Chapter 4
Bryce arranged to have me confined at a private hospital, with an illegal C-section scheduled for three that afternoon. I had only four hours.
He even hired two guards to watch me and make sure I couldn’t escape.
Lila supposedly pleaded on my behalf. Her version of mercy ended with a humiliating restraint locked around my ankle.
Nolan watched without saying a word, as though he had given his approval.
With Lila continuing to fan the flames, I was locked in an isolated hospital room with no way out. All that remained was for the clock to run down so they could wheel me into the operating room and cut me open as if I were livestock rather than a human being.
With three hours left, my father arrived to disown me and name Lila the Caldwell family heiress in my place.
From then on, she would no longer be branded as the daughter born from an affair.
I was disowned and cut out of the Caldwell family, branded as the daughter born from an affair instead.
With two hours left, Lila came to see me.
The moment we were alone, she dropped the act. Naked triumph spread across her face.
“Well, Audrey. When you and that dead mother of yours left my mother and me with nowhere to go, did you ever imagine this day would come?”
“To thank you, I prepared a special gift.”
“The moment the baby is born, you’ll lose your mind and strangle it with your own hands. Then Uncle Nolan and Bryce will finally despise you, and you’ll spend the rest of your life in misery.”
“How do you like the ending I wrote for you?”
The room was soundproof, so Lila spoke without the slightest restraint.
I almost laughed.
“Then the baby you’ve been so desperate to have would be dead.”
Lila laughed too.
“So what? If a child has any sense, it should be willing to make sacrifices for its mother.”
“They think I actually care about the baby? As if.”
“I terminated my first pregnancy on purpose and framed you for it. You should know that better than anyone, Audrey.”
I said nothing and quietly finished putting everything in place.
I had prepared a gift of my own. I only hoped she could handle it.
Bryce came in with fifteen minutes left. He looked at me with the same arrogant contempt as always.
“Once you deliver this baby, you and Lila are even.”
“Know your place and don’t come crawling back to me. I love someone kind and angelic like Lila, not a vicious woman like you.”
He left as soon as the words were out.
Nolan was the last to arrive. He made it only a few minutes before they were supposed to wheel me into the operating room, and he brought a stack of documents with him.
They were the same trust documents he had given me on the day of our sham courthouse marriage.
This time, they were genuine.
Nolan took my hand as though the documents could make up for everything.
“Here, Audrey. This is the multibillion-dollar trust I promised you. It’s real now. I hope I’m not too late.”
“Promise me you’ll deliver the baby safely.”
“When it’s over, we’ll go to the courthouse and make our marriage legal for real. Okay?”
Was he only trying to keep me calm so I would give birth without resisting, or did he truly want to marry me?
I didn’t know.
I no longer wanted to know.
Still, I gave him a sweet smile.
“Okay.”
What he didn’t know was that there would be no afterward for us.
We had no future left.
The operating room doors slammed shut behind me.
Lila exchanged a signal with the person she had planted inside, confirming that everything was proceeding as planned. Her lips curved before she could stop them.
Then she turned around, and her expression changed completely.
She looked helplessly at Bryce and Nolan.
“Honey, Uncle Nolan, my stomach suddenly really hurts. Will you come with me to get it checked out?”
Bryce was more than willing.
Nolan rubbed his forehead but remained outside the operating room.
“No. You two go. Bryce can take care of you.”
Lila kept coaxing and pleading until Nolan finally agreed to go with her.
They had barely made it downstairs when a figure plummeted from above.
The moment Nolan saw her face, he lost his mind.