Chapter 4
The customer’s face twisted in rage as she jabbed a finger toward my nose.
“Vice President? You’re a VP? You’re her boss and you bullied her like this? Then blamed her for it?! What kind of leader does that? Your company seriously promotes people like you?”
“I didn’t-” My chest was tight, I couldn’t breathe. I tried to explain, but Slade came rushing over.
He took one look at Millicent on the ground and the screaming child, and his expression immediately turned ugly.
“What happened?!”
Millicent spoke first, saying I pushed her by accident, and that it caused her to knock into the woman with a child.
Millicent clutched her ankle and whimpered, “It might be sprained. But it’s okay. Please just explain to the customer–the VP didn’t mean it…”
“Virginia! What the hell is wrong with you?!” Slade turned to me, eyes blazing. “You couldn’t ever handle something this simple? Why would you push her?”
“I didn’t-”
“I don’t care! Apologize to the customer. Now!”
I stood frozen, my breath shallow.
‘He believes her. Just like always!
But I stayed my ground. “I’m not apologizing for something I didn’t do.”
My hand cradled my belly, my voice trembling but firm.
After all, I was leaving. I was done groveling.
His eyes widened, stunned that I’d actually stood up to him.
Before he could reprimand me again, the customer shoved me hard.
“You bitch! With a temper like that, no wonder your kid’ll grow up the same. You won’t even say sorry? Get the hell out!”
As soon as I crashed to the floor, pain stabbed through my belly. My ears rang. I couldn’t hear anything but static.
Slade stepped toward me, his hand twitching like he wanted to help–but in the next second, he turned away and swept his manipulative woman into his arms instead, rushing her out.
“Think about what you’ve done, Virginia!”
I lay on the cold floor tiles, clutching my stomach, pain rolling through me in sickening waves.
In the crowd, people were pointing and whispering. Some screamed, some backed away, and some raised their phones to record me.
That’s all I heard. A sea of murmurs. And that roaring in my ears.
It felt like something inside me had been ripped apart, the pain surging like waves through my lower body.
Chapter 3
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8:02 pm DDDD.
Later, someone finally realized something was wrong and called for an ambulance.
At the hospital, the doctors were shouting while wheeling me to the OR.
“Where’s the family?! Her vitals are unstable–do we save the baby or not?!”
A nurse grabbed my phone. “Ma’am, what’s the father’s number?”
I bit my lip and recited Slade’s.
He picked up.
Not with worry.
Not with panic.
But fury.
“Virginia, have you completely lost your mind?! What the hell did you do to Millicent?! Her ankle’s swollen–the doctor thinks it’s fractured. All because you pushed her!”
I was shivering as I corrected him. “I didn’t… She fell… on her own.”
“Oh, don’t give me that jealous crap! You’re just mad because she called herself my wife? You really believed that? It was a joke, for God’s sake!”
‘A joke? Just a joke?‘
I clutched the sheets, my tears finally spilling.
“Slade… the baby-”
Suddenly, I heard a click; he hung up.
I looked at the doctor, forcing out a wincing smile.
“Forget the baby. Please… just save me.”
“We’ll do our best.”
When I woke up, my belly was flat.
The nurse handed me a box. Inside was the tiny, unformed body of my child.
I cried so hard I couldn’t stop shaking.
Nothing hurt more than this–not even my body.
In the middle of crying, the door burst open.
A guy rushed in–tall, breathless, familiar.
‘My brother…
Not by blood, but everything else.
He ran to me and pulled me into his arms, his voice hoarse with regret.
“I’m sorry. I should’ve been here sooner…”
I buried my face in his chest, unable to speak.
That afternoon, he moved me to a private hospital under his name.
Before I left the city, I mailed that box–my baby’s remains–to the estate of Forsyths, the same family so desperate for an heir.
And then I texted Slade one last time.
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8:02 pm D D D
“We’re done.”
Then I blocked and deleted his contacts–without a second thought.
From that day on, he was nothing to me. And never would be again!
8:02 pm DDD
