Chapter 1

I had worked my way up from poverty. Then, in one dizzying leap, I married Yue Feihong, the golden heir of the capital’s elite, and bore him a son.

But in our third year after I followed him to Britain, my marriage fell apart, and I went home.

Before I boarded the plane, my son addressed me in a flawless London accent.

“Mrs. Qi, to put it the way you poor people do, you’ve already made it. If you choose to leave, please never come back.”

Yue Feihong listened in silence. He did nothing to stop him.

It was my son’s tutor, Lin Xianya, who gave my son a gentle pat.

“Nianci! What a thing to say! You should call her Mom.”

I had no heart to listen to any more. I turned and boarded the plane.

Yue Feihong thought I was playing hard to get, waiting for him to give in.

My son thought I was using my position as his mother to force him to ask me to stay.

Lin Xianya thought I had lost my mind and made a terrible move. Sooner or later, I would come crawling back to apologize.

But I was leaving because of what had happened at my counseling appointment the day before.

The moment I began to speak, the counselor interrupted.

“Miss Qi, would you mind speaking English?”

Here, I could not even speak freely about my pain.

I had had enough.

…

The plane had barely landed in Harbor City when reporters swarmed me.

“Miss Qi, rumors say another woman caused the breakdown of your marriage to Mr. Yue. Is that true?”

“Miss Qi, were you thrown out?”

“Is it true the Yue family still refuses to accept you, even after you gave them a son?”

Their questions cut deep. Before I could answer, a black Bentley pulled up in front of me.

Butler Xu gestured toward the car. “Madam, surely you don’t want to be trapped here?”

With passengers around me looking increasingly irritated and reporters raising their cameras, I got into the Yue family’s car after all.

It took me to the main residence. The instant I stepped inside, a teacup shattered at my feet.

“Kneel!”

Madam Yue glared at me. I calmly raised my eyes.

“Why should I?”

She flung a stack of photographs in front of me.

“Take a good look! Look at the pictures circulating of Feihong and that woman! How is he supposed to hold his head up with these all over the place?”

“Is this how you manage your household? Letting a worthless woman like that climb into Feihong’s bed!”

In the photographs, Lin Xianya sat on Yue Feihong’s lap in a bathrobe, feeding him grapes. My son, Yue Nianci, sat beside them reading.

They looked like a family of three, their happiness almost spilling out of the pictures.

I looked away.

“I can’t control him,” I said quietly. “You know his temper better than anyone.”

“If he listened to advice, he wouldn’t have taken me to Britain in the first place.”

Once Yue Feihong made up his mind, no one could dissuade him.

Whether he moved to Britain to protect me in the beginning or decided to keep Lin Xianya as his mistress afterward, I had no say.

I had not even learned we were leaving for Britain until the night before.

When I objected, he merely raised an eyebrow and smiled.

“Be good, Ranran. Stop making a fuss.”

He had told me to stop making a fuss so many times since.

I looked for a job: stop making a fuss. I tried to give our son an early education: stop making a fuss. I said I wanted a life of my own: stop making a fuss.

It seemed my only purpose was to appear when he needed me, something pretty to ease his boredom.

Perhaps I should have realized long ago that I had no control over this relationship.

Fortunately, I could still choose to end it.

I looked at Madam Yue.

“I came back to get a divorce.”

Her hand slammed onto the table.

“Are you rebelling against us?”

“Someone bring me the cane!”

I turned to leave, but several servants blocked my way. Just as Madam Yue reached for the rattan cane, Yue Feihong’s voice came from the doorway.

“Mother. Enough.”

He walked in looking weary from his journey and rubbed between his eyebrows.

“You tricked me into coming back with that story about your heart, just so I could watch this farce?”

Madam Yue’s expression softened, though she went on scolding.

“If it weren’t for these women of yours, every last one of them so disgraceful…”

Yue Feihong glanced at me with weary indulgence and patted my shoulder.

“Go and talk to Nianci for a while. Leave Mother to me.”

His manner was protective, his tone intimate, as though this was exactly what he had expected.

He was certain my return was merely a ploy to make him come after me. He did not take it seriously at all.

Even my son wore a contemptuous, knowing look when he saw me.

“So this is what you meant by leaving?”

“Moving from our house to the main residence?”

I crouched in front of him.

“If signing a piece of paper would let me leave, would you be willing to sign it?”

He blinked, then nodded. “Yes.”

I took the divorce agreement from my bag and handed it to him.

“Then would you take this to your father and ask him to sign it?”

### 2

He took it and tucked it into his homework. Still uncertain, he looked up at me.

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

Satisfied, Yue Nianci brushed past me to seek affection from his grandmother.

I could no longer remember when it had begun: whenever I looked at him, all I saw was his back.

His back as he ran into Lin Xianya’s arms. His back as he followed her out. His back as he called her Mom.

When I first discovered that Yue Feihong was sleeping with his tutor, Yue Nianci had looked at me hesitantly.

“Mom, I don’t have to go to school anymore. Could you fire Miss Lin?”

