Dominic’s eyes remained fixed on my stomach.

“How many months are you?”

His voice was quieter now.

Not arrogant.

Not mocking.

Calculating.

I knew exactly what he was doing.

“Seven.”

His face changed.

For several seconds, he counted backward in silence.

Then he looked at Adrian.

“You were already sleeping with her while she was supposed to be waiting for me?”

Adrian’s expression didn’t change.

But I laughed.

“Waiting for you?”

I genuinely couldn’t understand how Dominic could say those words after everything he had done.

“You gave me ninety-nine photographs of yourself cheating on me, divorced me because you lost a ridiculous bet, and moved my best friend into my place.”

I pointed at the document in his hand.

“Where exactly does ‘waiting for Dominic’ appear in the agreement?”

His jaw tightened.

“You knew what those three years meant.”

“Yes.”

I nodded.

“They meant three years of your life.”

“Not mine.”

Vanessa shifted uncomfortably.

“Dominic, why are you even arguing? Claire is pregnant with another man’s child. Isn’t that disgusting enough?”

Adrian’s gaze turned cold.

I touched his arm before he responded.

“No.”

This was mine.

I looked at Vanessa.

“You slept with my husband while I was burying my mother.”

Her face stiffened.

“So I don’t think you’re qualified to give lectures about morality.”

Dominic slammed his palm against the table.

“Enough!”

His eyes were still on my medical report.

“This test could be wrong.”

“It was repeated twice.”

“I’m not sterile.”

“You are.”

“I would know!”

That almost made me pity him.

Almost.

“You had the test four years ago.”

He froze.

“The report was inside your desk.”

His expression shifted.

He remembered.

“You told your mother the results belonged to me.”

Silence.

Adrian’s eyes moved toward Dominic.

Even Vanessa slowly turned.

“What?” she whispered.

Dominic didn’t look at her.

I continued.

“For two years, your mother blamed me for not giving the Hale family a child.”

The humiliation returned with uncomfortable clarity.

The bitter medicines.

The fertility clinics.

The endless tests.

His mother watching my stomach every month like I had personally failed an exam.

Dominic telling me to endure it.

All while he knew.

“You watched me believe something was wrong with my body because admitting the truth would hurt your pride.”

“Claire—”

“That was when I stopped loving you.”

His face emptied.

Not when I saw Vanessa’s messages.

Not when I discovered the first affair.

Before the ninety-nine photographs ever existed, our marriage was already dead.

Dominic sank into the chair.

For once, there was nothing clever left for him to say.

Vanessa looked between us.

“You knew he was sterile?”

“Yes.”

Her face became strangely pale.

I noticed.

So did Adrian.

Dominic finally turned toward her.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Vanessa.”

She stood suddenly.

“I’m going home.”

Dominic grabbed her wrist.

“Why are you reacting like that?”

“Let go.”

“Vanessa.”

She pulled away.

And that was when Adrian’s lawyer cleared his throat.

“Before anyone leaves, there is another matter.”

Dominic glared at him.

“What now?”

The lawyer opened the second folder.

“Mrs. West returned primarily to recover property belonging to the estate of her late mother.”

“The necklace?” Dominic scoffed. “Vanessa just threw it away.”

I felt Adrian’s hand close around mine.

Not to stop me.

To steady me.

His lawyer continued.

“The necklace is one item.”

He removed several pages.

“But not the most valuable one.”

Dominic frowned.

I had waited two years for this.

“My mother left me shares.”

His expression shifted.

“In what?”

“Hale Medical Technologies.”

Dominic stopped breathing.

Vanessa slowly sat down again.

Hale Medical Technologies had begun as a small company founded by Dominic’s father.

What very few people remembered was that twenty years earlier, when the company was nearly bankrupt, my mother’s investment firm had funded its restructuring.

When she died, her remaining stake passed to me.

Dominic had always assumed I sold it.

I never had.

Adrian’s lawyer placed the ownership certificate on the table.

Eighteen percent.

Dominic stared at the number.

“That’s impossible.”

“It isn’t,” I said.

His family still controlled the company.

But barely.

And eighteen percent was enough to matter.

Especially now.

“Why did you come back?” he asked.

“Because your board is voting next week on the merger with West Biomedical.”

His gaze snapped toward Adrian.

Adrian finally smiled.

Not warmly.

“Now you understand who I am.”

Dominic knew the name.

Everyone in his industry did.

West Biomedical was the company Hale Technologies had spent almost a year trying to secure as its largest strategic partner.

The merger could double its valuation.

Dominic’s face went gray.

“You’re Adrian West?”

“Yes.”

Dominic stared at me.

Then at him.

Then back at the papers.

“You married him?”

“A year and a half ago.”

“But why didn’t you tell me?”

I nearly laughed.

“You were busy enjoying your three-year marriage.”

His mouth tightened.

Then understanding arrived.

“My family needs your vote.”

“Yes.”

“And you came back because of the merger.”

“Partly.”

“What do you want?”

There it was.

Dominic had always believed everything had a price.

“Money?”

“No.”

“A board seat?”

“No.”

“Then what?”

I looked toward the open window.

“My necklace.”

Vanessa laughed nervously.

“You’re insane. It fell thirty-three floors.”

“I know.”

Adrian checked his watch.

Then his phone rang.

He answered.

“Yes?”

A pause.

“Good. Bring it up.”

Dominic frowned.

Five minutes later, the restaurant manager entered with a security officer.

In the officer’s hand was a transparent evidence bag.

Inside—

my mother’s jade necklace.

My vision blurred.

I stood so quickly that Adrian reached out instinctively.

The security officer placed the bag in front of me.

“It landed on the canvas awning over the twenty-ninth-floor terrace. One section of the clasp is damaged, but the stone appears intact.”

I covered my mouth.

