out the door:

"Go home first. Don't be scared, I'm here. I'll come find you once I'm done here."

He even leaned down and kissed Claire on the forehead.

Only after all this did Ethan turn back to me, frowning with irritation:

"Leah, you're being too aggressive. Claire is younger than you. Your words are too harsh."

He'd been so busy protecting Claire that he hadn't even had time to put on his shirt.

As he bent down to pour water, the tattoo on his waist stretched taut

"Leah"

When he confessed to me back then, he said he'd gotten it tattooed a long time ago but hadn't had a chance to tell me before I got together with Victor.

So he hid his feelings, just wanting to stay by my side forever.

But this "forever" turned out to be short-lived after all.

Ethan added two lemon slices to the water, stirred it, and brought it over to me. His tone was calm, as if nothing had happened:

"I noticed you've been nauseous lately, so I did some research. It said drinking lemon water might help."

That was before my business trip.

I'd been unable to eat for several days, constantly nauseous, but I was too busy with the company's merger case to spare the time. Ethan had been busy too during that period, saying the law firm had taken on a major case. He left earlier than me every day and came home later. I'd thought he was too busy to notice, but I never expected he'd still seen it.

"Have you been to the hospital? I happen to have time today. Let me take you to get it checked out."

The lemon water in my hand was the perfect temperature, yet it sent a bitter chill from the deepest part of my heart, making my voice tremble:

"When did it start?"

Ethan's voice was flat, as if discussing something trivial:

"Last year when you kicked Claire and her mother off the board. She came to me desperate, with nowhere else to turn. You know, your sister looks quite a bit like you, and she's younger. I just couldn't resist."

I snapped my head up to look at him.

My father had built his business using connections from my mother's family. After my grandfather died, my father confessed to my mother that he had another woman on the side, and she'd even given him a daughter.

He was a father, he said, and couldn't bear to leave his child out in the cold.

He made it sound so noble, but it landed my mother in the hospital.

Yet my father acted like nothing happened, actually bringing Claire and her mother home. Before he died, he even left them shares in the company. It took me years to finally drive those two out, and I never imagined that my childhood friend and husband would get involved with that illegitimate daughter at that very moment.

Ethan looked down at me:

"Leah, you can't blame me for this."

"You know I love you. I love you enough to accompany you to abort someone else's child, to confess to you on the day of your divorce. But Leah, I'm a man. Ever since we got married, every time we were intimate, I'd think about how you once carried someone else's child. Every anniversary, I'd remember that you were previously married to someone else."

"Leah, that's not fair."

He delivered his verdict:

"You were married to Victor for three years, so I'll sleep with Claire for three years. That's fair. After two more years, I'll send her away. The position of Mrs. Johnson is reserved for you alone."

I could hardly believe such absurd words were coming out of Ethan's mouth.

I hurled the glass in my hand at him. Ethan didn't move. The warm water splashed on him, and he just smiled helplessly:

"I understand how you feel right now, but Leah, this is fair."

"Have you no shame, Ethan! You were the one who insisted on marrying me!"

Before Ethan could respond, his phone rang with a special ringtone. He glanced at it and answered immediately.

I don't know what the person on the other end said, but he casually grabbed a shirt and started buttoning it as he walked toward the door. As he was about to leave, he hung up the phone and looked back at me:

"Leah, have you no shame? You got involved with Victor when you were eighteen, got pregnant and had an abortion at eighteen. If you had any shame, you wouldn't have slept with Victor at eighteen."

I swayed, nearly unable to stand.

Ethan's voice was ice cold:

"Claire is pregnant. I'm going to check on her."

"Someone like you who's been pregnant twice should know that emotions are most unstable in early pregnancy. Try to be understanding."

After Ethan finished speaking, he opened the door and slammed it shut with a loud bang.

The room was a complete mess. My stomach churned violently, but nothing would come up.

I crumpled the pregnancy test report from my coat pocket and threw it in the trash.

While away on business, I'd felt so terrible that I had no choice but to go to the hospital.

The result: I was pregnant.

I'd wanted to surprise Ethan. Now it seemed this child, like the one before, had come at the wrong time.

Perhaps it was the emotional turmoil, but my stomach hurt badly. I felt blood slowly trickling down my legs.

I pulled out my phone and scheduled a hospital checkup, then looked around and contacted a real estate agent to list the house.

