Chapter 2
"Elijah, you're insane — that's your child!"
"I'll stake my entire family's lives on it — that is your son!"
Ainsley's screams were raw, primal. She threw herself toward the baby with everything she had.
Even with Elijah's fist still tangled in her hair.
Her scalp tore open. Blood ran down her face. She didn't care.
"Stake your family's lives? Ainsley, you think you have the right to say something like that?"
Just as she was about to reach the baby, Elijah's hand closed around her throat and lifted her off the ground.
Her feet dangled in the air. The poorly stapled wound between her legs split open again, blood seeping out.
It dripped down her legs. Drop by drop onto the ground.
The leopards, freed from their cages, caught the scent of blood. They crept closer, nostrils flaring with hunger.
Ainsley couldn't breathe. Her vision went black. She clawed at Elijah's hand with every ounce of strength she had, lips moving, but no sound came out.
She heard the terrible smile in his voice. "Since you care so much about that bastard, you can die with it."
He hurled her.
She hit the ground with a sickening thud. The back of her skull cracked against the hard brick. Before she lost consciousness, she smelled the rancid breath of a leopard.
Dying alongside her baby... maybe that wasn't so bad.
When her eyes opened again, the pain screaming through every nerve told Ainsley she was still alive.
She was on her hands and knees. Naked. The wound below still pulsing with sharp, stabbing pain.
She tried to reach down, but the moment she moved, iron chains rattled.
"Ainsley, you're awake?"
Sabrina.
The light clicked on. Ainsley looked around and realized she was chained inside a cage.
"Sabrina, are you satisfied now?" Ainsley's voice was barely a whisper. "Elijah is all yours."
She didn't waste time on her own predicament. "Give me back my baby. Please. I promise I'll disappear. You'll never see me again."
Sabrina let out a shrill laugh. "You really think Elijah would let you take his child and ride off into the sunset?"
"You're his wife. Whether that baby is his or not, as long as you're the one who gave birth to it, he'll never let it live."
"Oh, and by the way — you've been unconscious for three days. That baby? Probably leopard droppings by now."
The words hit like a sledgehammer.
Ainsley's entire body shook.
Her baby.
They actually fed her baby to the leopards.
They were the ones who deserved hell.
Rage detonated inside her with terrifying force. She thrust her arm through the iron bars, locked her fingers around Sabrina's ankle, and yanked.
"Ahhh—" Sabrina shrieked.
Sabrina kicked her — once, twice, three times — but Ainsley didn't let go. In the struggle, the cage door flew open. Ainsley crawled out, wrapped the chain around Sabrina's neck, and pulled tight.
"Ugh... help..." Sabrina's face turned crimson, eyes bulging as she choked.
Just as Ainsley was about to finish her off, something slammed into the back of her skull.
A hulking man appeared behind her, ripped her away, and hauled Sabrina to her feet.
"That bitch..." Sabrina clutched her throat, coughing violently until she could breathe again. Then she snatched up a remote control and pressed the button.
Electricity tore through Ainsley's body. She convulsed and collapsed. It took a long time before her brain caught up — she'd been shocked.
"Ainsley, Elijah asked me to take good care of you. Don't be shy now."
The hulking man walked over to Ainsley, unchained her, then dropped his pants and climbed on top of her.
"Elijah will be here any minute. Let him see for himself just how shameless you really are!"
"Back then, you used the Hopper family's money to tear me and Elijah apart. Ainsley, I will never let you go. Not in this lifetime!"
"Get off me!"
Ainsley fought with everything she had, cursing until her voice gave out. "Sabrina, are you even human?"
But she was too weak. Her struggling looked less like resistance and more like invitation.
That was exactly the scene Elijah walked in on.
Then came Sabrina's horrified scream. "Ainsley, what are you doing? Elijah — has she lost her mind?"
Sabrina's voice shifted from panic to a tearful whimper, as if she were genuinely frightened. "I went to the ward to check on her, but she wasn't there. The nurse said she came this way. When I walked in, she — she was taking off her clothes on her own..."
"Elijah, Ainsley must have some kind of mental illness. She couldn't have meant to do this. Let me get a doctor right away!"
The hulking man instantly put on an innocent act. "I'm just a regular security guard. I was passing by. Ma'am, please — leave me alone. I have a wife!"
In the doorway, Elijah's eyes were filled with nothing but disgust.
"She's not sick. This is just who she is."
Ainsley let out a desperate, broken laugh. "Elijah, Sabrina framed me like this, and you still believe her?"
She dragged herself off the floor and staggered toward him. "Nobody forced you to marry me back then. Why can't you just let us part ways?"
Before she got close, a bodyguard kicked her aside.
Elijah looked down at her. "Part ways?"
"When you killed my mother — when you made sure Sabrina could never get pregnant — did you think about parting ways then?"
"When you leaked company secrets and cost the Bourbon Group billions — what were you thinking then?"
The world lurched violently around Ainsley. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"I — I never did any of those things..."
She caught the glint of triumph in Sabrina's eyes.
"Elijah, you're a fool..." Tears of despair finally spilled down her cheeks, but her lips curved into a smile. "You actually believe that garbage..."
She swayed and lunged at Elijah one more time. This time, the bodyguard was too slow. Ainsley crashed into him, opened her mouth, and sank her teeth into Elijah's throat.
She would drag him to hell with her.
"Ainsley!"
A roar of fury. Elijah grabbed a fistful of her hair and wrenched her off. Both powerful hands closed around her throat. "You're trying to kill me?"
His grip was crushing. Ainsley heard it clearly — the sound of bones cracking in her own neck.
Had Elijah just broken her neck with his bare hands?
She'd used her own life to make him a murderer.
Ainsley closed her eyes and slipped into nothing.
