Chapter 4
565 Words
Dany's voice pulled Lucy back from her thoughts.
Staring at the bowl of borscht, she kept her face blank. The words to politely refuse were just on her lips when she heard Dany's low voice carry a blatant warning.
"Lucy, don't know what's good for you! If you won't do it, someone else will take the punishment for you."
She glanced at the grim look on Dany's face. Thinking of Kate Grant, her mother, lying in the hospital bed, Lucy finally closed her eyes, lifted the bowl, and drank it all in one gulp.
Moments later, nausea surged up her throat. She clapped a hand over her mouth and rushed to the bathroom, not noticing that Dany had shot up to follow—only to be held back by Nina.
A burning, stabbing pain tore at her throat, torturing her unbearably.
After throwing up violently for half an hour, Lucy finally regained her strength. She wiped her mouth roughly and hurried back to the private room.
Her gaze swept over empty chairs. The room had long been deserted. She froze abruptly.
They had both abandoned her and left together.
Lucy stepped out of the restaurant. A cold wind hit her, making her shiver. Only then did she realize her clothes were soaked through with cold sweat.
The moon was hidden and the wind sharp. Her hand tightened around her sleeve. Thinking of recent tragedies she'd heard about, her heart pounded with fear, and she quickened her pace.
When she reached the Hayes house, Lucy walked straight to the garden.
Looking at the only three roses left, she reached out without hesitation, grasped the stems, let the sharp thorns pierce her soft skin, and tore the roses up by their roots.
She threw the flowers to the ground in rage, stomped on them several times, then tossed them into the trash.
Lucy had just grabbed the doorknob when she heard voices inside, mixed with unclear rustling and bumping sounds.
She tilted her head instinctively and peeked through the c***k.
On the sofa, their bodies were tangled together.
Dany hastily pulled off his clothes. Looking at Nina's teasing, mischievous expression, he smiled with total affection.
His fingers trembled slightly as he put on protection. Facing Nina, whose clothes were half off, he spoke in that lustful voice Lucy knew all too well—low, chiding, and tender.
"You only know how to tease me. If the doctor hadn't said you shouldn't get pregnant too soon, would I be going through all this trouble?"
When Dany brought up the child on his own, Nina sat up, looped her arms around his neck, pressed her red lips deliberately to his ear, and nibbled gently.
"It's strange, though. Lucy's always been healthy. Why did her baby suddenly disappear? Could it be... she didn't want to have your baby, Dany? She wouldn't have killed her own child on purpose, right?"
Seeing the undisguised suspicion in Dany's eyes, Lucy felt nothing. She was not at all surprised that he would believe Nina's lies.
Yet a sharp, dense pain still spread through her chest. Were all those words, all that love, just a disguise from the very start—so Dany could use her to climb to power?
Lucy tightened her grip on the doorknob involuntarily. A dull thud sounded. The voices inside stopped abruptly. Dany snapped sharply toward the door.
"Who's there?"
- Writer