This apartment was what I'd gotten in my divorce from Victor. Ethan had personally handled the case, and with Attorney Johnson on the job, Victor left the marriage with nothing. After we married, since this place was close to both my company and Ethan's law firm, we simply moved in.

Ethan assumed I couldn't live without him.

But he forgot that what Leah never lacked was the courage to start over.

I've always been decisive in my actions. After handling some company matters, I headed straight to the hospital.

The doctor looked at the test results and frowned:

"Threatened miscarriage. This embryo's quality isn't good."

"Let's do the D&C procedure now. Don't delay. By the way, where's the father? This is such a big dealwhy didn't he come with you?"

My eyes stung.

Aside from the unexpected pregnancy when I was eighteen, the other two had both come when I was hoping for them.

But only I had been hoping.

My voice caught:

"He cheated on me."

The doctor looked at me with sympathy.

As the anesthesia entered my body, I felt cold all over.

The doctor helped me out of the operating room and had me sit and rest. I never expected to run into Ethan here.

He was clearly startled too, then immediately stepped in front of Claire:

"Leah, I already told youafter two years, I'll send her away myself. Why did you have to chase us to the hospital? You're so aggressive, I'm really exhausted. I've accommodated you for over twenty years. Can't you accommodate me just once?"

What accommodation.

If I had to compare, I hated Ethan even more than I hated Victor's betrayal.

Ethan's parents were busy and entrusted him to my mother's care.

Ethan spent his entire childhood and adolescence growing up in the household. My mother treated him like her own son. He knew very well what a terrible blow Claire's mother had dealt my mother, so much so that she's still lying in a hospital bed. Yet he still got involved with Claire.

I braced myself against the wall and slowly stood up. My body was weak, my legs trembling, but I forced myself not to show any sign of distress.

"Fine, I'll accommodate you. Let's get divorced, Ethan."

With that, I turned to leave.

Before Ethan could respond, Claire suddenly said softly:

"Don't be angry with Ethan. It's my fault. I'm the one who insisted on keeping this baby. Yesterday when my mom found out I was pregnant, she almost beat me to death. Thankfully Ethan got there in time."

She took a step forward. Ethan reached out to stop her, but she gently shook her head, smiled at him, then continued:

"I know you hate me. But I really don't mean to compete with you for Ethan. Ethan said that you'll be his only wife for life, and once I have the baby, he'll let you raise it."

She touched her still-flat belly, her eyes slightly reddening, her tone impossibly sincere:

"You haven't had it easy these years eitherpregnant three times but couldn't keep any of them. From now on, you can be this child's mother. I won't compete with you."

"Claire..."

Ethan called her name softly, guilt in his tone, but he didn't deny what she said.

I stared at their faces and suddenly laughed:

"Let you raise it for me?"

Claire nodded, her eyes bright:

"Ethan said the position of Mrs. Johnson will always be yours."

I looked at Ethan.

He gazed at me with heavy eyes, remaining silent.

I felt sick to my stomach.

"Ethan," my voice was quiet, "do you think I can't live without you?"

I waved my phone at him:

"I'll have my lawyer send you the divorce papers. Happy divorce, Attorney Johnson."

Ethan's head jerked up. The words rolled around in his mouth, but finally he said calmly:

"Leah, as long as I don't want a divorce, we will never get divorced."

I had nothing more to say.

This man and womanone a hypocrite, the other brazenly shameless.

Standing before me, one performing devotion, the other performing magnanimity. Just watching them exhausted me.

I turned toward the elevator. Pain from my lower abdomen came in waves.

Behind me came Claire's voice, tearful:

"Please don't be angry. I really didn't mean it."

I didn't look back.

The elevator doors opened and I quickly stepped inside, my hand gripping the handrail, my whole body trembling.

Just as the elevator doors were about to close, a hand suddenly reached in and stopped them.

It was Ethan.

His face looked terrible. He stared at me with complicated eyes, as if wanting to say something. His gaze moved from my face downward, pausing on my lower abdomen where my hand rested.

I suddenly realized something, reached into my pocket, and sure enoughwhen I'd pulled out my phone earlier, I'd accidentally brought out the miscarriage report too.

Without noticing, I'd dropped it on the floor, and Ethan had picked it up.

He gripped that paper tightly, his knuckles white.

His voice was hoarse beyond recognition:

"You were pregnant and didn't tell me?"

