Chapter Three
Chapter Three
Lucien took Lillian to the hospital.
The next time I ran into him, he was coming from the direction of the operating room, his eyes shot through with red.
“What are you doing here? Come to see if Lillian’s dead yet? Or to watch me suffer?”
I was there for my pre-op exam before the abortion.
I didn’t feel like fighting, so I tried to step around him.
He grabbed my wrist, hard enough to grind the bones.
“Lillian lost the baby. A girl. Fully formed. You’ve killed another one of my daughters!”
“Let go.” My stomach was heaving.
The child inside me must have known it wasn’t wanted. It kept me sick to the point of blacking out.
Seeing that, Lucien’s eyes went red. “Does my touch disgust you that much? I never held it against you that you’re damaged goods, and you’re the one who’s sick?”
The pain in my chest came in a thousand tiny stabs.
Lucien really did know me. He knew exactly where to put the knife.
Just then a doctor came over with a report. “Mr. Sterling, these are the genetic test results on the fetus—”
Lucien cut him off. He jabbed a finger at my face and announced to the doctor and everyone else in earshot:
“Don’t bother! This venomous woman can’t have children of her own, so she had her thugs kick Lillian’s four-month-old daughter to death! She’s a murderer!”
The crowd erupted.
“Can’t have her own, so nobody else gets to either.”
“No wonder her husband dumped her…”
A flicker of satisfaction crossed Lucien’s face. He lowered his voice, and it turned cruel.
“Elena, get down on your knees in front of all these people and apologize to me. Then apologize to Lillian. Or I won’t mind humiliating you even more.”
He took out his phone and showed me a video.
He’d kept those videos all this time.
The horrible, sickening memories came flooding back.
I sank into a crouch and wrapped my arms tight around myself.
“Ellie—Ellie, don’t scare me like this…”
I felt myself lifted, and then I was in a familiar pair of arms.
When I opened my eyes, Lucien was sitting beside my hospital bed, looking exhausted.
When he saw I was awake, his eyes reddened.
“Silly. I just wanted you to give a little. You didn’t think I’d actually do it…”
I gave a thin, bleak smile. All of it felt so pointless.
“Lucien, we loved each other for so many years, and now we can’t stand each other. That’s your doing.”
The door swung open. Lillian came in clutching a stuffed bunny, her eyes red.
“Baby, I just had a dream. Our daughter came to me and asked why I didn’t protect her…”
Lucien got up, slid an arm around her waist, and murmured comfort as he steered her out.
At the door, he stopped.
“I signed those divorce papers in the heat of the moment. As far as I’m concerned, they don’t count.
“I was out of line earlier. But I hope you’ll apologize to Lillian for hurting her baby.”
Lillian, tucked against him, flashed me a grin full of challenge.
I grabbed the vase off the nightstand and hurled it at her.
Lucien pulled her into his arms almost on instinct, shielding every inch of her.
He turned slowly to look at me, his eyes as cold as ice.
“Elena, I’m very disappointed in you.”
They left together, arm in arm.
I lay in the hospital bed and looked at the genetic report on Lillian’s lost baby, and very nearly laughed out loud.
