Chapter 4

When he left, he slammed the door hard. I closed my eyes, and the pain in my chest finally began hitting in waves. Edward stood nearby and handed me a tissue.

"If you want to cry, then cry." I took it, my hand still trembling.

"I don't want to cry. I just suddenly feel sick."

Edward was silent for a moment, then said, "Then don't look back." I nodded. But pulling someone out of your heart, roots and all, doesn't happen that fast—especially when it came to that child. After that night, I kept reaching for my lower belly without thinking. When I woke up in the dark, I'd still daze myself into believing the doctor had lied and the baby was somehow still there.

The next afternoon, the doctor came in with my test results and gently told me the severe bleeding had damaged my uterine lining. I wouldn't be able to get pregnant again for at least six months, and even after that the risks would be far higher than normal.

Only after the doctor left did I bury my face in the blanket and bite down hard on the back of my hand. I didn't dare make a sound. I was afraid that if I started crying, I'd fall apart for real.

The day I was discharged, no one from the Bennett family came to pick me up. The one who came was my best friend, Sophie Hart.

Sophie stormed into my room in high heels, having driven over in her red little sports car, and the second she saw me she cursed, "That bastard Charles Bennett is going to get what he deserves sooner or later." But when she noticed how thin I'd become, her eyes reddened on the spot.

"Grace, come with me. Don't go back to Bennett Manor."

I shook my head. "I have to go back and get some things."

"Forget that. I'll have bodyguards move it all for you."

"There are some things I need to get myself." The backups of the financial records I'd kept over the years, the proxy shareholding agreement Grandma had given me, the prenatal files in the study safe—and most important of all, the nursery I had put together with my own hands. I needed to see for myself how the place I'd waited so long for had turned into a joke.

When the car pulled into Bennett Manor, the hydrangeas in the yard were in full bloom. I had planted them last spring.

Back then, Charles came home from work, saw me crouching in the dirt, and frowned. "Why are you messing with all this?"

I looked up with a smile. "So when the baby's born, I can bring our baby out to bask in the spring sunshine." He stood there in the sunset, silent for several seconds, then reached out and rubbed my hair. It was one of the few times he'd ever been gentle with me. I had really thought even ice could melt.

Looking back now, I was just fooling myself.

The moment I stepped inside, I heard laughter coming from the living room. It wasn't the staff. It was Lily. I looked up and saw Olivia in my house slippers, sitting on the couch peeling a tangerine for Lily, while Charles stood nearby taking a call, calm and composed, like the perfect husband and father at home. And I was the outsider who had wandered in.

Lily saw me first and blinked. "Ms. Grace."

Olivia looked up too. A trace of awkwardness flashed across her face, but it was quickly replaced by a soft smile. "Grace, you're out of the hospital?"

I ignored her and looked straight at Charles. "Who let her in?"

Charles ended the call and frowned slightly. "Olivia had a pipe burst at her place, so I brought her and Lily here to stay for a couple of days."

"A couple of days?" I laughed. "Where exactly are they staying?"

Olivia said softly, "Charles said the room on the east side upstairs was empty..."

My chest tightened hard. That east side room was the nursery I had prepared for my baby. I threw down my bag and headed straight upstairs. The second I pushed the door open, I felt rooted to the spot. The pink-and-blue crib had been shoved aside, and the soothing toys I had chosen were gone.