“Mrs. Lizzie, you’re already 34 weeks along, aren’t you? You’re nearly due. I hear it’s twins—a boy and a girl. We can’t afford to be careless. Everything you need is ready at our hospital, so please rest assured.”
I lowered my head and let out a cold laugh. I had only a five-month-old child at home and my surname wasn’t Lizzie—it was Scott.
“Are you sure this prenatal appointment was scheduled by my husband, Louise Darren?”
The nurse answered with absolute certainty. “Of course! Didn’t he come with you today?”
My heart skipped and I rushed forward. Sure enough, there was Louise—the man who had told me he was in a meeting.
And he wasn’t alone. He was holding a woman who looked strikingly like me. No wonder the mistake.
Every time I asked him to accompany me to prenatal checkups, he always claimed he was too busy. Yet here he was, kneeling in a hospital corridor, massaging another woman’s legs.
Karen Lizzie leaned into Louise’s arms, her voice soft and full of meaning.
“Now that I’m back and carrying your child, what are you going to do about that stand-in wife of yours?”
“With you here, she means nothing to me.”
“If it weren’t for merging the Scott Corporation into the Darren Group and swallowing up Scott’s market share, I never would have bothered with her farce of a marriage.”
“Besides, she still doesn’t know about that secret.”
So, my marriage had been a lie from the very beginning.
Ridiculous. But what he didn’t realize was that the very secret he mentioned would one day destroy him.
This marriage wasn’t worth keeping. For all the pain they’d caused me, I would make them pay double.
***
“Oh, I climbed the 999 steps of Greylock Mountain, bowing at each one, just to get this safety charm for you and the baby. It’ll protect you both during childbirth.”
Louise fastened the charm around Karen’s neck with great care, whispering “safe and sound” again and again.
Her eyes shimmered with tears before she playfully pouted.
“I heard you got one for that stand-in at home too.”
Louise chuckled and soothed her with practiced patience.
“Nonsense! Hers was just a trinket from a street vendor. Yours is the one I prayed for, step by step.”
At those words, my heart froze completely.
When he gave me that amulet, I’d been worried sick, believing he had worn himself out climbing all those steps. I had cherished it like a precious treasure.
But mine was a fake.
Karen was back. And to Louise, I was nothing but a substitute. Even the child in my belly was just a pawn in his power game.
My hands trembled as I dialed my private investigator.
“Dig into Louise—and that woman he calls his ‘first love.’”
Half an hour later, the files lay spread across my desk.
The red markings burned into my eyes.
Three months into our marriage, Louise had already begun his frequent “business trips.” Sixty trips in three years, each destination perfectly aligning with Karen’s whereabouts.
In other words, not long after our wedding, Louise and Karen had rekindled their affair.
Last year, when Karen returned to US, he even bought her a villa—just blocks from our home.
Was he running into her arms the moment he walked out of mine?
Even worse, on March 7th, Louise had accompanied her shopping for baby supplies.
I remembered that day vividly. I had suffered vaginal bleeding and called him, crying, begging him to take me to the hospital. He had said he was too busy.
Now, staring at the documents, I didn’t know whether to laugh or weep.
Just then, my phone rang.
“Miss, I’ve uncovered something about Louise.”
The tone was grim—it wasn’t trivial.
“Louise had his assistant procure abortion drugs. Potent, banned ones. A single dose could leave someone permanently infertile.”
The target was obvious.
“I understand. Thank you.”
That night, Louise returned home, carrying a steaming bowl of silver ear fungus soup.
“Honey, this is from Japan. I waited in line an hour just to get it for you.”
I looked into his eyes and pain pierced straight through me.
“Is it okay if I don’t want to drink it tonight?”
Louise—for Karen’s sake, are you really this cruel? This is your own child.
“What’s wrong, honey? You usually love this. Come, let me blow on it for you.”
“I said I don’t want it!”
The ceramic bowl slipped from my hands, shattering into pieces on the floor.
Louise’s expression darkened instantly, but within seconds he smoothed it over.
“Fine, don’t drink it. No need to get so worked up—you’ll upset the baby.”
That night, he didn’t go to Karen.
Instead, he held me in bed, his voice gentle as he told me a bedtime story. He looked every inch the loving husband and expectant father.
But with my back to him, silent tears soaked my pillow.
When I opened my eyes again, I wasn’t in my bedroom—I was in an operating room.
My mind was clear, but my body wouldn’t move. My eyelids felt glued shut.
Then came the doctor’s cold voice.
“Mr. Darren, are you certain you want to terminate this pregnancy? At five months, the procedure will cause the mother severe pain and may leave permanent damage.”
I felt Louise’s hand stroke my belly and his voice fell like ice.
“I’m certain. Don’t worry about anything else. Just do as I said.”
Trapped inside my own body, I screamed and pounded against invisible walls.
“Please, don’t hurt my baby. I’ll give you anything you want!”
But the truth was, no sound left my lips. I couldn’t move at all. I could only endure as the cold instruments tore through me.
