Chapter 4

This was the man I'd loved for five years.

This was the man I'd risked my life to give a child.

I shoved the door open, and the two people in the room turned their heads at the same time.

Colin dropped the grapes in his hand to the floor, all the color draining from his face as he stood up.

"Mar... Marian? What are you doing here?"

Brenda was startled for a moment, then looked me up and down, a mocking smile curling at the corner of her lips.

"Oh, so this is your wife who can't even afford a few dollars' worth of brown sugar?"

She deliberately pushed out her belly, which wasn't showing yet.

"She's not even that good-looking. No wonder you'd rather spend ninety-nine thousand keeping me than spend a single penny on her."

Colin planted himself in front of Brenda's bed in a panic and snarled at me.

"Are you following me? Who told you to come here? Get out."

I walked in step by step, looking at the room full of fresh flowers, tonics, and that bowl of steaming premium bird's nest soup on the table.

"Colin, where's the three hundred thousand from the account?"

"Half of that money is my salary. What right do you have to take it and give it to this woman?"

Colin stiffened his neck, his eyes darting around, but he quickly hardened again.

"What's 'yours' and 'mine'? Once you're married, the money is joint property, and I'll spend it however I want."

"Besides, Brenda is carrying the only heir of our James family."

"You can't even hold on to one child. What right do you have to lecture me?"

He kept harping on how I couldn't hold on to a child, every word a precise stab into my wound.

I stepped forward and picked up the bowl of scalding bird's nest soup from the table.

"What are you doing!"

Colin roared.

Without hesitation, I flung the whole bowl of bird's nest soup, broth and all, into his face.

"Aah!"

Colin covered his face and screamed in agony, bird's nest dripping down his cheeks, an utter mess.

Brenda shrieked in fright and grabbed a pillow, hurling it at me.

"You crazy woman, where's security? Call security, now."

I ignored her completely and slapped Colin hard across the face.

"This three hundred thousand is what you owe me."

The slap enraged Colin.

He lunged at me, his eyes red.

"You bitch, how dare you hit me."

He grabbed me by the collar and shoved me hard away from him.

I was already weak, with no strength to fight back.

I lost my balance and fell out into the hallway.

Violent pain swept through my whole body. My vision went black, and I nearly passed out.

The bleeding below, which had already stopped, surged out again.

The warm liquid quickly soaked through my pants, spreading a large patch of dark red across the carpet.

I curled up on the floor in agony, feeling my insides tear apart with every breath.

The nurses in the corridor heard the commotion and ran over, freezing in shock at the sight.

Colin stood in the doorway, looking down at me without a trace of pity in his eyes.

He turned to the nurse and said:

"Get this crazy woman out of here. She dirtied your carpet—make her pay for it."

"Don't let her filth foul my son's eyes."

And with that, he closed the door without hesitation.

I lay on the carpet, staring at the shut door, the excruciating pain in my abdomen leaving me unable to think.

My marriage, my child, my money.

All of it was gone.