I'm not mad!

SERENA POV

Dr. Harrison chuckled softly, shaking his head. "There is no bad news, Serena. But there is major news. Your body is under a lot of strain because it's working overtime right now."

I frowned, my heart skipping a frantic beat. "What do you mean?"

"Serena... you're pregnant," Dr. Harrison revealed, looking at me with a soft smile. "You are almost six weeks along."

The world around me stopped.

The low hum of the medical equipment, the distant beep of heart monitors, the muffled sounds of nurses in the hallway, everything vanished into a silent, breathless void.

"P-pregnant?" The word left my mouth as a fragile, stunned gasp.

"Yes," the doctor confirmed, showing me a printout of the ultrasound scan with a small, highlighted dot in the center. "The baby is completely healthy and resting safely in your uterus, but you must avoid stress. Your body was warning you today that it cannot handle this level of anxiety without risking complications. You need rest, food, and peace."

I stared down at the small black-and-white picture in my trembling hands.

A baby.

Jackson’s baby.

A tidal wave of overwhelming emotions crashed over me all at once, shock, disbelief, a burst of incredible, profound joy, followed by a heavy, aching sorrow. A tear spilled over my lashes, dropping onto the photo. This was Jackson's child. My husband’s blood and flesh was growing inside my belly.

A spark of desperate, fiery hope suddenly ignited in my chest.

If Jackson sees this... I thought, my mind racing as a tearful smile broke across my face. If he knows we're having a baby... things will change. He can't keep playing this sick, twisted game. He can't keep pretending to be Jaden! A father cannot look into his child's existence and continue living a lie!

Maybe this was God's way of bringing him back to me. Maybe this baby was the ultimate key that would shatter his cold, unfeeling mask and break Avery's terrifying hold over him.

"I have to go home," I said abruptly, wiping my tears with the back of my hand and standing up from the bed.

"Serena, wait," Dr. Harrison warned, holding up a hand. "You need to stay for a few hours for IV fluids and rest!"

"I'm fine, Doctor! I promise I'll take care of myself!" I said hastily, grabbing the ultrasound photo and tucking it carefully into my coat pocket like a sacred treasure. "I just... I have to go home and tell my husband."

I drove back to the estate faster than I ever had before. The heavy dark clouds that had suffocated my heart for days felt like they were finally parting. For the first time since the fatal phone call about the car crash, I felt a glimmer of light. I clutched the steering wheel tightly, my right hand resting gently over my abdomen, whispering quiet, protective prayers to the tiny life growing inside me.

By the time I pulled my car into the grand driveway, the sun was beginning to set, casting long, dark shadows across the stone facade of the mansion.

I rushed through the heavy front doors, my chest heaving, a breathless smile on my lips. "Jackson! Jackson, where are you?!" I called out, my voice ringing through the grand foyer.

I took three fast steps into the main living room, and froze dead in my tracks.

The air in the room was suffocatingly thick, heavy with an ominous, predatory silence.

Standing around the grand marble fireplace was the entire Blackwood family. But they weren't alone.

Jackson was standing near the hearth, dressed in a sharp charcoal suit, his face an unreadable, icy mask. Beside him sat Avery on the velvet sofa, wrapped in a plush cream blanket, sipping warm tea with a delicate, fragile expression. Standing behind the sofa were two tall, stern-looking women wearing dark, identical medical scrubs, their eyes cold and watchful.

Next to Jackson stood his father, Arthur Blackwood, a cold, ruthless patriarch whose terrifying presence usually silenced boardrooms, and Jackson's mother, Eleanor, whose face was red and blotched from crying. Even my own mother, Helen, was sitting in an armchair nearby, wringing a handkerchief frantically in her hands.

Every single pair of eyes in the room snapped toward me the moment I stepped inside.

Nobody smiled. Nobody welcomed me. The glare in their eyes was so cold, so sharp, it felt like entering an execution chamber.

"Serena!"

Arthur's deep, booming voice thundered across the room before I could even take another breath. He stepped forward, his heavy silver-headed cane striking the hardwood floor with a deafening thud.

"Where the hell have you been?!" Arthur yelled, his face dark with suppressed rage. "You disappear from the house without a word after making things completely intolerable for everyone here?!"

"Father..." I stammered, stepping back slightly, my hand instinctively dropping to my stomach. "I... I went to the hospital—"

"Shut your mouth!" Eleanor, Jackson's mother, shrieked, standing up from her chair and pointing an accusing finger at me, her voice trembling with hysteria. "How dare you speak?! How dare you come back into this house acting like you haven't caused enough devastation?!"

"Eleanor, please..." I tried to speak, but my mother stood up, her eyes overflowing with tears as she looked at me with deep shame and pity.

"Serena, oh God, Serena..." my mother wept, shaking her head in utter disappointment. "How could you do such a wicked thing?! Why would you try to hurt Avery?!"

