Chapter 5

Chloe's POV

"Let go..."

He squeezed so hard my toes barely touched the floor. The air was being choked out of my lungs. I thrashed, clawing at his iron grip, my face turning purple from the lack of oxygen.

Ethan watched my desperate struggle with zero mercy, his face twisted in pure, savage fury.

He suddenly let go, and I collapsed to the floor like a broken rag doll, coughing violently as I scrambled to suck air back into my lungs.

"When did you swap the pills?" Ethan roared, looking down at me like an angry god. "Speak!"

"I..." I coughed up tears, looking up at this monster in absolute despair. "I didn't plan this... it was an accident... I'll leave, I won't let the baby get in the way of you and Leilah..."

"An accident?" Ethan mocked, letting out a dark laugh. "Chloe, do you think I'm an idiot? I watched you swallow those pills every single time. If you hadn't swapped them behind my back, how could there be an accident!"

He knelt down, grabbing a fistful of my hair and forcing my head back.

"Did you think that getting pregnant would force me to marry you? Did you think you could use this bastard to climb over Leilah's head?"

His words were like poison-dipped daggers, tearing my soul apart.

My heart was already numb. I let out a broken laugh. "Ethan, is that all I am to you? A worthless gold-digger who'd use a baby to trap you?"

"What else would you be?" Ethan's eyes filled with pure disgust. "You're a street rat who lived off my charity. You think you're worthy of carrying my blood? Leilah is innocent. I will never let her be humiliated by a bastard child."

The word bastard felt like a physical punch to my stomach.

I instinctively wrapped my arms around my belly, shaking violently. "Ethan, the doctor said my body is too weak. If I lose this baby, I will never be able to have children again! I'm begging you, let me leave. I swear we will never show our faces in front of you again!"

I begged him, literally crawling on my knees to grab the hem of his trousers.

But Ethan just kicked me away, his expression cold and detached.

"Whether you can have kids or not has nothing to do with me." He casually straightened his suit, looking at me like I was trash. "I just want this threat gone."

He pulled out his phone and dialed his security team.

"Bring the car around. Call Dr. Miller. Prep the OR for an abortion."

My eyes widened in pure horror.

"No! I'm not going! Ethan, you can't do this to me!"

I scrambled up like a madwoman, trying to bolt for the door. But before I could make it, Ethan grabbed my hair from behind and dragged me back onto the floor.

"You don't have a choice!"

He dragged me out of the penthouse like a piece of dead meat, throwing me into the back of his black Maybach.

The doors clicked shut, locking automatically.

The silence inside the car was suffocating.

I curled up in the corner, holding my belly tight. My tears had run dry, leaving only a hollow void of despair. I clawed at the door lock, but it was completely dead.

I turned to the man sitting beside me, my voice raspy. "Ethan, you will regret this. You are murdering your own child. God will punish you!"

Ethan snapped his eyes open, grabbing my jaw in a crushing grip. "Shut up! Say one more word, and I'll have the doctor rip it out of you right here in the car!"

The car sped through the rainy night, finally screeching to a halt in the underground garage of the private hospital.

A team of doctors and nurses was already waiting by the elevator with a gurney.

The door was thrown open, and the guards dragged me out, pinning me down onto the gurney.

"Let go of me! Help! Somebody help me!" I thrashed wildly, my wrists turning black and blue under their heavy grip.

I was rolled straight into the operating room.

The cold metal table. The blinding overhead lights.

The nurses stripped my pants off, strapping my legs into the stirrups. The clinking of surgical tools echoed like a horror movie soundtrack.

I saw Ethan standing in the corner of the room, dressed in sterile scrubs, watching everything with a blank face.

"Mr. Vance, the patient is extremely hypertensive due to panic. If we administer general anesthesia, she might suffer cardiac arrest," the lead surgeon reported nervously.

"Then strap her down tighter. Skip the anesthesia. Do it dry," Ethan said, his voice completely devoid of human emotion.

The doctor gasped.

But no one dared to defy Ethan Vance. He slowly approached the table with the metal speculum.

The moment the freezing metal stretched me open, a blood-curdling scream ripped from my throat.

"AHHHHHHH!"

Just then, the heavy double doors of the OR were violently kicked open!

"Stop! Everybody step the fuck back!"

Serena burst in with four massive bodyguards, throwing the prep table over and pushing the doctor away.