Chapter 4

I dragged my packed suitcase to the front hall.

Clive heard the noise and looked up. When he saw I really had a suitcase in hand, his brow snapped into a frown. “Eleanor, what are you doing? You're actually leaving?”

I said evenly, “Clive, give me back my pendant.”

Something uneasy flickered across his face. He set down his drawings and stood. “Amelia's wearing it. She can't take it off right now.”

“Once she's better I'll give it back to you, of course. Now put the suitcase away and stop this.”

I didn't give an inch. “It's mine. I want it back now.”

He said, irritated, “Why are you so stubborn?”

“Amelia cries the moment the jade comes off. Can't you just wait a few more days?”

I answered flatly, “No.”

Just then Sibyl came out of the room holding Amelia, and there, right on Amelia's neck, was my Sunseal jade pendant.

Sibyl's eyes were red-rimmed. She reached up to take the pendant off, her voice catching. “Eleanor, take the pendant back!”

“We're the ones who should go, the two of us. I'll take Amelia and leave right now. We won't bother you two ever again……”

She started toward me as she spoke, hurrying, and when she reached the step at the entryway her foot slipped, and she came straight at me, child and all.

I was already weak and light-headed, unsteady on my feet, and her shoulder caught me hard. I stumbled back two steps, my back slamming into the shoe cabinet, and then I went down onto the cold marble floor.

A tearing pain ripped through my lower belly, and warm liquid ran down between my thighs, soaking through my pale trousers.

The pain drained my face white.

In a daze, I saw Clive rush over first.

I thought he was coming to help me up.

Instead he went past me and caught Sibyl and Amelia as they fell toward him, looking them over anxiously, his voice thick with worry. “Sibyl, are you all right? Did you hurt yourself? Is Amelia frightened?”

Sibyl huddled in his arms, shoulders trembling faintly, sobbing softly. “I'm fine, it's just that Eleanor she……”

Only then did Clive turn to look at me.

When he saw the blood on the floor he froze for a second, then frowned, and there was actually blame in his voice. “Eleanor, how could you be so careless?”

“Sibyl's frail as it is, and now look, everyone's hurt. Are you satisfied?”

My tears finally fell, not from the pain, but from how cold my heart had gone.

My voice shook. “You watched her crash into me with your own eyes, and you blame me?”

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but Amelia burst out crying in his arms, and Sibyl cried even harder.

In an instant he had no attention left for me. Soothing the child, he said to me impatiently, “All right, all right, enough of this. I'll call a doctor over.”

“Don't bother.”

I cut him off, and bearing the pain, I braced on the shoe cabinet and slowly stood.

The blood was still running down my legs, dripping off my ankle onto the floor.

I looked at him. “Clive, we're done.”

“From today, you and I are square.”

He was stunned, probably never expecting me to say something like that. Reflexively he said, “Eleanor, don't be rash. It's just a piece of jade, is it really worth……”

I cut him off and said coldly, “The way you shield them makes me sick.”

With that, I dragged my suitcase, pulled the door open, and walked out step by step.

Even though my belly hurt so badly I was near passing out, even though I could hear Clive shouting behind me, I never looked back again.

Seven years of love had died the moment he took my pendant.

And this fall severed every last thing I'd been holding on to.

After I left, Clive didn't come after me.

He probably still thought I was just throwing a fit, that I'd come back on my own in a couple of days.

After all, seven years, and every time we fought, I was always the one to back down first.

How could he have imagined that this time, I really wasn't going back.

I went back to the old Stewart residence.

When my parents saw me, face white as death and covered in blood, they were scared out of their wits. They called the family doctor in the middle of the night and stayed by me for three full days.

The babies couldn't be saved.

Two tiny lives, gone before they ever got the chance to see this world.

I lay in the bed with my hand on my flat belly, tears soaking the pillowcase without a sound.

My parents were beside themselves. My father wanted to send people after Clive right then, and I stopped him.

I said softly, “What he owes me, I'll collect it back myself, piece by piece.”

……

A week later, once I'd recovered a little, I formally took over Stewart Group's jewelry design division.

And it was right then that Clive's studio received an olive branch from Stewart Group: the design project for a top-tier jewelry showroom on prime land in the city center.

Everyone in the industry knew this was the prize to have. Whoever landed it would vault straight to the top as the new star of the design world.

Clive was wild with joy, sure that a top financial group had finally recognized his talent. He pulled several all-nighters on the proposal, ready to make a name for himself in front of Stewart's executives.

On the day of the meeting he wore a bespoke suit, his hair combed without a strand out of place, and arrived at the top-floor conference room of Stewart headquarters half an hour early.

An assistant poured him water and said politely, “One moment, Mr. Delgado. Our CEO will be here shortly.”

Clive nodded, nervous and pleased with himself all at once.

The conference room door swung open.

I walked in wearing a fitted black suit, a cluster of executives around me.

The smile on Clive's face froze in an instant, and the proposal slipped from his hand onto the table.

He shot to his feet, pupils shrinking, his voice shaking. “Ellie? Why are you here?”

Before I could say anything, the special assistant standing behind me stepped forward, his tone hard and cold. “Mr. Delgado, show some respect.”

“This is the sole heir of Stewart Group, CEO Eleanor Stewart, and the lead on this project.”