Widowed While Pregnant, Then Forced to Marry by My Rival in Love

Qi Zhao, heir to the Qi family, tore up his engagement and gave up the family fortune to make his own way, all for a man of unknown origins.

The entire upper crust was abuzz:

That man was a vixen who had clawed his way up from the bottom. He was a master at seduction, wanton and shameless.

Until Qi Zhao died in a car accident.

At his funeral, everyone finally saw the new widower he had hidden away for years and protected like the apple of his eye.

Dressed all in black, with a tiny, pale face and slender limbs, his lower belly was faintly rounded.

Helpless. Fragile.

And utterly delicious.

-

Only after her husband's death did Yu Qiuning discover that she was pregnant.

He had little education and had barely worked after graduating. Qi Zhao had spoiled him so thoroughly that he no longer knew how to survive on his own.

He wanted to keep the baby, but could barely support himself.

Then a cool, distinguished man appeared.

He introduced himself as a friend of her late husband and offered him a stable job.

Yu Qiuning couldn't refuse.

He got into the man's luxury car, moved into a mansion unlike any he'd lived in before, and even enjoyed a more comfortable life than he had before.

But the man was always staring at his gradually swelling belly, saying nothing.

Yu Qiuning tried to suppress the strange feeling, until he was sorting through his husband's belongings and came across an old photograph.

This man wasn't his husband's best friend at all. He was his husband's former fiance.

Song Jingxun.

The rival whose fiance he had stolen.

And the powerful head of one of Linjiang City's most influential families.

Yu Qiuning broke out in a cold sweat. He realized that he had been set up for revenge and was no match for the man, so he swallowed his anger and bought a standing-room-only ticket in the middle of the night to flee.

He hid in an unfamiliar city and found another job. The neighbors and coworkers around him were exceptionally kind.

Just as he thought he could start over, though...

A brand-new, expensive black luxury car stood at the mouth of a dark, damp alley.

His hands bound, he was pinned in front of his husband's portrait. Icy fingers gently stroked his rounded belly.

The man's calm voice sent a chill down his spine. "Your husband owed me an engagement. As his wife, how about you fulfill it for him?"

-

Later, the entire upper crust waited to see Yu Qiuning make a fool of himself.

What could possibly become of a widower with no one to rely on and a child in tow, living beside the rival he had once offended?

Until the Song family's grand banquet, attended by the city's elite.

Yu Qiuning sat in a corner with the baby in his arms, slight and head bowed. The scrutiny all around him only made him seem more out of place.

The baby suddenly spat up and began to cry and fuss. Yu Qiuning panicked at once.

Everyone held their breath, waiting for Song Jingxun to lose his temper.

The family head, renowned for his coldness and fastidiousness, merely furrowed his brow almost imperceptibly. Then, with practiced ease, he took the baby and gently wiped the milk from the child's chin with the burp cloth he carried with him.

"Yu Nianqi, be good."

The whole banquet hall fell utterly silent.

No one dared question again who had willingly taken them both in.

[Little Extra]

Three-year-old Yu Nianqi didn't understand.

Why did his father, Yu Qiuning, always point to the unfamiliar uncle in the photograph and softly teach him, "Nianqi, this is your real dad"?

But no one noticed the long, slanting shadow at the doorway.

That night, after the child had just been coaxed to sleep,

a cold body pressed against Yu Qiuning from behind. The man's fingertips slipped to his slender waist, slowly kneading it as if measuring something.

"Nianqi will be lonely when he grows up. How about we give him a sibling?"

Reading Guide:

1. The child in the bottom's belly is his former husband's. The bottom is not a virgin. The top and the former husband have been friends for years and have never had a romantic relationship; their engagement was a business alliance.

2. The overall story is somewhat melodramatic.

--

Here's a recommendation for my upcoming story, The Beta Husband Rejected by the Top Alpha

Blurb

[Uncle-nephew switch of love interests + ABO + the regretful ex-husband can't win him back]

After his family goes bankrupt, Chu Han is left with enormous debts. With no other choice, he takes the token representing a debt of gratitude to the time-honored wealthy family in City A to claim an engagement made eighteen years ago.

He's just an ordinary beta with no pheromones.

His fiance, Shao Heng, has already presented as a top-tier alpha.

Under pressure to keep his word and from their fathers, Shao Heng has no choice but to leave his true love and marry him.

Knowing he is in the wrong, Chu Han moves into the Shao family's old residence after their wedding and treads carefully in everything he does.

But a beta can't help a top alpha through his heat, and Shao Heng's attitude toward him grows increasingly cruel. In the coldest depths of winter, he even throws Chu Han out of the house.

By chance, Chu Han runs into Shao Yan Zhang, the current head of the Shao family and Shao Heng's uncle, who is in heat.

He drags Chu Han into a room and marks him without restraint.

But Chu Han is a beta. His underdeveloped gland cannot be marked. No matter how powerful the alpha, all he can leave behind are overlapping bite marks.

After coming to his senses, Shao Yan Zhang apologizes.

Grateful for the Shao family's help, Chu Han doesn't make a fuss. He quietly washes away the scent of pheromones, not worried that anyone will notice the marks on his gland.

Because Shao Heng never pays attention to his gland.

-

It was after that day that

Shao Heng came home less and less, carrying the sweet pheromone scent of his beloved omega.

Chu Han could only try his best to please him, hoping to keep their marriage together.

In the end, all he got was a divorce agreement flung at him by his husband, who bluntly said that a beta couldn't satisfy his physical needs.

Chu Han was thrown out of the Shao family in disgrace.

Shao Yan Zhang, however, carried him back to his own room. "I'm not like Shao Heng. Would you consider me?"

Chu Han knew he couldn't handle it.

The more powerful the alpha, the greater his needs, and Shao Yan Zhang was recognized as the top alpha among top alphas.

So that very night, Chu Han couldn't even get out of bed.

Everything pheromones couldn't provide, he made up for with other parts of his body.

-

Shao Heng had escaped the marriage that had held him back and finally won the freedom he wanted.

But after the euphoria faded, he was left with a splitting headache. No one reminded him to put on warmer clothes when the weather turned cold, and late at night all he could hear was his own breathing.

Only then did he realize that he hadn't really hated Chu Han. He had only hated being forced into a marriage.

He searched for half a month before finally getting word of Chu Han.

Aboard a cruise ship in Hong Kong, Shao Heng was able to come aboard only by invoking the Shao family's name. He pushed open the door to the top deck's cabin...

A familiar, domineering alpha pheromone surged toward him, pressing him to the floor so he couldn't move.

He heard his wife groan.

The beta wife who was always reserved and stiff around him was now draped over his uncle, face flushed and eyes glistening with tears.

His underdeveloped gland was covered in bite marks.

Shao Heng knelt at the cabin door and heard his uncle patiently coaxing him. "The doctor said it'll be difficult for you to conceive. We need to try a few more times to succeed."

Reading Guide:

1. They won't actually have sex before the divorce, and he won't present as an omega, but pregnancy is possible.

2. Older man/younger man, twelve-year age gap. The bottom is eighteen, the top is thirty.

Theme: Whatever difficulties we encounter, we must face them head-on.