Chapter 5

And so, I knelt at the hospital room door, slapping myself over and over, saying "I'm sorry" repeatedly.

People came and went through the corridor, excitedly watching the spectacle.

My forehead kept hitting the marble floor, quickly becoming bloody.

A flash of shock crossed Ethan's eyes. He instinctively moved to pull me up.

But Heather covered her nose in disgust: "Ethan, I just had a miscarriage and can't stand the smell of blood. Make her get away!"

Ethan hesitated for a moment, then issued his command: "She's gone mad. Lock her and her mother in the private apartment to clear their heads!"

Supporting my weak body, I was pushed into a dark room.

My mother was curled up in a corner.

My heart ached as I slowly pulled my mother into my arms: "Mom, don't scare me. Open your eyes and look at me..."

Seeing me, tears filled my mother's eyes.

Her aged hand caressed my cheek: "Natalie, leave him. I can't burden you anymore."

Then, with a blade she'd found somewhere, she slashed her wrist.

Blood gushed out.

"No!"

The person in my arms stopped breathing.

I couldn't help but scream loudly, my face full of hatred and despair, tears streaming down, nearly collapsing: "I'll do whatever you say, Mom! Wake up!"

Then Ethan knocked on the door: "What's going on?"

I screamed in agony: "I'm going to kill Heather! That murderer!"

"So cold... Ethan, let's go back to the hospital!"

The woman fell into the man's embrace, urging softly.

Ethan's eyes showed complex emotions as he instructed the bodyguards: "It's cold at night. Turn up the bedroom temperature. Natalie just had a miscarriage and can't handle the cold."

Heather shot a vicious look at the bodyguards.

The bodyguard at the door immediately complied.

The heat suddenly intensified. Sweat soaked through my clothes.

When I smelled the rotting odor from my mother's body, I completely broke down, pounding on the iron door with all my strength: "Let us out! Ethan, there's something wrong with this air conditioning!"

As my vision began to darken, my knees were scraped raw, and my whole body felt like the skin had been peeled off.

In my ears was Ethan's final warning: "Natalie, I'll let you out when you've learned your lesson. Heather lost her child. You need to suffer before she'll be satisfied."

I curled up, my whole body paralyzed by the heat on the floor.

I used my last bit of consciousness to speak: "Ethan..."

Before completely losing consciousness, I fell into a strong, powerful embrace.

A man's voice was low: "Go investigate everything that happened today thoroughly!"

Meanwhile, when Ethan was taking Heather to the hospital for a checkup, he saw breaking news on the lobby screen.

The video showed the apartment where Natalie was locked had suddenly exploded.

Then dozens of charred bodies were carried out.

Ethan suddenly saw the wedding ring he'd given Natalie now on one of the charred corpses!

Countless strings seemed to snap in his mind. Panic swept through his entire body: "No way... Natalie has always been lucky. It can't be such a coincidence!"

He scrambled to the explosion site and grabbed a police officer's arm: "My wife is still inside the apartment. Have all these victims been identified?"

The medical examiner removed his mask: "You're Natalie's family, right? If nothing unexpected, her body is in the first-floor lobby."