Chapter 1

I lay on the delivery bed, my husband Ethan holding my hand.

"Just hang in there a little longer, Rebecca. Our baby will be born soon."

I was drenched in sweat from the pain, yet I still managed to give him a smile.

Until a nurse walked in carrying a syringe. I thought it was the anesthetic for an epidural.

But Ethan suddenly released my hand and said, "This is a labor-delaying drug. I need to let Scarlett deliver her child first. You'll have to wait."

I wanted to scream, to struggle, but the medication had already been injected into my body.

I never imagined that my husband would care so little about my life, all so his dead Derek 's wife could deliver her child first.

I was wheeled into a makeshift cell in the hospital basement.

Ethan's sister Lily stood at the door, toying with a scalpel in her hands.

"Don't blame my brother. Scarlett's carrying a boy. You're carrying a useless girl."

I clutched my stomach as a new wave of contractions fought against the medication. The pain made everything go dark before my eyes.

"Get a doctor. I'm going into labor, really..."

Lily laughed. She walked in, crouched in front of me, and gently tapped my face with the scalpel.

"Labor? The drugs will last another three hours. Scarlett's already in the delivery room. Just wait here like a good girl. Once her son is safely delivered, you can deliver however you want."

After speaking, she stood up and instructed the guard at the door, "Watch her. If she dares to shout, gag her."

The door closed.

The basement had only one dim emergency light. I lay on the floor, blood soaking through my dress.

My phone had been confiscated by Ethan when we entered the hospital. He said it had radiation, bad for the baby. Looking back now, he was afraid I'd contact the outside world.

I curled up, trying to use deep breathing to ease the pain. But my mind was full of Ethan's expression from earlier. Cold, calculating, like he was looking at an object. Not at his wife, nor at the woman about to bear his child.

Three months ago, Derek died in a car accident. He left behind his widow Scarlett, three months pregnant. At the funeral, Ethan’s grandfather wept openly, gripping Scarlett's hand and saying, "You must safely deliver the child."

I felt sorry for Scarlett then and volunteered, "Grandpa, don't worry. Ethan's and my child will also be filial to you."

Ethan’s grandfather glanced at me without saying a word. Turns out from that moment on, my child had already been abandoned.

"Ah..." Another wave of contractions hit, fiercer than before. The medication was weakening. The baby wanted out.

I clawed at the door, pounding with all my strength. "Someone, please! I'm in labor! Save my child!"

No response from outside. It wasn't until I'd shouted myself hoarse that I heard the guard's impatient voice, "What are you yelling about? Miss Lily said to wait."

"But the baby..."

"If it dies, that's fate. Who told you to carry a girl instead of a boy?"

I collapsed on the floor, my whole body freezing. It wasn't fate. Someone wanted my baby dead.