Chapter 4 The Child in the Jar

"She's still young, so she can't withstand the rumors and public scrutiny. I've already arranged a press conference. You will take the blame for her."

I couldn't believe my ears. With great difficulty, I opened my mouth. "Nolan, do you realize what this will do to me?"

Nolan gently brushed my hair back. "Don't worry. Even if you get arrested, I can get you out. You know Wendy has unusual luck on her side. I don't want anything to happen to her."

I shook my head fiercely. "No. I didn't do it, so I won't take the fall for anyone."

But the next second, a scream rang out.

Soon, one of Nolan's bodyguards brought over a bloodstained severed finger.

The ring on it was the signet ring I had made for my father.

I stared at Nolan in horror, tears streaming down my face. "You took my father? Nolan, he treated you like his own. How could you—"

Nolan pressed his finger against my lips. "June, I didn't want it to come to this either. But you were being too stubborn."

Then he held my father's finger out of the car window. "You have ten minutes to think about it. Once the finger is crushed into pulp, there won't be any way to reattach it."

I immediately grabbed his arm. "I'll do it. Please, don't!"

The man gave a soft chuckle and handed the severed finger to his bodyguard. "Take my father-in-law to the hospital."

…

Soon after, I was taken to the press conference, with every camera flash pointed at me, and the barrage of curses nearly drowned out everything else.

I sat there without moving. Nolan handed me a video of my father screaming in agony. Like a puppet with its strings pulled, I read from the he had prepared for me. "I, June Olsen, am the person responsible for this incident…"

When the press conference ended, a group of people dressed in mourning surrounded me.

"She did it! This animal withheld the money and caused my son's death!"

Tears streamed uncontrollably down my face as I kept trying to explain. "It wasn't me. It wasn't me—"

"Bitch, how dare you still deny it? Just die already!"

I was kicked to the ground. Fists and feet rained down on me from every direction. The wounds on my body split open again, blood seeping through my clothes, but no one cared.

By the time I was barely conscious, Nolan's car finally stopped nearby.

Instinctively, I called out his name. "Save me, Nolan…"

But he merely turned his head and affectionately stroked Wendy's hair. "Are you entertained now, kiddo?"

Wendy threw herself into Nolan's arms and kissed him on the cheek. Then, the car window rolled up. Before long, muffled sounds of intimate affection drifted from inside.

I stared wide-eyed at the rocking car, unable to look away. At some point, the pain finally overwhelmed me, and I lost consciousness.

When I woke up, the nurse was looking at me with a strange expression. "You were brought in too late. Your uterus was already necrotic."

Someone whispered outside the door, "Isn't that the woman who withheld the money people needed to save their lives? Disgusting. That's karma for you. She deserves to be unable to have children for the rest of her life."

I listened numbly to the curses until a shadow fell across me.

Wendy threw a pregnancy test report onto the bed in front of me, her face filled with smug satisfaction. "Do you know why Nolan didn't care about your baby? Because I am pregnant with his child too. That bastard in your belly wasn't even as important to him as my dog."

Then, she suddenly walked over to the window and lifted a transparent jar. Inside was a tiny baby, its entire body blue and purple, suspended in liquid.

The moment I saw it, every hair on my body stood on end. Even my fingers began to tremble.

Wendy smiled triumphantly. "You didn't know, did you? I only had to whine a little, and Nolan turned your baby into a specimen for me!"