On the day Clara Whitmore and Sebastian Harlow remarried for the third time, they had barely stepped out of the Civil Affairs Bureau before Sebastian shoved her into the backseat of the car, impatient and rough.
When they got to Songyuan, he carried her straight out of the car, threw a long coat over both of them, and didn’t stop once from the front door all the way to the bedroom.
They were like two people who didn’t know what exhaustion meant, or maybe like lovers too far gone to ever let go, desperate enough to burn themselves out on each other.
They went at it like that for a full day and night. Only when he was completely spent did Sebastian finally get up, breathing hard as he pulled on his clothes. "I’ve got something to do. I’m leaving first. Get pregnant as soon as possible. Once the baby’s born, we’ll go get divorced."
His voice was so cold it had no warmth at all, completely different from the feverish intimacy that had just ended.
Clara’s hair was damp with sweat, stuck messily to her face. The flush on her skin hadn’t faded yet, but there was no love left in her eyes. She only nodded calmly. "Mm, I know. The two days after tomorrow are still my fertile window. Remember to come back."
After saying that, she dragged her exhausted body under a blanket and flipped herself upside down against the headboard.
Sebastian frowned, assuming she was pulling some stunt again. His tone turned sharp, cold, almost accusatory. "What are you doing now? Clara Whitmore, drop the act and remember who you are."
Back then, she had been willful. More than once, whenever he had to leave for something important, she’d pull one trick or another just to keep him there. Sebastian thought she was trying the same move again, and he was already fed up.
But Clara’s heart had gone numb a long time ago. She bit her lip and said softly, "I read online that doing a handstand makes it easier to get pregnant. I’m trying it."
She knew it was basically useless.
Still, she had to make Sebastian see how hard she was trying for this pregnancy. Otherwise, their deal could fall apart at any second.
That was right. This remarriage was nothing more than a transaction.
One child in exchange for her younger brother’s life.
Her face was burning red. Her whole body trembled from sheer exhaustion, but she still forced herself to watch his expression carefully.
Sure enough, the moment he heard that, the chill in Sebastian’s eyes eased a little. Clara quietly let out a breath of relief before asking in a cautious voice, "Sebastian... my brother..."
Sebastian glanced at her as he walked out, his eyes full of coldness and disgust. "Don’t worry. If I said I’d do it, I’ll do it."
Only after she heard the car engine start downstairs did Clara finally let her guard down and collapse onto the bed. She stared at the familiar ceiling and gave a bitter little laugh before closing her eyes.
Everything here was familiar.
And yet, all of it felt unbearably strange.
How had they ended up like this?
She and Sebastian had loved each other once.
Ten years ago, back in college, Sebastian had been her senior. The first time she saw him, he was standing onstage giving a speech, and she was so fired up she changed her major to law on the spot and started chasing after him with zero hesitation.
Sebastian had always been distant by nature, the famously untouchable iceberg of Hai University. Everyone thought she didn’t stand a chance.
But somehow, she made it.
After that, they were like any other couple. They dated, they got married, and because their families were well matched in status, there was barely any resistance at all.
After marriage, Sebastian spoiled her shamelessly. He said he didn’t want her tiring herself out in the outside world and wanted her to stay home and live like a pampered rich wife.
So she became the woman everyone in the city envied—rich, carefree, and married to a ridiculously handsome husband.
Back then, she really had thought she was the happiest woman in the world.
But two years into their marriage, another woman appeared in it.
Vivienne Langford.
Vivienne and Sebastian had been classmates, and she was also a partner at his law firm. She was the youngest and most famous divorce lawyer in Haicheng, even nicknamed by women across the city as the gospel for women, because in every divorce case, she fought to win more for the female side.
And yet it was exactly such an outstanding woman who started sticking close to Sebastian everywhere he went. She even needed him to accompany her to the hospital for checkups.
And Sebastian really did leave Clara behind to go with her.
So Clara started making a scene. She said he didn’t love her anymore. At first Sebastian would still coax her, but later on, all he would say was, "Clara, you’re always this childish. Look at Vivienne—independent, mature. Can’t you learn something from her?"
The worst time was when they’d just had a fight and still hadn’t made up, but he went abroad on a business trip with Vivienne anyway. For an entire month, he only answered two of her calls, and both times he sounded impatient, brushed her off after a few words, and hung up with "I’m busy."
Meanwhile, Vivienne’s social media was basically a daily live update of Sebastian’s presence.
