Chapter 3

I truly understood what it meant to be kicked while one was down. Timothy had discarded me like trash, and now even his household staff felt free to trample on me.

I knew these people feared Timothy, but they feared his grandfather and the Langford family patriarch, Oliver Langford, even more.

"Grandpa and Grandma care deeply about the baby I'm carrying. I don't matter, but if anything happens to this child and you just stand by watching both of us die, you won't escape responsibility!"

The maid, Paula Jensen, turned pale. She knew Grandpa valued my baby. If something went wrong, she really couldn't bear that responsibility.

But she didn't dare let me out on her own either. She immediately went upstairs to report.

"Mr. Langford, Mrs. Langford says she's so hot in the sauna that she's going into labor. Should I take her to the hospital now?"

Timothy was in the bedroom with Natalie. The mention of me clearly irritated him.

"That sauna only goes up to 104 degrees Fahrenheit."

Perhaps worried about an accident, he reconsidered and started to say, "Go check the sauna temperature—"

But Natalie cut him off before he could finish.

"Tim, my skin is sensitive. I can only handle 104 degrees maximum. You set that sauna temperature specifically for me. How could it possibly be higher?"

Timothy stopped mid-sentence. His face darkened as he said coldly, "That woman is just using the baby to play victim. If I don't teach her a lesson, she'll never learn! Ignore her!"

He then pushed Paula out and shut the door. Paula returned downstairs after being turned away. She walked to the sauna room and cursed at me through the crack in the door before leaving.

My white clothes were already soaked through with blood. No matter how much I begged for help, no one paid attention.

The sauna was so hot that it felt like I might burn alive there. Blood from my belly flowed steadily out through the crack under the door.

Looking at the blood pooling beneath me, I knew the baby was gone. Finally, my body gave out completely, and I collapsed into endless darkness.

Several hours later, a maid passed by and jumped at the sight of blood everywhere. She was about to go upstairs to report again when Timothy's annoyed voice drifted down.

"Go tell Susan I'm giving her one chance to admit she was wrong. As long as she kneels and apologizes to Natalie and takes care of her properly through the rest of the pregnancy, I'll send her to the hospital after Natalie gives birth."

The maid pointed at the blood seeping under the door, her voice shaking. "Mr. Langford, your wife… I think something's really wrong. She hasn't made a sound for half an hour. We knocked and called out, but she won't respond."

Timothy froze for a moment, but quickly recovered his composure.

"What are you panicking about? I know her better than anyone. She's just pretending. She realized using the baby to manipulate me won't work anymore. Now she's playing dead. If I don't let her suffer enough to remember this lesson, she'll keep disrespecting Natalie."

The maid's legs went weak, her face deathly pale. "But I heard her say that she's bleeding and lost the baby…"

Natalie, cradled in Timothy's arms, pretended to be fragile. "Susan is really something. She knows how badly I want a child. I spent three years with Caleb taking endless herbal remedies to get pregnant and never could. Now I've finally conceived with you, and she's cursing her own baby like this!"

Watching Natalie cry in his arms, Timothy hated me even more. "Seems the punishment isn't enough yet. She still dares to mock Natalie by using the baby! She thinks she can fool me with the baby, does she?"

His voice dripped with fury. "Tell her if she uses the baby as an excuse one more time, I'll make sure that child never sees the light of day!"

The maids exchanged uneasy glances but didn't dare speak.

"Are you deaf? Go tell her!" Timothy snapped.

"Sir, you should really go check the sauna yourself."

The maids barely dared to breathe, their voices trembling.

Timothy's expression turned tense, but he quickly laughed mockingly. "More theatrics? A shameless woman like her will do anything for sympathy!"

Timothy was this confident because whenever he was upset in the past, I always apologized first. I'd lost all self-respect, quietly cleaning up after him and Natalie finished their affairs.

"Sir, the sauna temperature seems to have malfunctioned. It's reached 356 degrees Fahrenheit now! The temperature was too high. Mrs. Langford couldn't withstand it. There's only blood left…"

After hesitating, one of the maids finally revealed the truth that both the baby and I were dead.

"What?" Timothy jumped to his feet.

"She's too stubborn to die that easily."

His face darkened like a storm cloud. "How could the temperature I programmed malfunction? What did she bribe you with to lie to me like this?"

Timothy kicked a chair aside in frustration, his teeth clenched. "Get out of my way! I'm going to see what tricks she's trying to pull now!"

But when he kicked the sauna door open, everyone recoiled from the wave of scorching heat that rushed out.