Chapter 1: The Mirage at the Doorstep

Before Julian left for his long-term scientific research post in the remote Northwest, he took my hands and promised:

“Seraphina, conditions out there are harsh, and the superiors don’t allow family members to accompany us. You’ll need to take care of things at home. Suffer through three years of waiting for me, and I’ll come back right after.”

Three years bled into another three, and soon I had waited for Julian for seven whole years.

He never returned permanently. Communication was limited to a phone call every five days, a video call once a month, and an annual seven-day leave counted on my fingers. Yet, I never uttered a single complaint, terrified of disrupting his vital work.

When I discovered I was pregnant, my long-delayed emergency visitation permit was finally approved. After an exhausting, thousand-mile journey across rough roads, I knocked on his dormitory door, my heart pounding with excitement.

To my utter shock, a little girl answered: “Daddy! There’s a visitor! I don’t know who this lady is!”

I froze, assuming I had knocked on the wrong door. But the next second, Julian’s fond, indulgent voice echoed from inside: “Sweetheart, Daddy’s busy. Tell Mommy to go check.”

Genevieve, his research assistant, stepped out. Upon seeing me, her jaw dropped in absolute shock: “Sister-in-law… how did you get here?”

I held my stomach as the quiet hope I had clung to for seven years finally died.

Seeing no movement at the door, Julian set down his files and walked out. Upon recognizing me, he stuttered in panic: “Seraphina… why did you suddenly…”

“I’m tired,” I interrupted softly. “I want to sit down inside before we talk.”

Inside, Genevieve pulled her daughter aside, forcing a rigid smile: “Sister-in-law, speak with Julian. Lily, come with Mommy so we don’t disturb Daddy talking to the guest.”

Seeing my cold gaze, Julian hastily stepped in front of Genevieve and the child, defensively blurted out: “Seraphina, don’t misunderstand! This child belongs to Genevieve and her ex-husband. We just let her call me ‘Daddy’ so she wouldn’t be bullied at school. Genevieve and I are strictly colleagues!”

I didn’t argue. Over seven years, feminine voices leaking through phone calls, silk nightgown straps slipping past the edge of video screens, and vacations cut short for “emergencies” had already told me everything. I pulled a thick stack of documents from my bag.

On top were seven years of rejected visitation applications—all stamped with the red mark: [Rejected personally by Comrade Julian Vance].

“If I hadn’t gone directly to your superiors, I would never have known that you personally blocked my visitation requests every single year,” I said, placing two documents on the table: an ultrasound report and a divorce agreement.

“I’m pregnant, Julian. But I won’t keep the baby, and I am here to divorce you.”

Chapter 2: The Final Illusion Broken

Julian sat paralyzed by the sudden revelation. I picked up my handbag and stood up. “Sign the papers when you’re ready and notify me. I’ve booked a hotel outside.”

As I walked out of the building, dazed, hurried footsteps chased after me. Julian grabbed my wrist tightly, his eyes bloodshot with desperation.

“No divorce! We can’t divorce!” he pleaded, trembling. “Don’t you love me anymore? And the baby… we can’t destroy our child! I can’t bear to lose you two.”

Tears welling in my eyes, I choked back a sob: “Then submit an immediate transfer back home, Julian. My family cannot live without a husband, and my child cannot grow up fatherless.”

Julian fell completely silent. The hesitation in his eyes proved he still couldn’t let go of Genevieve and her daughter.

“If you can’t do it, then sign the papers,” I said, pulling my arm away.

Panic seized him. “I can do it! I need you, and I need our child! Let’s go to the admin office right now—my three-year service quota expired long ago, I can request a transfer immediately!”

He grabbed my hand to pull me toward the administration office. But before we took two steps, his phone rang with the caller ID: [Sweetheart Genevieve].

Julian panicked, glancing at my cold eyes, and hastily rejected the call. “Seraphina, I promise, nothing is more important than us now.”

The rare warmth of his hand softened my heart for a fleeting second. I let him lead me forward.

Ring! Ring! The phone rang again. He rejected it again, but his footsteps slowed down.

On the third ring, Julian stopped completely and turned to me with an apologetic, awkward smile: “Genevieve is calling so urgently… something serious might have happened. Let me just answer it.”

