While I Was in Labor, He Cheated

Chapter 2

Early the next morning, Evelyn carried her child to the funeral home alone.

She looked down at the tiny body, its skin pale with blue, and choked out, "Baby, Mama will handle your affairs alone. He's filthy. He doesn't deserve you."

When they slid the small bundle into the cremator, she could not hold back her sobs. "Mama was so foolish. I didn't protect you."

Her phone vibrated. A photo from Ivy stabbed into her blurred vision: on a luxury yacht, wearing a princess dress, blowing out candles while Daniel looked at her as if she were the sun.

"Guess what I wished for, Evelyn? I wished you'd never have children."

Evelyn gripped the phone until her knuckles went white.

An attendant returned with a tiny urn shaped like a cat paw. His voice trembled. "The baby was so small. We kept the temperature and time low. Only four grams remain."

Four grams.

Lighter than a breath.

She took the urn and felt that negligible weight buckle her knees. Through the raw ache she placed a gold locket engraved with "Ella Vaughn" inside. When they sealed it, she felt as if they had sealed her heart too.

She turned off her phone and fled to Temple of Sacred Peace, staying for five days while monks chanted sutras for Ella.

When she finally came home, the door opened onto a nightmare.

The blue curtains had been replaced with pink. The silk rug was gone, replaced by wool. The air reeked of jasmine.

"Evelyn?" Ivy turned, casually holding Evelyn's favorite antique teacup.

"Why are you in my house?" Evelyn asked, voice as cold as ice.

"Evelyn?"

Daniel appeared in an apron, flustered. "You should be resting. I made soup to bring you at the hospital."

Daniel, renowned as Clearwater Legal's top lawyer, transformed his face into contrition in an instant. His concern looked expertly rehearsed.

Evelyn scanned the room, chest heaving. "If I hadn't come back, how would I have known someone else had moved in here?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Daniel snapped, brows knitting. "Ivy is like family. You raised her and sponsored her. When did you turn on her?"

Evelyn pointed at the pink curtains, voice trembling. "Then tell me why."

Ivy whined, "Evelyn, don't misunderstand. Mr. Vaughn didn't change the curtains for me. He just wanted to brighten the place while you recover."

"And the rug? The flowers?" Evelyn fixed Daniel with a hard stare. "Wool and jasmine trigger my allergies. Don't tell me you forgot."

Daniel opened a drawer and tossed allergy pills onto the counter. "A pill will fix it. Why are you being so hostile? Ivy is interning at our front desk. I had the house prepared for you. This has nothing to do with her."

"A pill will fix everything?" A cold chill ran down Evelyn's spine as she eyed the box.

"Here, Evelyn," Ivy said, taking the pills and a glass of water. She stood behind Daniel, slipped a hand around Evelyn's wrist, and then "accidentally" let the glass fall.

Shards scattered. In one practiced motion, Ivy grabbed a shard, pressed it across her own palm, and cried out, drawing blood.

"Ivy!" Daniel lunged over, seeing blood where Evelyn's foot had been.

His eyes flared. "How dare you!"

He slapped her hard.

Evelyn cupped her reddening cheek, stunned. He had struck her for that scheming little girl?

"Housekeeper!" he ordered. "Lock her in our room. She is not to leave until I return."

He gave her no chance to speak, eyes full of pity for Ivy.

Locked in the master bedroom, Evelyn found every surface filled with jasmine. The scent was suffocating.

She stumbled to the window and watched Daniel bundle Ivy into a car. They sped away, leaving a desperate silhouette that dragged her mind back five years.

Back then she had been a junior assistant at the Clearwater Legal and Daniel a low-level lawyer. She had delivered documents to Shaw Industries and been violated by Richard Shaw, a man who controlled both legal and criminal power. He then handed her over to his men to be abused.

At her lowest, Daniel had burst in, wrapped his suit jacket around her, and run her to the hospital. He had fought the Shaw empire for her, enduring assassination attempts and never giving up.

When the case was won, those men went to prison and Shaw Industries collapsed. He proposed to her afterward.

Only then did she learn he was a scion of the Vaughn family, with power far beyond the Shaws'. He could have used influence but chose instead to fight and to love her.

She had believed that love was her salvation after endless suffering.

Now he held another woman in his arms and that faith shattered like porcelain.

The jasmine filled her throat and the room tilted. Before she could reach the window, darkness closed over her.