Chapter 4

I tried to reach Leon every way I could.

Nothing went through.

The comments went dark too.

I paced the apartment in circles, wound tight with anxiety, and finally gave up and sat on the floor with my arms wrapped around myself, crying quietly.

What was the worst case here?

The worst case was exactly what the comments said. He'd decide I was shallow and materialistic, and cut me off completely.

It wasn't like he was going to have me killed. So why did it feel so terrifying?

But then — what about the baby?

Have it in secret and let the child spend their whole life as someone Leon never acknowledges?

Or use the pregnancy to pressure him into paying me off? Some kind of deal where I disappear in exchange for enough money to last a lifetime?

I didn't think I could do either of those things.

Which only left one option.

Take care of it myself.

Even though I'd already prepared myself for the worst, I couldn't bring myself to act immediately. There was still some small part of me holding on to hope. So I waited. I told myself I was giving Leon time to finish whatever was happening with his family before reaching out.

He never reached out.

What I got instead was the news that Leon had hurt someone during a blackout and was facing serious time.

His boss called me. He said Leon was looking at around ten years. He told me he felt terrible, and that he was giving me fifty thousand dollars as compensation.

He said he hoped I'd wait for Leon. But the way he said it, the pauses, the careful phrasing — he was clearly telling me to take the money and go.

I wasn't planning to play along. Then the comments appeared:

[If Niya's smart, she takes the money and disappears. Otherwise Eve is not going to let this go.]

[What can Eve actually do though? She can't exactly have Niya killed.]

[You seriously think the car accident in the original story was an accident? Ha.]

Eve had money and power. What was I supposed to do?

I took the fifty thousand and I left.

I was on my way back to my hometown when something nagged at me. Something felt off.

Eve had been through this all before. She knew about the baby.

There was no reason she'd chase me out and leave the pregnancy untouched.

It didn't take long to figure out.

Under normal circumstances, a woman like me — selfish, materialistic, no real attachment — would never keep the baby after Leon was arrested. Nobody would have to pressure me. I'd go straight to the clinic on my own.

So if I didn't do it voluntarily, what came next was probably a very carefully arranged accident.

One that looked like bad luck.

Fatal for two.

I didn't have a choice.

If I wanted to survive, I had to do exactly what Eve expected. I had to be the woman they thought I was, and I had to end the pregnancy myself.

I made the appointment.

The morning of the procedure, I was sitting outside the operating room waiting to be called in when I felt it. A pressure. Like something dangerous pointed directly at me.

I looked up.

Leon was walking toward me. His face was dark. His eyes were red.

How was he here?

I scrambled to my feet, backing away without thinking.

He kept coming, closing the distance, his voice shaking with controlled fury. "Niya. You couldn't wait to take the money and run. And now you're here to get rid of my child. Do you have even a shred of conscience left?"

My back hit the wall.

I opened my mouth. Nothing came out.

I wanted to explain. I didn't know where to start.

[Eve is a genius. She engineered the whole thing — got Niya to take the money, run, and then show up here — so even if Leon still had feelings for her, there's no coming back from this. Truly brutal.]

[Exactly. Making Leon see her "true self" is so much better than anything physical. No laws broken, and Niya doesn't become some tragic memory he can never get over.]

---

I thought Leon would be too angry to stop the procedure.

He didn't stop it.

He reversed it.

He said he wanted the baby born. Just not me.

"Have the baby. I'll give you ten million dollars. After that, we're strangers."

I forced my face into something that looked like a smile and blinked the tears back. "Sure."

Ten million dollars.

At my salary, I'd be working sixty years straight without spending a cent to save that much.

Only a fool would say no.

Leon looked angrier, his chest rising and falling hard. But he didn't blow up.