Chapter 4

I had originally planned to tell Adrian about the pregnancy.

After all, this child had come so quietly.

It was as if, when I had nothing left, the baby had reached out and gently held one of my fingers.

I bought a pair of tiny baby booties embroidered with little fox faces.

I had embroidered only one eye when Rosalie slit her wrist in the east wing.

Half a basin of water turned red with blood.

Adrian carried her out of the manor, and I was waiting for him in the entrance hall.

“Adrian.”

He didn’t stop walking.

“We’ll talk when I get back.”

“My stomach hurts a little.”

He finally turned around.

His gaze paused on my face for a moment.

Rosalie lay in his arms, barely breathing.

“My lord, don’t worry about me…”

He immediately tightened his hold on her.

“Clara, have the house physician examine you.”

“She’s lost a lot of blood. I have to get her to a doctor.”

I watched him step over the threshold.

The ninth pearl cracked around my wrist.

[The ninth abandonment has been confirmed.]

[Life countdown: one. Affection remaining: ten percent.]

So, this was what it felt like when only ten percent of my love remained.

Adrian didn’t return until the next day.

The house physician said the pregnancy had been disturbed and I needed complete bed rest.

His eyes were bloodshot as he sat beside my bed and held my hand.

“Rosalie was badly hurt yesterday.”

“I know.”

“Why did your stomach hurt?”

I looked at him for a moment.

“It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

The system had removed ninety percent of my pain, so of course I felt nothing.

Adrian misunderstood.

He let out a sigh of relief.

“I’m glad you’re all right.”

I nudged the little booties farther beneath my pillow.

In the end, I still didn’t tell him.

Half a month later, Adrian was ordered to clear the Westfall Hills of bandits.

Rosalie secretly followed him.

She left a note saying that the bandits were the same ones who kidnapped her three years ago, and she wanted to watch them die with her own eyes.

When Adrian discovered her, he had no choice but to keep her by his side.

I had no reason to go.

But before Rosalie left, she sent someone to deliver me a letter.

It contained only one sentence.

“Clara Bennett, do you dare see for yourself who he’ll choose the tenth time?”

She didn’t know that I didn’t need to guess.

But I went anyway.

I wanted to find a place for the last pearl on my bracelet to come to rest.

When the bandits were driven back, they captured Rosalie and me.

They tied us to two ropes and lowered us over a cliff.

The ropes were looped over the same dead tree.

The combined weight of our bodies slowly pulled the tree’s roots loose.

By the time Adrian arrived, the bandits had already fled.

He rushed to the cliff’s edge and grabbed one rope with each hand.

“Don’t move!”

The webbing between his thumbs and forefingers soon rubbed raw and bloody.

Loose stones showered down the cliff face.

Rosalie trembled violently as she sobbed.

“Adrian, I don’t want to die!”

I lowered my head and looked at the bottomless ravine below.

A dull tightness gripped my lower abdomen.

The system asked me, [Would you like to activate the New Life Protocol?]

“Not yet.”

I wanted to see whether Adrian would be any different the final time.

The dead tree on the cliff leaned outward another inch.

Caleb shouted urgently, “My lord, the two ropes are tangled together. If this continues, all three of you will fall!”

“We have to cut one rope and pull one person up!”

Adrian’s arm trembled from the strain.

He looked at Rosalie first.

Then he looked at me.

“Clara.”

The moment he called my name, I already knew the answer.

“You’ve always been strong. Trust me one more time.”

He drew his dagger, and its blade flashed.

Then he cut through the rope on my side.

The last pearl on my bracelet shattered at the same time.

I plummeted.

The wind rushed into my sleeves as the figures on the cliff grew smaller and smaller.

Adrian sprawled at the cliff’s edge, seemingly shouting my name.

But I could no longer hear him clearly.

All I heard was the system’s final countdown.

[The tenth abandonment has been confirmed.]

[Life countdown: zero.]

[Affection: zero. Pain perception: zero.]

I lifted my head and smiled at the blurred figure above.

“Adrian Hale, we’re even now.”