Chapter 5

Clara POV

A month later, Stella was pregnant.

Liam was overjoyed, and the entire Liam household was abuzz with celebration.

The staff moved with an air of cheer, their faces beaming with eager smiles.

Liam hired the best nutritionist and family doctor, on call 24/7.

I left for school and returned on time each day, trying to minimize my encounters with them.

That day, I left class early and came home. As soon as I entered the living room, I saw Stella directing the staff to decorate the nursery.

"Move that cabinet a little to the left... yes, just like that."

Stella, her belly not yet noticeably large, was bossily giving orders.

Her gaze swept over the cabinet in the entryway, where a photo frame sat.

"Oh dear."

She gasped.

The photo frame slid off the cabinet, falling to the floor, the glass shattering.

My steps halted.

It was the only photo I had of my parents together.

When Liam picked me up from the orphanage at age seven, I was clutching this photo frame.

I walked over to pick up the frame.

Stella saw me and immediately adopted a startled expression, her eyes instantly reddening.

Just then, the front door opened, and Liam walked in.

"Liam!"

Stella, as if seeing a savior, threw herself into his arms, tearfully accusing Clara.

"I... I didn't mean to... Clara, she deliberately put the photo there to be in the way. I just glanced at it, and it fell on its own... It scared me, and it scared the baby too..."

Liam gently soothed Stella in his arms, then looked up at me, his eyes icy cold.

He didn't ask what happened, nor did he look at the shattered photo frame on the floor. His eyes only held anxiety for Stella and the child in her belly.

"Stella is pregnant, don't you know that?"

He chastised me sharply.

"Apologize to her now!"

My fingers tightened around the frame, shards of glass digging into my skin, drawing beads of blood.

I looked at Liam.

The man who, in this moment, would condemn me without question for another woman and her unborn child, despite my loving him for fifteen years.

I nodded.

"I'm sorry."

I said to Stella in his arms.

"I scared you."

Liam seemed not to have expected me to apologize so easily and froze for a moment.

Stella, in his arms, flashed a subtly triumphant smirk.

I didn't look at them again, turning and taking the damaged photo frame upstairs.

Back in my room, I tended to the wound on my hand.

Then I took out some tape and sat at my desk, meticulously, little by little, repairing my parents' photo.

The man and woman in the photo smiled gently, as if looking at me.

Once repaired, I placed the frame back on my nightstand.

After doing all that, I opened the handbag and took out the third gift.

It was a platinum necklace, with a tiny four-leaf clover pendant.

On my eighteenth birthday, Liam had personally put it on me, saying he hoped I'd always be lucky.

I took the necklace and walked into the bathroom.

Standing by the toilet, I let go of the necklace and pressed the flush button.

The swirling water carried the necklace away, deep into the pipes.