Chapter 2

Half a month later, bodyguards dragged me out of the basement.

I reeked, my face was pale. Victor Kaine held me close, his expression pained.

“Elara, that child was innocent. If you did wrong, you must accept punishment.”

“You know I love you most. Once Seraphina gives birth to my child, we can go back to how things were.”

I silently watched him play the part of a man utterly devoted, letting him wash my body.

He and I were over. He would never know that he had another child, a child with me.

His mother died in childbirth with him, so on our first day together, he told me,

“Elara, I just want our life together, just the two of us. Let’s not have children, okay?”

I agreed to him. But seeing the smiles in his eyes whenever he looked at other people’s children, I secretly wanted to give him a surprise.

That year, Victor Kaine was in a fierce battle with his enemies and told me to hide away for a year.

It was then I discovered I was pregnant with his child. Fearing his worry, I never told him, not even after Leo was born.

Later, Leo had health complications and was kept in the hospital.

Victor Kaine brought me home around that time, and I planned to surprise him on our anniversary.

I never imagined he’d surprise me first.

In another month, Leo and I would be completely free from Victor Kaine.

After that, I coldly watched Victor Kaine running back and forth between us, and I watched him add large doses of sleeping pills to my nourishing soups.

He spent every night with Seraphina but still worried about my feelings, afraid I’d find out.

Until a week later, I was rushed to the emergency room due to a drug allergy.

It was Seraphina, perhaps intentionally, perhaps not, who had mixed up my medication with hers.

When Victor Kaine found out, he unleashed a furious temper on Seraphina.

“If there’s a next time, get out!”

Seraphina’s eyes were red, and she cried, apologizing profusely to me.

But a few days later, Seraphina went missing.

Victor Kaine and his men searched tirelessly for three days and three nights before finding her.

When they found her, she was covered in allergic rashes.

She hung her head, not daring to look at me, and timidly said, “Punishing me is deserved. I accidentally caused Miss Vance’s allergy.”

I looked at her with confusion, but Victor Kaine gave me a meaningful glance.

It wasn't until I overheard him talking privately with the doctor: “Add something she’s allergic to into her medication. She hurt Seraphina; she should suffer the same pain as Seraphina.”

“We’ll treat her properly in a few days.”

I froze, my heart felt like it had been slammed to the ground, repeatedly twisted, a pain that pierced me to the core.

A week later, Seraphina and my allergies both cleared up, and we were discharged from the hospital together.

That night, back home, a huge oil painting in the living room came loose and fell.

At the crucial moment, Seraphina lunged forward to shield me. The easel scraped past both our bodies, landing with a loud thud.

When Victor Kaine rushed in at the sound, he saw Seraphina protecting me.

He flew towards us, his steps stopping abruptly in front of Seraphina, then he turned to me, pulling me into his embrace.

“Baby, you scared me to death.”

Victor Kaine didn’t even glance at Seraphina.

But in a secluded corner, Victor Kaine pinned her against the wall, his eyes simmering with rage.

“Who told you to jump in front? You’re pregnant, don’t you know that?”

“Do you have to kill yourself to be satisfied?”

The next second, Victor Kaine kissed her fiercely.

She was pregnant again.

My heart was numb. I quietly retreated.

That night, Victor Kaine didn't return to our room at all.

Until the next morning, he came to the room and stared directly at me, his gaze full of disappointment.

“I checked, and the easel didn’t fall by itself. Someone deliberately loosened the screws.”

I looked up in disbelief. “You suspect me?”

Victor Kaine sighed, “I told you I’d send Seraphina away once the baby was born. She tries so hard to please you, even shielded you from the easel. Why can’t you tolerate her?”

In the scorching summer heat, I felt a chill run through my body.

Victor Kaine actually didn’t believe me.