Marian's entire body seized with shock. She stared at Herman, disbelief carved into every line of her face.
He pretended not to see the plea in her eyes. He turned his head away, and that silence was answer enough.
She opened her mouth to speak, but a slap cracked across her face and snapped her head to the side.
Brenda's shrill, contemptuous voice filled her ears.
“What kind of trash are you? You actually think you deserve to be Mrs. James? Take a good look in the mirror before you dream that big!”
“Get over here! Beat her!”
The words had barely left her mouth before several heavyset women rolled up their sleeves and closed in.
Before Marian could beg for mercy, the blows came down like hail.
Her back, her stomach, her shoulders. Every hit was savage and deliberate.
The pain tore through her limbs and spread to every nerve. Marian doubled over, biting down on her lip so hard she tasted copper, choking back the scream clawing up her throat.
Her strength drained away drop by drop. Her consciousness peeled loose from her body.
When Marian came to, she was lying on the floor of an abandoned warehouse.
A wrenching cramp rolled through her lower abdomen, followed by a hollow, sinking weight. Something warm and wet seeped down her inner thighs in a steady, terrible stream.
One of the women had stomped on her stomach over and over, grinding her heel in.
Marian knew what was happening. She just watched in silence.
Her chest felt ice-cold. She curled forward slowly, pressing her fist against her breastbone as hard as she could, and the pain spread inch by suffocating inch until it filled every part of her.
Once again, she had failed to protect her child.
Voices drifted in from outside the door. The same women.
“Did we……go too far just now? The way she looked, I think she might have miscarried……”
“Good riddance! Even if she'd carried it to term, it'd be nothing but a bastard. The James family would never claim it. A shameless homewrecker like her doesn't deserve to carry James blood.”
“Mr. James said it himself. Only Miss Fox is the rightful Mrs. James. That Marian Pruitt is just some mistress he kept on the side.”
The moment their voices fell away, the sky exploded with fireworks, enormous blooms of color bursting one after another.
Two envious gasps followed.
“So the rumors were true. Mr. James really is devoted to Miss Fox. Apparently he's setting off fireworks over the harbor tonight after the proposal.”
“No kidding. Yesterday he dropped eighty million dollars to donate a massive gold Buddha statue to a temple in Miss Fox's name. Said he wanted to build up her karma and have it blessed by thousands of worshippers.”
“And here we are, stuck babysitting the side piece. Just our luck.”
One of them spat in Marian's direction. “Disgusting.”
Marian's fingers curled inward. The blood between her legs pooled wider.
The fireworks kept erupting across the sky, massive clusters trailing white-hot embers that drifted down like burning snow.
The dry straw beside the warehouse caught first, a few licking flames that leapt and spread in seconds, devouring everything around them.
“Fire! It's on fire! Run!”
“What about her?”
“Forget her! If she dies, she dies. Mr. James won't blame us!”
The building crumbled in on itself with a chorus of snapping wood and roaring flame. Smoke filled Marian's lungs, dragging her under, and the edges of everything went soft and dark.
Survival instinct moved her hand before her mind could. She fumbled for her phone and dialed Herman's number.
It didn't go through. She called again. And again. On the fifth try, the line connected.
What she heard on the other end shocked her fully awake.
Sandra was pinned beneath someone, her voice breathy and petulant, half moaning and half indignant.
“You bastard……don't touch me!”
She let out a cold laugh. ：“I heard you had someone rough up Marian Pruitt. What new trick is this to win me over? After what her family did to mine back then, I bet you enjoyed every second of it.”
“I'm telling you right now, I will never bear your children. Not even if I die first.”
Herman's voice was languid, thick with desire.
“Why do you think I was ever with her? It was all for you. For your revenge. A piece of trash like that doesn't deserve to stand next to me.” He scoffed. “I had people beat her for a full year. Every time, they stopped just short of killing her. I kept her breathing so you could take your time with her later.”
He paused. When he spoke again, his tone dropped, heavy with possessive displeasure. “If you won't have my children, then whose will you have? If you let another man so much as touch you, I'll lock you away and I won't stop until you give me what I want.”
Before she could answer, he crushed his mouth over hers. “The only woman who will carry my children is you.”
The warehouse was swallowed whole by fire now, the blaze climbing higher and higher, but Marian felt nothing but cold. Cold all the way through, down to the marrow.
Enough, she told herself.
Why had she ever expected anything from him?
She hung up. She curled into herself and let the flames roll over her, burning until even her soul was ash.
