My Husband Went to His Old Flame

: Pregnant?

3

The group chat lit up over his message, and everyone started placing bets on when I would go back to Stellan Lancaster.

Some bet it would be a week, others half a month, and some a full month. The stakes were a series of luxury cars, priceless bottles of wine, or a six-figure sum in cash.

I silently watched as the chat flooded with messages. Someone even asked me directly, telling me to give them a timeframe so they could place a better bet.

I knew most of the people in the group, but only because of Stellan Lancaster.

Every last one of them was a scion of Aethelburg's rich and powerful elite.

This pack of playboy heirs had no concept of respect. Or perhaps, it was just me, Elara Everhart, that they didn't respect.

I wasn't from Aethelburg. I'd only come here for university, where I fell in love with Stellan Lancaster, and I only stayed after we got married.

In Aethelburg, the Lancasters were one of the most prominent families. But thanks to Stellan Lancaster's efforts, they had become number one by a landslide in recent years, making them the richest family in the city.

Yet, as his wife, I could never quite fit into the high-society circle that revolved around the Lancasters. I was always an outsider.

Now, I was finally on the inside, but only as the butt of their jokes.

I was serious about leaving Stellan Lancaster. Instead of arguing in the group chat, I simply left it. Then, one by one, I deleted all of their contacts. I discarded them all, just like taking out the trash.

When I was finished, the only people left on my contact list were good friends from before college and a handful of acquaintances from Aethelburg.

'Seven years in Aethelburg, and I'd wasted them all. Apart from a diploma, I had nothing to show for it.'

I married Stellan Lancaster right after graduation. The Lancasters didn't like their daughter-in-law to be in the public eye, wanting me to stay home to be a wife and mother, so I never got a job. I'd even thought it was a blessing that Stellan Lancaster let me be a freeloader.

But now, free from Stellan Lancaster, I was only just realizing that I didn't have a social circle of my own.

None of this affected my appetite, though. I ordered a Michelin-starred dinner from the hotel and ate until my stomach was round and full. With nothing better to do, I went for a walk in a nearby park, slowly rubbing my belly with one hand and supporting my lower back with the other.

I didn't expect to run into them, but as fate would have it, I came across Serena Shaw and Stellan Lancaster.

The two of them were strolling shoulder to shoulder along a park path, laughing and talking. The handsome man and the beautiful woman made for a perfect picture.

"Oh! Ellie? Long time no see!" Serena Shaw spotted me in surprise as she turned to speak to Stellan Lancaster, and she waved enthusiastically.

As she spoke, her eyes scanned me from head to toe, as if sizing me up. After a moment, a smile spread across her face. "You've gained a little weight," she said. "Your face is fuller. So cute."

If she had called me fat before, I would have been absolutely mortified.

Compared to Serena Shaw, with her perfectly toned ballerina's body, I felt like a telephone pole. I wouldn't call myself fat, but I was definitely a little soft around the edges.

But now, I didn't care. 'If I don't eat more,' I thought, 'my baby will starve.'

When I didn't answer, Serena Shaw let out a soft laugh. She pointed a finger at the way I was holding my stomach and back. "Ellie," she said, her tone probing, "are you... pregnant?"