Chapter 3

I pulled a USB drive out of my purse and slid it across the table.

"Inside are all the core repository logs from the early days of Apocalypse Tech. Every single line has my commits and my signature.

"Plus, I wrote the original draft of the business plan myself and handled all the emails from when we negotiated with our first angel investor.

"And here are the transaction records from the first two years between Juan's personal account and the company account.

"One hundred thousand dollars of that was the money I got from selling the house my grandma left me. I transferred it to him as startup capital."

I'd held onto all this for years.

Not to guard myself against him.

But they were my most treasured memories from those years.

I thought they were the legacy of our love.

Only now did I realize it had been a weapon I would one day use to defend myself.

Otis looked at me, his expression shifting from worry to surprise, and finally settling into a nod of respect.

"Kaia, you're stronger than I thought."

Strong?

It was not strength, just instinct. When I had got nowhere left to run, I fight back.

"As for the third point," I said, locking eyes with him, "I want to file a motion for the court to investigate Juan's affair with Chana during our marriage, and any other questionable financial issues he might have."

In recent years, Juan had been getting bolder, desperate to break into high society and less scrupulous with every move.

I knew some of his secrets.

Back then, I chose to look the other way because I still loved him, because he was my husband, and we were partners, bound by mutual interests.

But now, he was nothing but my enemy.

There was no mercy for enemies.

When I walked out of the law firm, the sunlight was harsh, almost stinging my eyes.

I stood by the curb, watching the traffic rush by, and suddenly felt a wave of nausea hit me.

I figured it was just because I hadn't slept and was still emotionally drained.

I leaned against a tree trunk, retching for a while, but my stomach was empty, and nothing came up.

No way...

A crazy, scary thought hit me out of nowhere.

I suddenly remembered my period was over two weeks late.

I stood there, numb, cold all over.

It couldn't be that much of a coincidence, right?

I walked into a nearby pharmacy and bought a pregnancy test.

I slipped into the mall restroom, staring at the second bright red line slowly appearing on the stick.

My mind went totally blank.

I was pregnant.

And this happened right when I'd decided to cut Juan out of my life for good, to ruin him, to drag his name through the mud.

I was pregnant with his child.

I sat in that bathroom stall for ages, staring at the pregnancy test in my hand, numb and lost.

My phone screen lit up with a text from Juan.

[Where are you? Come back. We need to talk.]

Talked?

Talked about what? How he and Chana were openly cheating like a couple, or how much he would pay to get rid of me?

I didn't reply.

This little life inside me felt like the universe was mocking me.

It was the last tie between us that we could never really cut.

If this had happened yesterday, I would've been over the moon.

I would've run up to Juan, holding the test, telling him, "We're having a baby!"

I would've looked forward to seeing the surprise and joy on his face, imagining the three of us together, dreaming about a happy future as a family.

But now...

Staring at those two red lines, I didn't feel even the slightest bit of joy.

All I felt was a suffocating tightness, like fate itself had its hands wrapped around my throat.

Ran away while pregnant? Let him play the whole "regretful husband chasing after his wife" drama?

No.

That was not what I wanted.

If I kept this baby, it would just be leverage for Juan to control me for the rest of my life.

He would use "for the baby" as an excuse to barge into my life, rubbing my mistakes in my face again and again.

His family, the same people who used to point fingers at me and call me a "shrew", would suddenly become the baby's family, criticizing and meddling in my life at every turn.

I would never be able to cut him out of my life completely.

This wasn't a rebirth.

It was just another way to stay trapped in hell.

A child was the biggest shackle of all.

If I was going to end things, I had to end them completely.

A thought started spreading like wildfire in my heart, cold and ruthless.

I stood up and chucked the pregnancy test into the trash, as if I were throwing away not a child, but the last rotten fragment of my past.

I walked out of the restroom, grabbed my phone. Instead of calling Otis, I called a private clinic.

"Hello, this is Haven Clinic. What can I do for you?" the clinic staff asked.

"I'd like to schedule an abortion," I said.

My voice was so calm that it felt like I was listening to a stranger.

"Okay, how far along are you? Have you had an ultrasound to confirm?"

"No. But it should be less than fifty days."

"Alright, ma'am. We recommend you come in for a check-up first to confirm the gestational age and the location of the gestational sac. The earliest we can schedule the procedure is tomorrow afternoon. Would that work for you?"

"Yes."