---- newborn, unable to summon a single smile. The baby, still wrinkled and blotchy from birth, wasn't even particularly good-looking. Instead of joy, Levi could only think of that surgical consent form Nikki had signed. He couldn't help but wonder what their child would have looked like. If he were holding their child instead, would his heart have been overwhelmed with happiness? But that was a dream that would never come true. The child-their child-was gone. The paperwork had said it clearly: ten weeks pregnant. Nearly three months along. He had accompanied Lily to her prenatal appointments. He knew that by three months, a fetus already had tiny, distinct limbs forming-a heart beating steadily. ---- It was already a life. A life that had been cruelly snatched away before it could even take its first breath. Levi's mind replayed the scene of Nikki emerging from the operating room-her face ghastly pale, her body so frail it looked translucent-and the look in her eyes as she stared at him, full of such fierce finality that it sliced his heart open. She had killed their child and hadn't hesitated for a moment when demanding a divorce. She really was ruthless. Nearly a decade of love between them-gone, just like that. It wasn't even enough to make her waver. He hated her for it. God, he hated Nikki's mercilessness. But deep down, he knew-he had no right to hate her. ---- Nikki's childhood had been a long, bitter winter. Her parents had divorced when she was young, and she had been raised by her grandmother, growing up without the love and protection of her own father and mother. Years of loneliness had etched deep scars into her heart-and left her terrified at the thought of bringing new life into the world. When they married, she had made it clear from the very start that she didn't want children. She had told him to think carefully, to be sure he truly wanted to marry her under those conditions. And he-young, foolish, in love-had agreed without hesitation. He had promised she would never be forced to do anything she didn't want to do. Yet even so, Nikki, who feared pregnancy so much, had still fought through her terror and ---- decided to bear his child. That day, she had gone to the estate... it must have been after she found out about the pregnancy. Maybe she had been looking for a new place, somewhere better suited for their growing family. How had she felt, full of hope, only to stumble upon the sight of her husband walking arm-in- arm with another pregnant woman? Levi remembered-there had been no wind that day. And yet Nikki, standing before him, had trembled as though about to be blown away by the faintest breeze. He remembered how unsettled he had felt in that moment. Back then, he had thought it was guilt-panic at having been caught. It wasn't until just now, outside the operation