Chapter 1
Eugene Grant always believed I was a coward who clung to life and a woman who only married him for money.
So when his childhood sweetheart, Anna Sullivan, and I ended up in the ICU after the same car accident, he didn't hesitate. He pointed at me and said, "Give the only plasma to Anna. She's fragile. She can't handle the pain."
The doctor's voice shook as he reminded him, "Mr. Grant, your wife is pregnant. And she's lost more blood."
Eugene didn't even look back. His voice was cold as he spoke over his shoulder, "She's tough. She'll make it. Save Anna first."
He didn't know it then, but that was the last time I would ever lay eyes on him.
When the lights in the operating room went dark and the nurses wheeled me out, I had already lost my uterus. That was the moment I decided to take my revenge.
In the end, Eugene, who once commanded the heights of Jelasburg society, completely lost his mind.
*****
To get that bag of plasma for Anna, they ripped the IV out of my arm.
The moment the cold needle tore through my vein, a bead of blood landed on Eugene's expensive custom suit.
His face twisted with disgust as he pulled out a handkerchief and scrubbed at the spot furiously, like he'd touched something filthy. "Katherine, stop pretending."
He stood over my stretcher, his gaze ice-cold. "Anna scraped her hand, and you're out here fighting over plasma like your life depends on it. Have you no heart?"
I lay on the stretcher, my stomach hurt so bad that I couldn't even move.
My vision blurred, and I desperately reached for his jacket.
"Eugene... our baby..." My voice came out in a broken whisper, barely there.
I wanted to tell him I was three months pregnant.
The crash had hit hard on the passenger side. I twisted to protect my belly, but the dashboard crushed in and pinned me anyway.
Blood kept pouring out from down there, hot and unstoppable, draining all the warmth out of me.
The moment Eugene heard me say "baby," his eyes went cold with scorn.
He shoved my hand away. "Enough," he growled, barely holding back his fury. "You'd even make up a lie like this just to win my favor? The report last month said you could barely get pregnant. Do you take me for a fool?"
I tried to speak, but my throat filled with the taste of blood.
Anna had messed with that medical report, but Eugene always believed her, no matter what.
"Mr. Grant, we're running low on plasma," the nurse called out, her voice tight with panic. "Miss Sullivan says she's feeling dizzy. She needs a transfusion right now."
Eugene's expression shifted instantly. The icy indifference he'd shown me melted into urgent worry for Anna.
He turned away, his back cold and resolute. "Stop Katherine's transfusion. Send the plasma to Anna."
The doctor's eyes went wide with fear. "But Mr. Grant, Mrs. Grant's vitals are dropping. If we don't give her blood..."
"I told you, she's tough," Eugene snapped, cutting him off.
He shot a vicious glare back at me over his shoulder. "Katherine, if you dare put the doctors up to another one of your little acts, I'll stop paying for your brother's medical bills. Let's see how long a vegetative patient survives without care."
Those words drove into my heart like a poisoned nail.
My brother, James Sinclair, was my weakness, and Eugene knew exactly how to use him against me.
I let go of the sheets I'd been clutching. Tears slid silently down my face, mingling with the blood at my temples.
"Fine," I whispered, watching his back, using the last shred of strength I had left. "Eugene, don't you dare regret this."
He paused mid-step, and then let out a mocking laugh. "Regret? The only thing I regret is marrying a scheming, manipulative woman like you."
He strode off toward the operating room next door, where Anna lay crying prettily over a scratch on her hand.
And I was left behind in the freezing corridor of the crowded emergency center, abandoned like a piece of trash no one wanted.
*****
My body kept getting colder.
The sounds around me began to drift in and out, sometimes near, sometimes impossibly far.
I felt like I was lost in a long dream, drifting back to three years ago, when an avalanche buried Eugene under the snow.
Everyone gave up. Even the rescue teams pulled out.
I was the only one out there, digging through the snow with nothing but a shovel for two days and two nights in temperatures of twenty-two degrees below zero.
My nails were torn and bleeding, my hands a bloody mess, frostbite down to the bone.
When I finally found him, I wrapped my only coat around him and used my own body to warm his frozen limbs.
When he finally woke up, the first person he saw was Anna, who came running in.
She threw her arms around him, sobbing. "Eugene, I thought I'd never see you again."
He was so moved that he swore right then and there to protect her for the rest of her life.
Meanwhile, I spent two weeks in the hospital with severe frostbite on both hands.
By the time I got home, Eugene was throwing a huge party to celebrate Anna "saving" him.
No one asked where I'd been. No one mentioned my name. I was his wife, but I might as well have been invisible.
Later, when I tried to explain, Eugene just accused me of trying to hog the spotlight.
"Katherine, Anna nearly broke her legs looking for me," he said. "You just lay in a hospital bed feeling sorry for yourself. How could you be so vile, trying to take credit for saving my life?"
After that, I stopped trying. There was no point. He didn't love me, and that was the only thing that mattered.
Just then, the heart monitor blared with a harsh, piercing alarm.
They rushed me into surgery, not because Eugene suddenly cared, but because a passing doctor didn't have the heart to watch me die.
"She's hemorrhaging. Get an IV, now!"
"Checking for a fetal heartbeat... Nothing."
"Her uterus is ruptured. We have to take it out to stop the bleeding."
Their voices sounded muffled. I felt like I was underwater.
My baby was gone before it could even see the light. It was killed by its own father, all because Anna had a scratch on her hand.
"Where's her family? We need a signature!" the nurse yelled, bursting out of the OR.
I forced my eyes open, squinting against the harsh surgical lights.
My family was next door, fussing over Anna. He was probably slicing apples for her right now, all gentle and attentive.
"I'll... sign it myself," I whispered, my hand trembling as I reached for the blood-soaked consent form. With shaky fingers, I scribbled my name, barely legible.
Every stroke felt like cutting into my own heart.
If Eugene never loved me, why did he marry me? If he hated me this much, he should have just let me die.
Anything would have been better than watching him tear me apart and trample my life like it meant nothing.
Right before everything went black, I caught Eugene's voice from outside, cold and annoyed. "Is she dead yet? If not, tell them to stop the noise. Anna can't sleep."