Chapter 4

“Doctor!”

“Save my mother! Please!”

“I’m begging you, save her…”

My mouth was thick with the taste of blood as I clutched at the doctor’s hand, pleading.

They shocked her, again and again.

The heart monitor stayed one flat line.

“Ma’am, we did everything we could…”

“Please accept our condolences.”

The doctor’s words buzzed in my ears.

I stared at my mother, unable to come back to myself.

Just then, fireworks burst open in dazzling color outside the window.

“Boom! Boom boom boom!”

They cracked open one after another.

I looked up and saw a few brilliant words written across the sky.

【Celebrating Lois Waking Up!】

Lois was awake?

My frozen thoughts began to move again, and I pulled out my phone.

Five minutes ago, Lois had posted a new update to her feed.

【A month in a coma, and so grateful someone stayed by my side the whole time!】

In the photo, Vincent was down on one knee, head bowed, slipping a sock onto her foot.

The tenderness in his face was so unfamiliar it left me dazed.

So his tenderness was still there after all.

He’d only given it to Lois.

So Lois had woken up long ago.

He’d simply chosen not to answer my messages.

The last thread in my mind snapped clean through.

I set the phone down and walked, step by step, to Lois’s room.

“Vincent, thank you for this past month.”

“I heard everything. To help me wake up, you even went through that special 【treatment】…”

Lois’s bashful voice drifted out.

My hand froze on the door.

“Don’t worry. I’m not telling you this to make you take responsibility.”

“I’m just afraid my being here will make Olivia misunderstand.”

“Now that I’m awake, I’m planning to go back to America…”

Lois had barely finished, her voice choking with disappointment.

Then Vincent cut her off.

“Why would you leave?”

“Olivia’s baby is due in five more months.”

“Once this child is born, I’ll get a vasectomy.”

Through the crack in the door, Vincent gave his word, one syllable at a time.

The man who once promised we’d have two children, a boy and a girl.

For Lois, he was ready to get himself sterilized.

A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth.

I shoved the door open.

“Vincent, you don’t need a vasectomy.”

“Because our baby is already gon…”

The words weren’t out of my mouth yet.

Vincent suddenly stood, snatched the dirty clothes beside him, and hurled them hard against my belly.

“Olivia!”

“You want Lois to see your pregnant belly and pass out again?!”

“Cover it up, now!”

My body went rigid, my steps stalling for a few seconds.

Stepping on the dirty clothes, I kept moving closer.

“Olivia!”

“I told you, cover that stomach of yours right now!”

“This is my last warning!”

Shielding Lois, Vincent’s face turned frighteningly cold.

When my steps still didn’t stop, his brow knit tight.

His eyes were full of exhaustion and disappointment.

“Olivia, stop making a scene.”

“Lois and I have always been innocent.”

“What’s between us is nothing like the filthy man-and-woman romance in your head!”

Every icy word delivered, Vincent took out his phone to call the bodyguard.

I spoke, my voice hoarse.

“Vincent, let’s get divorced.”

“Divorced?!”

“Olivia, say that again!”

His back teeth clenched, Vincent stood there stunned.

His eyes were full of disbelief.

“You’re the one who did wrong, and you’re asking me for a divorce?!”

It tore out of him almost as a snarl.

Shaking with fury, Vincent strode right up to me.

“Olivia, I’ll give you one chance.”

“Take back what you just said!”

The veins stood out on his neck, his eyes red.

He reached out and gripped my wrist, about to say more.

Then Lois cried out in fright.

“No!”

“Ah! Olivia, your belly is horrifying!”

At that terrified sound, Vincent instantly let go of my hand.

He spun around in a panic, trying to shield the hysterical Lois.

I reached out and pressed my hand against the loose clothes.

The belly that had once swelled beneath them was flat now, utterly flat.

Vincent froze where he stood.

As if his whole body had turned to stone.

“Olivia, where is our child?”