All Chapters of I Heard My Newborn Warn Me of Him: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

"Mommy, I'm so hungry. When I was five, we starved to death together on the side of the road," my newborn daughter, Kayla Green, said. "Mommy, can we just leave Daddy? Please?"My eyes turned cold. Christian Green had probably forgotten who had given him the life he had today.I was the only daughter of the Stone family. Back then, I was the one who convinced my family to invest in him and helped him build his business from the ground up.Without me, Christian would still be renting a tiny partitioned room in one of the city's rundown apartments.I looked at Kayla in my arms and held her even tighter. "It's okay, sweetheart. In this lifetime, no one is ever going to hurt us again."The hospital room fell silent. Kayla's voice drifted into my mind in scattered fragments, speaking whatever crossed her mind."Mommy, Daddy isn't at the hospital now because he went to pick up that lady. Her name is Summer Knightley. He always picks her up, even when it rains or snows. But he's never p

On the sixth day, Christian came to ask about Grandpa's money.I sat on the bed with Kayla in my arms and poured him some water, using the only mug in the room. It was a chipped enamel mug with a broken edge. He glanced at it, but didn't pick it up."Mari, be honest. Did you actually call your grandpa?""I did. He said he needed more time to think.""Think about what? You're obviously his favorite grandchild. Did you even explain our situation properly?" he questioned me harshly.…At last, Christian's gentle mask cracked. Behind it was a flash of cold impatience. Not once in three years had he ever spoken to me like that.The voice in my head whispered, "In our previous life, he only spoke like that the day the company went bankrupt. This time, it happened earlier because he's getting desperate.""I'll call him again tomorrow."Christian stared at me for two seconds, then smiled. "Okay. I trust you."Before leaving, he turned back and looked at me, though only for a moment.

The drive took more than four hours. We left the highway, turned onto smaller roads, and finally entered a narrow lane lined with rows of maple trees.Alistair stopped the car in front of a gray brick house.When the gate opened, an apple tree stood in the middle of the courtyard. Its trunk was so thick that I couldn't wrap both my arms around it. The fruit wasn't fully ripe yet, hanging from the branches in shades of yellow and pale green."It's so beautiful here, Mommy. Way more beautiful than that dark apartment. And there are trees, too.""This is my grandpa's home.""Your grandpa… So, where is he?""He's not around anymore.""Not being around means he died, right? In our previous life, you told me Grandpa went somewhere far away. Later, I learned that somewhere far away meant death. You were afraid I'd cry, but I didn't."I held Kayla beneath the apple tree for a while. The wind passed through the branches. The leaves turned over, revealing their silvery undersides. They r

"Mr. Green, on your wife's birthday, she called you at 6:00 pm and asked where you were. You told her you were working late at the office. Would you like me to play that recording as well?"The courtroom fell silent for a long moment. The judge denied the other party's request for mediation. Instead, the case would proceed directly to trial the following Friday.When Taylor recounted everything over the phone afterward, he could barely hide the satisfaction in his voice.Kayla suddenly spoke. "That judge was amazing. She stood up for us against Daddy.""Yeah. She stood up for us.""But why?""Because she saw the evidence. She saw Summer's name on the hotel registration, right beneath my birthday.""Was she angry?""Didn't you hear Mr. Walker's voice? The judge was even angrier than I was."From the seventh to the tenth day, too much happened to keep track of.Alistair made 47 phone calls. Every client in the Stone family's business network that also worked with Christian rece

Two weeks later, I went to Nocturne Media's office with Alistair and Taylor.The corporate registration transfer hadn't been completed yet, but legally, this company already belonged to me. When the receptionist and the finance department saw us, their faces went pale.The accountant was a young woman wearing glasses. Her hands kept twisting the hem of her clothes.She brought out every financial record since the company was founded. Alistair went through them page by page. When he reached an expense from last December, he paused."Ms. Stone."It was a transfer of 24 thousand dollars. The purpose was stated as the purchase of office equipment, and the renovation company was the recipient. The note simply read, "Apartment."I understood then. It was the renovation costs for Summer's apartment, paid through Nocturne Media's corporate account.Every penny Nocturne Media had came from the joint account between Christian and me, which meant the apartment Summer lived in was renovated