---- Chapter 1 On the day my wife, Ivy Hart, moved back into the house after giving birth, I had just finished handing over the last of my work at Centrum Hospital. As soon as I got to the door, the pleasant laughter and blissful conversation spilled out inside the house. "What a lovely baby he is, and look at those large eyes of his! He inherited all of his dad's best qualities," Cora Norris, my mother-in-law, remarked as she played with the baby in her arms. Toby Clayton emerged from the kitchen with a bowl of piping hot chicken soup. "I made the soup myself. You're still weak from having the baby, so you need to have a lot of ---- nourishing food," he said before sitting down beside Ivy and feeding her. They looked like the picture-perfect family. Fred Hart, Ivy's father, was grinning widely as he shook a baby rattle. "He's a charming baby, alright, just like his father. Thank goodness the father isn't Abel, that boring stick-in-the-mud. It'd be dreadfully worrisome to have a doctor for a father." My hand tightened around the doorknob. I recalled the first time I met Fred. He'd patted me on the shoulder and said that being a doctor was a good thing. It was a great honor for the family that one among their ranks was someone who saved lives for a living. He even spoke of how he had worked as a doctor in the past. He only ended up retiring early because of an incident at the hospital that left his hand permanently injured. But now, he was claiming that a doctor wasn't worthy of having a wife anda son. ---- I'd left for a year to hone my medical training, but that was enough time for me to no longer be welcome in the family. I lowered my head and pursed my lips bitterly. Ivy and I had been married for three years. She said she didn't want to have children. I knew how dangerous childbirth was for a woman, so I didn't insist on having one, either. I could still recall the way she cried her eyes out on the day I went abroad for further training. She said she couldn't bear to part with me. Throughout my year abroad, we called each other every day and shared about our daily lives. Even my colleagues teased us for behaving like a pair of infatuated lovers, even though we had already been married for several years. Amonth ago, I finally managed to get a leave of absence approved so I could head home. Even the eight-hour flight didn't tire me out. However, the moment I rushed home, I was greeted by the sight of a pregnant Ivy, and standing beside her was