Chapter 2
The moment Vernon pulled me into his embrace, I thought God had heard my prayers.
He removed the cloth stuffed in my mouth. I gasped for air, tears blurring my vision. The bodyguards exchanged glances, looking toward my in-laws inside the door, waiting for instructions. I clutched Vernon's sleeve with a death grip, my knuckles white, my entire body trembling violently.
"Vernon... you're finally back... save me!" My voice was hoarse, barely recognizable. "Please save our child! I'm pregnant, but they want to abort our baby!"
He looked down at me, at that tear-streaked face, and anger flashed in his eyes.
He raised his head, looking at his parents inside the doorway, his voice low and strained. "Dad, Mom, what's going on here? Why are you forcing her to have an abortion?"
Howard, my father-in-law, stared at him coldly without speaking. Caroline, my mother-in-law, merely lifted her chin slightly, gesturing toward the chapel.
I gripped Vernon's arm desperately, like a drowning person clutching the last piece of driftwood.
He loved me so much. He would protect me and our child.
That's what I told myself.
Vernon looked toward the chapel.
Inside, flickering candlelight cast dancing shadows. Selena knelt alone before the crucifix. She sat in her wheelchair, yet strained to bend forward, hands clasped together, shoulders shaking violently. As the camera drew closer, you could clearly see her pale face covered in tear tracks, her lips moving as if murmuring prayers.
It was an expression of extreme fear, agony, and guilt—the look of a soul being torn apart. She trembled as she raised her hand, making the sign of the cross, then bowed her head deeply, curling into herself like an injured, cornered animal with nowhere to escape.
Vernon's pupils contracted violently, his breathing rapid.
He looked up toward the chapel, then back at his parents inside.
"Vernon..." I called softly, an ominous feeling rising in my chest.
He slowly lowered his head.
Silence stretched for several long seconds.
Then he turned to face me. On that face I loved so deeply, the anger and tenderness vanished, replaced by cold detachment and cruel determination.
He raised his hand.
One by one, he pried my fingers from his sleeve.
The movement was slow but merciless.
"Vernon... what... what are you doing?" My voice trembled.
He looked away, unable to meet my eyes, his voice low and rough:
"Karena... terminate the pregnancy."
Those words were like an ice blade stabbing straight into my heart.
I lunged at him, grabbing his collar with both hands, screaming hoarsely:
"What did you say?! Vernon, have you lost your mind?! This is your biological child! The DNA report says it clearly! Why would you want to kill him?!"
Tears blurred my vision as I pointed toward the chapel, my voice sharp and piercing:
"Because of Selena?! Because that woman in the wheelchair is your first love?! Just because she goes to the chapel and cries, you're willing to kill your own flesh and blood?!"
"She lives in this house, and I've never been jealous! But you?! For a disabled ex-girlfriend, you'd even kill your own child?!"
His face turned ashen, veins bulging at his temples, his eyes flashing with shame at being exposed and long-suppressed rage.
He raised his hand abruptly—
A resounding slap struck my face hard.
The force knocked me to the ground.
The entire entrance hall fell deathly silent.
I lay on the floor, my cheek burning, blood seeping from the corner of my mouth. Clutching my face, I looked up at him in disbelief—this man who once told me "I'll always protect you."
Vernon's hand still hung frozen in mid-air, his knuckles white from the force. He looked at me lying on the ground, a flicker of doubt and pain crossing his eyes, but it was quickly buried beneath deeper coldness.
He turned away, refusing to look at me anymore, his voice cold and hard as iron:
"Stop acting hysterical. Go to the hospital and take care of it."
"What are you waiting for?" Howard waved his hand impatiently. "Take her away."
The bodyguards stepped forward, grabbing my limp body from both sides and dragging me toward the exit.
I struggled desperately, twisting my body, looking back at Vernon with bone-deep despair and hatred in my eyes:
"Vernon! I hate you! You don't deserve to be a father! You'll get what's coming to you!"
Vernon stood there, his back to me, motionless. Only his tightly clenched fists betrayed the turmoil within—but whether that turmoil was guilt or fear, I couldn't tell.
I was dragged out through the manor gates.
A white ambulance waited outside, its red light flashing silently. This was what my in-laws had arranged—not a regular hospital ambulance, but a vehicle from a private clinic they'd bought off, specifically for handling "family internal matters."
Seeing that vehicle, my entire body trembled violently.
Memories of the previous two times flooded back—being pressed down on the operating table, cold instruments entering my body, that soul-tearing pain and hollow despair...
No, I couldn't go through it a third time!
I bit down hard on the bodyguard's hand. As he loosened his grip in pain, I ran desperately in the opposite direction.
I didn't get far before another bodyguard grabbed my hair and yanked me back.
"Let go of me! Let go—!" I struggled wildly, my nails scratching his hand until it bled.
The ambulance's back door opened. The medical staff inside waited expressionlessly. I was dragged toward the vehicle, my feet leaving two long marks on the ground.
"No—! Help—! Someone help me—!"
I let out a desperate cry.
At that critical moment—
A car raced toward us from the distance, screeching to a halt at the manor entrance. The tires shrieked against the pavement.
The door flew open. A middle-aged couple stumbled out.
My parents!
"Karena! My daughter! What are you doing to her?!" My mother screamed as she rushed forward, shoving aside the bodyguards holding me.
"Let her go! Or I'm calling the police!" My father roared, pulling out his phone with trembling hands, but holding it up firmly, aimed at the bodyguards.
I collapsed on the ground, tears flooding out.
This time... I was finally saved...
