Chapter 4

Sadie's cheeks turned bright red as Stephen squeezed her neck, her breathing ragged and desperate. She slapped at his hands with all her strength, but it didn't do a thing.

Stephen's eyes burned with rage. "Sadie, when did you get so cruel? How could you do something so insane, so messed up?"

Sadie shoved him away with everything she had, tears spilling down her cheeks. She couldn't tell if it was from the pain or the sheer humiliation. "Stephen, I swear I didn't do it. I would never make such a careless mistake."

Stephen stared at her tears, and a strange ache stabbed through his chest, catching him off guard.

But then, a doctor stepped out of the OR, holding a tray with a bloody surgical blade lying on it. "Mr. Hawthorne, this was removed from Ms. Sutton's abdomen. The baby's gone. We'll do everything we can for the mother."

Sadie's pupils dilated in shock, her head shaking desperately. "No, it wasn't me. Every tool was counted before, and after the surgery, I swear..."

Before she could finish, a stinging slap crashed across her cheek.

Her ears buzzed from the slap, and a thin line of blood instantly stained the corner of her mouth.

Before Sadie could regain her senses, Stephen seized her arm and dragged her out, rough and unforgiving. "You call yourself a doctor, but you have zero ethics, deliberately hurting a patient. Sadie, you deserve to be locked up and reflect on your actions."

Sadie snapped out of it and struggled desperately. "Let go of me. I'm not going. Stephen, let me go. You jerk, I hate you."

Stephen's heart twisted painfully for a moment, but as soon as he thought about the baby she killed, his eyes went cold as ice.

"The evidence is ironclad. You'll pay for what you've done. In three days in lockup, you'd better reflect on your actions," Stephen said.

Stephen threw Sadie into the cell.

Before she could react, a group of female inmates closed in around her, and a stream of foul, urine-smelling liquid rained down from above.

It soaked her face and body, leaving her drenched in filth.

As soon as Sadie realized what it was, her stomach heaved, and she doubled over, retching uncontrollably.

Suddenly, someone roughly yanked her head up by the hair, sneering with obvious disgust. "Aw, look at Mrs. Hawthorne, so spoiled and precious, and you can't handle this?"

Another inmate slammed a kick into Sadie's shoulder, the pain so intense that she had to bite her lip to keep from crying out.

Another one snapped, "Back then, Mrs. Hawthorne, you were some nobody who married into money, and Mr. Hawthorne treated you like a queen.

"But so what? All that pampering, and you still ended up dumped and thrown out like yesterday's garbage."

Sadie's face was very pale, her eyes rimmed red with rage and humiliation. "Get away from me. All of you, get lost."

"Still haven't figured out your place, huh? You really think you're still somebody?" the woman sneered, her face twisted with malice as she cracked her knuckles. "I have been itching for some action. I finally get to use you to let off some steam."

A sharp, resounding slap crashed across Sadie's face.

The rest of the inmates surged forward, fists and kicks raining down on her from every direction.

For the past three days, Sadie felt like she'd been through hell, like she'd been torn apart and left raw.

The moment the prison doors swung open, those people ripped her clothes off on purpose, leaving her standing at the doorway, exposed and humiliated.

Sadie hugged herself tightly, trying to hide, and forced her way out as fast as she could.

But before she could flag down a cab, a bunch of people suddenly burst out from the side.

"Sadie, this is all your fault. If it weren't for you, we wouldn't have been fired from the hospital. Stephen had us blacklisted in the medical field," someone snapped.

The doctors and nurses who'd been in the operating room with her grabbed her and started hitting and kicking her.

"Because of you, we all lost our jobs. We can't make a living here anymore," another one chimed in.

One of the nurses, crying, slapped her hard across the face. "I only gave you a little push, and you deliberately left a scalpel in her abdomen as payback? Sadie, go to hell."

Those three days had already left Sadie barely hanging on, and now, after the beating, she felt like whatever was left of her had been destroyed, too.

She lay on the ground, her life flashing before her eyes.

As her eyes closed, a tear slid from the corner of Sadie's eye, but there was nothing left inside her, not a ripple.