Chapter 6

Chloe's POV

The operating room fell into absolute chaos.

Serena rushed to the table. Seeing me tied down, pale as a corpse, with blood already trickling down my legs, her eyes filled with tears of pure rage.

"Chloe! Oh my god, Chloe!" She frantically clawed at the leather straps binding my arms.

Ethan's eyes turned lethal. He marched over, grabbing Serena by the collar of her jacket, and threw her across the room.

"Who the hell let you in here? Get out!"

Serena slammed against the floor, but she scrambled up like a protective mother lion, pointing right at Ethan's face. "Ethan Vance, you absolute monster! Are you even human?! Do you have any idea what her medical history is? Performing an abortion without anesthesia? You are literally trying to torture her to death!"

"This is between me and her. It's none of your business," Ethan said coldly, turning back to the terrified doctors. "What are you waiting for? Keep going!"

"We can't do it! Mr. Vance, we physically cannot do it!"

Dr. Miller suddenly threw himself onto his knees in front of Ethan, holding up a freshly printed blood report.

"Mr. Vance, Miss Sterling's uterine wall is too thin, and she has a rare O-negative blood type! She's already showing signs of an active miscarriage from the struggle. If we perform a forced curettage now, she will hemorrhage. We have zero matching blood in the hospital's bank. If she starts bleeding out, she will die!"

Die.

Ethan's pupils shrank. His gaze snapped back to me on the table.

I was hovering on the verge of passing out from the pain, lying there like a broken doll, blood staining the white sheets beneath my thighs.

I heard him roar at the doctors.

"Save her..." Ethan's voice actually trembled, a rare crack in his armor. "Use whatever it takes. Keep her alive! If she dies, I will bury this entire hospital with her!"

"Yes! Yes! Quick, get her to the ICU!"

After a frantic scramble, I was wheeled into the intensive care unit.

The hallway went dead silent.

Because Serena's voice was incredibly loud, I could hear her screaming at Ethan through the thick glass door.

"Ethan, you keep calling her a toy. But she gave you her whole heart for three years! Are you fucking blind? You killed your own child just to keep Leilah safe. You will rot in hell for this!"

But Serena didn't know that Dr. Miller had actually been bribed by me. I was indeed O-negative, but the situation wasn't fatal. The blood on the sheets was from a medical blood bag Dr. Miller had hidden under my gurney.

It was a dangerous gamble Serena and I played to save my baby.

We gambled on whether Ethan had a single shred of humanity left for me.

And we won.

Three days later, I was moved to a luxury VIP suite.

Ethan didn't bring up the abortion again. Instead, he turned my room into a high-security prison. Four bodyguards stood outside twenty-four hours a day. Not even a fly could get in or out.

For three days, Ethan was nowhere to be seen during the day. He only showed up late at night.

We didn't exchange a single word. The silence between us was suffocating.

I leaned against the headboard, staring blankly out the window.

Suddenly, my phone buzzed. It was a video from Leilah.

In the video, Leilah was spinning around in front of a mirror, wearing a breathtakingly expensive wedding dress. The camera panned over to the sofa, where Ethan sat, looking at her with a gentle smile.

"Ethan, do I look pretty?" Leilah's sweet voice asked in the video.

"Beautiful. You're the most stunning bride in the world," Ethan's voice was deep and filled with love.

The video ended.

Then came a text message: Chloe, see that? Ethan loves me. He'll get rid of that bastard in your womb sooner or later. If you're smart, run away before I have to make you.

I stared at the screen, my heart completely numb.

When pain reaches its limit, you stop feeling it.

I calmly deleted the video, picked up the glass of water, and swallowed my prenatal vitamins.

Suddenly, there was a commotion outside, and a woman dressed in a nurse's uniform, wearing a surgical mask, pushed a cart into my room.

The moment she locked the door, she pulled down her mask. It was Serena.

"Chloe, everything is ready," Serena whispered, her eyes shining with determination. "The engagement party is tomorrow. Ethan will be too busy to watch you. I got us tickets for a cargo ship leaving for international waters. Once we're on that boat, he'll never find us."

I touched my flat stomach, my gaze turning cold and sharp.

"Okay. Tomorrow, we leave."

The night before the engagement party.

The rain tapped softly against the window, bringing the chill of late autumn into the room.

The door clicked open, and Ethan walked in, smelling heavily of whiskey.

His coat was gone, his tie was loose, and his eyes were bloodshot.

I was about to sleep. Seeing him walk in, I instinctively shrank back, my eyes filled with defensive fear.

"Why are you hiding?" Ethan marched over, grabbing my chin and forcing me to look at him.

The smell of strong alcohol mixed with his expensive cologne washed over me.

I looked at him coldly. "Mr. Vance is getting engaged tomorrow. With your beautiful bride waiting, why are you acting like a maniac in my room?"

"Are you jealous?" Ethan let out a dark laugh, his fingers tracing my lips roughly. The desire in his eyes flared up like wildfire.