She turned away from him, pulled the blanket over herself, and spoke coldly in the dark. “It's pointless. Leonel, you might as well give it up. We'll never have another child."

Leonel remained silent.

He wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, placing his warm hand on her belly.

Her belly was still soft and flat, but maybe another baby was already on the way... He knew Alexis was on the pill and believing it to be contraceptives, but in fact, what she was taking was just folic acid.

He whispered, “Alexis, after all this time, don't you feel anything? Look, we've been doing okay lately. We can go back to how things were."

Alexis didn't respond. Instead, she got up to shower.

Watching her leave, Leonel's gaze grew distant. He lay there for a while before getting up to wash in the guest room. Then he went to help Evelyn with her homework. Alexis had been sleeping a lot lately, leaving him to assist Evelyn with her studies, but the little girl was growing increasingly distant.

Time flew by.

Early one morning, about two weeks later, Alexis sat on the bathroom floor lost in thought.

Her period was three days late and hadn't shown up yet.

Feeling uneasy from a mix of woman's intuition and her body's changes, she sat quietly for a long while before getting up and getting dressed. She feigned feeling unwell and asked the servant to bring breakfast upstairs.

Ten minutes later, the servant arrived with the tray.

As she set the tray on the table, Alexis walked over to the door and quietly shut it.

Turning back to the servant, she asked in a soft voice, “What did Leonel offer you as a reward?"

Initially, she just wanted to bluff and see if she could get anything useful.

But to her surprise, the servant, burdened by guilt, couldn't hold back the truth. Trembling, she nervously adjusted her apron and confessed, "That day, Mr. Douglas found out about the watch. He gave me the pills. I thought he loved you so much, he wouldn't harm you... So..."

Alexis closed her eyes, understanding everything.

The medicine she had been taking was indeed fake.

Leonel's manipulation left her feeling trapped. No wonder he was so confident about her pregnancy; he controlled every aspect. She lowered her head, her hand gently caressing her abdomen.

A child should already be on the way.