A Vessel

Two blue lines.

The flat plastic object trembled violently in my hand.

I held my breath.

My heart beat brutally against my ribs.

Pregnant.

I was carrying Rafael Navarro's child.

Three years of our marriage felt like an icy hell.

Rafael treated me as nothing more than a display piece obligated to serve him every night.

Rough.

Cold.

Without even a single word of love.

Yet, staring at the result of this test, a foolish flicker of hope ignited in my chest.

"Will this child change him?" I immediately crushed the test pack in my grip.

I had to tell him.

Right now I had to tell him.

I half-ran along the marble corridor of the second floor toward his study.

A small, fragile smile bloomed on my lips.

My steps halted abruptly right in front of that large mahogany door.

The door wasn't fully closed. There was a gap two fingers wide.

"Rafael, ahhh, slowly."

My blood ran ice cold.

The smile on my lips froze instantly.

That was not the sound of a television.

That was a moan.

A genuine moan from someone!

And what made my stomach twist violently, I knew that woman's voice all too well.

Chloe.

Rafael's stepsister.

The daughter of my father-in-law from his second wife.

The woman who had always antagonized me since the very first day I set foot in the Navarro residence.

My free hand rose, pressing against my own mouth to keep from making a sound.

With knees that began to tremble, I moved closer to the gap in the door.

My eyes widened to their fullest.

The air seemed forcibly pulled from my lungs.

On top of that expensive oak wood desk, a pile of documents had been swept to the floor.

Chloe sat on the edge of the desk in a torn silk nightgown.

Her legs were wrapped possessively around my husband's waist.

And Rafael, the man who had always looked at me with eyes as cold as a storm, was now burying his face in the neck of his own stepsister.

His large hands caressed Chloe's thighs with a revolting passion

I staggered back one step.

My head was spinning.

I wanted to vomit.

My stomach was truly churning.

The feeling, the feeling was so disgusting.

This was insane. They shared the same father!

"Rafael..." Chloe whined coyly, stroking my husband's dark hair. "How long are you going to keep that cheap woman in this house? I'm sick of looking at her self-righteous face."

Rafael's movements stilled.

He straightened his body.

His lethally handsome face returned to its flat, expressionless state.

"Be patient a little longer, Chloe."

"I don't want to be patient!" Chloe struck Rafael's chest lightly. "When are you going to divorce her? She isn't even worthy of bearing the Navarro name!"

"Wait until she gives me an heir." Rafael's baritone voice rang out as cold as ice.

I could feel it in that tone.

Not a single trace of doubt or guilt remained.

As though, he truly regarded me as nothing more than a doll.

My eyes stung.

My chest was tight.

My breath came in rapid bursts.

Yet I could only hold it in within a humiliating silence.

"But why does it have to be through the womb of that stupid woman?" Chloe protested with a pout. "Why can't I be the one to give you a child?"

Rafael gripped Chloe's jaw, fixing his sharp gaze on that woman's eyes.

"You know exactly the reason. Our blood is the same. Our father is the same," Rafael hissed at the edge of his patience. "If you were the one to get pregnant, our genes would be too great a risk. It would produce a defective offspring."

Chloe fell silent, biting her lower lip.

"She is healthy. Her body functions well. And she is foolish enough to be controlled," Rafael continued in a sharp tone sufficient to slice my heart apart.

"What I need from her is merely a vessel. A legal incubator to birth the perfect Navarro heir." The man went on.

"And after that child is born?" Chloe baited.

A cunning smile began to rise on her lips.

"I will take my child and then discard that woman."

My stomach churned violently.

An overwhelming nausea attacked my throat.

Vessel.

Child.

Discarded.

Three years of my surrender.

Three years of enduring pain every night, hoping he would come to love me.

All of it was nothing but a filthy, revolting transaction!

My world spun. My legs completely lost their strength.

I stepped backward hastily, wanting to flee from this hell.

However, my vision, blurred by tears, caused me to lose my balance.

My elbow struck hard against the console table on the corridor wall.

CRASH!

The antique porcelain vase on top of it fell and shattered into pieces on the marble floor.

The sound echoed like a gunshot in the silence of the mansion.

The breathing inside that room instantly ceased.

I froze.

Cold sweat drenched my back. The test pack in my hand nearly slipped free.

"Who's out there?" Rafael's voice thundered, its tone fluctuating with a trace of emotion.

Heavy, rapid footsteps were heard approaching from behind the door.

I wanted to run, but my muscles were paralyzed by fear.

The door was wrenched open roughly, slamming against the wall with a thud.

Rafael stood towering there.

His black shirt was half open, exposing his broad chest rising and falling.

His sharp green eyes immediately locked onto my trembling figure leaning against the wall.

The aura in that corridor instantly dropped to freezing point.

Rafael looked at me.

His jaw hardened.

His sharp gaze, keen as a hawk's, slowly descended from my deathly pale face, toward my hand that reflexively gripped tight at my still flat stomach.

Then, his gaze fell upon the white plastic object with blue lines in my other hand.

The man's eyes widened slightly.

From behind Rafael's broad shoulders, Chloe appeared.

She adjusted the strap of her nightgown with a casually contemptuous gesture.

Chloe's eyes also fixed on my hand.

A sadistic smile of victory slowly spread across her red lips.

"Oh," Chloe's voice broke through that suffocating silence.

She rested her chin on Rafael's shoulder, looking at me as though regarding a pitiful insect. "It seems our 'vessel' has begun to function, Rafael."

My hands gripped my stomach ever tighter.

My eyes stared straight at the man who had once been my entire world.

My foolish adolescent love had died at this very moment.

Replaced by a revulsion that made every drop of my blood boil.

"You, the two of you," My voice came out hoarse, nearly like a desperate whisper. "The two of you, the two of you are disgusting."

Rafael advanced one step. His aura was deeply dark and oppressive. "Serena. Give that thing to me."