Chapter 5

I woke up in the hospital.

Caleb was by my bedside, holding my hand.

“Audrey, don’t be mad. Chloe’s just a kid, playful. Just go apologize to her properly later, and this whole thing will blow over.”

“What if I don’t?”

“It’s just an apology! Why are you arguing with a child?! I swear, you’ve gone completely crazy since you got pregnant!”

Caleb angrily threw my hand away and stormed out.

A nurse quickly rushed over, her voice urgent: “Ms. Sterling, your father’s medical treatment has been stopped. His condition suddenly worsened, and he’s not doing well. You need to go see him one last time!”

My pupils constricted. I instinctively tried to get up.

But Caleb, leading a team of doctors, burst into the room and dragged me to the operating theater without a word.

“Caleb! Let me go! I need to see my dad…”

“Audrey, Chloe just had a sudden severe anemia, and she needs umbilical cord blood to save her life. You can see your dad anytime. You need to give birth now.”

I was forcibly strapped to the operating table.

“Mr. Prescott, the patient is only six months pregnant, far from her due date. Administering labor-inducing drugs now could have a fatal impact on the fetus.”

“Saving a life is more important! Do it!”

Caleb snatched the oxytocin syringe from the doctor’s hand and brutally plunged it into my belly.

Restraints tightly bound my limbs.

I struggled desperately, looking at Caleb, trying to find a flicker of compassion in his eyes.

But Caleb’s expression remained coldly indifferent. He just injected one syringe of oxytocin after another into my body until all five were empty.

The doctor urgently tried to stop Caleb’s hand: “Mr. Prescott, five syringes are the limit! Any more and the baby will die from premature birth!”

“Get out of my way! I only care if Chloe lives!”

Caleb brutally plunged in the sixth syringe.

An excruciating pain surged through my entire body. I couldn’t hold on any longer and completely passed out.

…

When I opened my eyes again,

My abdomen was flat once more.

I desperately got up and rushed to my father’s room, only for the nurse to tell me I was too late.

My father had passed away just as Caleb dragged me away. The nurse said his last words were my name, whispered repeatedly.

Passing a VIP room, I heard Chloe’s voice.

“Uncle Caleb, it’s all my fault for being so sick. It caused Audrey’s baby to be born prematurely and die. She won’t be angry, will she?”

“It’s fine. If the baby’s gone, Audrey can just have another one. All that matters is that you’re okay.”

I touched my flat abdomen, closing my eyes in despair, letting tears stream down my cheeks.

Caleb and I started trying to conceive right after we got married.

We bought piles of baby clothes and toys, and he devoured books on childcare, saying he wanted our baby to be the happiest child in the world.

Seven months ago, when I finally got pregnant, he was so excited, holding me and listening to the baby’s movements all night.

That was the child we had hoped for for seven years.

How could he be so cruel?!

Three days later.

I finished my father’s funeral and buried the baby’s tiny body alongside him.

Leaving the cemetery.