STRANGER!!

**CHAPTER 004**

"I guess you're not serious..."

Those were the last words before he slammed the door in my face—**SLAM**—because obviously I rejected his stupid offer.

Did he really think I'd agree to that? That I'd let him touch me like... like that? He was disgusting. A complete psycho. A pervert. And I'd rather freeze to death out here than let him anywhere near me.

Now I see why he always hated me. I reminded him of my mother. He felt she left him on purpose—he called that weakness? And now he hates me too because he feels I'm weak and loves Isolde because he feels she's strong, he said she had ambition and I wasted my life, whereas he was the one who wasted 9 months of my life.

I'm going to make sure he regrets this one day. He's just a sick psycho who finds blame in others... if he ever loved my mother then he wouldn't have had an affair with some bitch he met at the club a week after she died. Then he wouldn't have brought in women every two days to sleep with them.

I still sat there in the cold, my knees on the wet porch, staring at the closed door. The rain didn't subside—rather it increased, coming down harder and harder until I could barely see in front of me.

I found myself trapped between a closed door and a cold world with nowhere else to go.

No husband. No home. No family.

Nothing. I guess it had always been my fate to suffer.

I don't know how long I sat there. Minutes? Hours? Time felt meaningless.

Finally, I forced myself to stand. My legs shook beneath me, weak from kneeling, weak from everything that had happened tonight.

I picked up my luggage and entered into the rain again, dragging the suitcase behind me as I walked away from my stepfather's house.

Away from the last place I could have called home.

The rain beat down on me relentlessly. Within seconds I was soaked through completely, my gown clinging to my body, my hair plastered to my face and neck. Water dripped into my eyes, mixing with the tears that wouldn't stop falling.

I began shaking due to the cold. My teeth chattered. My whole body trembled.

But I kept walking.

My mind wandered as I moved through the empty streets. I thought about the baby growing inside me—my baby, not Cassian's anymore. Just mine. Would he survive? I asked while placing a hand to my stomach. Will we survive? The question was one which I had no answer to.

I thought about how I didn't tell Cassian I was pregnant. How I'd walked into that room with the report in my pocket, ready to share the news that I thought would change everything, and gotten a news of my own...

How stupid I'd been.

"You'll need me one day, Cassian Weldon," I whispered into the rain, my voice shaking. "One day you'll see how it feels to get rejected. To be thrown away like trash."

I meant it. Every word.

And right there, soaking wet and alone on an empty street, I made a vow to myself.

I would never tell him about this child. Never. He didn't deserve to know. Didn't deserve to be a father.

I would keep my baby far away from him. From all of them—Cassian, Isolde, my stepfather. They could all rot for all I cared.

This baby was mine. Only mine.

I kept walking, though I had no idea where I was going. My legs just kept moving, one foot in front of the other, like they had a destination even if my mind didn't.

I remembered my mom, the only person who ever loved me and treated me like I mattered... she should as well have just stayed single after Dad died, but she went ahead to marry that hell of a man called my stepfather. That was her greatest mistake... and I would make sure I won't make that mistake anymore. I'd make sure I won't give my heart to any other person. I won't be broken twice.

The road was almost empty. It was really late—past midnight probably, maybe later. I'd lost track of time walking in the dark.

The only things visible were trees lining the sides of the road and streetlights casting weak orange glows every few meters. Everything else was darkness and rain.

My vision started to blur. Not from tears this time, but from something else. Dizziness.

I felt it creeping up on me, making my head spin, making the world tilt sideways.

I stumbled but caught myself. Kept walking.

Just a little further, I told myself. Just a little more and then... and then what? I didn't know.

I reached what looked like a main road—wider, with painted lines on the asphalt. Still empty though. No cars. No people.

Just me and the rain.

I stepped off the curb to cross to the other side of the road.

And that's when bright lights flashed.

Headlights. Coming fast. Too fast.

I had no time to think, no time to move, no time to scream.

I had heard no sound—or maybe I did and my brain just couldn't process it.

The impact hit me hard. So hard.

I felt myself flying backward, felt my body hit the ground with a sickening thud. Pain exploded everywhere—my head, my back, my legs.

I struggled to breathe but it came in shallow breaths. I couldn't move.

I felt my head warm and my hands placed on a thick liquid. Blood. I didn't need to look to know what it was—it was sticky, spreading beneath me on the cold wet asphalt.

As my eyes began to close, my mind drifted back to Cassian for some reason, and then my mother. Things I couldn't make sense of.

Just then I saw a figure getting out of a car. Tall. Moving toward me quickly. Its face was blurry as my eyelids struggled to stay open.

I tried to speak, tried to call out, but nothing came.

And then everything went dark.

**********

The beeping was the first thing I heard.

*Beep. Beep. Beep.*

Steady. Moving. Loud in my ears.

I tried to open my eyes but they felt so heavy, like someone had placed weights on my eyelids. Everything hurt—my head throbbed with a dull, constant ache that made me want to cry. My body felt broken, every muscle screaming in protest even though I wasn't moving.

Where... where am I?

The smell hit me next. Antiseptic. Sterile. Old people. That sharp, clean scent of disinfectant and smell of old sick people that could only mean one thing.

Hospital.

Panic flooded through me instantly, cutting through the fog in my mind like a knife.

The baby.

My hand tried to move to my stomach but it was so heavy, weighed down by something. I forced my eyes open, blinking against the harsh white lights above me. Everything was blurry at first—just shapes and colors that didn't make sense.

White walls. White ceiling. Machines beeping beside me.

I turned my head slightly and through my blurry vision I saw tubes connected to my arms. IV drips. Monitors.

"No... no no no..." My voice came out as barely a whisper, broken and hoarse like I hadn't used it in days. My throat felt like sandpaper.

The baby. Please God, please let my baby be okay.

A tear fell before I could stop it, hot and fast rolling down my cheeks. I couldn't lose this baby. I couldn't. It was the only thing I had left. The only thing that was truly mine.

"My baby," I sobbed, the words catching in my throat. "Please... my baby..."

My chest heaved as I tried to breathe through the panic. My hands finally reached my stomach, pressing against it desperately through the thin hospital blanket covering me.

I couldn't feel anything. Couldn't tell if—

"You should be resting."

The voice made me jump, my head whipping to the side so fast it made the room spin.

There was someone sitting beside my bed. A man.

I blinked through my tears, trying to focus on him, but all I could see was a dark shape in a chair. My vision was still too blurry, my mind too scattered to process anything except the terror consuming me.

"My baby," I gasped, not caring who he was or why he was here. Nothing else mattered. "Is my baby... please, I need to know... is my baby okay?"

The words tumbled out in broken sobs. I couldn't stop crying, couldn't catch my breath. My whole body shook—from fear, from pain, from everything that had happened.

The man shifted in his chair but didn't answer right away. I could feel him staring at me.

"You're pregnant?"