Chapter 2

Autumn's POV

I stood frozen by the front door all night long.

Brenda had conceived Ethan's child long before I stumbled upon those photographs.

Back then, I was still cooking dinner on schedule every evening, waiting by the door for my husband to come home.

Meanwhile, Ethan had already gotten another woman pregnant outside our marriage.

In all the years we were married, my stomach remained completely flat.

Ethan had always been meticulous about birth control; he never intended for me to carry his child.

All my years of patience, love, and waiting were merely clearing the way for his illegitimate child.

I fell terribly ill, burning with a fever close to a hundred and four, enduring it all alone in that empty house for days.

A week later, Ethan returned.

He didn't mention the lost pregnancy, nor did he bring up a divorce.

Except when night fell, he pinned me ruthlessly onto the bed, his touch devoid of any gentleness.

I pushed him, bit him, begged him to stop.

Ethan didn't say a word. His grip was brutal, like he wanted to crush my bones to powder.

When morning came, he fastened his tie and left for the office as if the violence of the night had never happened.

After more than a month of this nightmare, I stood frozen in the bathroom, staring down at the pregnancy test in my hand.

I was pregnant.

Holding my lower stomach, I stood before the mirror for a long time.

This was the baby I had yearned for over so many years.

I desperately tried to calculate a way out: an unborn baby was innocent. No matter how ruthless Ethan had become, he wouldn't hurt his own flesh and blood.

As long as this child was born, our marriage might still have a chance.

That evening, as Ethan came home and began changing, I walked up behind him, keeping my voice very quiet.

"Ethan, I'm pregnant."

His fingers froze mid-air on his cufflink.

I looked up at him, desperately waiting for even the faintest glimmer of tenderness on his face.

Ethan set the cufflink down and gave a slight nod toward the door.

Two burly bodyguards strode into the room, grabbing my arms and pinning me firmly in place.

"Ethan, are you insane?! Let me go!"

Ethan walked over, drew his leg back, and kicked me viciously in the stomach.

The blow landed with brutal force. Agony doubled me over like a shrimp, my vision turning completely black.

The guards gripped my shoulders tightly, keeping me from collapsing to the floor.

Ethan looked down, his tone as detached as if he were discussing a corporate spreadsheet.

"Brenda lost her baby. Someone has to pay that debt."

"Since you're pregnant, this one will settle the score."

Warm blood cascaded down the insides of my thighs, pooling into a sickening scarlet puddle on the hardwood floor.

I gasped for air, a metallic taste choking my throat, unable to even scream his name.

Only minutes ago, I was foolishly hoping for his mercy.

Yet Ethan had balanced the ledger long ago.

"Why..." Claws digging deep into my palms, I squeezed the words out.

Ethan pulled out a wet wipe, cleaned the tip of his shoe, and tossed it casually into the trash can.

"There is no why. When you owe a debt, you pay it back."

When I woke up in the hospital, my stomach felt hollow. Pain radiated through my nerves, burrowing deep into my bones.

A bowl of oatmeal sat on the nightstand, pinned under a note from the housekeeper telling me to eat it while it was warm.

I lifted a weak arm and shoved the bowl aside.

The entire hospital room was suffocatingly quiet.

Through the wall, faint laughter from visitors next door drifted in, making this private room feel even more like a morgue.

A nurse pushed the door open to swap my IV bag, glancing down at her clipboard.

"Your family already signed the post-op consent forms. Just lie down and focus on recovery."

I glanced at the signature line at the bottom of the form.

It bore the name of Ethan's executive assistant.

Ethan hadn't even shown his face. He merely sent an assistant to handle the aftermath of my ruined womb.

I closed my eyes and pulled the blanket up to my chin. My tears finally stopped falling.

I waited ten years for Ethan Vance, and in return, I received a brutal kick to my stomach and a D&C consent form signed by a secretary.

I wasn't going to wait anymore.

Past midnight, gritting my teeth through the agony, I pushed myself up and opened the hidden compartment at the bottom of the nightstand.

A document lay inside.

It was something Ethan had pressed into my hands himself the year he took over the Vance Group.

Back then, he said: *Keep this. Anything under my name is yours to command.*

I clenched the document tightly in my fist.

The debts between us would be recalculated from this very moment.