May you smile again

Chapter 1

I kindly fed my leftover steak to my husband’s childhood friend’s dog.

My husband kicked me to the ground, saying the dog only ate imported dog food.

I was about to give birth with no one around, but he had our private doctor pump the dog’s stomach.

I barely survived, and when I finally got to my room, I wanted to see my daughter.

He brought me a puppy to breastfeed: “It’s all your fault. Chloe’s dog died giving birth. You’ll be the puppy’s mom now.”

“As for the bastard you gave birth to, give it to Chloe to raise as a dog.”

That’s when I realized he never believed I was faithful.

My heart turned to ash. The day I left with my baby, all I left him was divorce papers.

1

The joy of giving birth to my daughter was shattered by the puppy in front of me.

I stared at Peter in disbelief.

My hospital gown was pulled open, revealing a deep gash.

It was from when he kicked me and I hit the corner of the table.

A doctor quickly intervened: “Mr. Peterson, Mrs. Peterson has a wound, and animal-to-human breastfeeding can cause infections.”

I pulled my gown closed and pleaded: “My daughter is innocent. How can you let her drink dog milk? Am I your wife or this animal’s wet nurse?”

“I’ve never begged you for anything. If you agree to this, I promise I’ll listen to you from now on and never leave the house again.”

My tears interrupted him, and Peter’s harsh words died on his lips.

Just as hope flickered within me, his childhood friend, Chloe, burst in: “Wasn’t Snowball, who died from an upset stomach, innocent? Aren’t the motherless puppies innocent?”

“Are you refusing because you think my dogs are dirty, Sarah? They’re all vaccinated. Even the stud was carefully chosen, unlike some people who sleep around and get pregnant when their husbands are away…”

Before she finished, Peter slapped me.

Then, a chilling feeling on my chest.

He ripped open my gown in front of everyone: “Stop playing innocent. You deserve all the suffering you’ve endured.”

My gown gaped open. I screamed, but he gripped my chin.

He forced me to look at the puppy.

Tears blurred my vision. I saw pity, disgust, indifference in everyone’s eyes.

Even with Peter shielding me, they could still see my exposed neck and trembling shoulders.

A doctor tried to leave, but Chloe stopped him: “Doctors don’t see gender. Check if Sarah’s breastfeeding position is correct!”

Peter ignored everything.

This had been my life for the past five years.

He always let Chloe humiliate me.

I couldn’t take it anymore: “Peter, I really didn’t…”

I didn’t cheat. Before I could finish, I heard a baby cry.

I saw my newborn daughter lying on the bed next to mine.

Chloe was holding a puppy to her mouth.

My daughter refused and wailed. Chloe pinched and squeezed her.

I shrieked in agony: “Peter, I did what you asked! Why won’t you leave our daughter alone?”

Peter grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at him. His eyes were filled with madness: “Our daughter? How dare you say that?”

“You killed Chloe’s dog, so your daughter will be her dog now. It’s only fitting for puppies to drink puppy milk.”

Staring at this crazed man, I couldn’t breathe.

This was my husband?

My daughter’s father?

I thought having a baby would improve things, but it only added another victim to his cruelty.

I saw something out of the corner of my eye that horrified me.

The puppy, annoyed by my daughter’s crying, tried to bite her!

Maternal instinct took over. I lunged forward.

Pain shot through my chest and arm.

“Someone help! A dog is biting a patient!”

“She already has a wound, it’ll get infected!”

My C-section incision ripped open. Before losing consciousness, I tried to give my daughter to Peter.

“Get away from me! You’re filthy.”

All my strength left me.

Everything went black.

2

Being wheeled into surgery, I heard the doctors talking.

“Miss Bennet said those puppies weren’t vaccinated. The bite is in a sensitive area. What do we do?”

“Get the patient’s or family’s consent and remove the affected area.”

I knew it was for the best, but I still felt a pang of sadness.

I tried to tell them I consented, but then I heard them say:

“Consent for what? Miss Bennet said to remove the uterus too.”

Terror consumed me. I opened my eyes and cried out to Peter at the door: “Save me!”

He flinched and walked towards me.

“Peter, they’re going to…”

He choked me: “Because of you, Chloe lost another puppy! What are you trying to do!”

My plea died in my throat.

He covered my mouth. I watched as he walked away.

No one would save me.

When I woke up from surgery, not only was I mutilated, but my uterus was gone.

Was I even a woman anymore?

Peter’s sister, Patricia, walked in with flowers.

“I heard you gave Peter a daughter! That boy must adore you now.”

Her voice died as she looked at the crib.

There was no baby, only a puppy wearing Chloe’s dog tag.

Tears streamed down my face before she could speak:

“Patricia, does Peter really love me?”

