Chapter 1

Thud!

Ainsley Hopper opened her eyes and saw a severed head roll to a stop right in front of her.

She screamed in terror. Inside her belly, the baby thrashed wildly, kicking against her skin.

The bedroom light snapped on. A pair of large hands dragged her off the bed, forcing her to look at the head.

"Still in love with him? Want to follow him to hell?"

Elijah Bourbon's grip on her arm was white-knuckled, veins bulging beneath his skin. His face was a mask of terrifying rage.

"No..." Ainsley shook her head desperately, her hands flying to shield her belly. "What are you talking about?"

She had loved Elijah for eight years. Married to him for three. And in all that time, he'd never shown her an ounce of affection. She'd made her peace with that.

Elijah kicked the severed head aside. "This man — isn't he the lover you've been screwing behind my back? The father of that thing in your belly?"

Ainsley's eyes went wide. "I never! How could I possibly cheat on you?"

If not for the sharp cramping in her abdomen, she would have thought she was dreaming.

"Denying it?"

Elijah let out a cold laugh.

His white suit was immaculate, perfectly tailored to his broad shoulders and long legs. The lamplight edged his silhouette in gold, making him look like some untouchable god passing judgment from on high.

He tossed a phone at her feet with a look of pure disgust. "The evidence is right there. Don't you dare tell me the videos are fake too."

Shameful sounds spilled from the phone's speaker.

On screen, Ainsley clung to a man with an expression of ecstasy, moaning loudly — "Deeper" — "Harder."

Video after video. Before her pregnancy. After her pregnancy. Countless encounters with the same man.

"This is fake!" The blood drained from Ainsley's face. Elijah was the only man she had ever been with in her entire life. How could this possibly—

She opened her mouth to defend herself, but searing pain ripped through her lower abdomen. Warm fluid slid down her legs.

Her water had broken.

"Elijah..." Ainsley's body swayed and she lurched toward him involuntarily. "I — I'm going into labor..."

She still had two or three weeks until her due date. If she hadn't been scared half to death, she never would have gone into early labor.

But all she got in return was his cold indifference.

He shoved her away. Ainsley slammed hard into the corner of a table, then crumpled to the floor.

"My water broke." She was sobbing now, begging. "Elijah, once the baby is born, you can get a paternity test, okay? This baby is yours. I swear it's yours..."

"You think I haven't already done one?" came the mocking reply from above.

Ainsley gasped for air, the pain making her thoughts sluggish. She had never had an amniocentesis done. How could there possibly be a paternity test?

Just then, a woman's voice drifted in from the doorway.

"Elijah, don't be angry. The test results could be wrong. Just let Ainsley have the baby first."

"Your family's hospital ran the test — how could it be wrong? Stop making excuses for this woman." Elijah scoffed.

A chill ran through Ainsley's entire body.

It was her. Sabrina Chambers. Elijah's childhood sweetheart.

To Elijah, Ainsley had always been the woman who'd leveraged the Hopper Group's assets to force her way into the Bourbon family. He had never trusted her. Not once.

But Sabrina? He believed every word out of her mouth.

Even if Sabrina had fabricated the cheating evidence. Even if she had forged the paternity test. He would never question her.

Ainsley tried to explain, but the moment she opened her mouth, all that came out was an agonized scream. Her amniotic fluid was nearly gone. If she didn't deliver soon, both she and the baby would die.

"Please..."

Her voice was raw and broken. She curled up on the floor clutching her belly, drenched in cold sweat, shaking with pain.

Through blurred vision, she saw Elijah make a gesture. Moments later, several people in white coats walked in.

Ainsley exhaled with relief. He still cared, even just a little, about their marriage—

But then those people reached her and roughly forced her legs apart into a delivery position. Sharp scissors flashed, shredding every piece of clothing from her body in seconds.

Ainsley had never suffered such humiliation. She thrashed and struggled, but it was useless. She couldn't break free.

One of them shoved fingers between her legs. "She's already five centimeters dilated. We can do the episiotomy soon."

Ainsley stared in disbelief. "You — how can you—"

Make her give birth on the floor of her own home? Without a shred of dignity?

"Let the baby's father keep you company."

With that, Elijah placed the severed head between her spread legs. "Let him get a good look at how his child comes into the world."

"Elijah, I don't know this man! Sabrina is lying to you!" Ainsley screamed with every ounce of strength she had left, tears streaming down her face.

"Elijah, maybe you should believe Ainsley. Just pretend the videos I sent you were all fake... After all, you two are married, and you still need the Hopper Group's funding."

Sabrina lowered her head, her expression the picture of wounded innocence.

"I know exactly who's lying to me." Elijah looked at Ainsley with undisguised revulsion. "As for the Hopper Group's funding? Don't worry — by tomorrow, that family will be bankrupt."

Every word pierced Ainsley like a needle driven deep. She had no strength left to argue. Her vision went dark. The pain was dragging her toward unconsciousness.

"Wake up!" One of the doctors slapped her face. "You need to push! Otherwise the baby will suffocate!"

"If Ainsley doesn't have the strength, just take her to a hospital for a C-section." Sabrina's voice dripped with practiced concern.

"No need."

Elijah slid one hand into his pocket. His words were terrifyingly cold.

"She gives birth right here."

"She doesn't deserve a hospital."

"She threw herself at another man like an animal — so she can give birth like one. On the ground."

"Take her out to the backyard."

Ainsley couldn't believe what she was hearing. But within moments she was lifted and carried — tossed like a piece of cargo onto the bricks of the courtyard.

She had no strength left to fight. All she could do was pray to God that her baby would be born safe.

Above her, the doctors muttered to each other.

"She still can't push it out. Should we just cut her?"

"But there's no anesthesia..."

"Mr. Bourbon never said the mother had to survive this."

Bone-deep terror seized her. Ainsley struggled again. "Help me — someone help—"

But her arms and legs were pinned down instantly. Cold metal pressed against her flesh. Then she heard the sound of scissors cutting through skin and muscle.

A tearing, white-hot agony — worse than the contractions, worse than anything she had ever felt. She had no strength left to scream. Her mouth hung open. Tears slid silently down her temples.

After the episiotomy, a doctor reached inside her and wrenched the baby out.

Click. Click. Click. A skin stapler punched her wound shut. They didn't even bother with stitches.

But Ainsley didn't care anymore. She gritted her teeth against the searing pain, braced herself, and staggered upright. She needed to hold her baby.

Why wasn't he crying?

Just as her fingertips were about to touch that tiny, bruised little body, a hand seized her by the hair and dragged her backward nearly ten feet.

The rough brick ground tore open the wounds beneath her, leaving a trail of fresh blood.

"An animal's child doesn't deserve to live."

Elijah's voice rang out like a death sentence. Then the servants wheeled in several large cages.

Inside the cages — leopards. Starving, their eyes glowing an eerie green.

Elijah bent down close to her ear, his jaw clenched, every word ground out through his teeth:

"I'm going to make you watch. Watch that bastard child you made with your lover get torn apart. Piece by piece. Devoured."