I said nothing.

He took a step forward, the hand clutching that paper trembling:

"Leah, was it really an accidental miscarriage or did you want to abort it? Do you hate having my child that much?"

I looked into those reddened eyes of his and suddenly found it laughable.

He'd just been protecting Claire, personally saying he'd let her give birth to the child for me to raise. Now, holding my miscarriage report, he had the nerve to ask if I really didn't want his child.

"Ethan, you've known me for almost thirty years. I've always been someone who can let go. Since you're unfaithful to our marriage, why would I keep the child?"

I looked at Claire rushing over behind him and raised my chin:

"Besides, Ethan, your child is already in Claire's belly, isn't it?"

"As for me, all I can give you is divorce papers."

He staggered backward.

The elevator doors slowly closed.

I leaned against the elevator wall, tilted my head back to look at the lights overhead, and wiped away the tears from the corners of my eyes.

I didn't go home. I went straight to a hotel near my company.

Early the next morning when I arrived at the office, Ethan was already sitting on the couch in my office.

The receptionist looked apologetic when she saw me come in:

"Ms. Smith, Attorney Johnson, he..."

"It's fine. You can go."

I set down my bag, sat down, and glanced at him.

He wore a dark gray suit with a document folder beside him. If he put on a lawyer's robe, it would be his standard courtroom attire.

He was treating me as the opposing party.

"Leah," he stood up, his tone calm as if nothing had happened yesterday, "I know you don't want to see me right now, but there are some things we must discuss."

He opened the folder, pulled out a stack of documents, and pushed them in front of me.

"This is your company's current equity structure analysis. You hold 51%, of which 12% was previously held by Claire and her mother combined. The rest are scattered shares."

I glanced at it but didn't touch it.

"And so?"

"So," Ethan looked at me, "I need you to transfer the 12% you took from Claire back to her name."

I thought I'd misheard.

"What did you say?"

Ethan's voice remained calm, as if stating a universally acknowledged fact:

"Since you don't want our child, then barring any accidents, Claire's child will be my only child in this lifetime. She's carrying my flesh and blood. In the future, that will be your child too. I need to consider the child's future."

I stared at him, suddenly feeling like he was a complete stranger.

Was this really the same Ethan who once draped his jacket over my shoulders in that hospital corridor and said, "I'll always be on your side"?

"Ethan, I spent two years and fought three lawsuits to get that 12% back from those two! And now you want me to give it back?"

Ethan frowned, his pretense of patience seemingly exhausted:

"Leah, legally speaking, Claire is your sister. You share blood..."

"She is not my sister!"

I cut him off.

"Her mother slept with my father, and she slept with both my husbands. Ethan, you want me to transfer my shares to her? Do you think I'm some kind of dumping ground where any trash can be thrown?"

Ethan's patience ran out, his expression finally darkening:

"Leah, I'm trying to have a civil discussion with you."

"So am I."

He fell silent for a few seconds, then pulled another document from the folder and handed it over:

"Then I'll have to take a different approach."

I took it and saw it was a draft of a lawyer's letter.

The gist was that Ethan, as my legal spouse, had the right to claim 50% of the assets I'd acquired during our marriage, including half of my company shares.

"Are you insane?"

"I'm not insane." Ethan's lips curved into a smile, his eyes glancing at me. "Leah, you know I'm one of the best lawyers in the country. I handled your divorce case and left Victor with nothing. I know exactly how to play this game."

He took a step closer to me.

His tone carried a chill:

"If you cooperate and transfer the shares to Claire, there won't be any issues between us. You'll still be Mrs. Johnson. After Claire gives birth, we'll have you raise the child. Everything continues as before. But if you refuse"

He paused, looking at me with pity:

"Then we'll see each other in court. I'll show you just how easy it is for a top lawyer to take your company away."

I stared into his eyes.

I used to love those eyes, thinking they were filled with nothing but me.

Now I finally saw clearlythey were full of calculation.

"You're threatening me?"

"I'm giving you advice," he stepped back, resuming that gentle tone. "Leah, you know I never want to hurt you."

I said nothing.

He picked up the folder and walked to the door, then suddenly turned back:

"By the way, regarding your mother, I've already contacted the hospital and moved her to a new room. You don't need to worry about the expenses. I'm her son-in-law, your husband. I'll arrange everything. I also have the right to arrange it."