Chapter 5

Three days before the engagement ceremony, I was moved into a villa by the sea.

It was dozens of times larger than the little house I had been staying in.

The master bedroom came with floor-to-ceiling windows. The walk-in closet overflowed with new dresses that still had their tags on, and the nursery contained an unopened crib waiting in its box.

Armed guards stood posted outside the front door. Kitchen staff monitored everything I ate, and an electronic fence ran the entire perimeter of the garden.

Charles told me it was an ideal environment for pregnancy.

I glanced at the surveillance camera discreetly mounted in the corner of the wall and let out a quiet laugh.

He showed up every evening without exception, carrying soup, stacks of documents, and the same exhausted expression he seemed to wear all the time now.

Vivian, meanwhile, had taken up residence at Rivers Manor.

I watched her on the evening news, walking into a charity gala with Charles at her side.

She was wearing that white dress again, the one she had ordered a second time after I dumped soup all over the original, and her smile was as warm as it was calculated.

The media had already started calling her the future first lady of the Rivers Group.

I turned the television off.

*****

She came to see me the following day, with Vincent trailing behind her and two nurses in tow.

"Ms. Rhine," she said, "Charles has asked me to accompany you to your prenatal appointment."

I didn't bother getting up from the couch. "And where is he?"

"In a board meeting." She lowered herself into the armchair across from me and rested a hand gently over her stomach. "He's terribly busy these days. The Rivers Group needs him. His father needs him, and I need him, too."

She placed an ultrasound photograph on the coffee table between us. "Six weeks."

I stared down at the small black-and-white image. "Is it Charles'?"

She smiled at that. "Does it really matter? The Rivers family will acknowledge it."

My chest sank into a dull, heavy ache.

Vivian stepped closer and lowered her voice until only I could hear her. "Your baby is more developed than mine.

"And as long as that child exists, people are going to start asking where Charles was three years ago and whether he already had a wife before any of this.

"So that baby can't be born."

I tried to stand and leave, but the two nurses pinned me down before I could move.

Vincent pulled a syringe from the medical kit. "Ms. Rhine, your progesterone is too low. You need this shot."

I struggled against them with all my strength. "Get off me!"

Vivian watched from the side, her face stripped of any pretense of warmth. "Don't make me the villain here, Sophia. You have no family name, no connections, and your identity documents wouldn't survive a basic background check. Charles can't help you."

The needle sank into my arm, and a cold liquid pushed its way into my bloodstream.

Almost immediately, a deep cramping pain took hold of my lower abdomen.

I crumpled to the floor, my clothes drenched in sweat within seconds.

Vivian crouched beside me and gently wiped the moisture from my forehead.

"Don't worry," she said softly. "The doctors will call it a natural miscarriage."

I grabbed her wrist and dug my nails into her skin until I drew blood. "You'll regret this."

She smiled. "I'll be waiting."

Blood was seeping out from under my skirt.

I lay curled on the ground, the pain so unbearable that I couldn't even cry out.

Through the haze, I saw Charles burst into the room.

His face drained of color as he scooped me up. "Sophia!"

I clutched the collar of his shirt. "Save the baby..."

He looked over at Vincent.

Vincent lowered his gaze. "Mr. Rivers, I'm afraid there's nothing we can do. Ms. Rhine suffered a severe emotional shock, which led to a stillbirth and hemorrhaging."

I shook my head weakly. "The injection..."

Charles went rigid beneath my hands.

Vivian stood nearby, her eyes rimmed in red. "She tried to run down the stairs, and when I stopped her, she shoved me. The doctor had to sedate her."

Charles looked down at me, and the anguish in his eyes ran deep.

Still, he did not press for answers.

He simply pulled me closer and held me tighter. "Sophia, just stay alive. That's all I need."

I smiled. So those four words were the ones that cut the deepest.

When the operating light came on, they wheeled me down a cold corridor toward a room that smelled of antiseptic and silence.

Just before the doors swung shut, I heard Charles slam something against the wall outside.

But he never called the police. He never laid a hand on Vivian. He never fought for my child.

When I opened my eyes again, the room held only Charles.

He was sitting by the bed, his eyes red and swollen with exhaustion. "Sophia, I'm so sorry."

I fixed my gaze on the ceiling. "Leave."

He reached for my hand. "We'll try again. We'll have another baby."

Slowly, I turned my head toward him. "You don't deserve one."

His eyes glistened, heavy with tears.

From the other side of the door, Vivian's quiet voice slipped through. "Charles, we can't postpone the engagement banquet. Mr. Rivers says the group can't wait any longer."

Charles did not move.

I pulled my hand from his and let my eyelids fall shut. "Go, then."

He sat there for a long, heavy moment. But in the end, he rose to his feet.

The door clicked shut behind him. Only then did I slip my hand beneath the pillow and pull out the button camera.

The red light was still blinking. Every last second of Vivian pushing that needle into me had been recorded.