Chapter 3 — The Child They Rejected

For the next several days, Elena stayed at hotel .

She told herself that she needed time to figure out what to do, but the truth was that she was afraid to step back into the world she had walked away from. Every time she looked at the marriage certificate lying on the table beside the bed, she felt the same confusion that had followed her since she woke up alone.

She was married to a man she barely knew.

She didn't know where he had gone, why he had left the ring behind, or how a legal marriage had somehow taken place without her remembering the ceremony. The hotel staff offered no answers, and the stranger had left no contact information.

For several days, Elena tried to convince herself that the entire situation was simply a strange chapter of her life that would eventually make sense.

Then her body began to feel different.

At first, she blamed the exhaustion on everything that had happened. She had barely slept since leaving the Laurent mansion, and the emotional strain had made it difficult to eat properly. When the nausea became worse one morning, however, Elena could no longer ignore it.

She rushed to the bathroom and knelt beside the toilet until the sickness passed.When she finally stood, she stared at her reflection in the mirror.

Her face looked pale.

She pressed a hand against the sink and tried to remember when she had last felt completely normal.

Her mind immediately returned to the night at the hotel.Elena closed her eyes.

“No.”

The possibility came so suddenly that she refused to say it aloud.She waited another day, hoping the nausea would disappear.

It didn't.

Instead, she became increasingly tired, and even the smell of food that she usually enjoyed began making her stomach turn. She finally left the hotel and bought a pregnancy test from a nearby pharmacy, carrying it back to her room with trembling hands.

She stared at the unopened package for several minutes before finally using it.

When the result appeared, Elena couldn't move.

Two lines.

Her breath caught.

She checked the instructions again, hoping she had misunderstood.

She hadn't.

She was pregnant.

Elena slowly lowered herself onto the edge of the bed, one hand covering her mouth as tears filled her eyes.

There was a child growing inside her.A child belonging to the man whose identity she didn't even know.

Fear came first.

Then confusion.

Then, unexpectedly, a strange sense of protectiveness settled over her.She placed a trembling hand over her stomach.

“I'm going to take care of you,” she whispered.

The words surprised her.She had spent her entire life wanting someone to choose her, yet she was now responsible for someone who had no choice but to depend on her.

For the first time since leaving home, Elena knew exactly what she wanted to do.

She would return to the Laurent mansion.Not because she wanted their approval.Not because she expected them to welcome her back.She simply wanted to tell them that she was pregnant.

Perhaps, despite everything they had said, the news of their grandchild would remind them that she was still family.Maybe her mother would finally soften.Maybe her father would realize that casting her aside had been a mistake.

Elena held onto that small hope as she packed her things.She kept the marriage certificate carefully folded inside her bag and slipped the mysterious ring onto her finger.

She didn't know why she couldn't bring herself to leave it behind.Maybe because it was the only thing the stranger had left her.Maybe because it was the only proof that the night had actually happened.

By the following afternoon, Elena stood outside the Laurent mansion.

The sight of the familiar building made her chest tighten.

She had imagined returning here countless times during the past few days, but now that she was standing at the entrance, she wasn't sure she had made the right decision.

Still, she walked inside.

The servants recognized her immediately, but their expressions revealed surprise rather than happiness.

Elena ignored it and headed toward the sitting room.

Her parents were there.

Catherine was seated beside Richard, while Isabella sat across from them, dressed elegantly as they discussed what sounded like wedding arrangements.

Elena stopped at the entrance.

Isabella looked up first.

Her eyes widened.

“Elena?”

Richard's expression immediately became cold.

“What are you doing here?”

Elena swallowed.

“I came to talk to you.”Catherine looked at her with visible irritation.

“After the way you behaved, you still have the nerve to come back?”

Elena placed a protective hand over her stomach.“I wouldn't have come if it weren't important.”

Richard folded his arms.

“Then say what you came to say.”Elena looked at her mother.

“I’m pregnant.”

Silence filled the room.

For one brief second, Elena thought she saw surprise in Catherine's eyes.

Then it disappeared.Instead, Catherine stood abruptly.

“You've brought shame to this family!”

Elena flinched.

“Mother….”

“Don't call me that,” Catherine snapped. “You disappear from this house, spend the night God knows where with God knows who, and now you come back carrying a pregnancy?”

Elena's eyes filled with tears.

“You don't even know what happened.”

“I know enough,” Catherine replied.

Richard didn't look surprised.He simply shook his head.

“You have always been reckless.”

Elena stared at him.

“I came here because I thought you might stand beside me.”Her father's expression didn't change.

“You made your choice.”

“No,” Elena said quietly. “You made it for me.”Richard looked away then he delivered the final blow.

“We've already moved forward with Isabella's future. She will marry the Sterling heir.”

Elena looked toward her sister.

Isabella remained silent.

The room suddenly felt smaller.

“So that's it?” Elena whispered. “You replaced me, and now you've replaced my future too?”

“There was never a future for you here,” Richard said.The words cut deeper than Elena expected.She looked at her mother one last time.

Catherine didn't move.

Richard's voice became colder.

“You're not our daughter anymore.”

Elena felt something inside her break, but this time she didn't cry.Instead, her hand moved instinctively to her stomach.

Her child was still there.

Small.

Innocent.

Unaware that its mother had just been rejected by the people who were supposed to love her.Elena straightened her shoulders.

“Then I'll raise this child without you.”

She turned and walked away.

No one stopped her.

Outside the mansion, the afternoon air felt strangely cold.Elena kept walking until the familiar gates disappeared behind her.

She returned to the small temporary apartment she had rented after leaving the hotel, placed her bag on the bed, and sat quietly for several minutes.

She had lost her family.

She had no husband she could find.

She had no idea what the future held.

But she had her child.

And somehow, that was enough to make her keep going.As she began unpacking, her fingers brushed against the ring on her hand.

She stared at it.

The dark stone caught the light from the window.Elena slowly removed it and held it between her fingers.She remembered the stranger's steel-gray eyes.

His quiet voice.The things he had told her.

The way he had looked at her as though, for one night, she was the only person he could see.Then she remembered waking up alone.

Elena looked down at the ring again.Her voice barely rose above a whisper.

“Who are you?”