Chapter 4

Claire's POV

I stood in the entryway, looking at the man I thought I could rely on for a lifetime, and at this "home" I believed would shelter me forever. Suddenly, I laughed.

"Of course I don't mind."

I was leaving soon anyway. After that, whoever he wanted to bring home would have nothing to do with me.

Hearing such an answer, Ethan froze, his expression blank for a moment.

He probably expected me to fight, to scream, to break down crying. Not to agree so easily.

Ignoring his searching gaze, I walked straight toward the bedroom and began packing.

When my suitcase was filled, Ethan suddenly walked in.

Seeing my luggage, his brow furrowed. "Honey, what are you doing?"

"Packing." I didn't look back, my tone flat. "Creating space for you two."

Ethan's expression darkened further. He slammed his hand down on my suitcase.

"Can you stop making a scene? Besides staying with me, where else can you even go?"

My movements stilled. My voice grew even colder. "That's none of your business."

Ethan laughed in anger. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he released the suitcase, his tone taking on a confident edge.

"Fine. You want to leave, right? Then what about this? Are you going to leave it behind too?"

He pulled out a pendant from around his neck.

My gaze fell on it, and I froze completely.

It was the pendant my mother left me before she died. I'd given it to Ethan the year of his accident.

I'd hoped the pendant would accompany him in my place. But now it was being used to threaten me.

"Give it back."

Seeing me finally react, Ethan's lips curved slightly.

"I can. But you're not a child anymore. Running away from home is too immature, don't you think?"

I stood there pressing my lips together, my nails digging deep into my palms.

Ethan assumed I'd agreed to stay. His expression softened slightly as he walked out.

Over the next few days, I watched with my own eyes how intimate Ethan was with Rachel.

The meals he once swore he'd only cook for me in this lifetime were now made daily to make Rachel happy.

The sweet words I'd heard in our youth were now spoken word-for-word to another woman.

They kissed and embraced right in front of me without restraint. At night, I was forced to listen to the sounds of them having sex.

Just one wall away, I buried myself under the covers, but it still couldn't block out those gasps and moans piercing my eardrums like red-hot needles.

Every minute, every second of this life was torture for me. But Ethan wouldn't let me leave.

Even that night, after they finished, he came to my door in his robe, his face full of satisfaction, and knocked.

"Rachel wants foie gras. You make it well. Get up and cook it for her."

I was about to refuse when I saw the pendant hanging around his neck. The words stuck in my throat.

"Fine."

I got up and went to the kitchen. After preparing the foie gras, I turned to head back upstairs.

I hadn't even fallen asleep when my door was kicked open.

Ethan was furious. He grabbed me by the throat and yanked me out of bed.

"You put something in the foie gras, didn't you? Otherwise why would Rachel keep throwing up?!"

I instinctively shook my head in denial, which only made him angrier.

"Still won't admit it? If not you, then who?! You're a doctor, and you'd poison someone out of jealousy. Get up right now. You're coming with us to the hospital."

His voice roared as he dragged me outside without care.

Even when my shin slammed into a cabinet and opened a bloody gash, he didn't spare me a glance.

In the hospital corridor, I sat on a bench in my nightgown, barefoot.

The blood from my wound had dried, but still the two of them hadn't emerged.

I could only walk to the hospital room door to hear the results, but instead I saw Ethan, who'd been full of rage just moments ago, now wearing a completely different expression.

He held Rachel's hand, his face showing undisguised joy.

"That's wonderful, Rachel. You're carrying my child. I promise he'll be my only heir."

Rachel's eyes flashed with wild delight, though she tried hard to hide it. "But when Dr. Anderson was pregnant, you arranged for her to have an accident and miscarry. I thought you didn't like children."

Ethan's smile remained warm, but his words struck me like icicles, leaving me frozen to the bone.

I watched the man I'd loved for ten years speak the cruelest words in that familiar voice.

"How can she compare to you? Only you are worthy of bearing my child."