Chapter 4

Zayn was putting up a swing in the garden and was covered in sweat, while Clara giggled as she massaged his shoulders. "You should let the help put this together."

"Not a chance. This swing is for you and the baby. I can't let someone else do this."

Swing.

Baby.

I clutched my stomach, feeling it cramping violently. I did not tell Clara about my stomach cancer because I did not want her to worry. To think that I had even tried to tiptoe around the issue of her pregnancy by asking, "Do you want a boy or a girl?"

She was silent for a long time before replying hoarsely that she had never given any thought to the question. I guess it was because the baby she was thinking about was not mine.

Zayn caught sight of me from the corner of his eye, and he smiled maliciously. "Clara, you know what a proud person Eric Miller is. He won't let me get away with this if he finds out that you're having my baby. A-Are you willing to make our relationship and our baby legitimate?"

I held my breath. I wanted her to say I was her one and only and tell Zayn not to even dream about it. Please… I was begging her in my mind.

After a while, Clara said, "Zayn, just wait for me a little longer. The Millers are about to fall, and once they have completely fallen, I'll buy up all their assets to repay them for what they did for me and to make him understand his place, that he should be subservient to you."

Her words obliterated the last of my hope.

Ten minutes later, the Millers' bodyguards barged through their doors.

"Destroy everything!" I roared with reddened eyes. "Break that hand of hers that touched another man!"

Zayn screamed in fright, and I grabbed him by the hair to push his face down into the soil again and again. "Your mother had an affair, and you had an affair! Your genes are coded to be shameless third parties!"

Tears and snot covered his face, and he even coughed up blood.

Clara struggled to escape from the grip of the bodyguards, and her eyes were filled with hate. "Don't you dare hurt him, Eric! Or I'll make you pay for it!"

She was true to her word. The Millers had been in a financial crisis for a long time, and the entire family fell overnight. Clara did not buy us out right away as an act of revenge against me, but let things be until my father was forced to jump off a building.

The Millers' mansion was put up for auction, and I was riddled with millions in debt. I did not even have the money to buy my father a proper cemetery lot to be buried in, and I was forced to beg Clara for help.

Every one of my fingers was broken before she made an appearance, and she flung $10 at me. "Buy your father a straw mat. You can treat it as my gratitude to him for helping me build my business."

I was humiliated as I picked up the money, but it was the only dignity I could afford to give my father.

Back on the deck, the supervisor's voice pulled me out of my reverie. "Take your pay and get lost! You've offended someone you shouldn't have!"

I clutched the money and walked slowly into an alley right outside the harbor, clutching my stomach. After walking some distance, several muscled men appeared from the corner, playing with switchblades in their hands.

"Mr. Jordan told us how annoying it was to look at your face, and he wants us to slice it up before feeding you to the fishes."

I turned to run, but my stomach hurt so much that I could not control my body. I tripped and fell into a puddle of dirty water with a horrible stench.

When the blade was about to come down on me, someone kicked the thug hard, and he flew off into the distance.

Clara's bodyguards had the muscled men pressed down on the ground, and she grabbed me from the ground while her chest heaved violently. "Look at you, Eric! Why do you refuse to give in to me when you've already ended up this way?"

"Let me go!" I struggled hard to escape from her grip, but my contorted hands were too weak. "Stop with your pretense, Clara! Don't you really know who wants me dead?"

Clara was triggered by my attempts to resist her, and she grabbed me by the collar, speaking in a tone that confused me because it sounded like she was in pain. "I didn't hold it against you when you broke my hands and hurt Zayn back then. Isn't that enough?

"Haven't you suffered enough in the past four years? Come back with me, and I'll give you however much money you want. I'll hire the best doctors in the world to treat your hands. Just stop torturing yourself this way!"

"Treat my hands? How are you going to do that, Clara?" I raised my trembling hands during the struggle. "Don't you want to get them treated? Go on, do it!"

I looked at her and laughed until my tears started streaming down my face, and I continued roaring at her hysterically. "Get your bone specialist to come and try putting back every bone in my finger when they're already crushed into pieces!"

Clara's tall, slender body flinched, as if someone had just punched her hard. Before she could reply, her phone rang. "Ms. Hall, we just found a medical report from four years ago in your office that diagnosed someone with stomach cancer."