Chapter 8 · After I Lost Our Baby, He Finally Regretted

Chapter 8

The day Charlotte was discharged, the sky was overcast and gray. She didn't go anywhere else. She just drove straight back to Maplewood Estate.She packed up a few essentials, all fitting into a single small suitcase.Then she pulled out a gas can she'd stashed in the trunk days ago.Gritting her teeth against the pain from her wound, Charlotte started pouring gasoline, leaving a trail along the porch, through the living room, and up the stairs.With one last, decisive act, she set the whole place on fire.She stood there in silence, watching as everything she'd ever touched, ten years of memories, was swallowed up by the flames, reduced to nothing but ashes.By the time the fire truck sirens echoed from far away, she was already gone, her car disappearing around the corner, leaving the neighborhood behind.She drove straight to the west side cemetery.With effort, she lifted a small wooden box from the back seat, no more than two feet long.Inside was the baby boy she'd carried for over seven months, his tiny chest bearing a cruel stab wound.She placed him gently in the little grave she'd dug herself, then covered him, one handful of earth at a time.Finally, she took a single lily from her bag and laid it gently atop the fresh mound.Charlotte whispered, her voice hoarse and dry, "I'm sorry."My baby, Mom couldn't keep you safe. Next time, make sure you're born to parents who love each other, somewhere simple and warm."Then Charlotte went to a courier service.She sent off three unmarked envelopes, all addressed to Michael.The first envelope contained a paternity test report.It showed that Michael was the baby's biological father.She'd arranged for the test after Sophie left.The second envelope held another medical report.The date was from the second year of their marriage, back when Michael had just been accepted back into the Quinn Family.At the time, Charlotte was desperate to have a baby, so she insisted they both get a full check-up.The conclusion on the last page of the report was clear and merciless, and it stated that his sperm showed zero motility. He was infertile.It happened not long after Michael was welcomed back into the Quinn Family.Before that, everything seemed perfectly normal.When Charlotte saw the report, she was totally blindsided. Her first instinct was to hide it, never let anyone know.He was a proud man, and he had only just secured his footing in the Quinn family.If word ever got out that he couldn't father a child, the fallout would be more than she wanted to imagine.She'd grown up in a wealthy family, and she knew all too well how cutthroat and full of betrayal it could be. Michael might've been set up by his own family, just waiting for him to crash and burn.So she kept that secret locked away, never letting it slip.Even when he'd anxiously ask, "Why aren't you pregnant yet?"She'd just smile and reassure him, "Don't worry, we'll take it slow."So when Sophie showed up pregnant and Michael actually got down on his knees, begging her to spare "Michael's child," Charlotte thought the whole thing was so absurd it made her furious. She was so angry she could barely see straight.There was no way that kid was Michael's.She went ahead and took care of it herself, ignoring Michael's desperate begging.It killed two birds with one stone. Not only did she deal with a child that had never been Michael's, she also made sure everyone lurking in the shadows still believed he was a real man.But she never imagined Michael would hold such a deep grudge against her because of it.Michael immediately moved in with Sophie Lane.The third envelope contained Michael's medical records from that year, along with all her prenatal check-up reports.Back then, after Michael spent ten days in the ICU fighting for her, she was in tears, begging the doctors to save a sample of his healthy sperm, just something to hold onto, a piece of him in case she lost him.She told herself that if he didn't make it, she would use it to give him a child, so that some part of him would go on.He made it. The samples stayed frozen at the hospital, and she never touched them.Then he broke with her, and he did it cleanly, for Sophie and her child.She knew he'd betrayed her, and she should've bailed before things got worse.She should've left him.But her heart ached, and she just couldn't let go.So she gave him one more chance, and gave herself a chance to see if there was anything left worth holding onto.She gave their ten years a chance.She used those lingering wishes and finally got pregnant.She told him, "The baby isn't yours."But he still came back.She thought he'd come back because he'd looked into it and found out the baby was his.It was ridiculous.He didn't bother to check a thing. He just labeled his own son a bastard.He even went so far as to take cruel revenge on her.He didn't realize that was the only child he had left in this world.It didn't matter if he didn't know. She'd make damn sure he learned the truth.Physical pain was nothing.She wanted him to feel the pain deep in his soul.She wanted to break him, heart and soul.As for Sophie, she didn't even care enough to bother with her.She wanted Michael to learn the truth.She wanted him to know that the child Sophie carried wasn't his, and that he had crippled his own son to protect another man's bastard.What would he do then? What would he do to Sophie?She wanted to watch the two of them turn on each other and tear each other apart.But she wasn't going to sit back and wait for it to happen on its own. She would give it a push.She called her private lawyer."File assault charges against Sophie Lane," she ordered.Everything that needed burning went up in flames, everything that needed burying was laid to rest. Debts were paid, grudges settled. It was all over.Bayview had nothing left for her now.Michael was stuck in a never-ending international video conference when his phone buzzed.Glancing at the screen, he saw it was the property manager from Maplewood Estate. He frowned, signaled for the meeting to pause, and walked over to the window to answer."Mr. Quinn, your house is on fire. The flames are huge, and the fire department's already there!" the manager shouted.

Chapter 8