Chapter 3

"The baby ?"

Steven Anderson wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his thumb, his expression cold as ever.

“Medical waste,” he said, his lips curving into a faint, mocking smile. “Of course, it was sent to the incinerator for disposal.”

My child... burned to ashes?

After the miscarriage, my health had never recovered. I could feel Steven growing more distant by the day.

During that time, Sophia Reed had several health scares. Every time, Steven would leave in the middle of the night after getting a call, returning hours later, utterly exhausted. He didn’t even have the energy to offer me an explanation.

I’d met Sophia twice.

The first time was at the hospital. She had just survived yet another brush with death, her pale face twisted into a triumphant sneer as she looked at me.

“Ginger, you’re just Steven’s consolation prize, the substitute he settled for because he couldn’t have me,” she said with a cruel smile.

“Now that you’ve lost the child, what else do you have to keep him?”

The second time was at Mr. Anderson’s birthday banquet.

The thoughtful gift I had spent weeks picking out was set aside, forgotten.

Sophia took the stage and sang a song. It left the old man beaming with joy, and, for the first time, I saw Steven smile.

So, he could smile.

“I’m just not a man who smiles much,” Steven had told me once, in a tone I would never forget.

“Don’t waste your time trying to make me happy.”

It wasn’t that he couldn’t smile. He just didn’t want to smile for me.

That was when I finally understood—his heart had never been mine.

But I needed another child.

If I wanted to have any place in the Anderson family, I had to make myself useful.

I endured injections and medication, working to heal my body.

In the end, all I achieved was becoming a lifeless corpse alongside that unborn child.

Lila Harper stormed forward, grabbing Steven by the collar.

“She risked her life to carry that child for you!” Lila shouted, her voice shaking with rage.

“Do you even know how much Ginger suffered? She went through so many treatments that her muscles were wasting away!”

Steven shoved her off with ease, his expression indifferent.

“I didn’t know,” he said flatly. “And I don’t care to know.”

“Give Ginger her heart back!” Lila snarled, her voice breaking. “Give her a whole body to bury! What you’ve done is illegal!”

Steven tossed a donor card onto the table.

My signature stood out in bold letters.

The heart transplant had been authorized by me—three months ago.

So it had all been planned.

That day at the mall, when a volunteer had approached me about signing up for organ donation, Steven had stood beside me, coaxing me with words about “selfless love” and “helping others.”

It hadn’t been a spur-of-the-moment decision.

He had already decided back then that my heart would belong to Sophia.

How ridiculous.

And yet, I couldn’t help but wonder—had he also been involved in the car accident?

The commotion drew the attention of hospital security. They restrained Lila, pinning her to the ground as she fought and screamed.

Her hair was disheveled, the dark circles under her eyes making her look like a ghost. She slumped to the floor, whispering in a daze:

“Why? Why? Ginger was afraid of pain, afraid of the dark, afraid of blood. She suffered so much growing up in that orphanage.”

“She thought meeting you was the start of a brighter future.”

“But instead, you dragged her into an even darker hell.”

“She had no one in this world but you.”

Steven smoothed out his rumpled collar, ignoring Lila’s accusations as if they didn’t exist.

But I heard every word, and my heart ached.

It was true.

I had spent eighteen years in the orphanage and five years struggling to survive in the world. I thought I had seen every kind of darkness.

When Steven appeared, I thought he was my light—a miracle I had traded all my luck for.

But I was wrong.

The security guard asked Steven if he wanted to press charges against Lila for assault.

Steven shook his head. “Let her go. She can take care of Ginger’s burial arrangements. I have more important things to do.”

“That’s your wife, Steven Anderson!” Lila screamed, her voice raw.

Steven turned his head slightly, his tone as calm as ever.

“Correction: she won’t be for much longer.”

“And three months from now, at my engagement party with Sophia, you’re welcome to join for a drink—if you can behave yourself.”