Pregnant.

Liora.

Five minutes! I mumbled softly as I took the elevator down, not even bothering to lock the door behind me.

After everything that had happened, Seris's and Tavian's betrayal, you would have expected me to rebel, especially against my foster family and their control, no?

Well, I actually wanted to, so much that for a stupid moment, I fidgeted with my phone, a prideful part of me that had been tacked away for so long urging me to give my foster mother a call, and tell her everything that I had wanted to tell her for years but lacked the courage to, like how much I hated her, how big of a bitch she was, and all manner of ugly names...but the rational part of me, that part that I hated with everything I held dear, the same part that had kept me surviving for years, reasoned against it.

I could only slam my back against the cab's seat, as I counted the minutes. I knew what my foster mother had against me, after all. One wrong mistake and everything I'd worked so hard for would be ruined. I couldn't allow it!

" You are late!" I had just walked through the door when she snapped, her lips twisted into a cold sneer, one that closely bordered on disdain.

I didn't respond to her. I glanced at my watch. I was only a few seconds late, and arguing with her was pointless.

Instead, I took the scene before me, and my eyes stung from how harmonious it looked.

My foster father, the Quinns chairman, sat on his usual spot in the lounge room, a magazine at hand, flipping through the pages in boredom.

Opposite from where he sat, were the new couple, inched closer, like they couldn't stay apart.

It was Seris and Tavian. They hadn't even noticed my presence, or if they did, they didn't care enough to pay me a glance, they were whispering to each other, arms interlocked, lips close, and I looked away. The scene stung deeper than it should have.

I mean, I had already caught them locked together intimately, right? fucking the living daylight out of each other, no? So, almost kissing shouldn't have wrecked my heart as hard as it did...

Or, maybe, it was how good they looked together, the rich heir, and the rich heiress, painting a perfect picture, something I could never be. I guess that's what hurt the most.

"Where were you last night?" I was yanked back to reality by my foster mother's furious voice.

' At some club, fucking some stranger..' I wanted to shout in her face, but I held myself back before I could.

"Yesterday was a big hit. I caught my best friend fucking my boyfriend, after all..I needed a breather." I squeezed those words past my lips, and that successfully captured their attention.

Pure surprise painted their features as they looked at me, like I had grown a second head. I had always been proper and docile to them, after all. Never cursing and never talking back. My outburst must have caught them off guard.

I didn't care. It felt good to speak my mind, for once.

" You will not use such words, in this household. " My foster father snapped, and to that, I just stared at him, defiantly.

" I thought that Seris was my best friend. " I whispered, doing everything to keep my voice steady.

" And Tavian? We have been together for seven years! Seven fucking years!" I almost snapped, and it surprised even me, honestly.

" Only for him to choose her? Even a saint would lose it!" I added, uncensored bitterness edging my voice.

"Seris fell in love with Tavian." My foster mother declared, and there were even specks of pride in her voice.

" Instead of wallowing in bitterness, you should be happy for them." She added, and I almost laughed at the absurdity of her words.

" You should be grateful that, for seven years, you got to live in fantasy, " She went on, and to keep myself grounded, I chewed on my inner cheek, hard enough that I tasted copper.

" You didn't think that a young master from the Knights family would fall genuinely for you, did you?"

" He was simply indulging you. You were never a match for him anyway. "She went on, and every word was like a dagger curving my heart, my ego, my dignity, and that wasn't even the harshest part. The fact that she was right stung more.

" You ruined the engagement plans. " She reminded, and my nails dug deeper into my palms. Of course I did.

" I will excuse that. The engagement has been postponed." She added, and just before I could let out a breath, her next words had my head spinning.

" Tavian and Seris will be engaged in three months. To convince the public that you are okay with it, and that the breakup was mutual, you will oversee the whole process. "She ordered, her words filled with finality.

" I will not do it." I spat, my gaze hard, and for the first time, holding hers.

" Do you think you have a choice? Either that or we will pull.." She went on...

" I will do it..." I whispered weakly, defeat clinging to my voice. I was a coward, wasn't I? I couldn't even let her finish!

But it was okay. In three months, I would be free from the Quinns... Until then, I was going to endure...

********

After our last confrontation, the following weeks passed in a blur. You know? The same routine, interning at the elite company that the Quinns paid for me to attend, playing the perfect daughter, donating blood for Seris, organising their upcoming grand engagement party, and most importantly, smiling through it, and acting unaffected.

And yeah, it was hell, I will admit.

Watching them laugh, kiss, and pretending not to break while I was, in and out, and, forcing my body to keep moving, to keep planning, a few minutes after donating blood, it was all draining.

But somewhere along the way, the pain of seeing them together had numbed out, and before I knew it, two months were almost over.

Their engagement day was approaching, and so was my freedom, I could almost smell it in the air.

In one month, I would finally get to cut my ties with the horrible Quinns, and that gave me the energy to go on with the preparations.

And everything was going according to the plans, until it wasn't.

It was on a Sunday morning, the whole Quinn's family was at the engagement venue, overseeing everything while I slaved myself, when everything went dark and I passed out....

When I woke up, I was at the hospital, surrounded by the Quinns, and yeah, Tavian was also there.

" What is the meaning of this, Liora?" I was still disoriented from the unconsciousness when my foster mother slapped me with a hospital report, and a pregnancy test.

Two pink lines stared back at me, and my whole world tilted.

Pregnant, those bold words were like a tight slap to my cheeks, and tears involuntarily welled up in my eyes.

My heartbeat spiked, and I shook my head.

That ..that night? No!

"Who did you sleep with?" She questioned, a hot slap landing on my cheek. It was abrupt, painless. I was too numb to feel anything, at the moment.

"It doesn't matter. Our family's reputation is everything. " It was my foster father who spoke this time.

" We have already come to an agreement. We won't allow you to stain our image. "

"There is this widower. He can't have kids. He is in his late fifties. " He declared, and as his cruel words landed, I gave no reaction.

"You will marry him, and be a good wife to him. That illegitimate bastard you are carrying will have his surname. " He spat, as he threw a stack of papers at me.

Kinship severance agreement, it read.

" Sign it, now!" He demanded, forcing a pen on my fingers.

" Who dares call my child illegitimate?" Right before my fingers could move, the door to the private room was kicked open.

Then came the overpowering presence,

And a figure sauntered in, furious,

Familiar, vaguely.....

And when our gazes locked, my heart skipped a beat.

Noo!