For the first time that afternoon, tears came.

Not because of Dominic.

Not because of Vanessa.

Because I had it back.

The last thing my mother had chosen for me.

Adrian didn’t say anything.

He simply stood beside me until I could breathe again.

Dominic watched.

And I think that was the moment he truly understood what he had never given me.

Not diamonds.

Not cars.

Not money.

Safety.

I wiped my tears and turned to Vanessa.

“I’m filing a police report for intentional property destruction.”

Her face changed.

“You wouldn’t.”

“I already did.”

She looked at Dominic.

“Say something!”

He didn’t.

For the first time, he wasn’t protecting her.

Vanessa stared at him.

“You’re going to let her do this?”

Dominic’s expression became strange.

“Why did you react that way when she said I was sterile?”

Vanessa went still.

My anger momentarily disappeared beneath curiosity.

“Dominic…”

He stepped closer.

“You’ve been asking me to try for a child for almost two years.”

“So?”

“You told me the doctor said everything was normal.”

Vanessa picked up her bag.

“This isn’t the time.”

Dominic blocked her path.

“When was your last fertility appointment?”

“Move.”

“Vanessa.”

She looked toward the lawyers.

Then toward me.

And suddenly I understood.

The fear on her face had nothing to do with my pregnancy.

Dominic understood too.

“Were you planning to get pregnant?”

She said nothing.

“By whom?”

“Stop it!”

She shoved him.

Her phone fell from her bag and hit the floor.

The screen lit up.

A message preview appeared.

Nathan: Did he believe the fertility clinic story? Call me when you’re alone.

Nobody moved.

Dominic picked up the phone.

Vanessa lunged for it.

“Give it back!”

He stepped away and opened the conversation.

His expression changed with every line.

Weeks of messages.

Hotel reservations.

Photographs.

Plans.

And one sentence that made him grip the phone so hard I thought it would break.

Once I’m pregnant, Dominic will think the treatment finally worked. After that, the Hale money is secured.

Vanessa began crying.

“Dominic, listen—”

He looked at her.

The same way I had looked at the first of those ninety-nine photographs.

Shock first.

Then disbelief.

Then the beginning of pain.

I felt nothing.

Not satisfaction.

Not revenge.

Just exhaustion.

Dominic whispered:

“How long?”

Vanessa reached for him.

“Please.”

“How long have you been sleeping with him?”

She didn’t answer.

Dominic laughed once.

A broken sound.

Then he looked at me.

And perhaps for the first time he understood the cruelty of the gift he had given me on our anniversary.

Ninety-nine photographs.

Ninety-nine pieces of proof.

Ninety-nine opportunities to imagine what had happened behind my back.

Now he only needed one phone.

I picked up my mother’s necklace.

“We’re leaving.”

Dominic followed us into the hallway.

“Claire.”

I stopped.

“Don’t.”

“I made a mistake.”

“One?”

His eyes reddened.

“I was stupid.”

“Yes.”

“I thought you would come back.”

“I know.”

That was the saddest part.

He truly had.

He believed I would spend three years frozen in place while he experimented with another woman.

Then return grateful when he finally chose me.

“I can divorce Vanessa today.”

I shook my head.

“Do whatever you want.”

“What about the merger?”

“We’ll discuss it professionally at the board meeting.”

His face tightened.

“And us?”

“There is no us.”

He looked at my stomach again.

Then asked the question I knew had been torturing him.

“Are you happy?”

I looked through the glass doors.

Adrian was waiting several meters away.

Not listening.

Not interrupting.

Giving me space to end a story that had begun before I met him.

“Yes.”

Dominic closed his eyes.

And I walked away.

---

The following week, the Hale board approved the merger.

I voted in favor.

Not for Dominic.

For thousands of employees who had nothing to do with our marriage.

But there were conditions.

Independent financial oversight.

A restructured executive committee.

And Dominic was removed as chief operating officer after the board reviewed several reckless decisions he had hidden during the previous year.

His father sent me a short message afterward:

You saved the company even though you owed us nothing.

I didn’t reply.

Vanessa and Dominic’s three-year “bet” marriage lasted two years, three months, and eleven days.

Nathan disappeared the moment her plans became public.

Dominic filed for divorce.

Vanessa tried to claim that everything had been a misunderstanding.

The ninety-nine photographs she once helped prepare eventually became evidence in their own divorce dispute.

There was some poetry in that.

I never asked for details.

By then, I had returned home with Adrian.

Three months later, our son was born.

Adrian cried before I did.

He held the baby as if someone had placed the entire world in his arms.

I watched him touch our son’s tiny hand.

Then he came beside me.

“Thank you.”

I frowned.

“For what?”

“For letting me have this life with you.”

I smiled.

“It isn’t yours.”

He looked confused.

I touched our son’s cheek.

“It’s ours.”

Adrian laughed softly.

“Ours.”

A week after we came home, a package arrived.

No return address.

Inside were ninety-nine photographs.

For a second, my hands went cold.

Then I realized they were new.

My wedding with Adrian.

Our first apartment.

Trips.

Pregnancy photographs.

Adrian asleep beside me during a long hospital appointment.

My mother’s restored jade necklace around my neck.

And finally—

our son sleeping against his father’s chest.

A small note was tucked underneath.

It was from Adrian.

Ninety-nine memories to replace the ninety-nine you never deserved.

I took the photographs upstairs.

But I didn’t destroy Dominic’s old box.

I didn’t need to.

I simply stopped giving it power.

Because two years earlier, Dominic had handed me ninety-nine photographs believing they proved how replaceable I was.

In the end, they proved something entirely different.

He had spent ninety-nine photographs documenting the exact moment he lost a woman he believed would wait forever.

And while he was counting down three years until I returned—

I had already stopped counting him in my future.