CHAPTER TWO

Clara really didn’t know what happened next. All she could feel were the doctors dragging her out of the ward while she thrashed, struggled, and screamed.

No! Not her daughter! Clara struggled to get back into the ward, to be held by her daughter one more time, to bask in her happiness and cheerful smiles, to be called ‘Mama’ one more time.

Her daughter couldn’t die, not when she had her whole life ahead of her; her life couldn’t be cut short this way.

“Claire!!!!!” she screamed, hoping her daughter would wake up, hoping her daughter would prove to them all that she was alive and well.

None of that happened, though. She continued lying motionless on the bed, unmoving, never to rise again.

……….

Her eyes were swollen with tears; she couldn’t cry anymore. All she could do was stare blankly.

Her daughter had been snatched away from her in the cruelest manner ever. She had been murdered in cold blood. The most bitter part was that she had died on her birthday too.

Well, nothing could beat the betrayal from her husband. If Ken had cared, even a little bit, then her daughter would still be alive. If he had cared to hear her out, then… things might have been different.

She cursed the day she got married to Ken. Ken had been her high school lover. While she had grown up in a rich background, Ken had grown up in a poor one.

Clara never knew their marriage was all a well-planned operation by Ken and his family to leech off her family’s wealth.

Her parents had warned her and had threatened to disown her if she married Ken, but she was too in love with him to listen. They had given her her share of their properties and had disowned her immediately after she got married to Ken. They never bothered to reach out to her since then.

Ken and his parents extorted her and created their own company with her inheritance. When Ken became financially stable, he tossed her aside, mistreated her, and abandoned her and her child. Claire didn’t get an ounce of love from him till her very last breath.

Ken and his parents had ripped her off, and now she was left with nothing. Her only reason to keep pushing, to keep fighting,the only reason she wore a smile on her face was gone.

As she made her way back to the King estate, she felt like an empty vessel. Her soul had died along with her daughter, Claire.

Arriving at the mansion, her brows furrowed on hearing the loud noises coming from inside. Different cars were parked in the lot, indicating a lot of people were gathered at the mansion but why? Had they perhaps heard about her daughter’s condition? Were they sympathizers?

Clara was in no mood to see anyone or be consoled. She refused to be consoled until she found out who pushed her daughter from the two-storey building.

Clara prepared to tell everyone to leave, as sympathy was the last thing she needed at the moment.

Making her way inside, her brows pulled together at the sight that welcomed her. People she had assumed were sympathizers were here, dancing in merriment.

Her husband, Ken, was in the middle of the crowd with his mistress by his side. His parents laughed heartily from the crowd.

The scene felt nothing less than a stab in the back. How could they be having fun and partying while her daughter had been fighting for her life? Her daughter was dead, but here her husband was, having the time of his life with another woman in her own home!

All that was needed from him was to show a tiny bit of concern for Claire. Claire would have been alive. Her blood boiled with rage. How dare they flex and merry after tarnishing her life!?

Clara clenched her fists tightly. They were so engrossed in their merriment that they never even noticed she was standing right there. No one cared. She meant nothing to them.

Taking fast strides toward Ken, she stood right in front of him, but he never acknowledged her. In fact, he pretended like he didn’t know her like she wasn’t his wife, like she hadn’t been the mother of his child.

She bit her lip, putting enough pressure to draw out blood. She raised her hand and slapped Ken across the face.

The music stopped, the chattering ceased, and the merriment paused as everyone turned to watch the shocking scene.

Her eyes reddened as tears brimmed across her lids. Now staring at this man, she could see zero empathy, zero emotion not an inch of love towards her. Not even an ounce of remorse absolutely nothing. To think her poor daughter, Claire, had been staring into these emotionless eyes all her life.

Her throat tightened as she stared up at him. “How… how dare you host a party and bring your mistress to our house while our daughter has been fighting for her life? Claire is now dead”

Her words were abruptly cut short with a loud slap from Ken. He didn’t let her recover before slapping her on the other cheek. Her lips burst, blood splattering from the wound.

“How dare you think you can barge in here and raise your filthy hands on me!!? Why should I call off my company celebration because our daughter died? It’s not like it would bring her back from the dead!”

Clara almost couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth. She staggered backwards. He had stabbed her in the heart before, but now, he had twisted the dagger. He had known his daughter was dead but he didn’t show even an ounce of concern. 

Clara rushed toward him, fisting his jacket, but Ken’s parents didn’t waste a second more to signal the bodyguards to throw her out. The bodyguards didn’t waste a moment longer before grabbing her. Painful steak of tears fell down her eyelids.

“Ken” Clara muttered, her voice broken, her heart dug out from it’s confinement.

“Yvonne is carrying my unborn son, the future heir of my company something you couldn’t do” he scorned.

His words slapped her hard across the face, his bodyguards didn’t wait a moment long before pulling her away.

“Let me in!! Ken, come out here!!!” Clara thrashed.

The guards led her outside, holding both her hands in place as Ken’s mistress, Yvonne, approached her.

“You piece of trash!” Clara yelled, only to be greeted with another pain-filled slap from his mistress.

She couldn’t move or retaliate as the guards held her back, giving Yvonne the leverage to slap her two more times on the same cheek.

Yvonne threw some papers in her face. “Ken has signed the divorce papers. Do the same and get out of his life!” she yelled.

Clara couldn’t utter a word at the shocking audacity of Ken to dare divorce her. She wasn’t spared a second longer to wrap her head around it before she was pushed out and the door slammed shut in her face.