Chapter 2

I ripped my arms free from the bodyguards and threw myself at my parents.

"Mom! Dad! Save me!" I sobbed, digging my trembling fingers into Martha's coat.

Martha gasped. She wrapped her arms around my disheveled body, frowning in genuine shock.

"Vivian, what is going on? You called us saying you were pregnant, so we came here to celebrate. Why are they treating you like a prisoner?"

"They’re trying to kill my baby!" I cried.

Robert instantly stepped in front of me, glaring at Eleanor. "What the hell is going on? Explain yourself."

Eleanor didn’t flinch. She pressed a thin DNA report directly against Robert's chest.

"The fetus has severe genetic defects and must be terminated," Eleanor stated flatly. "More importantly, I hear Hayes Enterprise goes totally bankrupt by Friday. A tragedy... that our Sterling capital could fix by tomorrow morning."

The atmosphere violently shifted.

Robert and Martha stared at the solitary piece of paper. The color drained from their faces, and in a fraction of a second, their protective outrage died. A terrifying, calculating greed took its place.

Martha violently shoved me away.

Crack.

She slapped me so hard the driveway echoed.

"Mom...?" My ears rang. I touched my burning cheek in absolute disbelief.

"Shut up!" Martha hissed, her maternal warmth instantly replaced by shrill hostility. "Eleanor is a top-tier obstetrician! If she says this fetus has a disease, it has a disease! Stop making trouble and go to the clinic!"

Robert didn't defend me. He grabbed my arm and shoved me right back toward the massive guards.

"Listen to your mom, Vivian."

My mind fractured.

I dropped to my knees on the ground, frantically gathering the discarded health reports and shoving them against their legs.

"The outside doctors proved he's a hundred percent healthy!" I shrieked. "Look at the hospital stamps! Why are you helping them murder my baby?!"

Martha jerked her coat out of my grip, refusing to look at me.

"You came to celebrate my pregnancy! " I pointed wildly at the pastel gift boxes they’d brought. "Mom, you gave birth to me! You know the absolute agony of losing your own flesh. How can you butcher my child?!"

I pressed my forehead to the freezing pavement, offering my final surrender.

"If this is about the Sterling inheritance—I will sign it all away! I want zero cents! I just want him to breathe! I'll raise him myself in the streets. Please, take me away!"

Robert scowled in absolute disgust. He violently kicked my medical reports away.

"Stop embarrassing us," he spat coldly. "You're a Sterling now. Do as Eleanor says."

He stepped aside, letting the guards move in.

No one cared about my baby.

"Take her," Eleanor ordered softly.

I stopped screaming. I went entirely limp, reduced to a hollow ragdoll shoved into the back of a black SUV.

I was dragged straight into the underground clinic and slammed backward onto a freezing surgical chair.

Thick leather straps instantly buckled over my wrists and ankles, pinning me down.

Blinding surgical lamps flared to life above me.

Through my tear-filled eyes, I watched a cold, mechanical nurse uncap syringes and line up sharp steel instruments on a metal tray. She completely ignored my suffocating despair.

The operating doors violently shoved open.

I closed my eyes as the cold IV needle hovered over my vein. It was over. My baby was going to die.

The lead surgeon marched in, dressed head-to-toe in sterile green scrubs. He stepped under the bright lights, glancing down at the restrained pregnant patient on the table.

He froze almost instantly.

Gloved hands shot up, violently ripping off his surgical mask.

It was my husband, Liam.

"Vivian?!" Liam roared, his furious voice shaking the sterile walls. "Why the hell is it you?!"