Chapter 1

“N-Negative again,” Evadne said to her husband, Orion.

Orion reached for the two pregnancy test kits she was holding, his lips tightening as he stared at them, seeing only a single red line on each pregnancy test kit. Out of frustration, he threw them. “Damn! Still nothing? Evadne, we’ve been trying to have a baby for months now. And what? You can’t even give me that?”

She lowered her head. “I-I’m sorry, hon.”

It was not the response he expected. It seemed like a volcano about to erupt at any moment.

“There you go with your apologies again. Can’t you give me a baby?”

She bit her lower lip and looked up at him. “Why are you so impatient to have a baby? What can I do if I can’t give you what you want? I’m doing everything I can,” her voice quivered as tears welled up. She felt hurt by his attitude. Was having a baby more important to him than her feelings right now?

She was stressed out too because she couldn’t conceive. She had been married to him for six months and had been living together with her husband Orion Ashford, who was half-Spanish. At first, he was extremely sweet to her. But as the months passed with consistently negative pregnancy test results, she felt him slowly distant himself from her. She didn’t know if she was just being paranoid or if that was really happening.

“Do you think it’s easy for me not to give you what you want? Hon, I’m doing everything to be healthy. I’m not staying up late for work anymore. I don’t even drink coffee to keep my body healthy. But what can I do when all my pregnancy tests turn out negative?”

He didn’t want them to go for a checkup either. He insisted there was nothing wrong with his body.

But in the end, she blamed herself for not being able to give him a child. She felt that he was being so unfair to her.

“Stop working, then.”

“No,” she said firmly.

“Stay at home. You may not be staying up late at work, but you keep going to your coffee shop.”

“Hon, I need to manage my coffee shop. I don’t want to delegate it to someone else. It’s a family inheritance.” She inherited it from her parents who had already passed away. She didn’t want to entrust its operation to others.

“Don’t be so stubborn.”

“I’ll come home early,” she promised.

Her husband worked in his family’s company. He was also waiting to be promoted to the CEO of their family’s company, which hadn’t happened for reasons she couldn’t understand.

Instead of responding, he chose to leave and walked away, leaving her alone in the room. Evadne had been holding back tears since earlier. Was it really her fault that they couldn’t start a family? The blame always seemed to fall on her.

It was already night, and Evadne’s husband was still not home. His phone was turned off, so she couldn’t reach him. She was sure he was out with his friends again, drinking. That’s how he usually spent his nights when there was no work the next day. Typical Spanish, he’d come home completely drunk. That was one of the things she disliked about him, something she discovered only after they started living together. But she couldn’t complain about it. She just endured it because he was her husband.

She sighed and stared at the meal she had prepared for the two of them. She had put a lot of effort into cooking their dinner that night. She wanted to make it up to her husband by preparing his favorite dish, even though she didn’t have any literal knowledge of Spanish culture. She had still studied it to be able to connect with him and his family.

Orion was born in Span but grew up in New York, so he was fluent in English. She had only met his parents a few times because they didn’t visit often, usually staying in Madrid. They rarely spent time together as a family.

They had been married for six months now; a month after they were together, he immediately asked her to marry him. She could see how sincere he was about her. He showed respect, was caring, and attentive. Orion was like a lead character in a Korean drama: tall, with a well-proportioned physique, and handsome. She couldn’t help but smile when he smiled because of his slanted eyes.

But suddenly, she couldn’t recognize the man she had married. It was as if he had changed. Perhaps it was just stress because he also wanted to have children. Something she couldn’t give him.

She was twenty-eight and more than ready to have a child. But her uterus wasn’t cooperating.

They lived in an apartment building with a spacious unit. They didn’t have a maid because she could handle the household chores. The unit had two rooms, one serving as a guest room and the other as their bedroom. They planned to build a house once they had children. She didn’t mind because it was easy to move around there, and she was used to housework.

Since Orion still hadn’t arrived, Evadne decided to eat without waiting for him. She didn’t want to get any hungrier.

But here she was, with tears in her eyes as she chewed her food. She took a deep breath.

“Stay strong, Evadne,” she cheered herself. She just wished that they could get back to how they used to be, happy and content.