Chapter 1
In her eighth month of pregnancy, Serena Robert suddenly felt a familiar, heavy pulling sensation in her lower abdomen.
A warm, sticky liquid trickled down the inside of her thigh. She looked down, and her fingertips turned ice-cold in an instant. It was blood.
"Help! Somebody, please!"
A neighbor rushed over at the sound of her cries, her expression shifting to one of shock at the sight. "Oh my god, you're bleeding! We need to get you to the hospital, now!"
As Serena was hoisted onto a flatbed cart by several pairs of hands, a sense of profound relief filled her heart. Her husband, Aaron Marsh, was the star surgeon at the military hospital. Everyone called him a "miracle worker" whose hands could bring the dying back to life.
With him there, she and the baby would surely be safe.
But when she was wheeled into the emergency room and Aaron saw it was her, his expression tightened abruptly.
He strode to the side of the gurney and asked in a hushed tone, "Why are you here now?"
"I'm bleeding..." Serena was breaking out in a cold sweat from the pain. She reached out to grab his sleeve. "Aaron, please, I need a doctor…"
Instead, Aaron grabbed her wrist with a force that was slightly painful. He turned to the nurse and said, "Take her to the hallway and wait. I'll deal with her in a bit."
"But Dr. Marsh, your wife is literally in labor! We have to check her right now—"
"I said wait!" He interrupted sharply, a rare display of temper. He then leaned down close to Serena's ear, his voice barely a whisper. "Serena, listen to me. You cannot have this baby right now."
Serena froze. The sharp pain in her abdomen left her dazed. "What?"
"Natalie is a mess. She hasn't slept or eaten in days. I went to see a psychic, and he was clear. If a child is born into this family during this month this year, it'll destroy her fate."
He held her hand, his voice laced with plea. "Today is the last day of the month. If we can just make it until tomorrow, everything will be fine. Just hold on a little longer, okay?"
Serena's eyes widened, as if she couldn't comprehend his words.
A child of this month clashing with her sister's fate?
She opened her mouth, her voice sounding raspy and foreign. "Aaron... this is your kid. I've been carrying this baby for eight months…"
"I know, I know," he said, pressing his hand against her lower abdomen as if he could physically halt the contractions. "Serena, you've always been the sensible one. Natalie lost her husband. She's fragile right now. The master said any bad luck could break her. We can't mess this up. Just tonight. Just one night."
Serena began to tremble uncontrollably, unsure if it was from the pain or the sudden coldness in her heart.
Sensible. It was always that word.
Since childhood, the praise she received most was for being "sensible." She was sensible enough to accept her parents' favoritism toward her sister, sensible enough to let her husband give her child to her sister to raise, and sensible enough to endure nine months of pregnancy only to never hear her baby's first cry.
"This is the third one! Aaron, do you even get that?" she asked suddenly, her voice hauntingly hollow.
Aaron was taken aback. "What?"
The abdominal pains were becoming more frequent. Serena bit her lip as large beads of sweat broke out on her forehead. She could feel it, the baby couldn't wait any longer.
"Aaron..." She gripped his wrist, her voice carrying a final shred of desperation. "I can't do this. The pain is too much. I'm having this baby now. Please, let them take me in..."
Aaron looked at her pale face. A flicker of struggle crossed his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by something more complex. He knelt down to meet her gaze, his tone as gentle as if he were coaxing a disobedient child.
"Serena, listen. Just tonight. I'll give you a sedative to keep things quiet for now. Tomorrow morning, I'll deliver the baby myself, okay?"
Serena looked at him in disbelief. "A sedative? How do you 'suppress' a birth?"
"There are ways." He stood up and shouted toward the emergency room, "Mr. Barrett! Bring me a rolling pin!"