"What?!" I gasped, looking between them in utter horror. "Mother, no! I didn't hurt her!"

"Don't lie to us!" Eleanor screamed, stepping closer to me, her eyes burning with pure hatred. "You pushed an innocent, pregnant woman down in the garden! You tried to kill my son's unborn child! Is that how vile you are?! Because you couldn't bear a child yourself after five years of marriage to my Jackson, you wanted to destroy Jaden's legacy too?!"

The words hit me like a physical blow to the chest. My breath caught in my throat, my vision swimming as the cruel, venomous accusation sank in.

"She tried to cause a miscarriage!" Eleanor sobbed into her husband's shoulder. "My poor Jackson is gone... he is lying in a cold morgue, with no heir to represent him, all because you were too barren to give him one and now you're trying to kill the only heir we have?”

"Listen to me!" I shouted, tears finally spilling over my cheeks as I looked frantically at Jackson. "Jackson, tell them! Tell them Avery is lying! I didn't push her! She threw herself down! Jackson, please, look at me!"

Jackson didn't flinch. He stood beside Avery, his dark eyes fixed on me with a chilling, detached pity. He didn't say a single word to defend me. He looked at me as if I were a wild, dangerous animal that needed to be put down.

"Look at her..." Avery whimpered softly from the couch, leaning into Jackson's side, her voice trembling for the audience. "She's still calling you Jackson... she's completely lost her sanity, Jaden. I'm so scared..."

"Mother, Father, please, just wait!" I pleaded, reaching into my coat pocket with a trembling hand, pulling out the folded white ultrasound picture. "I have something to tell you! I went to the hospital today because I was in pain, and—"

"SILENCE!"

Arthur's thunderous roar cut me off, deafening and final. He stepped directly into my path, his towering frame blocking the rest of the room.

"We have heard enough of your insane ramblings!" Arthur sneered, looking down at me with disgust. "You are not well, Serena. You have completely lost your mind to grief, and we have indulged your delusions for far too long."

"No! Arthur, listen to me, I'm pregnant!" I screamed, holding up the ultrasound paper. "Jackson and I are having a baby!"

"Shut your mouth!" Arthur barked, waving his hand in utter dismissiveness without even glancing at the paper in my hand. "You see?! She is completely unhinged! Inventing phantom pregnancies now out of pure desperation!"

"No! It's real! Look at the paper!" I sobbed hysterically.

"Since you are clearly not normal for the time being," Arthur continued coldly, his voice echoing through the silent room like a death sentence, "it is best you get treated. You need professional help before things get worse and you start running completely mad on the streets, ruining the Blackwood family name."

My blood ran completely cold.

"W-what?" I gasped, staring at him in sheer horror. "What are you talking about?"

Arthur turned his head slightly and nodded toward the two tall women in dark scrubs standing near the sofa.

"Take care of her," Arthur ordered quietly. "The facility in the valley is expecting her."

Before I could even process his words, the two large, muscular women moved with terrifying speed.

One of them grabbed my left arm in an iron grip, while the other seized my right shoulder, pinning my arms firmly behind my back.

"No! Get off me!" I shrieked, thrashing violently against their hold, but their grip was unbreakable. "Let go of me! What are you doing?!"

"Take her out through the back," Jackson's voice sounded from the shadows. Cold. Smooth. Unbothered. He didn't even look at me as he gently stroked Avery's hair. "Make sure she doesn't hurt herself."

"JACKSON!" I screamed at the top of my lungs as the two women began physically dragging my feet across the polished floor toward the side exit. "JACKSON, LOOK AT ME! TELL THEM! TELL THEM WHO YOU ARE!"

My mother turned her face away, sobbing into her hands. Jackson's parents stood like cold stone statues, watching me as if I were trash being cleared from their sight.

"I'M NOT MAD!" I screamed, kicking and twisting as the heavy doors of a blacked-out medical van were shoved open in the driveway outside. "NOTHING IS WRONG WITH ME! I'M NOT CRAZY! JACKSON IS NOT DEAD! HE IS RIGHT THERE! HE'S RIGHT THERE!"

The two women shoved me forcefully into the dark, padded interior of the van.

As I stumbled onto the floor, the ultrasound photo of my unborn child slipped out of my fingers, fluttering out of the open door and landing right in the damp dirt near the tires.

I scrambled forward on my hands and knees, reaching desperately for the tiny piece of paper that held my only hope. "No! My baby! Give it back!"

A polished black leather shoe stepped directly onto the center of the ultrasound photo, crushing the delicate picture beneath a heavy heel.

I looked up through my blurred vision.

Jackson stood at the edge of the van doors, staring down at me with cold, ruthless eyes. He didn't say a word. He slowly raised his hand and slid the heavy steel door shut, plunging me into absolute, suffocating darkness.

BANG.

The lock clicked from the outside, and the engine roared to life.