Chapter2

The System's holographic interface flickered in my vision.

"The extraction channel has been opened. Soul detachment will be executed in 72 hours."*

I crouched down, studying Leo. That small face... his eyes and brows mirrored mine perfectly, but his chin belonged to Marcus. I reached out a trembling hand.

"Leo, I'm your real mommy. Do you want to come with me?"

He took a tentative step toward me. A hopeful smile broke across my face.

The very next second, he snatched his heavy thermos and hurled it directly at my head.

"Don't even think about it! You kidnapper! I only have one mommy!"

The hard plastic smashed brutally against my cheekbone. The flesh swelled almost instantly. Chloe rushed forward and scooped him up into a protective embrace.

"Serena, he didn't mean it. Please don't hold it against him."

Marcus's mother lunged forward, shoving me hard in the chest.

"What is wrong with you? You're scaring the child!"

Leo sobbed into Chloe's neck, inconsolable no matter how gently she coaxed him.

Marcus grabbed my wrist with rough impatience, dragging me toward the exit.

"Just go home! The kid cries the second he sees you. You being here is only making things worse."

He flagged down a passing taxi and practically shoved me into the backseat.

Through the rearview mirror, I watched him regroup with Chloe. She cradled a weeping Leo while Marcus leaned in, his head bowed as he gently teased the boy to make him smile.

My tears finally fell.

Back at the sprawling villa, I treated my bruised, swollen cheek and blindly started packing my bags.

As I pulled an old shoebox from the bottom of the closet, a stack of photos slipped from a hidden crevice.

I flipped through them. Leo's birthdays, Christmas mornings, family vacations. In every single snapshot, Marcus and Chloe stood shoulder-to-shoulder holding the boy, flanked by Marcus's beaming parents on either side.

In this entire house, I was the only redundant outsider, yet kept entirely in the dark.

My eyes burned with agonizing acid. I bit down hard on my lower lip, violently forcing the tears back.

Hidden beneath the shoebox was a tablet. Marcus rarely used this device, and it didn't have a passcode. I tapped the screen.

A video was queued up right on the display.

It was a private estate on the outskirts of Paris, its sprawling lawn carpeted in pristine white roses. Marcus stood at the altar in a sharp black tuxedo. Chloe, draped in a stunning, elaborate wedding gown, linked arms with Old Mr. Sterling as she walked down the aisle toward him step by step.

Old Mr. Sterling placed Chloe's hand securely into Marcus's.

"From this day forward, Chloe is officially a Sterling. May you both find a lifetime of happiness."

The footage cut to a bridal dressing room. Chloe sat before a vanity mirror, looking up at him nervously.

"Marcus, what if Serena finds out and comes to make a scene?"

Marcus carefully adjusted her tulle veil, his touch agonizingly tender.

"She won't. She's spending the entire day kneeling before a priest at the church, doing her penance."

I hit pause. The timestamp in the corner marked the exact date of my child's death anniversary last year.

I had left the house at dawn that day, kneeling on the hard wooden floor of the parish, weeping and begging God for forgiveness because I believed my body had failed our baby. So, while I was drowning in a hell of guilt, he was in Paris, throwing a lavish wedding for Chloe.

The tablet slipped from my numb fingers, clattering loudly against the hardwood floor.

The bedroom door swung open.

Marcus stood in the doorway. He took in the chaotic state of the room and the packed luggage, and his face instantly darkened.

"Serena, why are you throwing a tantrum now?"

"A tantrum?" I stood up, glaring at him through completely gritted teeth. "Marcus, you call this throwing a tantrum? Why would you do this to me! Why did you have to build your pathetic little fairytale on top of my absolute ruin!"

His eyes flicked to the glowing tablet on the floor. The color immediately drained from his face.

"I..."

Fixing an unapologetic look of pity onto his face, he stepped forward and grabbed both of my hands.

"Look, the damage is already done. Can't you just let Chloe have this? Let her fulfill her dream of being a mother. I was only trying to grant her one wish, but the woman I actually love is you! Let her raise Leo. We can just have another baby later."

As soon as the sickening words left his mouth, he leaned in to kiss me.

Smack!

He stumbled back, clutching his stinging cheek in utter disbelief.

"You hit me?"

The very last shred of lingering attachment I held for this man vanished into thin air.

"Marcus, I want a divorce."

Still rubbing his cheek, a thought seemed to cross his mind, and he actually let out a patronizing chuckle.

"Don't say things out of spite. I know you can't live without me. And my relationship with Chloe really isn't what you think it is."

He barely finished his sentence when his cell phone buzzed.

"Mr. Marcus? This is the hospital. Ms. Chloe has just been rushed to the emergency room—"

He didn't even wait for the nurse to finish. He bolted out the door.

Seconds later, the frantic roar of a car engine echoed from the driveway, fading rapidly into the distance.

I stood alone in the suffocating silence of the bedroom as the System's mechanical voice chimed in my head once more.

"Forty-eight hours. The countdown has been updated."