Chapter 3

Chapter 3 03

I slumped in a pool of blood, my entire body feeling shattered and excruciatingly broken.

Yet the sharpest agony came from my womb, the very place that had been nurturing a fragile new life.

A metallic taste rose in my throat, and blinding tears blurred my vision.

Holding onto my mother's urn, I looked at Garrett standing coldly in the distance, trying desperately to stand, but my legs completely gave out.

With trembling fingers, I touched my stomach and suddenly coughed up a heavy mouthful of blood, which terrified Natalie so much that she clung desperately to Garrett's arm, her delicate face turning completely pale.

"Nora, what are you playing at? I barely touched you, so stop acting like you're on your deathbed!"

Garrett looked down at me with a stormy scowl, impatiently pulling out a tissue to wipe the dust off his shoe.

Natalie's eyes turned red, welling with innocent tears as she looked at me. "Garrett, she couldn't be pregnant, could she? Look at all that blood coming out, it's so disgusting, ugh!"

She covered her mouth and leaned over, making exaggerated retching noises.

The performance was so transparent, yet Garrett nervously and gently patted her back. "If it disgusts you, don't look."

He turned back to me, the contempt on his face unmistakable. "There's no way in hell she's pregnant, because if she were…"

"Hah! She would have announced it to the entire world by now, using it as leverage to demand an even more lavish lifestyle."

Garrett sneered, his disdain filling every corner of the room. "She is far more calculating than you could ever imagine!"

The moment he finished his sentence, another violent cramp seized my abdomen, a searing agony that pierced deep into my marrow and burned through my soul.

It felt as though two tiny hands inside me were tearing at every nerve ending, the unborn baby screaming its heartbreaking farewell.

My insides felt completely torn apart.

"Cough! Cough!"

I coughed violently, my blood-stained lips parting into a ragged laugh. "Haha…"

"Garrett, look… what is this?" With a shaking hand, I reached into my coat pocket, pulling out the folded pregnancy report with fingers soaked in the blood of our lost baby, and held it out toward him. "Look at this, and then I'll leave!"

"I wish you two a long and miserable eternity together!"

I held the paper up with whatever strength I had left.

Garrett, didn't you want a child more than anything in this world?

Before I die, I want this report to act as a blade that pierces straight through your arrogant heart.

I want you to know that the moment you delivered that kick, you ended your own bloodline forever.

"Nora! I don't have time for your childish games!"

Garrett snatched the paper, but without even glancing at it, he crumpled it into a tight ball with a furious scowl.

He threw it hard straight into the pool of blood beneath me.

"Can you not understand plain English? I told you I am running out of patience! I'm completely done with you!"

He grabbed a handful of my long hair and yanked my head backward, forcing me to meet his furious eyes.

"I told you to give me that damn urn! I told you to apologize to Natalie! You will still be Mrs. Montgomery, do you hear me?!"

A blinding pain tore across my scalp, and I bit my lip until it bled, refusing to let out a single whimper as my bloodshot eyes glared right back at him.

Garrett caught sight of the urn still clutched in my arms, and the veins on his neck bulged menacingly. "Why are you still holding onto that thing?! She's already dead, how long are you going to use a corpse to threaten me?!"

"Give it to me!"

"Give it back!"

Garrett ripped the urn from my embrace as we both screamed at the same time.

One voice was filled with tyrannical rage, while the other carried the shattered grief of a broken soul.

My fingernails scratched Garrett's hand, drawing thin lines of blood, and his gaze instantly darkened with pure malice. "Fine! You want it so badly? Here!"

He roared at the top of his lungs, and right before my wide, horrified eyes, he ripped off the lid of the urn and threw it violently toward the ceiling.

"Mom!" I screamed, lunging forward with all my might to catch the falling white dust.

Before I could reach it, Garrett grabbed the back of my head and slammed my face forcefully against the hardwood floor.

"Let go of me! I can't let my mom…"

Garrett landed a stinging slap across my cheek, his voice a crazed growl. "Shut up! Stop the damn act! Aren't you just using your mother's death to squeeze more pity and money out of me?"

"Fine! I'll give you exactly what you want!"

He dragged my head up by the hair, scooped up a handful of my mother's ashes from the floor with his other hand, and shoved it viciously into my mouth.

"Didn't you love that old woman to death? Then let her rest inside you forever!"

"Open your mouth! Why won't you swallow it?!"

Garrett grabbed my hair again and smashed my forehead directly against the wooden floor.

"You won't even swallow it, so how dare you claim you loved her!"

"Open wide! Show me your devoted filial piety, or you can forget about ever being Mrs. Montgomery again!"