I was lying flat on the stiff hospital bed, the antiseptic tang in the air making my head spin. The choice felt already settled, heavy like a stone on my chest. My brain kept screaming—just do it, get it over with. End the pregnancy. Two babies. A whirlwind of betrayal and lies. What reason was there to bring them into this madness?
Still, even as that voice rattled in my head, something deep in my chest protested. No one knew yet. I hadn’t told a soul. These tiny lives growing inside me—they belonged to me. They were connected to me in a way nothing else ever had been.
While the nurse began preparing the tools for the procedure, I couldn’t stop picturing the twins. What if there was still a chance I could keep them safe? Maybe I could figure it out, somehow. I wasn’t a murderer. I couldn’t let this happen.
Suddenly, I yanked the IV out of my arm without thinking. The sting of it snapped me into reality. Heart pounding, feet bare, I jumped off the bed and tore down the hallway. Voices called after me, the clatter of shoes and alarms behind me, but I didn’t stop.
I ran.
Out through the sterile lobby. Down the staircase. Through the automatic doors. Into the underground parking lot, where the shadows swallowed me whole.
That’s when I saw her.
Leaning beside her car, arms crossed over her chest. Her stomach barely showing beneath her high-end coat. When her eyes landed on me, they lit with cold fury.
“Oh, give me a break,” she sneered. “Are you actually following me now?”
I froze mid-step. “What... what are you doing here?”
She tilted her head with mock sweetness. “Doctor’s appointment. Eight weeks along. Baby’s doing just fine.”
The breath caught in my lungs. “Wait. You’re pregnant?”
Her grin widened like a blade. “Take a wild guess who the dad is.”
My knees almost gave out. “This was your plan all along.”
“You ruined everything I had,” she snapped, stepping closer. “My parents. My legacy. My future. So now I’m just reclaiming what you stole.”
I turned to walk away, pushing past her as she casually opened her car door. “Run, then,” she called after me, voice dripping with mockery. “That’s your specialty, isn’t it?”
I kept moving, trying not to cry, trying not to fall apart. But then—
A screech. An engine roaring.
I turned.
The headlights hit me like a wall of white.
Metal slammed into my body. I flew like a ragdoll. Landed hard on the ground—my skull cracked against the pavement. Pain erupted down my spine and into my belly. My vision spun in violent circles. My ears rang.
Blood.
Warm, thick, and everywhere. Flowing beneath me like ink spilling from a broken bottle. My limbs were useless. My hands instinctively clutched at my belly.
My children.
Chloe emerged from the car, her heels tapping across the concrete like she was stepping onto a catwalk. She knelt down beside me, took off her sunglasses with slow precision—and spit in my face.
“Look at you,” she said with disgust. “Bleeding all over the place. You’re even pathetic at dying.”
I opened my mouth, trying to plead, but my voice was gone.
She leaned in closer, her perfume suffocating, her words like venom. “You actually believed you mattered, didn’t you? That your DNA made you royalty? Please. You’re a walking accident. A theft in human form.”
Hot tears ran down my cheeks, my vision dimming at the edges.
“Oh, come on,” she continued with fake sympathy. “Save the tears. You should’ve cried before you let Kenji crawl between your legs. But then again, he always said you were a total bore. Like kissing a corpse. No spark. No passion. That’s why he always came back to me.”
She laughed. Harsh. Wild. Unhinged.
“You know what he used to say?” she said, mimicking his voice in a cruel tone. “‘She’s like flavorless soup.’ And then he’d hold me and whisper, ‘Chloe, you make me feel alive. Celeste just makes me feel... obligated.’”
A broken noise escaped me. I trembled uncontrollably, blood soaking my clothes. Then her phone buzzed.
She answered it like nothing had happened, her voice suddenly all sugar and sunshine. “Hey baby.”
Kenji’s voice echoed through the speaker. “Hey, beautiful. Did you get to the clinic yet?”
She turned her back to me like I was a dead insect. “Just arrived. Our little one’s already doing flips, I swear.”
Kenji laughed lightly. “I seriously can’t wait. I’ve never wanted to be a dad more.”
I let out a weak sob.
She glanced over her shoulder, her eyes devoid of any empathy. “Hear that?” she whispered down at me. “That’s what it sounds like when someone actually wants you.”
Kenji kept talking, oblivious. “Think it’s a boy?”
“Doesn’t matter,” she replied sweetly. “As long as it’s ours.”
“You’re gonna be the sexiest mom ever,” he said with a chuckle. “I’ll be there in ten. Miss you already.”
She ended the call, dropped her phone into her bag, and looked back down at me.
“I warned you, didn’t I?” she murmured, slipping her glasses back on. “I told you I’d strip it all from you.”
Then, with the grace of someone stepping over trash, she walked away.
Leaving me broken, bleeding, and fading fast. My life pooling on the concrete. My babies slipping away with every second.
But someone came.
A voice I hadn’t heard in what felt like forever.
“Celeste! Don’t go to sleep, stay with me,” he called out, and suddenly I felt strong arms lifting me off the ground. “Keep your eyes open. You’re safe now.”
And just before the darkness dragged me under, I saw his face.
The only boy who had ever looked at me like I truly mattered.
But even that might have come too late.
