I sat in the wreck of the nursery, unable to make myself leave.
It wasn't until Lewis's voice came from beside me that I understood I'd been sitting there a whole day and night.
"You're the baby's aunt anyway. Once it's born, you can look after the baby and Violet. Saves us hiring a nurse." Lewis said it looking straight into my eyes.
There was nothing left in my line of sight but ruin.
I forced out a dry voice. "As you wish."
Seeing that I was still this cold, deaf to everything, the guilt on his face turned to impatience. "Nadia, don't play any of your games with me."
And as if that hadn't taken the edge off, he swung his hand and struck me across the cheek.
My cheek flared red and swollen at once, and just as I was about to hit back, the maid brought my grandmother in.
Her gaze swept over my swollen cheek and my tangled hair, then went straight to Lewis. "My precious granddaughter is pregnant?"
The words had barely left her when Violet, who'd been resting in the bedroom, came trotting out and into Grandmother's arms.
"My darling girl, you have to rest properly now. You're the little treasure of this whole family." Grandmother's face was pure delight.
"Don't worry, Grandmother. Violet's done this family a great service. I'll take good care of her." Lewis said it watching Violet, who wore a bashful little blush.
"Nadia, you bring nothing but bad luck. How can a woman who's just miscarried stand in front of our Violet?" Grandmother turned to me all at once, the joy in her eyes going cold in an instant.
Violet pouted, hurt rising on her face. "Just let my sister stay here and look after me. Otherwise she'd have nowhere to go."
I looked at the three of them, and the bitterness rose out of my eyes before I could hold it back.
Human joy and sorrow really don't run on the same current.
"Grandmother, my child's death was a gift from the two of them."
Lewis's face darkened instantly, and he cut me off. "Nadia, I know you're jealous of Violet. For the sake of our marriage, I'll turn a blind eye to these things you say to hurt her."
The pain in my heart came on hard, but my face stayed perfectly calm. "So you do know we're married? Once this thing between the two of you gets out, won't the whole world laugh itself sick? The great Thomas Group, tangled up with his own sister-in-law, and a bastard child on the way."
Ever since my parents took Violet in, she had fought and grabbed for everything that was mine. Every time she wanted to hurt me and succeed at it, she'd frame me in front of my parents without a second thought, and it was Lewis who proved me innocent, again and again.
In the end, Violet took my child and my love too.
"I finally managed to carry a baby, and the two of you killed my baby with your own hands." I said it shrill, laying out their crime.
"How many times do I have to say it? That was for the good of all mankind. Nadia, you benefited too. Your fetus was defective, and on top of that it was a girl."
"You know I have to have an heir. A girl can't be my heir." Lewis's voice was cold as a glacier.
Only because it was a girl, they murdered my child under a high and noble excuse.
Violet stroked her belly and began to sniffle. "I'm sorry, sister. I shouldn't have hurt you and your test-tube baby…"
I saw the glint of self-satisfaction shining under her tears.
"Enough! Nadia, Violet grew up in an orphanage. Do you have any idea how much she suffered all the way up?"
"Provoke me again and I'll throw you into the red-light district. I'll let the people there teach you what manners are." Lewis leaned hard on that last line.
I had once thought Lewis was only taken with Violet for a while, that he'd come around after a time, and I had even been willing to wait for him to apologize. I never imagined Lewis and Violet would join hands to murder my child, and say things this cruel to me on top of it.
The corner of my mouth curled into a scornful smile, and I just looked at Lewis's face.
They thought I had always been a homemaker leaning on Lewis.
They had no idea that behind them all I held multinational assets, and had run an AI lab for years.
Lewis's original shareholders were college classmates I had once helped, and it was I who quietly talked them into funding him.
Those classmates didn't understand why I would back some penniless nobody so hard, and I told them without hesitation that Lewis was a one-in-a-thousand stock with real potential.
At the time they said it to me over and over. "First, if Lewis doesn't have what it takes, we pull our money right away. Second, if Lewis ever fails you, we will stand firmly on your side."
I nodded, confident. And reality had slapped me across the face.
Sick of the three of them and their performance, I walked past them, expressionless, up to the second floor.
Grandmother held the weeping Violet and stroked her hair to soothe her. "You can't cry in early pregnancy, sweet girl. We spoiled Nadia rotten. With us here, she won't dare hurt you."
I stood on the second-floor stairs and looked down, and I saw Violet being held and kissed by Lewis.
Her eyes kept streaming tears, but the corner of her mouth lifted toward me.
I swallowed the bitterness down into my belly, met her gaze, and raised my head with a proud smile.
What they didn't know was that I had just caught every one of their ugly faces, whole and complete, on my phone.
