Chapter 3

Pierce Voss rushed Lena Young into the ER and came storming back with two security guards behind him.

“What did you do to her?”

His voice was raw, like someone had touched the one thing he could never tolerate.

I froze. The naked suspicion in his eyes hit me harder than any slap.

He didn’t even look at me again.

“Take her away,” he ordered coldly.

The guards grabbed my arms. I stumbled as they dragged me down the hallway. My shoulder slammed into the metal doorframe, blooming into a dark bruise within seconds.

Pierce saw it. His pupils tightened; something like regret flickered in his eyes.

“Careful,” he snapped at the guards. “Don’t hurt her.”

But their grip never truly loosened.

They hauled me all the way up to the rooftop.

“Pierce Voss!” I finally found my voice. “Is that what you think I am? Someone who would hurt a pregnant woman?”

His expression shifted, pain, doubt, confusion.

“Then why were you even there?”

I let out a humorless laugh. Because I had my prenatal appointment.

But I didn’t say it.

“My life is still mine, Pierce,” I said, my tone sharp. “I go wherever I want.”

His phone rang.

The moment he picked up, Lena Young’s panicked sobs spilled through the speaker.

“Pierce…Pierce, the doctor says the baby might not make it…”

His head whipped toward me, fury exploding in his eyes.

“Serena, how could you? When did you become this vicious? You couldn’t even spare an unborn child?”

His words hit me like a thunderbolt.

I stared at him, the man I had loved for ten years.

And he stared back at me like I was a monster.

“I just wanted a child!” he shouted. “Serena, I’m thirty-three years old and I still don’t have an heir! The Voss family doesn’t have an heir!”

“Serena Hale, you owe me a child.”

Owe him… a child?

Our child, he never cared. Not once.

Pain ripped through me.

“Pierce, I’m pre, ”

He cut me off, voice hoarse.

“You caused Lena’s miscarriage. You will admit what you did. You’ll apologize. You’ll serve your time. And when you’re out… we’ll go back to how we were.”

Back to how we were?

Not anymore.

I looked him straight in the eyes.

“I didn’t push her. She fell by herself..”

His jaw tightened. He hadn’t expected me to fight back.

“Take her to the station,” he said. “Charge her with assault. Seventy-two-hour hold.”

I stared at him, stunned.

He would really throw me into jail, for her?

I bit down on my lip until I tasted blood. I said nothing.

The seventy-two hours in county detention were hell.

They threw me into the filthiest cell. The other inmates had clearly been paid, they took turns finding new ways to break me.

Day one: they stripped me for “inspection” and drenched me in freezing water.

Day two: someone ground glass into my food. My stomach cramped from hunger.

Day three: three women dragged me into a bathroom stall and beat me until my vision blurred.

I clenched my jaw, refusing to scream. Blood trickled from the corner of my mouth.

The ringleader grabbed my chin.

“Heard you pissed off the Voss Mafia,” she sneered. “Word is… we’re supposed to ‘teach you a lesson.’”

Every ounce of love I’d ever had for Pierce Voss died right there.

Then warmth spread suddenly down my legs, hot, uncontrollable.

Red seeped into the thin gray fabric of my uniform.

My baby.

Tears blurred my vision.

Somewhere far away, I heard guards shouting:

“Damn it! You weren’t supposed to take it this far! If Voss finds out she lost the baby in here, you’re all screwed!”