The two of them met clients together, held meetings together, ate together, drank together, went to the beach together, and there was even a photo of Vivienne in a bikini with her arms around Sebastian.
Clara had been spoiled rotten since childhood. How was she supposed to swallow something like that?
She completely lost it.
She smashed the framed wedding photos of her and Sebastian, then mailed him a signed divorce agreement and went back to her parents’ house.
When Sebastian came back and saw it, he got angry too. He signed the divorce papers right away.
That was their first divorce.
Clara cried for three whole months.
By the end, she cried until she went blind.
When Sebastian found out, he immediately pushed aside all his work, stayed with her through treatment and recovery, and acted as her eyes every single day. He kept apologizing to her over and over, and on the day she could finally see again, he asked her to remarry him.
Even though everyone around her told her to think it through carefully, she loved him too much—so much it had already crossed into madness.
So she agreed without hesitation.
After their first remarriage, Vivienne was sent overseas to expand the business. And because of that, Clara and Sebastian spent an entire year deeply in love. So much so that even Clara herself began to feel that Vivienne’s appearance had only made them love each other more.
But right after their first remarriage anniversary, Vivienne came back.
And she came back as the big hero of the company.
At the celebration banquet, photos of Vivienne and Sebastian walking arm in arm shot straight onto the trending list. Everyone praised them as a perfect match, while Clara became the one people mocked and compared down. The whole city of Haicheng buzzed with it, and everyone started urging Sebastian to divorce her.
They said about her, "She’s just some washed-up housewife. How is she worthy of Lawyer Harlow? A powerhouse woman like Lawyer Langford is the only one who matches him. That’s what a power couple is supposed to look like."
Clara didn’t want to lose him.
And she didn’t want to turn into some hysterical mess and repeat the past.
So for once, she didn’t make a scene. She behaved so well it was almost unreal. Sebastian had even praised her for finally being sensible.
And so another year passed.
On their second anniversary, Clara found out she was pregnant.
She was over the moon.
She hid the pregnancy test report away, planning to surprise Sebastian with it.
But on the way back from the hospital, she got into a car accident.
She collapsed in a pool of blood, her lower belly in agonizing pain. While drifting in and out of consciousness, she called him.
Ten times.
Not once did he answer.
The next day, just as she learned that she had miscarried, she happened to see the news of Sebastian entering a hotel with Vivienne.
In that instant, all the patience she had forced down for a whole year exploded.
She filed for divorce again and moved out of Songyuan.
This time, she cried again too.
But there were fewer tears.
She only cried for one month.
And Sebastian never came to find her. Day and night, he stayed by Vivienne’s side.
At that point, Clara had really believed they were over.
That this was the end.
That they would never see each other again.
But life loved a cruel twist.
Six months later, the Whitmore family went bankrupt. The father who had once loved her most became addicted to gambling in his desperate attempt to make a comeback, and he borrowed nearly four million in loan shark debt. If they couldn’t repay it in time, the whole family’s lives would be on the line.
Clara had no other choice.
She could only go to Sebastian.
She begged him to save the Whitmores, save her father, save her.
Sebastian agreed.
His condition was that she remarry him.
At first, she thought maybe he still loved her.
That shattered heart of hers actually dared to hope again.
But after their second remarriage, Sebastian spent his days with Vivienne, and at night he came back only to torment Clara in bed with ruthless intensity. But he never stayed the night. The moment it was over, he left, treating her like some secret mistress with no dignity at all.
She didn’t dare complain.
But every night, her heart ached a little more.
A year later, her father got drunk, slipped by the river, and drowned. Less than two days after that, her mother died at home from grief.
By then, Clara’s heart had gone completely cold.
There was no reason left for her to stay by Sebastian’s side.
So she asked for divorce a third time.
Sebastian looked at her with open contempt and let out a cold laugh before saying a sentence she would never forget for the rest of her life.
He said, "Clara, you can’t leave me. I bet you’ll come back and beg me again."
She didn’t believe him.
But less than a month later, she was assaulted. Her younger brother, trying to save her, accidentally killed the man.
The dead man came from a wealthy family.
And he had once had a bad history with Sebastian too.
That family insisted her brother pay with his life.
Just like Sebastian had predicted, Clara returned to him.
She knelt in front of him, humbling herself completely, and begged him to save her brother.
And this time, the condition he gave was for her to bear him a child.
But during the year of their second remarriage, Sebastian had made her take birth control pills for an entire year.
After that, getting pregnant was easier said than done.
