Chapter 3

The room instantly dropped to absolute zero.

Tears welled in Chloe's eyes as she stepped toward me, looking completely miserable.

"Julian only signed the papers with me back then out of pity, and Mom arranged the assets because she was worried about my future."

"Avery, it's my fault. It's all my fault."

Before I could even react,

Julian yanked Chloe behind him, watching me with sharp hostility.

"Avery, if you're angry, take it out on me. Don't touch Chloe."

Mom slammed her hand against the table, glaring at me with raw impatience.

"Avery, Chloe is carrying Julian's child!"

"You've been playing the spoiled rich wife for years. It's not like you're starving."

"You've occupied Chloe's rightful place for a decade. Isn't it time you gave it back?"

Right then, something inside me snapped completely.

I locked eyes with my mother, tears spilling freely down my cheeks.

"Mom, you're handing everything that belongs to me over to Chloe, but have you ever stopped to think about what I gave up over the last ten years?!"

"When Julian's startup was crashing and burning, I was the one who dragged him through the dirt! I worked myself into a raging fever just to close deals for him!"

"Now that we finally made it, you're telling me Chloe is the one who needs all this?"

"And you? To clear a path for them, you faked your own disappearance, watching me tear myself apart with worry!"

Looking at her, my mind flashed back to three months ago.

That day, she had called me, her voice trembling in frantic panic.

"Avery, don't look for me."

"Someone is watching me. I can't come home."

A chill had struck me to the bone. I desperately demanded to know what was going on.

All I heard on the other end was a scuffle of chaotic noise.

Then, the line went dead.

From that day on, she was gone.

I called the police, hired private investigators, checked street cameras. I tried every possible avenue, but found nothing.

I barely slept for days.

On the fourth night, I finally got a lead and drove through the pouring rain to check it out.

Halfway there, my car was t-boned.

When I woke up in the hospital, the doctor told me that my baby was gone.

The baby I had prayed for, tried for, for eight whole years.

Lying in that hospital bed, staring at the ultrasound report, my soul felt hollowed out.

And my mother was still nowhere to be found.

I didn't even have time to grieve. I dragged my broken body out of bed to keep searching for her.

On the day of my baby's memorial service, I carried the tiny urn of ashes back to our house.

I pushed open the bedroom door, only to find Julian and Chloe tangled together in bed.

They didn't even notice me standing in the doorway.

Right on the nightstand was the framed ultrasound photo I had set out for my child.

In that singular moment, I completely lost my mind.

I had lost the baby I waited eight years for.

My mother was missing, presumed dead.

And my husband was rolling around in our sheets with my sister on the very day of our child's memorial.

I grabbed the fruit knife from the counter, my hand shaking so violently I could barely hold it.

Back then, Julian had dropped to his knees beside my hospital bed,

swearing on our decade of love that it would never happen again, begging me through bloodshot eyes for one more chance.

I gave it to him. God, I was so stupid.

That suffocating agony rushed back in full force, making my lips quiver uncontrollably.

"Theo died two years ago! What's the point of constantly digging up the past?"

Mom slammed a plate down on the counter, her face full of disgust.

"I think the nursery you decorated for Theo looks lovely. Let Chloe use it."

"Her baby will be here soon anyway."

The blood in my veins ran ice-cold, my vision tinting red.

"Never! That is Theo's room!"

Chloe clutched her stomach, her eyes rimmed with red as she grabbed my arm.

"Avery, it's just for a few months."

"Your kid died young, and I haven't even complained about the bad luck in that room."

Her sharp acrylic nails dug brutally into my skin. On instinct, I shoved her away.

Chloe instantly tumbled onto the hardwood floor, clutching her belly and screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Mom! Julian! Save my baby!"

"Avery is trying to kill my baby!"

They were so terrified of Chloe getting hurt that before I could even speak,

Julian shoved me violently to the floor, and Mom's palm cracked across my face with brutal force.

"Chloe is pregnant, you vicious monster!"

"I should have let you bleed out in that hospital bed!"

She was referring to the time I slit my wrists after the miscarriage.

Back then, Julian hadn't stopped me. He had simply smiled and cut his own wrist too.

"Avery, without you, I don't want to live either."

Yet now, his hands trembled as he cradled Chloe.

As he carried her past me, his gaze lingered on my pale, blood-smeared face for a split second, but he didn't utter a single word of protest.

In his silence, I read his true regret.

He regretted stopping me back then. He regretted keeping me alive to hurt his precious Chloe.

At that moment, I didn't even have the strength left to explain.

Using the last few dollars in my account, I hailed a cab to Theo's columbarium. All I wanted was to take my baby's ashes and disappear forever.

But when I arrived, Theo's urn was gone.