“Damian, we’ve been married three years, and you’ve never touched me. Let’s have a baby. Think of it as repayment for all the affection I’ve given you over these years, okay?”

Evelyn Carter leaned down to kiss the man before her once the words left her mouth. Her kiss came fast, her clumsy hands fumbling over his body.

She had suffered through every day of those three years, chasing only a flicker of comfort in this moment. She wanted, just once, to possess him completely.

Children outside the windows called out for treats with their jack-o’-lanterns bobbing past the Carter Estate, their laughter drifting in waves. Orange glow filtered through the sheer curtains, falling across the red corners of her eyes and the pale, stern face of Damian Carter.

“Evelyn, how dare you…” Damian ground his teeth, suppressed anger thick in his low, hoarse voice.

He lifted a hand to push her away, his features dark and menacing, yet Evelyn did not pull back. She pressed closer instead, her fingers curled tight around the front of his shirt.

“Damian, I just want this so badly.” A tear slipped down Evelyn’s cheek.

The line landed like a spark on dry hay, igniting the taut air filling the room in an instant.

Instinct overpowered Damian’s reason. He hauled her roughly against him, hot kisses settling on the nape of her neck and trailing slow down the length of her spine.

His palms then locked firm around her hips, each thrust deeper, harder, sharper than the last. Evelyn met him with eager surrender, broken moans spilling out one after another, endless and soft...

Evelyn truly became his wife that night.

The world saw Evelyn as impossibly lucky for marrying into the Carters, New York’s most elite family. Only she knew the marriage had been a transaction from the very start.

Her mother had fallen critically ill back then, her grandmother was frail, and she was still in school with no way to cover the staggering medical bills. The Carters settled every charge, on one condition: she marry Damian.

Damian’s health had been failing badly at that time. The Carters needed a quiet, obedient woman with no powerful connections to stay by his side, and she had nowhere else to turn.

She had told herself for three years that she was merely repaying a debt.

But a heart was not stone.

She had overheard a conversation between his attending physician and her mother-in-law, Victoria Carter, that afternoon.

“Ma’am, the young master’s condition is worsening far too quickly. He likely won’t last more than a few days.”

Victoria crumpled on the spot. “That can’t be! Damian is still so young, and he doesn’t even have a child!”

The words pierced Evelyn’s heart like a needle.

If Damian could not be saved, she could at least leave a child of his in this world. It would settle her debt to the Carters and preserve the last fragment of this quiet, unspoken love she carried.

Evelyn woke early the next morning.

Damian still slept, his features hard, his skin paler than usual. She watched him for a long while and tucked the blanket higher around his shoulders. “If we really have a baby, I’ll take good care of him.”

She had braced herself for a long goodbye.

Three days later, shock rippled through all of New York—Damian Carter had recovered.

A new medical team uncovered the supposed terminal illness as nothing more than a false picture caused by years of misdiagnosis and harmful medication. His body stabilized rapidly once the wrong treatments stopped.

Yet what stunned everyone most was the move he made after waking.

Damian walked into the Carter Group boardroom that same morning. The man everyone had counted dead within the month took the head seat in a tailored black suit. He brought down Charles Carter, his cousin who had entrenched himself in the family’s affairs for decades, before dusk and had him escorted out of the country overnight.

Everyone finally understood. Damian Carter had never been a disposable pawn for others to manipulate.

He had simply lain in wait for far too long.

The news reached the estate while Evelyn prepared calming herbal tea for Victoria. She nearly dropped the cup when a servant rushed in, breathless, to say the young master was well.

Damian was alive.

A flood of overwhelming joy rushed through her chest. She waited from dusk deep into the night. The leftover jack-o’-lanterns outside the grounds still burned, their orange flames swaying gently in the night breeze.

The front gate finally opened, and the man stepped inside under the dark sky. His black overcoat framed his tall, straight frame, his gaze cold and cutting. The sickness that had clung to him vanished entirely, replaced by the commanding, heavy aura of someone born to rule.

Evelyn opened her mouth to speak, but Damian reached her first and held out a document.

“Sign it.”

Evelyn glanced down.

A divorce agreement.

Sharp agony stabbed straight through her heart.

“You just came home, and you want a divorce already?”

Damian’s expression stayed flat. “This marriage should never have existed.”

Evelyn lifted her eyes to meet his.

“Charles set you up and sent you into this house,” he went on. “He wanted to use you to humiliate me. You married for money, and the Carters gave you what you wanted. I hold power now. This farce ends.”

A farce. The three years she spent caring for him, the courage she’d summoned that night to leave behind a piece of them—all of it amounted to nothing more than a farce to him.

Evelyn’s throat tightened. “So you never saw me as your wife?”

Damian fell silent for a beat, his tone turning icier. “There has always been someone else in my heart.”

That single line severed her last thread of hope.

A heavy hush settled over the living room.

Evelyn nodded after a long pause.

“I see.”

She picked up the pen, flipped to the final page, and signed her name in one clean, decisive stroke.

