Chapter 3

3

I stayed silent as I watched the tears well up in his eyes.

He took my silence as agreement, and a smile instantly touched the corners of his mouth.

"When this is all over, I'll buy us a huge house and get you all the designer clothes you want. I'll take you wherever you want to go..."

As he reached out to touch me again, a wave of nausea washed over me.

I tried to push him away, but he managed to grab my hand.

In the next second, I leaned over the side of the bed and threw up.

Kayden was stunned. His eyes darkened with a flash of coldness. "Sera, are you seriously disgusted by me?"

"Everything I'm doing is for us! For our future! Aren't you being a bit dramatic?"

My weight shifted onto my injured leg, and the sudden agony brought tears streaming down my face.

The bandages on my leg were instantly soaked with blood. He panicked and turned to call for a doctor.

As I watched him leave, I collapsed back onto the bed, gasping for air.

He was covered in the scent of Bianca's perfume. It was a thick, cloying smell.

He kept saying it was all just an act, but a man's eyes and the scent on his skin don't lie.

I used to love wearing perfume, but he told me that scents made him feel sick.

From that day on, I never wore it again.

Now I saw the truth. He didn't hate perfume; he just hated it when the woman wearing it wasn't the one he truly loved.

I let out a hollow laugh and pushed the tray of food he had brought onto the floor.

Inside were diet meals and mangoes―something I was deathly allergic to.

Seeing that, the tears finally spilled over.

For years, I had memorized everything he liked to eat and do.

But he had forgotten that mangoes could kill me.

As I sat there in total despair, I noticed a card tucked into the bouquet of flowers on the nightstand.

I reached out and pulled it toward me. It was addressed to Bianca.

"To my darling and our little miracle. Wishing you both health and safety. Love always, your husband."

I turned stiffly and looked at the mangoes on the floor, laughing loudly through my tears.

None of this was meant for me.

How could I have been so stupid? How could I still be hoping for even a tiny scrap of his love?

I cried and laughed until my eyes were swollen, but Kayden didn't come back.

I closed my eyes and drifted into a dream, taking me back to the time before our engagement photos.

During that period, Kayden was always out on calls. Every time I called him, he was too busy to talk.

Even when I brought food to the station, his colleagues would just take it inside for him.

The way they looked at me―with a mix of surprise and pity―should have been my first warning.

So, I waited across the street from the station for him to return from a call.

But night fell, and I never saw the fire truck come back.

Just as I was about to leave, I saw Kayden walk out of the station gates and get into a waiting car.

I tried to catch him, but the car sped away before I could reach it.

We had a massive fight when I finally got him on the phone that night.

He didn't come back until the day before our photo shoot.

He showed up with a bouquet of my favorite roses and cooked my favorite meal.

I thought he was apologizing, but that night, after a few drinks, he mumbled Bianca's name in his sleep.

I wanted to believe it was just a random name, but she was very real.

And we had run into her exactly when we were supposed to be celebrating our upcoming wedding.

As I was about to confront him in my dream, I felt someone gripping my arm tightly in the real world.

I opened my eyes, dazed, and saw Bianca staring down at me with a cold, dark expression.

"Hold her down. Don't let her struggle."

Her icy tone made my heart race. A terrible feeling washed over me.

Before I could even scream, Bianca patted her stomach and gave me a wicked, meaningful smile. "What are you waiting for? Do you want me to draw the blood myself?"

Why were they taking my blood?

As I struggled with that question, the hands holding me down tightened.

They didn't care about the wound on my leg at all, putting all their weight on it as they pinned me.

The pain made me roar with fury. "This is illegal! Let go of me!"

Bianca watched my desperation with a look of pure triumph.

She didn't look weak or injured at all; she looked energized by my suffering.

"Help me!"

I turned my head, looking for Kayden, hoping he would save me for the sake of our five years together.

But he wasn't there. The next second, a needle was shoved into my arm.

The nurse who had comforted me earlier suddenly burst in. Seeing the forced blood draw, she gasped in horror.

"This is a crime! Stop this right now, or I'm calling the police!"

She reached for her phone, but before she could dial, Bianca slapped it out of her hand.

"A crime? Do you have any idea who I am? As long as we all keep our mouths shut, who's going to know what happened here?"

Bianca's thugs pinned the nurse to the floor, warning her to stay quiet.

Watching the only person who tried to help me being treated like that, my eyes turned red with rage and I screamed in frustration.

Just then, Kayden walked in carrying the food he'd bought.

He froze for a second at the scene, but then he immediately started shouting at the thugs.

"Let her go! What the hell are you doing?"