Chapter 3

Several weeks passed.

During this time, Chloe made herself right at home in the first-floor guest room. She bossed the household around without an ounce of shame and casually rearranged the living room furniture to her liking.

Sterling, meanwhile, treated me as if I were invisible.

Still fiercely convinced that I was having an affair, he spent every waking moment at home glued to Chloe's side, treating me like dead air.

To protect the baby in my womb, I minimized my contact with them, spending most of my time resting in the master bedroom upstairs.

Today was my scheduled prenatal checkup.

Early in the morning, my mother came over to pick me up. She rang the doorbell, walked me out of the house, and we caught a cab at the intersection straight to the hospital.

The checkup went smoothly. The doctor told me that thanks to my strict bed rest, the baby's condition had stabilized significantly.

The sun was shining brightly as we left the hospital.

My mother linked her arm through mine, speaking in a soft, comforting tone as we walked. "It's going to be okay, Diana. I’ll find the right time to sit down and have a serious talk with Sterling. You two can't keep living like this."

We reached a crosswalk just outside the hospital and prepared to cross.

Suddenly, the roar of an engine tore from our right.

A dark gray SUV didn't even attempt to slow down at the intersection. Instead, it barreled straight toward us at full speed.

I instinctively turned my head.

Through the windshield, I saw the driver with terrifying clarity—it was Chloe.

Her hands were gripping the steering wheel, her face twisted in unmasked malice. She was ramming the car right at us.

"Watch out!"

My mother screamed, shoving me hard toward the sidewalk.

The sheer force of her push threw me off balance, and I crashed heavily onto the unforgiving concrete.

Immediately after, a sickening, deafening thud echoed behind me.

I whipped my head around. My mother had been thrown several meters away, her body crumpled on the ground amid shattered pieces of the car's front bumper.

I scrambled, trying to drag myself up to get to her.

But whether it was the shock of the impact or the fall itself, a violent tearing sensation ripped through my lower abdomen, sending me collapsing back onto the ground.

I could clearly feel a rush of scalding liquid pooling beneath me. Blood flowed down my legs, staining the gray pavement.

Lying in a pool of my own blood, my vision faded to black.

When I finally woke up, the first thing I saw was the stark white ceiling of a hospital room.

The anesthesia was wearing off, replaced by a dull, throbbing ache radiating from my stomach.

A doctor in a white coat stood by my bed, his expression heavy with regret.

"You're awake," he said, his voice low. "I'm so sorry. We did absolutely everything we could in the ER, but we couldn't save the baby. We just finished performing an emergency D&C."

I stared blankly at the ceiling. It took several seconds before I could force my dry lips to move. "Where is my mother?"

"She's in the Intensive Care Unit next door," the doctor sighed. "Her legs took the brunt of the impact. She suffered severe comminuted fractures. There will likely be permanent damage."

After delivering the news, the doctor quietly left the room.

I lay frozen in the bed, not even given a moment to process the sheer weight of what had just happened, when the door suddenly burst open.

Sterling strode in.

Chloe cowered behind him, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue, playing the part of a terrified, traumatized victim to perfection.

Sterling had absolutely no idea I had just undergone a procedure to remove our dead baby.

He marched straight to my bedside and slammed a document down onto my blankets.

"Sign it," he ordered, his voice cold and commanding.

I glanced down at the paper. The bold letters at the top read: Traffic Accident Settlement and Liability Waiver.

"Chloe said she was just driving by," Sterling said callously, treating her fabricated lie as absolute truth. "She saw you and your mother with some strange man. She panicked, hit the wrong pedal, and caused an accident."

He was entirely convinced I had gotten into a car crash while sneaking around with a lover.

My eyes burned, bloodshot and stinging with fury. "My mother is lying in the ICU next door, facing permanent disability. I will never sign this."

"Stop playing the victim," Sterling snapped, his patience instantly vanishing. He grabbed a pen and forcefully jammed it into my hand. "It was just an accident."

My whole body was shaking. "An accident? Chloe accelerated right into us! Do you have any idea that she just killed our—"

"Enough!" Sterling roared, cutting me off.

He glared at me with sheer annoyance and dropped his ultimate leverage.

"Listen to me clearly, Diana. If you don't sign this waiver right now, the bank will freeze your father's company's funding by tomorrow morning. He will go bankrupt." Sterling lowered his voice into a vicious threat. "Don't even think about ruining Chloe's life just to cover up your dirty little affair!"

I leaned back against the hospital pillows, staring at the man standing over me.

To protect his mistress, he didn't care about my well-being in the slightest, and was even willing to use my father's livelihood to blackmail me.

My father’s life was built on that company, and my mother’s upcoming surgeries and rehabilitation would require a massive amount of money.

I looked down at the settlement and slowly tightened my grip around the pen.

Feeling completely numb, I lowered my head and signed my name on the dotted line.

In that single instant, whatever lingering trace of love and hope I had left for Sterling died completely—buried right alongside the unborn child he never knew we had.