Chapter 1

I once thought I had the best partner in the world.

But the truth revealed:

He’d had my womb surgically removed, and I’d spent three years as his stand-in.

So, I disappeared.

From Los Angeles to Paris, from a trampled substitute to being cherished in the palm of my new family's hands.

But following my disappearance came his tears of regret.

He tried to transfer his entire fortune to me, but I sent it right back without a second glance.

He said he could never repay what he owed me. I told him our accounts were settled.

Pain will always be pain, but enough good things happened afterward to overshadow the bad.

Yvonne's POV

"Ms. Vance, you don't even have a uterus. How could you have period cramps?"

The doctor studied the ultrasound scan with a somber look on his face.

I thought I had misheard.

"What did you say? I just had a physical last month, and I'm currently trying to conceive. How could I not have a uterus?"

The doctor pushed the ultrasound image toward me.

"The imaging is very clear. Your uterus is missing."

"The old surgical scar on your lower abdomen—its position and length are completely consistent with a hysterectomy incision. It must have been left behind by the removal of your uterus."

The doctor's words hit me like a sledgehammer, making my head spin and my ears ring.

That scar was clearly from a car accident three years ago. How could it have been left by a hysterectomy?

The surgeon back then was personally found by my boyfriend, Harrison Foster. There was no way there could have been a mistake.

In a daze, I walked out of the hospital and hailed a cab straight to the club Harrison Foster was at.

I needed to find him and get answers face-to-face.

I was originally an intern at the Foster Group.

Not long after starting, I was carrying a stack of documents when I collided with Harrison Foster, the president of Foster Group, right at the corner of a hallway.

Papers scattered all over the floor, and I thought I would be fired on the spot that very day.

But Harrison Foster knelt down to help me pick them up, and even asked for my name.

From then on, he started pursuing me.

Whenever I ran into issues at work, he would guide me step-by-step.

When my period cramps were so bad I couldn't get out of bed, he would personally make creamy mushroom soup, bring it to my bedside, and warm his hands to soothe my aching belly.

When I had a fever, he would drop everything in the middle of the night to carry me to his car, drive me to the hospital, and watch over my bedside all night.

Having lost my parents at a young age, I had almost forgotten what it felt like to be treasured so deeply.

So, I quickly fell in love with him.

But Harrison's father, Arthur Foster, and his mother, Sharon Foster, didn't approve.

They looked down on my humble background and orphaned status, believing I was a poor match for the Foster family.

I knew myself that I didn't match Harrison Foster, and I never forced a commitment.

Until that car accident three years ago.

I was comatose in the ICU for three days, and the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was Harrison Foster.

He was sitting by my bedside, his eyes completely bloodshot, tightly clutching my hand.

"Yvonne, I thought I was going to lose you. I don't know how I would survive without you."

After the surgery, he never left my side, taking care of me day and night without a wink of sleep.

Seeing their son refuse to eat, drink, or sleep for my sake, Arthur and Sharon Foster finally relented.

As long as I bore him a child, they would agree to our marriage.

Seeing how haggard Harrison Foster had become for me, I thought I had finally found true love.

I made up my mind to stay with him till the very end, so I agreed to Arthur and Sharon's conditions.

From then on, Harrison Foster and I started actively trying to conceive, sleeping together almost every night.

Every month I went for a checkup at the hospital Harrison Foster arranged, and the doctor there always assured me that all my vitals and tests were perfectly normal.

But now, a different doctor was telling me that I didn't even have a uterus.

What on earth was happening?

When I arrived at the club, the VIP room door wasn't shut tightly. Laughter and chatter drifted out through the crack.

"Scarlett is coming back tonight! Harrison is finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Come on, let's have a drink!"

Harrison's friend, Charles Ward, laughed and shouted.

Scarlett Sterling—I had heard them mention this name before.

She was Harrison Foster's childhood friend who had gone abroad before Harrison and I even started dating. I had never met her in person.

Mason Cole chimed in as well. "Yeah, spending three years with Yvonne, that substitute... Harrison really had a tough time. His love for Scarlett is definitely the real deal!"

Someone else agreed, "If the Sterling family hadn't suddenly gone bankrupt, and if Scarlett's father, George Sterling, and mother, Amanda Sterling, hadn't jumped to their deaths, sending the family into ruin, Harrison and Scarlett's kid would probably be in kindergarten by now. Yvonne wouldn't even have a chance."

Hearing this, my entire body went cold.

Harrison Foster loved Scarlett Sterling? He was using me as Scarlett's substitute?

How could that be?

He clearly told me he fell in love with me at first sight, that his eyes only saw me, and that no one else could ever compare.

He had literally postponed a multi-billion-dollar project just to celebrate my birthday.

My eyes instinctively drifted toward the man sitting in the center seat.

Harrison Foster didn't object to a single word.

He sat there in a relaxed posture, legs crossed, steadily holding a glass of wine.

Only when someone brought up Scarlett Sterling did his cold, sharp features soften slightly.

The conversation in the private room continued.

Charles Ward sighed.

