Chapter3

"Aria, I'm sorry. I'm a month pregnant."

"I need a husband, and this baby cannot lose its father."

I didn't say a word. I just looked at her.

"Please," she begged, grabbing the hem of my pants, her voice trembling. "Just this once, let me keep this child. I'm begging you."

I stared at her hands, suddenly pulled back to the year I was seven.

The day of the car crash, the ambulance lights flashed relentlessly. All that came back of my father was his ashes, while my mother was confined to a hospital bed, never to stand again. I was sent to the orphanage. I slept on a cramped iron-frame bed shared with two other kids, always waking up freezing in the dead of the night.

Chloe's parents were volunteers at that orphanage. They took me in, paid for my education, and split whatever little they had right down the middle for me. That winter, Chloe wore a brand-new padded coat, while I wore her hand-me-downs. Her mother used to say that both girls needed to be treated right.

I etched that kindness into my bones, never daring to forget it.

Once I started making money, I paid off her parents' mortgage, bought them a car, and kept Chloe supplied with pocket money.

But now, the person kneeling in front of me was Chloe—the little sister who had followed me around her whole life, the one I had sworn out of loyalty to protect. Her betrayal was the one thing I could never stomach.

"Chloe." I crouched down to meet her eyes. "For the sake of your parents and everything they did for me, I'll give you one chance. I'll send you abroad to start over."

"But if you choose him, you're choosing to be a cheater's wife." I stood back up. "From this day forward, we are completely done. I won't back down anymore."

She froze, instinctively shielding her belly as she shook her head.

"No, Aria. I admit you've always protected me. You've taken care of me since we were little, but I don't want my baby to be fatherless! I can't leave Arthur! I just want a perfect family!"

"I'll give the rehab center back to you. I'll repay you every cent. But Arthur is the one thing I cannot give up."

I let out a helpless, bitter laugh. "Chloe, look at yourself. What's the difference between you and the home-wrecking bitch who stole your ex-husband? Don't make me despise you."

The tears still clung to her face, but her eyes slowly hardened.

"Why should I?"

"Couldn't you just step aside one more time?"

"If my family hadn't sponsored you, you'd be dead!" She sprang to her feet, her voice spiking into a hysterical shriek. "And your parents' car crash? Your mother rotting in that bed all those years? Wasn't that all your fault? You're a natural-born jinx. That's what all the kids at the orphanage used to say..."

I didn't even get a chance to speak.

She snatched a heavy metal clipboard off the desk and hurled it straight at me.

The metal edge slashed across my forehead, sending a sharp spike of pain through my skull. I reached up and touched it. Blood.

Chloe seemed terrified by her own actions. Her knees gave out, and she collapsed to the floor, clutching her stomach and screaming in pain.

I reached out instinctively to help her. Suddenly, a vicious kick struck my back from behind, sending me sprawling face-first onto the ground.

Arthur barged in, immediately gathering a sobbing Chloe into his arms.

"I told you not to bring this to Chloe! She's pregnant! You crazy bitch, all you want is money, isn't it?"

He yanked a check from his pocket and threw it right in my face.

"Is this enough?" he demanded. "Or do you still need more?"

Before I could even pick myself up, Chloe used the momentum to shove me out the door.

I crashed into the hallway floor. The back of my hand scraped hard against the linoleum, slicing open a ragged gash. Beads of blood oozed to the surface.

Nobody came to help me.

Someone passed by the nurses' station, cast a quick glance my way, lowered their head, and sped up their pace.

I lay there on the cold floor, weeping in silence.

My mind drifted back to the day I saved Chloe from her ex-husband, right before he tried to sell her to an escort ring. That same day, his mistress had taunted her and shoved her into the pool, which cost Chloe her first unborn baby. When Arthur found out, he had been devastated. He had pulled me into a desperate embrace, vowing, "I will always treat you right. I will protect you forever."

I remembered the times I turned down work to stay overnight at the hospital, watching over Chloe. She had gripped my hand tightly in the dark, sobbing, "Aria, you're the only one who truly treats me well. When I make money, I'll protect you. If Arthur ever lies to you, I'll beat him up for you."

Yet the two people who swore those very oaths were now the ones sinking the blade the deepest.

A few days later, a college friend called. She managed the hospital's finances. She told me Arthur had heavily funded an expansion of Chloe's rehab facility, opening a second branch titled the C&T Rehab Center. The patients who had originally signed up out of respect for my name were still attending their sessions there like clockwork.

"Are you holding up okay?" she asked softly.

I stayed silent for a long moment. Then, I simply told her everything that had happened that night.

The line stayed dead silent before she finally exhaled. "I believe you. Whenever you need help, just say the word."

Three days later, with the gash on my forehead barely scabbed over, I walked back into my hospital office.

Arthur offered no apologies. He shoved the door open, slammed me flat against the wall, and interrogated me with his eyes. "Are you going around telling everyone Chloe is the other woman?"

I didn't bother to struggle. I just met his glare with absolute ice. "It's the truth."

"At the general hospital assembly," he hissed, grinding out every single syllable through clenched teeth, "you will make a public apology."

I stared straight into his soul, dropping each word like a stone:

"Never."

His face went dark as his fingers dug like steel into my shoulders.

"Don't regret this," he spat out. "This is on you."