“I can’t fight Chloe anymore. I can’t take it.”

She rushed to me, her eyes red as she stared at the bandages on my chest.

She was a doctor. She knew exactly what those wounds meant.

“Sarah, I’ll go teach that jerk a lesson. Whatever you want done to him, I’ll make it happen.”

I shook my head before she finished: “I don’t want anything. I just want a divorce.”

Silence hung heavy.

She finally composed herself: “Sarah, don’t be rash. Think this through.”

“But Patricia, I’ve been thinking for five years.”

Five years ago, Patricia was convinced Peter loved me.

To help him confess, she drugged him without my knowledge.

“Sarah, he really loves you. Can you bear to see him suffer from the drug’s effects?”

While she called to ask what to do, Peter kissed me.

We spent the night together.

The next day, just as she predicted, he proposed.

But now, I often wondered if the seed of doubt about my fidelity was planted then.

It explained why he accused me of cheating whenever I even spoke to another man.

I barely left the house when he was away.

Ten months ago, he called me drunk while on a business trip.

I rushed to him, and we spent the night together.

My brother drove me back and forth across two states.

He was an undercover cop. No one except me and our deceased parents knew his real job.

Peter saw these secret trips as proof of my infidelity.

I thought once his mission was over, he could explain everything to Peter and we could go back to how things were.

But that would never happen.

My brother was killed.

That same day, I found out I was pregnant.

Peter refused to believe the baby was his.

I felt no love from him, not for me or our child.

I wanted an abortion, but Patricia said things would get better.

She argued that even though he acted like he hated me, he hadn’t been with other women.

If I left, I would have nothing.

But if I had the baby, she promised it would be the Peterson heir.

The doctor also advised against an abortion, saying I might never conceive again.

But in the end, the result was the same.

Not only did I lose my uterus, but I was also mutilated.

Now, I was just tired.

“Patricia, help me get my daughter back. You promised she would be the Peterson heir.”

Patricia looked at me for a long time, then nodded firmly.

With her promise, I finally felt at peace.

The anesthesia wore off, and my body was still sluggish.

Then I heard a furious roar from the doorway: “You told on me to my sister?”

3

“It’s just a baby! Stop pretending to be so heartbroken!”

“You want one? I’ll give you one!”

Watching him approach, I clutched the sheets in fear.

I just had surgery, I couldn’t…

My thoughts were interrupted by a puppy thrown at me.

“Covering yourself up? I would never touch someone as dirty as you.”

“You want a baby? These are for you.”

These weren’t Chloe’s puppies. They were strays.

“I spoiled you. You only deserve to be the mother of these mutts.”

He started ripping at my clothes.

“No, I can’t breastfeed! I just had surgery…”

Even Chloe’s vaccinated puppies could cause infections, let alone strays from the streets?

I would die.

Just then, Patricia burst through the door.

She slapped Peter: “What are you doing? She’s your wife! Have you forgotten how you begged me to set you two up?”

Peter clutched his cheek, laughing bitterly: “Set us up? Your idea of setting us up was having her crawl into my bed like a slut!”

“She crawled so much, she even brought other men home.”

Patricia’s chest heaved: “What are you talking about! Do you have any proof to justify slandering Sarah like this?”

“Proof?” Peter snorted and threw down a stack of photos.

They were paparazzi shots.

They showed me hugging an unrecognizable man outside our house, my face buried in his chest.

Patricia froze, looking at me.

“Sarah, is this the real reason you want a divorce?”

Now, even she didn’t believe me.

Peter’s voice dropped to a menacing growl: “Divorce? How dare she even mention divorce!”

His face was terrifying. He threw the photos at me: “Was I too lenient? Did you think you could just get away with it? I won’t let you be with that mutt!”

My heart felt like it would explode: “Peter! I never cheated! And the baby is yours…”

He cut me off: “Still lying! Am I blind? Can’t I recognize you hugging another man? Or was I wrong about the paternity test?”

He wasn’t blind.

He had caught me secretly meeting with my brother.

But I didn’t understand how the initial DNA test could say the baby wasn’t his.

I suspected he was just looking for an excuse to torture me.

“Just stop. I want a divorce.”

I fought through the pain and pulled out the divorce papers.

The real pain was in my heart.

He ripped the papers to shreds.

A flicker of panic crossed his face, quickly replaced by rage.

“He’s been dead for so long, and you’re still hung up on him! You want a divorce so you can mourn that mutt, don’t you!”

He dragged me out, ignoring Patricia’s pleas, and took me to an abandoned construction site.

“That mutt of yours had sticky fingers. You should thank me for calling the cops. They roughed him up and killed him. Otherwise, he’d be in jail.”

“Your daughter is a bastard, just like him!”

I stared blankly at Peter.

