I let out two barking sounds, my voice trembling as I said, “I’m filthy.”
Hazel leaned down as she curled her lips into a triumphant smile.
“Audrey, when I once kneeled in front of you and begged you not to marry Ethan, did you ever imagine you’d end up like this?”
Hazel had come to plead with me back then, saying she and Ethan were in love, and asked me to call off the engagement.
The marriage between the Moore and the Smith families had been arranged by our elders, bound by countless business interests.
If I were to end it, the blame would fall squarely on my family—we’d be the ones suffering the consequences. So, I rejected her request.
I never thought she’d hold that grudge for this long.
But I had no strength left to argue about the past. I looked up at them, pleading, “Please call an ambulance…”
Ethan stomped down hard on my back.
“Audrey, you really are shameless! You’d do anything for that disreputable child!”
I was crushed to the ground, my belly slamming against the hard floor. Pain exploded across my belly like wildfire.
“You said you’d spare the baby…” I muttered.
Hazel’s tone was nonchalant as she remarked, “I said I’d let the child go. Ethan didn’t say a thing, did he?”
“You’ve got some nerve to use that child and my name to lie your way into the Moore family. Do you think I’d let you off that easily? Dream on!” Ethan snapped.
Ethan kicked me square in the stomach. Pain shot through me like lightning, and bright red blood began to stream down my legs.
I could feel the baby in my belly stop moving bit by bit. Despair surged through me, and the hatred in my eyes as I looked at them cut deeper than a blade.
“Ethan, Hazel, you’re going to regret it!” I shouted.