A flicker of surprise crossed Damian’s eyes. “You won’t read the terms?”

“There’s no need.” She slid the papers back to him, her voice steady, alien even to her own ears.

“The Carters saved my mother’s life, and I fulfilled my duties as your wife these three years. We are even.”

Damian studied her. “Name whatever compensation you want.”

Evelyn shook her head. “I don’t need anything. The Carters have already given me more than enough.”

She turned and walked upstairs to pack. A few outfits, several medical textbooks, a photo taken the day her mother left the hospital, and a protective charm her grandmother had gotten blessed for her.

She touched none of the jewelry, designer handbags, or formal gowns the estate had set aside for the lady of the house.

Evelyn rolled her suitcase downstairs half an hour later.

Damian’s brows drew together almost imperceptibly at the sight of the absurdly light case.

Evelyn inclined her head at him softly. “I hope you get everything you wish for.”

She walked out of the Carter Estate after that.

—

Six years later, London, England.

Halloween came around again.

Darkness had fallen by the time the international medical conference wrapped up. Evelyn stepped out of the convention center and rubbed her temples, worn thin with fatigue.

Colleagues stopped to greet her left and right.

“Dr. Evelyn, please join our next surgical forum.”

“Dr. Evelyn, Professor Philip insists you lead this collaborative project.”

Six years had passed. The girl who had married into the Carter family to pay for her mother’s treatment was now a sought-after top surgeon in medical circles.

She studied under Philip, a towering figure in global medicine, skilled in modern surgery alongside rare ancient healing techniques. Wealthy and powerful people paid exorbitant sums for her to operate, and countless others tried to leverage her connection to Professor Philip.

Evelyn kept a low profile, though. Few outside her tight professional circle knew her full history.

A black sedan waited at the curb.

Evelyn climbed into the back seat. “Back to the research institute.”

Martina, her assistant behind the wheel, laughed quietly. “Evelyn, you’re overworked. We’re flying home today.”

Evelyn blinked, then smiled faintly. “Sorry. Three straight days of conferences, and my head’s full of case files.”

Martina started the engine. “You haven’t been back to New York in six years. Your aunt and grandma must miss you terribly. The boys should finally meet the rest of the family, too.”

The weariness in Evelyn’s gaze softened at the mention of her children.

She had left the Carter Estate and traveled to Britain for further studies six years prior, only to discover she was pregnant within her first year abroad.

Triplets.

She had considered terminating the pregnancy, yet could not bring herself to give up her own children.

She gave birth to two boys. Hospital staff told her the third, a little girl, had suffocated from oxygen deprivation during delivery and did not survive.

She never even got to hold her. That loss remained the deepest wound inside her.

The car pulled up outside her residence twenty minutes later.

Two small figures threw themselves into her arms the second Evelyn pushed the door open.

“Mommy!”

The nearly identical little boys tilted up their delicate, beautiful faces, their eyes bright. They wore small Halloween capes; one clutched a jack-o’-lantern candy bucket, and the other sported tiny devil horns on his head.

These were her sons, Pete and Nate.

They shared striking, fine features, and carried a faint resemblance to Damian when they grew quiet and composed.

“Did you finish packing?” she asked them gently. “We’re going back to New York to see Grandma and Great-Grandma.”

Pete nodded right away. “All done!”

Nate added solemnly, “We packed lots of tonics, a whole suitcase full.”

Evelyn laughed and ruffled their hair.

“Good boys.”

The plane touched down in New York more than a dozen hours later.

A complicated emotion stirred in Evelyn as she set foot on familiar, changed ground.

Six years. She was home at last.

Something felt wrong the moment she stepped out of the arrival corridor.

Nearly the whole airport was locked down. Police officers, suited bodyguards, and plainclothes agents filled every space, with checkpoints blocking the exits. All travelers had been ordered to stop.

Halloween decorations still hung in the terminal hall, jack-o’-lanterns and ghost balloons floating overhead, yet none of the lighthearted holiday cheer lingered.

Martina stopped a passing stranger. “Excuse me, what’s going on?”

The person lowered their voice. “Haven’t you heard? There’s trouble with the Carters.”

Carter. The surname hit Evelyn like a jolt after six years, her heart contracting sharply.

The stranger kept talking. “Word is the Carter Group CEO’s daughter is missing. She was supposed to be at a private Halloween party tonight, but somehow turned up near the airport. The whole city’s searching for her now.”

Evelyn’s fingertips tightened.

His daughter.

So he already had a little girl.

Of course. Six years had gone by. With someone else always in his heart, he would have remarried and started a new family long ago.

Pete noticed her change and tugged lightly at her hand. “Mommy, what’s wrong?”

Evelyn pulled herself back and stroked his head. “Nothing.”

The airport announcement cut through the air the second she finished speaking.

“All passengers, please cooperate with security checks. The Carter family is searching for a missing child. The airport will remain locked down, and no one may leave without authorization.”