Clara began climbing the slide. Her voice sounded terrifying to Laina’s ears, making the little girl cry in fear.
“Give it to me! Give me that necklace, you little thief!” Clara screamed as she yanked the chain from Laina’s neck at the top of the two-meter-high slide.
“It hurts, Mom! Dad… it hurts!” Laina screamed, her hands trembling as she tried to free herself from Clara’s grip.
Gwen climbed the slide and grabbed Clara’s legs, but Clara kicked her head, shoulders, and face without releasing her grip on the necklace around Laina’s neck.
In that rough, uneven tug-of-war, Clara shoved Laina’s tiny body hard so the child’s grip on the guardrail would slip.
Laina lost her balance. Her body hung in the air before crashing onto the concrete landing below the slide, landing awkwardly on her feet.
CRACK!
The sound of the fracture was so terrifying that it made the people in the park gasp.
Laina’s scream erupted, piercing the air, before finally fading into a faint whimper.
“Laina!” Gwen roared. She crawled over to embrace her daughter, who had turned deathly pale.
Laina’s left leg was bent at an unnatural angle. The skin on her neck was scraped and bleeding from the necklace that had been yanked off.
At the top of the slide, Clara stood, panting. She laughed as she clutched the necklace. There were traces of blood on the silver chain she had snatched from the innocent little girl’s neck.
“Look, Gwen! God isn’t sleeping! God is punishing this illegitimate child born of her mother’s sin!”
The roar of another car broke the silence. Darius arrived at the scene after being contacted by the driver who was escorting Clara. He ran into the playground with a face full of anxiety.
“Darius! Help!” Gwen screamed, tears streaming down her face. “Laina… her leg… please call an ambulance now!”
Darius froze for a moment, watching his daughter whimper in pain on the asphalt. But at that very moment, Clara slumped down and fell to the ground.
She clutched her stomach while moaning, “Darius… my stomach… she attacked me, she wants to kill our baby…”
Darius immediately pulled Clara into a possessive embrace.
“Darius! Are you blind?!” Gwen screamed, her voice hoarse from crying. “Open your eyes! It’s your own flesh and blood who’s been hurt by this crazy woman!”
“Gwen, I’ve told you time and again to watch your mouth,” Darius hissed, his jaw clenched, while the crowd began whispering and staring at them.
“Is that all you care about when your own daughter is seriously injured?! Fine, from now on, we don’t need you anymore. I’ll report this and take Laina to the hospital myself.”
With trembling hands, Gwen reached for her phone to call an ambulance.
But as soon as he heard the word “report,” Darius grabbed Gwen’s hand, snatched the phone, and smashed it on the ground until it was shattered. He gripped Gwen’s hand so tightly that she felt her wrist crack.
Darius stared at Gwen with eyes as cold as ice. “Shut up, Gwen. Don’t act like you’re the victim,” he hissed under his breath. He stood up, lifting Clara into his arms to leave.
However, the crowd immediately surrounded them, holding their cell phones up toward him and Clara.
Camera lenses pointed like gun barrels, their flashes blinding Darius.
“This woman pushed an innocent little girl until she was seriously injured!”
“How could you just walk away and leave that little girl hurt?!”
“That’s right, poor little girl—her leg looks broken!”
Insults began to rain down on Clara. Clara buried her face in Darius’s chest while clutching her stomach, her face pale. She glanced at Darius with a pleading and panicked look.
“Darius… ugh, my stomach hurts so much… will our baby be okay?”
Fearing that Clara’s condition was worsening, which could affect the fetus in her womb, Darius let out a heavy sigh.
He glared at the crowd blocking his path, then spoke in a low voice. “Don’t blame my wife. She’s the victim! And this woman…” Darius pointed at Gwen with an expressionless face, “…is my mistress. That child… is the result of an affair I had while my wife was struggling to recover from trauma.”
Gwen, who was clutching Laina’s body without paying any heed to the pain in her own wrist, looked up. She stared at the man who had been her husband for seven years.
“Darius… what are you saying?”
Darius didn’t look at her at all. His back seemed so cold and indifferent.
“Please make way; I need to take my wife to the hospital. If she has a miscarriage, you’ll all be held responsible for blocking our path!”
The crowd quickly dispersed and made way, letting the man pass while carrying his ‘wife.’
The narrative in the air did a complete 180. The atmosphere fell silent for a moment before murmurs filled with hatred began to shift direction and point at Gwen’s face.
People were taking brutal photos of her face. Some even started pulling her hair and hitting her with overflowing rage.
“Turns out she’s the mistress! No wonder the legal wife came and taught her a lesson!”
“She must be using her child to blackmail the pregnant legal wife!”
“That’s what a woman who ruins another woman’s life deserves!”
“Poor child, she has to suffer because her mother is a mistress!”
Gwen hugged her daughter tightly. She tried to cover Laina’s face and ears so the child wouldn’t hear the cruel insults that reduced them to mistresses and illegitimate children—a status created by the lies of the men who were supposed to be their protectors.
“That’s not true! We aren’t—”
Gwen’s defense was drowned out by the roar of the crowd that continued to insult her.
Seeing her daughter hurt and crying in her arms broke Gwen’s heart even further. She desperately searched for someone who could save her, but all she saw was her husband’s cold back growing increasingly distant as he carried another woman in his arms, shielding her as if she were a fragile porcelain vase.
Darius didn’t look back even once and immediately got into the car, leaving them behind.
Finally, the park guard arrived to disperse the crowd and called an ambulance to take Gwen and her injured daughter to the hospital.
Inside the cramped ambulance, Gwen held Laina’s hand as she continued to whimper in pain.
“Mom… it hurts…”
“I know, sweetie. The pain will go away once we get to the hospital, I promise…” Gwen wished Laina’s pain could transfer to her own body so her little girl wouldn’t have to suffer. She wiped the sweat and tears from her daughter’s cheeks.
“Daddy… Mom, why did Daddy leave me? Does he not want me anymore? Is it because I’m naughty?” Laina’s eyes were wet with tears and a sadness no child her age should have to feel.
Gwen kissed the back of her tiny hand. Her voice sounded hoarse as she was forced to calm her daughter with a lie. “Daddy just had to go because of an urgent job. Mommy will be with Laina…”
But the little girl’s gaze grew even more dim, as if she couldn’t be fooled.
Upon arriving at Reeds Central Hospital, the administrative staff member stared at the computer screen with a furrowed brow.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Romano. Your medical access has been suspended.”
Gwen’s eyes widened, and she screamed so loudly that people around them turned to look. She didn’t even notice the pain in her wrist, which she had fractured while slamming her hand on the reception desk.
“What do you mean?! This is an emergency! My daughter’s leg is broken!”
“We’ve received a report from the Reeds Foundation. You’re accused of insurance fraud by using their family name. All healthcare facilities under the Foundation have blocked your access.”
