Chapter 4

The next day, when I returned home from the lawyer's office, my parents suddenly called.

Their tone was unusually stern.

"Fiona! Tell us the truth. Did you do something to betray Ethan?"

I was stunned.

I didn't know how to explain that Ethan had cheated and I wanted a divorce.

After a few seconds of stunned silence, I chose to deflect.

"Mom, Dad, nothing like that happened..."

My mother's heavy breathing came through the phone.

"Our house got splashed with red paint by some woman named Chloe. She says you're shameless, that you seduce her husband every night!"

"What's going on? The neighbors are all pointing fingers at us, saying you couldn't control yourself, that while Ethan was working late, you were out there sleeping around..."

My hot-tempered father snatched the phone away, shouting at the top of his lungs:

"Are you really that cheap? That desperate? Because of you, people are talking behind our backs. Your mother's fainted several times... If you don't fix this, we're cutting you off!"

Bang! The call disconnected.

Almost simultaneously, a soft laugh came from the bedroom.

The door opened.

Chloe stood inside.

She looked younger than her profile picture, with luminously pale skin and bright eyes. In her hands were the shredded pieces of my pregnancy test results.

"Like the gift I sent your parents?"

She smiled sweetly.

But it made my blood run cold.

I pulled out my phone to call the police while demanding: "How did you get in here?"

She slapped the phone out of my hand.

Shaking her head with a mocking laugh: "Stupid! Your husband gave me the key, obviously."

I stood frozen, my entire body shaking with rage.

She looked at me, tilting her head with a smile.

"Can't handle this already?"

"What if I told you I don't just have your house key — I also have his project authorship rights and his research institute paycard? What would you do then?"

I took a breath, forcing down the fury rising in my chest.

"You saw it yourself. I'm carrying his child. I'm his legitimate wife. He won't destroy his academic career and future for you!"

She froze for a second.

Then burst out laughing.

"Really?"

She suddenly stood up, slowly walking toward me, her eyes dropping to my still-flat stomach.

Lips curling, her voice drawling slowly: "You think having a baby will tie him down? Just like you thought spending twenty years with him would guarantee you his whole life?"

"Stupid! So stupid!"

She threw her head back, laughing wildly.

Her voice was shrill and piercing.

Then I watched as her hands slowly moved to her own stomach.

Her clothes were thin.

Thin enough that I could clearly see her swollen belly.

Chloe glanced at my stunned expression, her face unable to hide her gloating.

"Fourteen weeks along. Ethan said once he finishes this current project, he'll tell you he wants a divorce. He's even reported it to his superiors."

"If I were you, I'd spread my legs and find another man..."

Fourteen weeks...

Fourteen weeks ago, she'd already had a key to my home.

She'd probably been in my marital bed, on the sofa, even in the shower — in every corner of our shared home.

He'd mounted this woman, taking her again and again.

The clinking sounds of lab equipment bottles came crashing back into my ears.

Boom!

My carefully maintained composure shattered under the weight of my rage.

I grabbed the ashtray from the table and hurled it at her.

Ahhh!

She couldn't dodge in time. It hit her squarely, blood streaming from her forehead.

The suffocating pressure I'd been holding back, mixed with fury over my parents being terrorized, formed a tidal wave.

I didn't stop. Instead, I lunged at her like a madwoman.

Straddling her body, I grabbed her hair and slammed her head against the table.

Bang!

Her piercing screams were music to my ears in that deadly silent space.

The blood spurred me into deeper frenzy. I tore at her scalp while cursing at the top of my lungs:

"Bitch! Whore! Husband-stealing slut! Why don't you just die! I'll kill you!"

I'd lost all reason.

Completely consumed by rage.

Chloe's face was covered in blood. Her forehead crimson, her nose crimson, her mouth crimson.

She screamed until her voice went hoarse.

But I showed no mercy, clawing at her face, biting her ear, kicking her stomach with my feet.

She shrieked as blood seeped from between her legs in a spreading stain.

I stared at the bright red beneath her, pausing for a few seconds.

Just those few seconds — and my lower abdomen took a brutal kick. Pain exploded across my belly.

My entire body flew backward.

Splurch!

Flesh pierced through.

The tip of an umbrella protruding from the entryway plunged deep into my body.

No!

I heard Ethan's terrified scream.