Chapter 4

I got up early the next morning.

Ignoring the attending physician's advice, I checked out of the hospital ahead of schedule.

Just as I returned to the ward to pack up my personal belongings, Seraphina pushed open the door to my room.

"Callista, why haven't you gotten lost yet?"

Seraphina glanced left and right, then firmly shut the door after confirming no one was nearby.

She wore a smug, malicious sneer on her face, with none of the delicate, pitiful disguise she put on in front of Matteo.

Her complexion looked even better than mine, showing no sign of someone who had just undergone emergency resuscitation for poisoning last night.

If Matteo saw her like this with his own eyes, his jaw would probably drop.

"Did you really think I was poisoned yesterday?"

She walked over to my hospital bed, her eyes filled with dark twists.

"I drank that tiny bit of toxin myself. Because I knew the very first person Matteo would suspect was you."

Receiving no reaction from me, she bent down and whispered maliciously into my ear.

"No matter how many times I play this trick, Matteo will always believe me."

"Oh, and that dead little bastard in your belly... you still don't know, do you? Just pushing you into a fall wasn't enough to guarantee a miscarriage. So I added small doses of abortifacients to your pregnancy preservation tea for a whole month!"

"So what if I 'accidentally' caused your fall and miscarriage? Matteo didn't vent his anger on me at all."

"When you were pushed into the emergency room during your miscarriage, he was even comforting me, telling me not to blame myself too much."

"For so many years, you still cling to Matteo like a stray dog without letting go. Don't you find yourself disgusting?"

I thought I no longer cared about anything. But hearing about my poor baby, I couldn't stop shaking.

I could no longer keep my composure. I grabbed Seraphina’s wrist and pulled her toward me, then brought my other hand down hard across her face.

Slap!

At the sharp crack of the blow, Seraphina crashed heavily to the floor with a shrill cry. A bright‑red handprint stood out starkly against her pale cheek.

She covered her slapped right cheek in disbelief, as if she had never imagined that Callista, whom she had toyed with for so long, would finally fight back.

The violent movement jarred my injured leg. A searing, piercing pain shot through me, and I collapsed back onto the bed.

Just then, the hospital room door swung open.

“Callista! What are you doing?!”

Matteo burst in, his eyes bloodshot. He gently lifted Seraphina to her feet, not so much as glancing at me sprawled on the bed.

“Matteo… I only wanted to apologize to Callista again. I hoped she would forgive me, but she...”

Seraphina clung tightly to Matteo, burying her face against his chest in hurt.

Matteo murmured a few words to soothe her and seated her in the chair beside the bed.

Then he stormed over and wrenched me roughly to my feet.

“I saw everything. I know you aren’t willing to forgive her, but why did you strike her?”

“Callista, you have let me down so deeply!”

His brute force aggravated my leg injury once more. Agony drained the colour from my face, and beads of sweat dotted my forehead.

“Why won’t you even ask why I hit her? She killed our child! She even...”

Matteo roared, interrupting me.

“Enough! Stop playing the victim! Seraphina is the one who got struck. I already know what your so-called reason is.”

“You will say Seraphina killed our baby, no? Callista, how many times must I tell you‑it was merely an accident! As my Donna, why can you not find it in yourself to pardon her? Someone so petty and vindictive does not deserve to be a mother at all!”

With that, Matteo turned his back on me entirely and walked straight out, holding Seraphina in his arms.

I stood frozen, engulfed by a bone‑chilling cold as though trapped in an ice cellar.

This was the man I had loved for years. For the woman who had taken our baby’s life, he had insulted me, saying I was unfit to be a mother.

I glanced down at my phone screen. It read: Audio file saved.

Seraphina had no idea that from the very first second she stepped through the ward door, I had already turned on the encrypted recording function.

Right after that, two more messages popped up on the screen one after another.

[Notice: The divorce decree has officially taken effect. Registered mail has been sent. Please expect its delivery.]

[Dr. Callista, your pickup vehicle has arrived.]

Matteo was busy comforting Serafina and paid me no mind. Without the slightest hesitation, I left the hospital as fast as I could.

The officer respectfully opened the car door for me, and I stepped inside without a moment's hesitation.

For everything here, I had not a single shred of lingering attachment left.

Sitting in the back seat, watching the familiar streetscapes speed past my eyes, I took out my phone and sent the original audio recording of Seraphina confessing to all her crimes last night directly to Matteo's phone.

A pop-up notification of successful transmission flashed briefly.

I rolled down the car window and threw the phone out without hesitation.

The phone shattered into pieces instantly, just like my long-dead past.

I was finally free.