Chapter 2.

Heavy rain poured through the night, soaking Elena’s thin dress until it clung tightly to her trembling body. Yet the cold biting her skin was nothing compared to the frost that had long since frozen her heart.

Elena kept walking, leaving behind the elite district where the Vane family mansion stood. For five years, she had called that place home, yet not once had she ever been treated like a human being there.

Inside the small cloth bag clutched against her chest were only a few worn-out clothes and a pregnancy test showing two unmistakable red lines.

She was pregnant.

Elena tightened her grip on the bag. The tears she had desperately held back in front of Charlie finally fell together with the rain. Why did this child have to come into her life when her entire world had already crumbled into ruins?

“Do you really think I would ever want a child from a murderer?”

Charlie’s cruel words from a year ago echoed once again in her mind, spoken during a family dinner where he had humiliated her in front of everyone.

Elena slowly placed her trembling hand over her still-flat stomach. Suddenly, a mother’s protective instinct awakened inside her.

“You are my child,” Elena whispered through the roaring wind. “Only my child.”

If Charlie or Sarah ever found out about this pregnancy, they would never allow her to live in peace. The cunning Sarah would surely try to get rid of the baby, while the ruthless Charlie might take the child away as yet another form of punishment. Elena swore she would hide this child’s existence from the man named Charlie Vane.

Suddenly, headlights sliced through the darkness from behind her. A luxurious black sedan stopped right beside Elena, splashing water onto the hem of her dress. Her heart pounded violently. Was it Charlie? Had he come to torment her again?

The car door opened.

But it was not Charlie who stepped out.

A woman wearing a striking red fur coat descended gracefully from the vehicle. Her bodyguard immediately opened a black umbrella above her head.

Sarah.

The face so identical to Elena’s looked at her with a victorious smile. There was no wheelchair anymore. No pale, suffering expression like the one she always showed in front of Charlie. Sarah stood tall, healthy, and perfectly fine.

“How pitiful,” Sarah said in a sweet yet mocking tone. She stared at her sister with obvious disgust. “I heard you already signed the papers. A very smart decision, dear Sister Elena.”

Elena did not take a single step back. She straightened her spine proudly. “You already got Charlie. What else do you want?”

Sarah let out a soft laugh. She leaned closer to Elena’s ear and whispered coldly, “Just make sure you never come back. Charlie hates you. Even if you died on the side of the road tonight, he wouldn’t care.”

Elena clenched her fists until her nails turned white. “The accident five years ago... the brake failure... you were the one behind it, weren’t you?”

The smile on Sarah’s face widened even further, confirming everything without needing a single word.

“Who cares?” Sarah sneered before turning back toward her car. Just before closing the door, she glanced back one last time. “Enjoy your new life in the trash, Sister.”

The luxury car sped away, leaving behind exhaust smoke and splashes of dirty rainwater. Elena stood frozen in place. But instead of crying, her eyes now burned with blazing vengeance. Her sorrow evaporated, replaced by an unshakable determination to make them pay for everything.

“We’ll see about that,” Elena whispered while staring at Sarah’s disappearing car. “Five years from now... I’ll make all of you crawl.”

With determined steps, Elena walked toward the night train station. She would leave this city behind and build a new life from nothing for the sake of the child growing inside her.

That night, the pitiful Elena disappeared forever. What remained was a woman ready to challenge the entire world.

Meanwhile, inside the grand study of the Vane mansion, an eerie silence filled the air. Charlie stood near the massive window, watching the rain trickle down the glass. A tumbler of amber liquid rested in his hand, but his thoughts were drifting far away.

On his desk lay the divorce papers Elena had already signed.

An unfamiliar ache pulsed inside Charlie’s chest. A strange emptiness suddenly crept into his soul. He should have felt relieved to be free from the woman he believed to be a monster.

Yet Elena’s final expression kept replaying endlessly in his mind. That empty gaze carried neither pain nor love. It was as if Elena had completely erased his existence from her life.

“You will beg God to turn back time to this very day.”

Elena’s final words echoed once more in his head, cold and filled with a curse. Charlie finished his drink in one gulp, trying to suppress the discomfort growing inside his heart.

“Damn it,” Charlie muttered under his breath as he slammed the glass onto the table. “She’s just a murderer. She deserves it.”

But deep within his heart, a small seed of doubt had already begun to grow. A doubt that would one day become a storm powerful enough to destroy his entire world. Charlie never realized that tonight, he had not only let go of the wife he hated, but also cast away the woman who had once saved his life... along with his own flesh and blood.