Chapter 1
“My baby is definitely going to look just like his father with sharp brows and bright eyes. He’s gonna be so handsome. He might even have the same little red birthmark at the corner of his eye.”
The woman’s smug voice rang through the quiet hallway, drawing curious glances. Shannon Caldwell couldn’t help but look over.
The woman wore a mask, but her eyes gleamed with barely contained pride.
Hearing her describe her baby’s future features, Shannon was reminded of someone—her husband of five years, Caspian Bellwether, the illustrious prince of Astrivale.
He had a red birthmark at the corner of his eye too.
Just as Shannon was about to step forward and ask, the hospital intercom called her name.
Across the desk, the doctor studied her test results with a serious expression. Seeing that, Shannon clenched her hands. She felt like a giant hand was gripping her heart, making it hard to breathe.
After what felt like an eternity, the doctor finally spoke. “Ms. Caldwell, all your test results are normal. We’re not sure why you haven’t been able to conceive all these years. We could run more tests…”
Shannon barely heard the rest.
Her mind kept repeating the same thing—she was perfectly healthy, yet after all these years, she still couldn’t get pregnant.
Shannon stumbled out of the consultation room and sank into a nearby chair, staring blankly at the medical report in her hands.
Tears fell one by one, slowly soaking the paper.
She and Caspian had grown up together. They were childhood sweethearts.
Everyone in their circle knew she was his first love—the woman he placed on a pedestal.
When Shannon was 17, he called her to the sycamore tree. Under the moonlight, he blushed as he pulled out hundreds of love letters he’d written over the years. Stumbling over his words, he finally confessed to her.
On the day she turned 20, he wasted no time proposing. “Shannon, I don’t want to risk someone else taking you away.”
She wasn’t one for grand gestures, and he wanted to protect her from the public eye, so their wedding was a small, intimate affair with only family and close friends. Few outsiders even knew they were married.
But that never stopped Caspian from loving her.
Especially after Shannon discovered her infertility. He had always comforted her, shouldering the blame himself.
When his parents started pressuring her, he stood firmly in front of her, his face cold. He declared it was his choice not to have children and vowed to give up his heirship if they kept pushing her.
Shannon was deeply touched but also wracked with guilt. Determined to conceive, she tried every folk remedy she could find. She even became a regular at the gynecology department.
Yet five years passed, and her belly remained flat.
Leaving the hospital, she took out her phone, wanting to call Caspian. She just wanted to see him and have him hold her.
But then she remembered he was still at work and decided to go find him instead.
The moment Shannon stepped into his office building, she saw a familiar figure ahead that looked a lot like Caspian. He was carefully helping a pregnant woman up the stairs.
“Caspian?” she called hesitantly.
Caspian instinctively turned around.
When he saw her, his body stiffened, and he quickly whispered something to the woman beside him. Only after she left did he step down the stairs and stand in front of Shannon, blocking her view.
A strange unease settled in her chest. Why was he acting so nervous?
“Who was that?” she asked.
Caspian’s expression remained calm. “Just a random stranger. She was struggling with the stairs, so I gave her a hand.”
From childhood, Caspian had always been strict about personal boundaries, never touching any woman but her.
Even his secretaries were all male.
His friends teased him about being a henpecked husband, but he didn’t mind. He accepted it openly. “Yeah, I’m completely whipped. I’m allergic to every woman except Shannon.”
A man like that wouldn’t just casually help a pregnant woman.
But before Shannon could dwell on it, Caspian changed the subject. “By the way, what did the doctor say about your test?”
Her eyes flickered with disappointment. The grievance she had just managed to suppress surfaced again, and her eyes grew misty once more.
Realizing something was wrong, he pulled her into his arms and gently stroked her back. “It’s okay, babe. I’ve told you before. You don’t need to stress about pregnancy. I’m completely fine without children. You’re all that matters to me. Don’t cry. It hurts me to see you like this.”
Caspian wiped away the tear clinging to her lashes and pressed a tender kiss to her forehead.
It took a long time for his warmth to calm her, and Shannon finally squeezed his hand in return.
Back at Bellwether Manor, Caspian went straight into the bathroom. She sat alone on the bed, just about to tuck the medical report into the drawer.
Suddenly, a message notification chimed, making her hand freeze mid-motion.
Her body trembled uncontrollably. After a long pause, she took a deep breath, picked up her phone, and opened the message.
Just as Shannon expected, it was another message from Caspian’s mother, Alena Hewitt, urging her to have a baby.
Ever since she’d found out she had trouble conceiving, Alena had been hounding her with texts, constantly asking if Shannon had undergone more tests and when she’d finally have a baby.
Now, every time her phone chimed, she felt an irrational sense of dread.
As the phone screen went dark, Shannon closed her eyes, struggling internally for a long moment. Then, she reopened them, walked to the closet, and pulled out the dress hidden at the bottom.
