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Chapter 1

Rosebud Martinez

“Sign the divorce papers if you want to save your child, Rosebud. It's as simple as that.”

My heart wrenched painfully, tears blurred my eyes as I watched my husband wrap his arm around my sister's waist, kissing her neck, while she moaned out loudly, laughing.

“Come on, Rosebud. You need to save your baby. Why not sign the divorce papers, hmm? Mathew doesn't want you anymore!” Megan, my sister spat at me, crossing her arms in front of her.

“If you wanted Mathew, you could've just told me. Why poison me?” Tears poured down my cheeks as my gaze dropped to the pool of blood flowing down my legs and staining the floor. My abdomen was tightening painfully as though it was being cut by a dagger.

“Poison you? Come on, baby girl. Don't tell me you still think I did it?”

I looked up at Meg, and her smirk welcomed me.

“I only brought the idea, sister. It was Mathew who did it. He bought the pills. He was the one who executed the whole plan.”

Her words hit me hard right in my chest. Was cheating on me with my sister not enough? Was the betrayal not enough?

“Why, Mathew? Why? How could you do this to me?!” I yelled, ending it with a gasp as the pain shot through me again, causing me to grab my abdomen.

“Because I didn't want to have a child with you, Rosebud. Don't you still get it? You were never supposed to fucking get pregnant!” He crouched down to my level, his almond eyes blazing with fury as they bored into mine resentfully.

“You brought this upon yourself, so don't you dare blame it on me!” He spat, and my jaws dropped.

“This wouldn't have happened to you if you hadn't wanted a child so desperately.” He huffed, rolling his eyes.

From the moment we got married four years ago, Mathew told me he wanted us to enjoy our marriage for some time before having a baby, and I agreed, even though I loved kids and wanted to have one right after our wedding.

For years, Mathew would only have sex with me with a condom on, and each time he was drunk and we did it without using protection, he would always feed me pills the next morning.

He only allowed me to get pregnant after I agreed to let Megan manage my company then.

“Do you know how much Meg was hurt? She cried because of you! You shouldn't have gotten pregnant!” He added, raising his hand to slap me, but stopped midway and exhaled.

My jaw dropped to the ground, and my heart sank into my stomach as I stared at him in disbelief.

Mathew and Megan have been really close since we got married, and I thought he was just being friends with his sister in-law, but I was wrong.

Now that I put the pieces together. Everything was making sense to me.

The whole time they hung out together. The times they ate together. It wasn't because he was married to me. It was because they had been having an affair.

“I…I will sign the divorce papers, Mathew. Ple…please, you need to save our baby…” I cried, my fingers digging into the floor as waves of pain shot through me.

“Just sign the damn papers, Rosebud! You are going to die here with your child if you don't!” He snapped at me.

Now, the baby was suddenly ‘my’ child, and not ‘our’ child.

My hand trembled as I reached for the pen and paper he had dropped in front of me, my blood staining each page as I flipped through them, attaching my signature, and once I was done, I dropped the pen and raised my gaze to him.

“I've signed it. Please take me to the hospital.” My eyes were starting to feel dizzy as I had lost a lot of blood.

“Finally! It's over now!” Meg chuckled triumphantly as she crouched down in front of me, and picked up the papers. Her lips curled up in a smirk as she slowly flipped through the pages, as if wanting to confirm if I had really signed them, and once she was probably sure of it, she raised her gaze to me.

“You have no idea how long I've waited for this moment, sweetheart. Mathew is finally mine!” She squealed excitedly as though she had just won a lottery.

My chest tightened painfully as her brown eyes bored at me, dripping with disdain and mockery.

“Do you have any idea how angry I always was whenever I saw you being all lovey dovey with my man? God! I always wanted to kill you.”

“Your man?” I huffed, batting my eyelashes as a painful smile crept up my face.

“It was me all along, Rosebud. I was the one Mathew loved all along. He only married you because of your wealth. It was planned all along.” She chuckled, patting my hair.

The more revelation from her, the harder it hit me.

So this is it? The reason Mathew made me give up everything? The reason he wanted me to be just a housewife? The reason he made me give everything to Megan, deceiving me that he wanted me to focus on our marriage and get pregnant?

I slammed my head against the wall, grabbing my chest and whimpering. The betrayal was too much to take in.

“You were supposed to be my sister, Meg. My family. How could you do this to me?” Fresh tears brimmed in my eyes, but she just smirked at me.

“Sister? Did I ever consider you as one?” She raised her eyebrows, and with that, stood up and went to Mathew.

“Let's go, honey.” She locked arms with Mathew.

“Pack your things and get the hell out of my house, Rose… no… ex-wife.” Mathew smirked at me, and with that, he turned his back on me and started to walk away.

“I…I promise to stay far away from you. I will never show up in your life again, please save us.” I pleaded.

“Math…ew… Please… you can't leave me like this. Please help me.” I tried to crawl to him, but the pain came again, this time hitting me hard like it was ready to knock life out of me.

He walked away without sparing me another glance, as if I didn't even exist.

Tears streamed down my cheeks as I crawled to the staircase, my body trembling, my breath rough as I held in a painful moan. The only thing I wanted was to save my baby. I was hoping I could get to my room and call for help.

However, I could barely finish climbing the stairs when my vision went completely blurred, my body getting weaker and numb with each passing second, until I couldn't move any part of it anymore.

“My bab…y…” Those were the last words I remember muttering before I felt my weight plummeting over the side of the rail, and the next thing I felt was my body slamming hard against the floor in a loud thud. I couldn't scream. I couldn't cry. I just laid down there, as I slowly gave into darkness…