This was where my brother died.

They were about to make the arrest, but someone tipped off the criminals. If it hadn’t been for that, my brother wouldn’t have been exposed…

My parents were chronically ill when I was young. My brother raised me.

The night before my wedding, he held my hand, tears in his eyes:

“I’m sorry, Sarah. My job prevents me from being at your wedding. But if you and Peter ever need anything, I’ll help you, no matter what.”

And now, reality hit me—

My husband was the one who killed him.

I was devastated. As I broke down, Peter grabbed my hair and forced me to look at a mound of dirt in the distance.

“See that patch of reddish-brown earth? That’s where those thugs beat him to death.”

Tears streamed down my face as he reveled in my pain.

I could almost see my brother’s blood on the rusty rebar.

No, he wasn’t the one who deserved to die.

It was me.

I couldn’t take it anymore. I ran towards the rebar.

4

Just before I hit it, Patricia’s desperate cry stopped me:

“You love him that much! What will I do if you die!”

“If you dare die, I’ll feed your daughter to the dogs!”

“Just stop! I’ll do anything!”

I hesitated.

As I slowed down, Peter grabbed me from behind.

Even he didn’t notice his trembling.

My heart was numb: “You said you’d do anything if I stopped, right?”

“Let me and my daughter go.”

His grip tightened around my waist.

He rarely lost control, rarely hugged me.

This was the first time he’d held me since I got pregnant.

He opened his mouth to speak, but his custom notification tone interrupted him.

It was a voice message from Chloe. She was being coy, saying she’d held a funeral for the puppies and he had to come.

She also mentioned mysteriously that the new puppy he’d given her was very well-behaved.

I had a bad feeling.

I looked down. She’d just sent Patricia a picture of a birth certificate.

It was my daughter’s.

It listed Peter as the father, but her name was Puppy Bennet.

Peter grinned maliciously: “She’s Chloe’s dog. Isn’t that name perfectly normal?”

All emotion drained from me. I raised my hand to slap Peter.

He easily blocked it: “Weren’t you just begging me to let you go? Kowtow and apologize to the puppy at the funeral tomorrow, and I’ll let you go.”

I stared at him. A flicker of remorse crossed his eyes, then he focused on the necklace around my neck.

He opened the locket. Inside was a picture of me and my brother.

The next second, he shoved me to the ground: “I’m such a fool to feel sorry for you. You’re just putting on an act with this suicide attempt.”

“Tell me, how did you hook up with that mutt? How did you seduce him?”

He started tearing at my clothes.

“Don’t do this, you can’t here…”

But he became even more aggressive.

I endured his brutality.

He only stopped when my still-healing body started bleeding profusely.

“6 am tomorrow morning, at the pet cemetery on the outskirts of town. Don’t be late.”

I dragged myself back to the hospital. The doctor told me I needed immediate readmission.

But I didn’t have time.

After a quick treatment, I had to leave for the cemetery.

If I didn’t go, what would happen to my daughter?

Peter would take his anger out on her.

I couldn’t risk it.

I arrived at the cemetery and knelt before Chloe’s dog’s tombstone as everyone watched.

Someone asked if I’d made a mistake, pointing out that it was a pet cemetery.

Peter answered for me: “She killed Chloe’s dog. She’s here to atone.”

He put his arm around Chloe. My daughter was tied to a dog leash and thrown on the ground.

I closed my eyes in pain: “If I do what you say, will you let me and my daughter go?”

He kicked my daughter in frustration.

Chloe stopped him: “Peter, she’s my dog now. What if you hurt her?”

“Chloe, you’re too kind. Sarah, this ungrateful wretch, won’t appreciate it.”

I smiled bitterly.

The bitterness in my heart was like poison, threatening to kill me.

But I couldn’t collapse.

I kowtowed and confessed: “I’m sorry. I’m a vicious, shameless woman. I shouldn’t have tried to hurt Miss Bennet’s dog.”

Something shattered inside me. My dignity.

But it wasn’t over.

Chloe held out a plate of rotting, foul-smelling steak: “Sarah, this is the steak you used to kill my puppy.”

“You insisted it wasn’t poisoned, right? Then eat some now!”

It hadn’t been poisoned, but after all this time, even if it wasn’t poisonous before, it was inedible now.

I shook my head frantically.

But Peter glared at me: “If you want to atone, you have to eat some.”

My heart turned to ash.

My mind screamed at me to refuse, but I desperately wanted to leave.

I swallowed the rancid meat. Soon, I felt dizzy.

The guests screamed:

“She’s foaming at the mouth and collapsing!”

“She’s been poisoned!”

Panic flashed across Peter’s face.

He rushed towards me, but a dark figure tackled him to the ground.

“Sarah’s my sister! What did you do to her!”