###Chapter 4
When I opened my eyes again, night had already fallen.
The white wall of the hospital loomed before me and the doctor stood at my bedside with my chart in hand, his voice heavy with regret.
“Fortunately, the butler brought you here in time. We’ve treated the wound on your head. But your child… I’m sorry. By the time you arrived, it was already gone.”
Child?
Blankly, I reached for my lower abdomen. So, I had once carried my own baby? It had slipped past the drugs, only to be destroyed by its own father’s hand.
Hatred surged in my chest. I turned to the clock on the wall and it was already past ten. Ignoring the doctor’s pleas, I forced myself to leave the hospital.
On the ride home, the taxi radio blared the latest gossip. I let out a cold, mocking laugh.
Back at the villa, I tore the wedding photo from the wall and smashed it into pieces. Everything that had once recorded my love, I threw into the trash and set it on fire.
The crackling flames lit up the night.
Oliver hurried into the yard, his eyes narrowing with suspicion. “What are you burning?”
“Just some garbage that should have been dealt with long ago.”
He halted in his tracks. “Today, when I hit you, it was just a small punishment. Luckily, Vespera is fine. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have let you off.”
A small punishment? So, giving me a head injury, forcing me to miscarry and lose my child, was merely that?
Yet for his precious girl, with nothing but a little swelling on her cheek, he had summoned the best experts across the city to ensure she wouldn’t feel the slightest pain.
“Oliver, don’t worry. There will never be a next time.”
My voice was distant and at once he sensed something amiss.
In front of him, I had always smiled, gentle, tolerant, accommodating. When had I ever turned so cold, unwilling even to look at him?
Suppressing his sudden irritation, he frowned. “Enough, stop pretending to be pitiful. You’d better not stir up trouble at the banquet the day after tomorrow, or even my parents won’t be able to protect you.”
I closed my eyes, his indifferent voice still lingering.
“Let me tell you, I’ll have that patch of pink muhly grass dug up and replaced with roses.”
The night wind brushed across my cheeks, sending a chill through me. That flower field had been planted by his hands the year we married, not only because I loved pink muhly, but because he had once told me beneath the stars that its flower language was the throbbing of first love, the beauty of waiting.
Even if we were apart, one in Newport, the other in the capital, he would always be waiting for me in that field.
And now, only because his little lover preferred roses, he would erase it all.
“Oliver, does our past mean nothing at all?”
He sneered. “A business marriage and you took it seriously? I even regret ever risking my life to save you.”
At last, I laughed, laughing as tears poured down in heavy streams.
A friend had once warned me kindly that Oliver’s true nature was not what I believed. I thought she was only jealous, envious of what I believed was a perfect marriage. In the end, I was the foolish one.
My tear-reddened eyes made Oliver’s heart tighten for a moment, but irritation quickly replaced it. Then, as if recalling his superiority, he looked at me with disdain.
“Stop pretending, Leah. Remember, as long as you behave, you will retain the position as my wife.”
How could he think I cared about such an empty title?
“Oliver, I was wrong.”
Wrong to be blind, wrong to give my heart to the wrong man. Wrong to abandon everything in the capital, only to come to Newport and live as nothing more than a police officer for him.
Wrong to waste my youth chasing a false love that never belonged to me.
“So you finally admit what you did to Vespera was wrong? Then stop being so ungrateful.”
This time, I didn’t argue; there was no need.
“Then I’ll bring Vespera to the banquet the day after tomorrow. You’ll apologize to her sincerely and this matter will be over.”
So, he wanted to show off Vespera on the very day that was meant to matter most to us. My heart sank and the love I once held turned completely to ashes.
Oliver went inside, picked up a few things and left.
The next day, I went to the police department as usual. I had just sat down when Zachary handed me a USB drive, his expression grave.
“This is what you asked for. But Oliver is someone we can’t afford to offend, Chief. Please think carefully.”
