Chapter 4

4: 4

I woke from the blackout to the sharp reek of disinfectant filling the room.

When the doctor saw me open my eyes, he let out a sigh.

“Ms. Henson, you were eight weeks along. The asthma attack cut off your oxygen for too long, and we couldn't save the baby.”

“The D&C just finished. You'll need to stay in bed and rest for the next few days.”

I sat propped against the pillows, dazed, my hand drifting on its own to my flat stomach.

Eight weeks.

A life that never got the chance to see the world, gone now into a smear of blood.

The phone on the bedside table buzzed once.

Numbly, I picked it up.

What sprang onto the screen was a post Russ's assistant had just put up:

【Celebrating early for the big investment Mr. Delgado lands tomorrow! Thank you for all your hard work, Lucy~】

Location tagged: the fanciest restaurant in the building right below the office.

I had just lost my child, and they were raising glasses to the moment they'd stepped over me to get ahead.

I couldn't hold back anymore. I reached over and pulled the IV needle out of the back of my hand.

Fighting through the knife-twist of pain in my belly, I got a cab to that restaurant.

I reached the door of the VIP room, and through the gap where it stood half open, the sight in front of me turned my stomach.

Lucy was half draped in Russ's arms, one finger hooked around his tie.

Russ bent his head and, with sickening tenderness, kissed away the smudge of red wine at the corner of her lips.

“Russ, tomorrow when I take Olivia's proposal to James Group and land the investment, are you really going to transfer all her shares to me?”

Russ tightened his arm around her waist, his voice full of contempt.

“The second that funding's in hand tomorrow, I'm cutting her out for good.”

“From then on, the only woman running this company at my side is you.”

I pushed the door open and looked coldly at the two of them.

Hearing the sound, Russ raised his head.

When he saw it was me, he froze for a beat, then shoved Lucy away and his face darkened at once.

“Olivia, you followed me here?”

“So you had an asthma attack and went to the hospital. Is that any reason to come checking up on me?”

I walked to the table, picked up the bottle of red wine they'd just opened, and poured it straight over the proposal lying beside it.

The dark red soaked through the pages in an instant.

Russ shoved me hard and scrambled to grab the documents off the table.

“Olivia, have you lost your mind!”

I was already weak, and the shove sent me into the back of a chair, a warm, metallic taste rising in my throat.

He rubbed frantically at the wine on the paper, but the writing had already blurred beyond reading.

He slammed the ruined sheets down on the table, his face livid.

“That's the master draft for tomorrow's hundred-million investment! You won't be satisfied until you've destroyed the company, will you!”

Seeing the documents were beyond saving, he had no time left to spend on me, and yanked Lucy up to hurry out the door.

“Come on, back to the office to reformat and reprint it!”

Just before he left, he turned and fixed his eyes on me:

“Tomorrow, once I land James Group's investment and cut you out for good, don't come crying and begging me!”

The door of the private room slammed shut.

Bracing myself against the corner of the table, I slowly straightened up and calmly dialed Quinn James.

The phone rang twice before it was picked up.

Looking out at the night beyond the floor-to-ceiling window, I spoke calmly:

“Mr. James, tomorrow's investment review for James Group, I'll be handling it personally.”