Chapter2

For the past half month, I had been locked away in the estate’s top-floor attic, bearing a massive surgical scar that slashed across half my abdomen and wrapped around to my right lower back.

"That fetus wasn't developing well to begin with. Even if I hadn't let them cut into your uterus, it would have been born with issues. We're still young. We can always have another baby."

Just last night, Liam sat by my bed. He used a wet cotton swab to moisten my severely cracked lips, all while feeding me this brainwashing garbage in a tone of agonizing heartbreak.

"Serena, let's just forget about what happened, okay? I did it to save Chloe. She's your sister, and the Vance family can't survive without her. Be a good girl. Let me manage those trust funds your grandfather left you, and I’ll take you to Europe to recover."

Listening to those words, I simply stared blankly at the ceiling. He probably thought that with enough gentle, daily coaxing, a pathetic, love-starved fool like me would just cry and forgive him like I always did.

Unfortunately for him, he completely underestimated the venomous hatred of a mother who had her flesh and blood ripped away.

This afternoon, the downstairs was unusually quiet. I picked the lock on my door with a hairpin and, in my bare feet, inched my way down the stairs step by painful step.

With every movement downward, a fresh layer of cold sweat soaked through my hospital gown. But I had to reach the landline in the living room. I needed to call the police.

When I finally fought through the agony and reached the second-floor landing, I froze.

From the nursery—the room originally decorated and prepared for my unborn baby—came the sound of sickeningly sweet, wanton panting.

"Mmh... Liam, not so rough..."

The voices coming from inside made me stop dead in my tracks. I moved over stiffly and peered through the slight crack in the door.

Right on top of the custom-made crib, two sweat-slicked bodies were entangled. My husband—the same man who half an hour ago was holding a bowl and whispering sweet nothings to me—was now roughly pinning down a blonde woman.

It was my stepsister, Chloe.

"Don't push so hard," Chloe giggled coquettishly, wrapping her arms around Liam's neck. "This new kidney I just got a few days ago is great quality, but it can't handle you tossing me around like this."

My fingernails instantly dug deep into the solid wood of the doorframe.

But the people inside were too distracted to hear a thing.

"That kidney was being wasted inside her anyway," Liam sneered. He lowered his head and bit down hard on Chloe's pale neck. "At least now it's being put to good use."

This was a vile, disgusting side of him I had never seen before.

"True. And thank god you secretly swapped out her pregnancy maintenance pills." Chloe wrapped her legs even tighter. "Outside the operating room that day, when you ordered them to throw that annoying little bastard into the medical waste bin, you looked incredibly sexy. Do you think that bitch wanted to just die when she heard your voice?"

My heart twisted into a violent knot.

They had been sleeping together this whole time!

I had originally assumed Liam was just trying to suck up to my powerful stepmother to secure his footing in the Vance family. But that wasn't it at all!

"Who cares if she heard?" Liam gripped Chloe's waist, his movements so aggressive that the crib banged violently as if it were about to fall apart. "I've been playing the devoted husband for a whole year. Even touching her makes me sick to my stomach. If it weren't for that trust fund her mother left behind, who would ever want to act out this charade for that idiot every single day?"

"So when are you going to get rid of her?" Chloe broke into a fit of giggles. "Murder is pretty inconvenient to pull off these days, you know."

"I just have to endure it for one more week max." Liam let out a casual, dismissive chuckle. "Once the trust matures next week, I'll use her forged proxy signature to wire out all the money. A woman who lost her baby and had her kidney carved out suffering a complete psychotic break due to the trauma—that sounds perfectly reasonable, right? We'll commit her to that high-security asylum in the suburbs. Once she's locked in there, whether she lives or dies is entirely up to us."

Accompanied by sickeningly wet sounds, the vile pair burst into unbridled, arrogant laughter.

A bone-deep chill shot up from the soles of my bare feet straight into my skull.

Trembling violently, I stumbled a step backward. My heel accidentally knocked into the solid wood vase stand in the hallway.

Thud. A dull, heavy impact echoed out.

"Who's out there?"

The obscene noises in the nursery came to an abrupt halt. Liam's voice rang out, instantly sharp and strictly on high alert.

The heavy thud of leather shoes against the floorboards rapidly approached the doorway.

I glanced to the end of the hallway toward the open glass balcony door, leading out into the pouring rain.

This time, there was not a single tear in my eyes.