Before I could reply, he picked up. Genevieve’s hysterical voice bled through the receiver: “Julian! Lily burned herself! I don’t know what to do, please come back quickly!”

Without a single word of explanation or comfort to me, Julian turned around and sprinted back toward the dormitories without looking back once.

The small smile on my face froze, stretching into a hollow, bitter laugh that echoed through the empty courtyard.

Chapter 3: Retaliation and Reclaiming Control

I checked into a hotel, wiped my tears, and called my family’s legal team.

During our seven years of marriage, while Julian was playing house in the Northwest, I had quietly managed our joint assets, invested my own capital into his scientific patents, and funded his family’s personal expenses.

I authorized my lawyers to file an immediate petition for divorce on the grounds of marital abandonment, alongside a comprehensive lawsuit to reclaim all financial investments, patent rights, and property transferred to Julian and his family over the past seven years.

Furthermore, I reported his severe breach of professional conduct and misuse of public housing facilities to the Military Research Ethics Board, submitting the photographs of his “family outings” with Genevieve and her child.

Two days later, Julian showed up at my hotel room, looking disheveled and frantic.

“Seraphina! Why did the Ethics Committee suspend me?!” he shouted, his face pale. “And why did your lawyer freeze all my bank accounts and intellectual property rights?!”

“Because every cent in those accounts was generated by my capital, Julian,” I replied calmly, sipping my tea. “And those patents were developed using the funding my family’s foundation provided.”

“You’re ruining my career!” he roared. “Genevieve’s daughter was injured, and I was just being a good colleague! How can you be so ruthless?!”

“You blocked your pregnant wife’s visitation permits for seven years while playing father to another woman’s child,” I said, looking him dead in the eye. “You ruined your own career.”

Within two months, the research institute stripped Julian of his senior title and revoked his housing privileges following the ethics investigation. Deprived of my family’s financial backing, he was forced to pay back $1.5 million in misappropriated research funds and personal loans.

Realizing Julian had lost his status, money, and career prospects, Genevieve quietly packed her bags and transferred to another facility, abandoning Julian completely.

Chapter 4: Unpayable Regret

Three years later.

I chose to keep my child—a healthy, beautiful boy named Leo Vance. I returned to my executive position at my family’s asset firm, rebuilding my life into one of complete independence, luxury, and peace.

One rainy afternoon, after attending an international tech conference at a five-star hotel downtown, I stepped out toward my private vehicle, holding three-year-old Leo’s hand while accompanied by two assistants.

A ragged man standing near the entrance suddenly pushed past the security barrier, throwing himself onto the wet pavement before me.

“Seraphina! Seraphina, please!”

My bodyguards immediately blocked him. I stopped and looked down at the haggard, gray-haired man kneeling in the rain. It was Julian.

He wore a faded, stained coat, his face hollowed by years of poverty and legal struggles.

“Seraphina…” Julian sobbed hysterically, his bloodshot eyes locking onto the little boy standing by my side. “Is that… is that my son?”

He reached out a trembling, dirty hand toward Leo, but I calmly moved my son behind my coat.

“Seraphina, I was wrong! I regret everything!” Julian beat his chest in agonizing despair, weeping bitterly on the wet concrete. “Genevieve left me long ago… She used me! You were the only one who truly loved me! Please, let me be a father to our son… give me one more chance!”

I looked at the weeping man, feeling no anger, no hatred, and no pain—only absolute indifference.

“Julian,” I said, my voice calm and crystal clear against the falling rain. “You gave up the right to be a father the day you ran back to another woman while leaving your pregnant wife standing alone in the cold.”

“I regret it every single day, Seraphina! I am living in hell!” he wailed, attempting to crawl forward, but my guards held him firmly in place. “Please… just let me hear him call me Daddy once!”

“My son already has a complete life, and he doesn’t need a stranger in it,” I said quietly.

I picked up Leo in my arms, turned around, and stepped into the warmth of the limousine.

As the car pulled away smoothly, Julian’s desperate screams faded into the rain as he knelt alone in the mud—forever trapped in the agonizing, unpayable regret of the family he had personally destroyed.