Chapter 4

Margaret’s POV

The moment Adrian and Elara left the house, I finally allowed myself to breathe.

It felt as though something heavy had been pressing down on my chest for days, and only now did it lift—just slightly, just enough to remind me what relief felt like.

Twelve hours.

That was all I needed.

Just twelve more hours, and I would be gone. Gone from Adrian, gone from this mansion, gone from every lie that had been told in my name and against my will.

For the first time in days, the pain in my body dulled. Even the constant ache in my lower abdomen seemed quieter, as if my body itself sensed that the end was near. Hope did strange things. It softened the sharpest edges of fear and convinced me, briefly, that I had already survived.

When I spoke to my birth parents on the phone, I told them about the guards—at least thirty vampires stationed around the estate, rotating shifts, watching every entrance.

My father laughed.

“Thirty?” he repeated calmly.

“Don’t worry. Even if there were three hundred, your father could still handle it.”

I smiled faintly, convinced he was exaggerating to ease my nerves.

Still, something about the steadiness in his voice settled me. For the first time since Adrian chose Elara over me, I felt safe enough to believe that someone, somewhere, truly had my back.

I didn’t expect that fragile peace to shatter so quickly.

That evening, I sat alone in the living room with a book open in my hands. I hadn’t turned a page in several minutes. My eyes traced the same lines again and again without comprehension, my mind drifting toward the ticking clock on the wall.

Then the doors opened.

Not gently.

They were pushed wide with unmistakable intent.

Elara’s mother walked in first, her posture rigid, her lips drawn tight. Adrian’s parents followed close behind. And then, trailing them like an afterthought, came my adoptive parents.

The room felt smaller instantly.

They looked at me as if I were a criminal awaiting judgment.

Adrian’s mother didn’t waste time. She slammed a stack of papers onto the table with a sharp crack that echoed through the room.

“Sign it,” she ordered.

“Divorce him. And terminate the mixed-blood thing in your womb immediately.”

“The Valemont family will not tolerate this kind of humiliation.”

Elara’s mother let out a soft, mocking laugh. She added that if she so much as hinted at what I had done, the entire city would know by morning.

Before I could speak, my adoptive father stood, crossed the room, and struck me.

The sound was loud. Final.

“You’ve ruined us,” he said, his voice trembling with anger and fear. “You’ve brought shame to everyone.”

My cheek burned. My ears rang.

And in that moment, something inside me went numb.

I was tired. So unbearably tired of defending myself in a world that had already decided I was guilty.

I bent down, picked up the papers from the floor, and before signing, I asked one last question.

“If one day you realize that the only child who truly carries Adrian’s blood…”

“Is the one I’m carrying now—”

“Will you regret this?”

Silence answered me.

I signed.

But even that wasn’t enough.

Adrian’s mother immediately demanded that I be taken to the hospital to terminate the pregnancy.

I refused.

No matter how deeply Adrian had betrayed me, this child was still alive. Still mine. Still innocent.

Her gaze hardened.

“You really think I’ll let you give birth to that thing?” she said softly.

“Accidents happen all the time. Human women are fragile. They lose things so easily.”

I turned to my adoptive father, my voice shaking.

“You’re really okay with them killing your grandchild?”

He looked away.

And in that moment, I understood everything.

Keeping the vampires’ financial support mattered more to him than my life. More than my child’s.

The next second, Adrian’s mother grabbed my hair and struck me again.

“Stop wasting our time,” she snapped.

“Choose. You, or the thing inside you. Only one gets to live.”

“I won’t choose.”

Her smile was thin and cruel as she gestured to the guards.

They dragged me away.

I fought, but my strength was nothing against theirs. My knees slammed into the floor, pain flashing white through my vision. My body trembled, overwhelmed, betrayed by its own weakness.

When I regained awareness, the world smelled like disinfectant.

I was in the hospital.

“Hey! Are you vampires kidnapping this woman? Let her go!”

A man’s voice rang out. Just a stranger who cared.

The needle pierced my skin.

Cold spread through my veins, fast and merciless.

Tears slid down my temples.

I had told myself I was ready.

That letting go would hurt less than letting my child live in a world like this.

So why did my chest ache, as though something vital were being ripped from me while I lay there unable to resist.

As my consciousness began to fade, I saw my birth parents forcing their way toward the operating room, my mother shouting my name, my father already moving ahead of her. Several vampires lay sprawled on the floor behind him, struck down as though they had never stood a chance.

His face was bloodless with fury, terror burning beneath it.

They were stopped at the door.

Glass stood between us. I can feel my baby was dying inside of me.

It was already too late.

Then everything went black.