Chapter 2

The next morning, a call came from an unknown number. "Ms. Ava, this is the Genesis Agency. The package you requested is ready for collection. A new life awaits."

The voice was professional, detached. It was a lifeline I had arranged weeks ago, a desperate 'what if' plan that now felt like my only option. Hope, a tiny, fragile spark, flickered in the darkness that had become my life. I was going to leave. I had to.

I packed a single small suitcase. There wasn't much to take. My clothes, a few books, and a small, framed photo of Finn and me, laughing on a beach when we were kids. Everything else in this grand, cold house belonged to Leo. The architectural awards on the shelf, the expensive furniture, the life I had thought was ours. It was all his. I was leaving with nothing but the clothes on my back and the secret I carried in my womb.

The doorbell rang. It was the movers Leo had called, not for me, but for "redecorating." They were efficient and impersonal, their faces blank as they started to dismantle my life.

"Ma'am, where do you want this?" one of them asked, holding up the large, framed wedding portrait that used to hang in the hallway. It was a photo from our engagement party, the grand event that celebrated our whirlwind romance and the signing of the prenuptial agreement-the one that stipulated a three-year waiting period before our legal marriage. Three years of his mother' s meddling, three years that were supposed to end next month.

I looked at the photo. Leo was smiling, an arm wrapped around me. I was beaming, my eyes full of a love and trust that now seemed foolish. "Throw it out," I said, my voice empty. I was too tired to feel the pain anymore. The cramps in my abdomen had subsided to a dull, persistent ache, a constant reminder of the previous day's horror.

I walked past the living room on my way to the door. Leo was on the couch, Chloe nestled beside him, feeding him grapes. They were laughing about something on TV. They didn't even look up as I passed. My presence was an inconvenience they could easily ignore.

"Oh, Ava, you're leaving?" Chloe called out, her voice dripping with false sweetness. "Let me get you a coffee for the road."

She got up and walked toward the kitchen, brushing past me. As she did, she "stumbled," and the hot coffee she was carrying sloshed directly onto the back of my hand.

I cried out, a sharp, involuntary sound. The burning liquid seared my skin, and I pulled my hand back, cradling it to my chest.

Leo looked over, annoyed. "Chloe, be careful. Honestly, Ava, can't you watch where you're going?" he said, his voice full of irritation directed entirely at me. Chloe just whimpered, "I'm so sorry, I'm so clumsy."

The pain in my hand was searing, a white-hot agony that shot up my arm. But it was nothing compared to the pain in my heart. The blatant cruelty, the complete lack of care from the man who had sworn to love me forever. It was too much.

A wave of dizziness washed over me. The room tilted, the voices fading into a dull roar. The edges of my vision turned black. The pain in my hand, the ache in my womb, the crushing weight of betrayal-it all converged into one unbearable point. My knees buckled, and the last thing I saw before the darkness swallowed me completely was the polished marble floor rushing up to meet me.