"Well, there was no other choice. Once Scarlett's family went under, Arthur and Sharon Foster strongly opposed their marriage. They even started targeting Scarlett. Harrison had no choice but to send Scarlett abroad first to get some credentials and lay low."

"Thankfully, he ran into Yvonne, that low-born substitute. Over the last few years, Harrison fought tooth and nail against Arthur and Sharon for Yvonne's sake. Yvonne took a lot of heat from Sharon because of that."

"If it wasn't for Yvonne, the one Sharon would have been tormenting would have been Scarlett!"

The others nodded, feeling a sense of relief.

"Well, things are looking up now. I heard Arthur and Sharon recently relented. They said if they had known Harrison would end up with such a low-class woman, they would have agreed to Scarlett marrying in back then—at least Scarlett was born into a respectable family! Harrison's patience over the years wasn't in vain. He's finally getting what he wanted!"

I felt as though my heart had been violently sliced open.

So that was the truth.

Although the Fosters had softened their stance slightly over the past few years, they had still treated me with utter contempt.

Sharon Foster would summon me to the Foster mansion every other day just to berate and humiliate me. She would make me kneel in the freezing basement, hurling the nastiest insults to force me to leave. Every single time, Harrison Foster would tell me to just hang in there a little longer, promising that once we had a child and got married, everything would change.

Looking at Harrison's hopeful gaze, I swallowed my pride and endured it every single time.

It turned out I was merely absorbing the torment meant for the woman he actually loved.

It was all to pave a smooth path for Scarlett Sterling to marry into the Foster family!

The three years he spent with me, in the eyes of his friends, was actually Harrison Foster bravely enduring humiliation.

Charles Ward spoke again.

"By the way, Harrison, Yvonne still doesn't know you had her uterus removed, right? Is she still foolishly trying to get pregnant?"

Mason Cole let out a cold laugh.

"Of course she can't find out. If Yvonne knew, how would Harrison's plan work?"

Charles Ward casually took a sip of wine.

"If Yvonne found out Harrison staged that car crash to have her uterus removed, do you think she'd go crazy?"

My knees buckled, and I stumbled backward two steps.

What the doctor said was true. My uterus was really gone, snatched away by Harrison Foster!

The car accident three years ago was actually orchestrated by Harrison Foster?

All to have my uterus removed?

But the Foster family were the ones demanding I bear a child.

Harrison Foster was the one who personally begged me to try to get pregnant.

He cruelly stripped away my right to be a mother forever, yet he still put on a massive show of taking me to checkups and trying to conceive with me?

For Scarlett Sterling, he went as far as to desecrate my body to this extent!

No wonder he insisted on going to a specific hospital and seeing a specific doctor for every checkup. He was terrified I would catch on.

If I hadn't had stomach pain today and just gone to the nearest hospital, I would still be completely in the dark!

Inside the room, someone spoke up, a trace of pity in their voice.

"To be fair, Yvonne is pretty innocent in all this. Removing her uterus was a bit harsh, don't you think?"

Charles Ward sneered.

"What other choice did we have? We couldn't let her actually get pregnant with Harrison's kid. What if Arthur and Sharon really did relent and let her marry in? What would Scarlett do then?"

I could barely stand anymore.

I stumbled backward a few steps, leaning heavily against the wall to keep myself from collapsing.

Harrison Foster, you really are something else!

For Scarlett Sterling, you destroyed me completely!

Harrison Foster, who had been silent all this time, finally spoke.

"Keep your mouths shut, all of you. Yvonne must never find out."

Several people immediately chimed in, "Of course, of course."

"Scarlett is coming back tonight. Once she's back, Harrison, you'll probably start planning the wedding, right? What do you plan to do with Yvonne?"

"Harrison, you've seemed pretty attentive to Yvonne these past few years. Do you really not have any feelings for her at all?"

I locked eyes on at Harrison Foster.

The man remained silent for a long moment before finally speaking.

"Scarlett is the only one I love."

"But since Yvonne has been with me, I'll make sure she's well-provided for."

"You’re a penniless orphan with no family connections to fall back on. For someone like her, this is already a level of fortune she could only dream of."

I had no idea how I got out of that club.

The hallways, the elevator, the lobby... everything was spinning.

It turned out that the people who sweet-talked me and called me "sister-in-law" to my face spoke of me with nothing but absolute mockery behind my back.

It turned out the love and devotion I thought we shared was nothing but a calculated, manipulative scam.

It turned out he had never loved me, nor had he ever planned to spend the rest of his life with me.

I was nothing more than a stepping stone to pave the way for Scarlett Sterling.

I took a cab straight to the immigration office.

The clerk at the counter told me that standard visa processing took two weeks, but an expedited application could be processed in a week.

"Expedited."

I answered without hesitation.

Back at the villa I shared with Harrison Foster, I immediately started packing my things.

I packed every single thing he had ever given me into boxes, intending to sell them all.

As for my own belongings, I threw out everything except for the absolute essentials.

Before I could even finish, a familiar voice sounded from behind me.

"Yvonne, why are you suddenly packing?"