Chapter 2

The doctor came and gave me a check-up. What he said next caught all of us off guard.

"Mr. Davidson, your wife is three months pregnant."

The room fell silent for a second. Everyone looked stunned.

This child—I had waited for this child for so many years, and yet it chose now to arrive.

I turned to Nate, searching his eyes for something—anything—but all I saw there was love. Unwavering, undiluted love.

"We're finally having a child, Ruby," he said, his voice full of joy as he embraced me.

Then, without wasting a second, he ordered the doctor to prepare a complete prenatal care plan. He turned to the servants and barked orders.

"Take good care of Madam. Make sure nothing goes wrong. Not even a little."

Everyone around us looked at me with envy. Over the years, they'd watched how much Nate loved me.

"Pass down the word," he added. "Once the child is born, all my shares in the company will go to my child."

The secretary looked shocked. "Mr. Davidson, are you sure..."

"What are you mumbling about?" he snapped. "Just do as I say!"

Then he looked back at me, his gaze warm and tender. "Ruby, I'm going to make sure you and our child are the happiest people in the world."

I swallowed the bitterness in my throat and smiled faintly, nodding.

That evening, Nate canceled all his appointments and stayed by my side. He watched me drift off to sleep. But the moment he stepped into the bathroom to shower, I opened my eyes and began searching.

I had always known his phone was never turned off. But I'd never questioned why he so often left the house late at night. I used to assume he had urgent business matters to attend to. But what kind of work could require a CEO's presence in the dead of night?

I entered Lucy's birthday as the passcode. It unlocked instantly.

There they were—countless voice messages from a contact saved under the name "Baby."

"Nate, I miss you so much," her voice said, sweet and familiar.

It was Lucy. I could never forget her voice. After my accident, she had sat next to me, whispering in the same honeyed tone about how heartbroken she was for me.

I scrolled up through the messages. What filled the screen were Nate's texts.

After marrying him, I had grown insecure—crippled, abandoned by my former fiancé, I'd always felt I didn't deserve him. I rarely messaged him, afraid of being a burden.

But looking at it now, I realized it had always been one-sided. My tears spilled onto the phone screen. I wiped them quickly, but accidentally tapped one of the voice messages.

"Find a way to get rid of Ruby's baby," Nate's voice said. "Silently. Make sure she never finds out."

He had sent it to his secretary.

"Put something in her food. I can't keep this child. I'm afraid Lucy will be upset if she finds out."

The phone slipped from my hands.

So his love could be faked that easily. Those sweet words from earlier in the day, that tender embrace—they meant nothing. The same man who had spoken of happiness had also planned to erase our child like it was some inconvenient stain.

Only now did I understand. To him, both the child and I were disposable. We were something to be discarded for Lucy's comfort. The child I had cherished was, in his eyes, nothing more than a nuisance.

I put the phone down. A strange pain began to stir in my belly. He had acted fast—too fast. I had no chance to prepare myself.

I clutched my stomach, panic rising as I felt something warm rushing out. Blood. It soaked through the sheets. Red everywhere.

I fumbled for the phone, trying to call for help. But the dizziness came fast. He had drugged me with sleeping pills. I couldn't fight it. Consciousness slipped away.

He had thought of everything and left no room for escape.

When I woke again, I was in the hospital. I pulled back the blanket and looked down.

My stomach was flat. Empty.