HO

She had always been the one person her husband could never live without. He was impossibly wealthy, powerful, and feared by everyone around him. Yet with her, he had always been different. He adored her with an obsessive devotion, protecting her, spoiling her, and making it clear that she was the centre of his world. And she loved him just as fiercely. Until the new maid arrived. At first, the maid seemed innocent and vulnerable. Then she began quietly turning the household against the wife. She told her husband that his wife was cruel to her. That she bullied her, mistreated her, and secretly hurt her whenever nobody was watching. Every accusation came with tears, convincing stories, and carefully manufactured evidence. And slowly, he began believing her. The man who once trusted his wife more than anyone became cold toward her. His affection disappeared. He stopped listening when she tried to explain herself. Even when she insisted she had done nothing wrong, he treated her words as lies. Then the maid claims she has cancer. Everyone immediately feels sorry for her. Everyone except the truth itself. Because the maid isn't sick. The wife is. She has secretly discovered that she has stage-four cancer. She is getting weaker, and the doctors have warned her that her condition is life-threatening. Yet she has kept the diagnosis hidden from her husband. How could she tell him when he barely believes anything she says anymore? Then she discovers something that changes everything. She's pregnant. The baby is his. For the first time in weeks, she allows herself to imagine a future. A tiny piece of the man she loves growing inside her, someone she could leave behind if she doesn't survive. But she is terrified to tell him. Her husband has become so distant and cruel that she doesn't know how he will react. She fears he will accuse her of lying again, or worse, believe that she is using the pregnancy to manipulate him. So she keeps the pregnancy secret too. The only person w