บททั้งหมดของ Pregnant by Two Secrets: My Ex and His Father: บทที่ 31 - บทที่ 40

I didn’t sleep.Not even for a minute.Lucien left the room sometime after midnight, but his presence stayed behind like a bruise on my skin. Every word he said echoed in my head over and over again.My hands stayed wrapped around my stomach the entire night.They moved more than usual.Small shifts. Quiet flutters. Like they knew I was scared.“I’m here,” I whispered into the dark. “I’m not letting anything happen to you… do you hear me?”My voice cracked.“I won’t let anyone take you away.”But the truth was… I didn’t know how to keep that promise.Morning came with the sound of the lock turning.I sat up immediately.Lucien walked in fully dressed with a blank expression, like nothing had happened the night before. Like he hadn’t just decided the fate of the lives growing inside me.Behind him stood two guards.My stomach dropped.“What’s going on?” I asked quietly.Lucien didn’t answer immediately. He walked over to the dresser, picked up my phone, and slipped it into his pocket.

“Help!” I called weakly. “Please… I think… I think the babies are coming…”Footsteps echoed somewhere outside.Tessa walked in.Her eyes swept over me, my shaking body, my hands gripping my stomach, the sweat already drooling across my forehead.She didn’t rush forward.Didn’t panic.She simply closed the door behind her and leaned against it like she had expected this moment all along.“Tessa…” I breathed. “It hurts… something’s wrong… please call Lucien… call a doctor…”She tilted her head slightly, watching me like an observer studying an experiment.“He’s not here,” she said calmly. “He left earlier.”My chest tightened.“Where?” I asked, voice cracking as another contraction slammed into me. I bent forward, crying out, nails digging into my thighs.She shrugged lightly.“Business.”I stared at her, disbelief flooding through me.“He… he has to come back,” I gasped. “Please… tell him… I need him… the babies need him…”Her face remained blank.“He knows you’re being monitored,” sh

I stopped asking questions.Not because I believed them.Not because I stopped hearing the echoes of a second cry inside my head.But because every time I spoke… they looked at me like I was already gone. Insane.The hospital discharged me three days later.They placed my baby into my arms like a fragile apology and wheeled me through white corridors.The nurses smiled too brightly. Doctors avoided my eyes.And Lucien walked beside me like a man who had already won something.The house felt different. It always does.Tessa stood near the entrance when we arrived. She rushed forward immediately, not toward me, but toward the baby.“Oh… look at you,” she said gently, fingers brushing the blanket.Her eyes lingered on the child with something that looked like possession.“You must be exhausted,” she added lightly, finally glancing at me.But it wasn’t out of concern.Behind her, Isabella watched from the stairs with folded arms. She didn’t ask if I was alive. Didn’t ask if I was healing

I learned very quickly that being a mother didn’t mean I had the right to be one.It started small.So small that if I wasn’t paying attention, I could have convinced myself it didn’t matter.The first time Sloane cried during breakfast, I reached to pick her up. Her tiny face was red, fists trembling as she searched the room for comfort.Before my hands could reach her…Tessa stepped in front of me.“I’ve got her,” she said smoothly, already lifting Sloane into her arms.I paused mid-step.“Oh,” I whispered. “I was just going to…”“You need to rest,” Tessa added gently, rocking Sloane with practiced ease. “You still look tired.”The servants watched silently.And I stepped back.Because arguing over a crying baby felt… petty.Unnecessary.So I let it go.Lucien made his expectations clear from the beginning.Sloane’s upbringing would follow structure, discipline, etiquette, and preparation for leadership.He believed I lacked the emotional stability to guide a future heir.My grief.

They thought grief made me smaller.That losing a child I wasn’t allowed to prove existed would make me surrender.Maybe it did.But there was one thing they couldn’t take.Memory.And tonight… I finally gave my missing baby something real.A name.It started as a whisper inside my chest.Not even a thought at first.Just a feeling that refused to fade.I sat on the edge of the nursery chair long after Sloane had fallen asleep. Everything was warm and painfully incomplete.My fingers rested on the empty space beside me.The space that should have been another crib.Another breath.Another cry.My throat tightened.“I know you existed,” I murmured under my breath. “I feel you… every day.”My hand moved slowly to my chest.“They claim there was only one of you,” I whispered. “But they didn’t live inside my body. They didn’t feel you move differently… kick differently… fight differently.”My eyes burned.“They didn’t hear you,” I said softly. “But I did.”Silence pressed around me.And t