Back then, I had thought a mother and son were natural allies.

But as time passed, “Mom” became “that woman,” and finally “Mrs. Qi.”

Meanwhile, Miss Lin went from “that bad woman” to “Auntie Lin,” and finally “Mom Lin.”

Perhaps it was fathers and sons who were natural allies.

Yue Feihong came over.

“Come to the dining room. You’ve been making a scene all day. Have something to eat.”

I shook my head. “No, thank you. Enjoy your family reunion.”

As I turned away, he chuckled.

“Be good, Ranran. Stop making a fuss.”

“Do you know how many reporters are outside?”

“You won’t get anywhere if you go out now.”

He straightened my collar.

“Come on. Give me a smile, and let’s eat.”

He looked at me as though I were a pet that could never get away.

At the table, he picked the meat from a crab and gave it to me. Madam Yue nodded when she saw me eating.

“That’s more like it.”

But as I watched the skin on my arm slowly redden, I could not help a bitter smile.

I was allergic to crab.

Yue Feihong and I had met in the school infirmary. He had scraped himself playing basketball; I had been brought in with an allergic reaction. The pain and itching had nearly reduced me to tears.

Yet he had grinned at me.

“Hey, is your face that red because you saw me?”

I had laughed despite myself. After that, we saw more and more of each other. He promised to remember everything I was allergic to.

“I can’t have my wife blushing for another man, can I?”

Now he was feeding me crab himself.

Halfway through lunch, his phone chimed. I glanced over. It was a message from Lin Xianya.

Madam Yue frowned.

“Don’t you always keep your phone on silent?”

He had done so ever since he was a child.

The day I gave birth to Nianci, I was alone in our villa in Britain when my water broke. Terrified, I called him dozens of times. He never answered.

Afterward, he knelt and begged my forgiveness. But he never changed that habit.

Now, at last, he had found someone worth making an exception for.

Yue Feihong gave a light laugh.

“Company business. It’s important.”

After lunch, Madam Yue told me to take tea to Yue Feihong.

She held a pair of pruning shears, trimming her flowers.

“Qi Ran, I can’t say I’m particularly fond of you.”

“But there’s nothing to be done. Feihong likes you, so I’ll give you a little advice.”

“Instead of constantly threatening to leave or die, do something useful if you want to keep your man.”

Not one of them believed I meant it when I said I wanted a divorce.

Just as no one in this house took me seriously.

My ideals, my ambitions, the things I wanted to do—all of it was making a fuss.

I set down the tea. Yue Feihong drained the cup, then suddenly went still.

He turned to me.

“What did you put in this?”

### 3

I could see something was wrong with him.

“Madam Yue told me to bring it up…”

Veins stood out on the backs of his hands. He took a deep breath.

“My mother would do something like this?”

“Do you think I’m stupid?”

He looked at me.

“Come here.”

I stepped back. “I’ll call the family doctor…”

He sneered.

“Still putting on an act.”

His eyes filled with contempt.

“Either get out, or take your clothes off. Right now.”

“Your choice.”

I opened the door and left. As I turned to close it, I saw Lin Xianya emerge from beneath his desk, a telltale trace still at the corner of her mouth.

She saw me too. Her lips curved into a smile.

I said nothing and shut the door.

Downstairs, I sat with my stomach churning, still sick.

As I passed Madam Yue’s room, I heard her talking to the butler.

“Once Feihong drinks that tea, those two will have to make up, however haughty Qi Ran tries to be.”

Butler Xu sounded puzzled.

“If you’ve gone to all this trouble for her, Madam, why not tell her?”

“Why should I?” Madam Yue scoffed. “I want her kept in the dark. Let Feihong see the filthy tricks these women will use to get into his bed. Let that teach him a lesson!”

“I’m the only one who truly wants what’s best for him.”

“Besides, think how many times he defied me over Qi Ran. What’s a little misunderstanding between them compared with that?”

I pushed open the door.

“Unfortunately, you miscalculated.”

Madam Yue stared at me.

“Why are you here?”

Her face darkened.

“Who’s in Feihong’s room?”

“Lin Xianya.”

She clutched her chest.

“Qi Ran! You… Very good! I told you to manage your household, and this is what you do!”

“Someone bring the cane! I’ll teach her a lesson she won’t forget!”

Two servants held me, one on either side. The rattan cane lashed across my back.

A bloody welt rose. Pain burned through my back, and I could no longer hold down the nausea in my stomach. I vomited violently.

Madam Yue paused. Then a languid voice sounded behind her.

“Mother, keep going.”

Yue Feihong held Lin Xianya in his arms. Both of them were covered in love bites, utterly out of place amid the solemn, old-fashioned dignity of the family home.

Madam Yue frowned.

“Have you no decency?”

She threw down the cane and walked away.

Lin Xianya murmured in his arms.

“Feihong…”

He smiled.

“Let someone see that if she’s not interested, I’m hardly short of women.”

“Yaya, haven’t you always wanted to go to the Maldives? We’ll leave this afternoon.”

He stared at me when he finished.

I knew what he was waiting for.