Chapter 2

This was the first time in a long while that I'd said the word "leave" to him.

A flicker of panic crossed Chester's face, but Josephine cut straight through his emotion.

"No way—you're bringing up leaving this easily?"

"Chester, don't say your girl here didn't warn you. When a woman talks about leaving, it usually means she's already lined up someone else."

"Otherwise, she loved you so much before—how could she say she wanted to leave so easily?"

When he heard that, Chester's expression turned even colder than before, even carrying an inexplicable anger.

He seized my neck and slammed me hard against the cabinet door.

"Eva, tell me—are you seeing someone else!"

I struggled with all my strength and forced out, "I didn't... betray you."

"You're lying!"

"If you hadn't betrayed me, how could you, who loved me so much, ever want to leave me!"

After roaring those words, he flung me viciously to the floor.

I coughed hard several times, and when I finally caught my breath, I looked up at him, my eyes full of disappointment, not even aware that my cheeks were wet with tears.

"You're the one who betrayed me—what's wrong with me not wanting to stay together?"

"Chester, you're not the only one who has a thing about purity. I have it too!"

The words "a thing about purity" were practically taboo for Chester.

Because they dragged up the bad memories of his childhood.

I had braced myself to face Chester's fury, but to my surprise he only stared blankly at my lower body, silent.

Following his gaze, I finally noticed that the inside of my thighs was already soaked with blood.

I panicked a little, wondering if I'd hurt myself somewhere.

But because of being soaked so long in seventy-degree water, the nerve endings all over my body were basically severely damaged.

So I couldn't feel the pain in my body.

Frightened, I instinctively reached to Chester for help.

And he seemed to finally snap out of it, scooping me up and rushing me to the hospital.

After a round of examinations, I learned I was a month and a half pregnant. Luckily the treatment came in time, and the baby was barely saved.

When he heard the news, he sat silently beside me and stroked my belly.

"Little Eva, now that there's a child, let's turn the page on all of this."

"I won't hold your wrongs against you anymore. Neither of us owes the other anything."

I didn't answer him. I just lay there quietly, feeling the warmth beneath my belly.

With the child as a soft spot, my fixation on leaving really did fade a good deal.

But whenever I thought of his long-standing suspicion and misunderstanding of me, and the way he'd just hurt me—

I still couldn't get past that hurdle in my heart.

Just as I was hesitating over whether to keep this child, Josephine, standing off to the side, slowly spoke up.

"A month and a half pregnant? But I remember Chester was away on a business trip a month and a half ago."

"Is this child really Chester's?"

Then she waved a hand and explained, "Don't misunderstand, honey—I'm just genuinely curious about it."

"I don't mean to suggest you cheated or anything."

Hearing that, I immediately looked at Chester, and sure enough, his brows were tightly furrowed—he'd clearly taken Josephine's words to heart.

"Eva, get rid of this child."

"I won't raise someone else's kid."