"Don’t think that you've earned any special favor just because you saved Thorian back then. Thorian hates dirty people more than anything. The moment you offered yourself, delaying everything, you were already tainted..."
"You’ve been married for seven years, so what? He still won’t even look at you, let alone touch you. He spends every day with me to release his pent-up energy. He even said it to me in bed."
"He thinks you... are filthy."
Her gaze pierced through me as if she was stripping me bare.
For a moment, I was transported back to that suffocating afternoon, panic rising in my chest as I realized I had run myself into a dead end, all for Thorian’s escape.
When I was rescued, the photos taken by the kidnappers became damning evidence, and their testimonies were used to smear my name.
I denied everything with desperation, but Thorian simply cried, holding me tightly and solemnly vowing to take responsibility for me.
At that moment, I foolishly believed that our love was invincible, that nothing could tear us apart.
But I never anticipated that this would only mark the beginning of seven years of suffering.
It felt like a giant hand was squeezing the very air from my lungs, the pain so suffocating that I could barely breathe.
My fingers tightened around the wheelchair handle, my knuckles white with the effort.
"Get out," I commanded, pushing with every ounce of strength I had, but she simply yanked it back, effortlessly.
She seized my hand and pressed it to her swollen belly.
"I’ll tell you a secret," she sneered, her voice dripping with malice. "I’m not pregnant."
I stared at her, disbelief flooding me, but her eyes were contemptuous, sharp, and unyielding.
"Thorian could never bear to see me suffer like that. Our child is inside you. Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted, to bear his child?"
Her gaze was a weapon, slicing through me with ease, leaving me feeling like a fish stranded on dry land, gasping for air, helpless and exposed.
"You’re shameless," I muttered, my words barely audible.
The moment my hand grazed her, she suddenly groaned in pain, crumpling to the floor in a heap, blood spilling out in a pool beneath her.
"My baby, my baby…" she sobbed.
Behind her, Thorian stood, his face as dark as a storm cloud, fury radiating off him.
In an instant, he grabbed me by the neck, slamming me into the wall.
"Farah," he hissed through clenched teeth, his voice low and dangerous, "If her baby dies, I’ll make you pay with your child!"
The pain from the knife wound flared up, dizzying me with its intensity.
My heart felt as though it had been hollowed out completely, leaving nothing but an aching emptiness.
I watched Thorian lift Breanna and walk away, his back turned to me, each step taking him farther from where I stood. Bitterly, I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth, feeling like a forgotten shadow in the distance.
Then, my phone buzzed, pulling me back to reality.
[Identity deactivation procedure has started. It cannot be undone. It will be successfully deactivated in seven days.]
The words hung in the air as if the final nail had been hammered into the coffin of my existence.
After that day, I returned home, my movements mechanical as I packed to leave.
Thorian had spent hours at the hospital, calling me several times to remind me to rest and to check on the baby.
I had heard the news: Breanna had miscarried, but now, she held the baby that had once been mine.
I pretended not to hear it, tossing the emergency kit I had so carefully prepared for him into the trash without a second thought.
I dismantled the study he had once asked for, cutting up the movie discs and music CDs I had painstakingly collected just for him, as though severing the last ties between us.
When I received the notification that the deactivation had been completed, I set fire to all of our photos, watching them curl and blacken in the flames, feeling each piece of the past burn away with them. I was preparing to leave, to step out of the suffocating remnants of what we once shared.
Then, Thorian returned.
He glanced at the fire pit casually, almost as if he didn’t care about the destruction I’d just set in motion, before placing a box of crab roe buns in front of me.
"Farah, that day... I was wrong. I shouldn’t have let my emotions control me and said such hurtful things. I made you suffer."
He paused, running a hand through his hair. "The baby’s condition hasn’t been good these past few days. He’s been in the ICU. You can blame me, resent me all you want, but the baby... he’s innocent."
His voice softened, and the words seemed to reach the deepest part of my heart, pulling at the edges of the damage we’d caused. "Come with me to the hospital, at least to see him. Please?"
The cold edge of my phone pressed sharply into my palm, sending an icy chill straight to my bones.
I knew why he was here. The baby’s organs were failing, and with double the amount of medication, the bleeding was heavy. He wouldn’t survive.
Thorian’s fingers brushed against my belly with an almost tender touch as he slipped a rose-colored ring into my hand, his silent plea hanging between us like the last breath before a storm.
