Ervin pointed at Rose, who was touching up her makeup nearby, his tone laced with mockery：【When Rose was pregnant, she still managed to work eighteen-hour days without a single break.】
【Renata, I'm starting to wonder if I've been spoiling you too much.】
【Turning you into this much of a drama queen.】
Every other word out of his mouth was about Rose. The resentment sat heavy in my chest.
【If you think Rose is so great, why did you marry me instead of her?】
【You think I didn't want to……】
Ervin's face twisted with fury, but the words died on his tongue.
In the end, a mocking edge settled over his expression, and he switched back to patient persuasion：
【Honestly, when you showed up on the livestream just now, the analytics spiked. You brought Rose a ton of new followers.】
【I've told you over and over, I'm going to make Rose a star.】
【If you leave now, you're cutting her stream short in the middle of a live broadcast. It'll tank her numbers.】
Ervin would never understand how agonizing it had been for me in that livestream.
That hideous makeup hadn't just wrecked my appearance. It had shattered my dignity.
But Ervin never noticed any of that. All he saw was me being difficult.
I was exhausted. I just wanted to find somewhere quiet to collect myself.
Ervin thought I was leaving. He grabbed my arm and yanked me back.
I lost my balance, and my stomach slammed into the corner of the table.
Pain tore through me, so sharp it stole my breath.
The floor director jogged over：【Mr. Stephens, your wife needs to get ready. We're going live any second.】
I sucked in a ragged breath, clutching Ervin's hand so hard my knuckles went white：
【I think something's wrong with the baby. Please, take me to the hospital……】
Ervin hesitated for one second.
But the sight of Rose's follower count climbing won out.
He took my hand, his voice terrifyingly calm：
【I'll call an ambulance, but you'll have to wait for it anyway. You might as well finish the second half of the stream while you wait.】
Then he signaled his assistant to walk me back in front of the camera.
I had no choice. I swallowed the pain and forced the thinnest sliver of a smile.
Sharp-eyed viewers in the chat picked up on it immediately.
【The pregnant woman next to her looks really pale. Is she okay?】
The pain was so bad I couldn't speak. All I could do was press both hands against my stomach and pray my baby was safe.
Rose saw the chat shifting and jumped in with a laugh to smooth things over：
【Don't worry, everyone! Renata lost her parents young and her family went bankrupt, so she's been under a lot of stress. She just doesn't have the energy to keep up her appearance. Her color's always a little off.】
The comments poured in the moment she finished：
【That explains it. Looking like that, she probably couldn't marry into anything decent, right?】
【Definitely not as well as our Rose did!】
Rose caught those comments and read them aloud in a drawn-out, sing-song voice, one hand covering her smile：
【You're all wrong, actually! Renata is our boss's wife. She has a perfectly happy family.】
I barely registered Rose's poisonous little performance. All I could feel was a warm, steady gush soaking through beneath me.
I looked at Ervin, begging him with my eyes.
But by the time I blacked out, the person I needed most still hadn't come.
Rose shot to her feet in shock. The chat exploded：
【Oh my God, is that blood under the pregnant woman?】
【Is she having a miscarriage?? That's terrifying.】
【Didn't Rose just say she only looked pale? Why is she bleeding?】
The livestream cut to black. I collapsed into Ervin's arms.
For the first time since we'd arrived, something close to worry flickered in his eyes.
He barked at his assistant to get the ambulance there now.
