Chapter 4
792words
Eva grabbed my hair, forcing my head back.
"Feeling ashamed, Mrs. Silver? This is how you got your position!"
"You call me the mistress? The one he doesn't love is the real mistress!"
In the video, Lane turned to leave, but I grabbed him from behind,
"Lane, I was wrong. Please take me back..."
I sobbed pathetically, clinging to him like a desperate child, utterly without dignity.
"If you remarry me, I'll never be jealous again!"
"I promise I'll be good this time..."
Lane looked ready to slap me, but I caught his wrist and pressed his palm to my tear-stained cheek.
Then I guided it to my mouth, licking his fingers before taking them between my lips.
The final scene showed Lane throwing me over his shoulder in disgust.
Mocking laughter erupted around me as Eva extended her finger near my mouth, as if teasing a dog.
"You like licking so much? Why don't you lick me?"
"Lick me, and maybe you can keep the grave of that dead lump of flesh. Keep playing the victim."
"What act are you putting on, Ashley? Weren't you the one who killed it? Who are you trying to fool with this grieving mother routine?"
Looking at her smug face, I grabbed the finger hovering near my mouth and snapped it cleanly. Eva's scream pierced the air.
The sudden violence caught everyone off guard.
These "delicate ladies" who only knew how to slap and pull hair never imagined I'd be so savage.
"You have no right to speak about my child, Eva! Not in life or death!"
I strode toward the exit. Eva screamed for someone to stop me, but no one dared move.
"You're insane, Ashley Joseph!"
"You killed your own baby! Now you want to kill mine!"
"You don't want Lane to have any children!"
"My stomach! My baby! Call Lane! CALL LANE!"
Through Eva's hysterical screams, I heard the trumpets of victory.
When Lane found me, livid beyond words, I was digging in the mud with my bare hands, rain pouring down.
My fingers were torn and bleeding, but when he grabbed me, I shook him off.
My voice was ice-cold, tinged with madness.
"You have a new baby now! Why keep this one?!"
"I'm taking it away! Better than letting it know its father built a mall for his whore over its grave!"
Lane tried to drag me away repeatedly, then finally grabbed me by the throat.
"What the fuck are you doing, Ashley?!"
"You didn't want it! Who are you putting on this show for?!"
Rain pounded us until we could barely see. I stopped struggling and collapsed in the mud, my voice hollow.
"Just kill me."
"I'm done with this life."
"I've had enough, Lane. I want to be with our baby..."
Without warning, I pulled a knife from my pocket and plunged it toward my chest.
The world slowed. I watched panic explode across Lane's face.
He caught the knife before I could stab again and scooped me into his arms.
He ran like he had in high school track meets, when he'd sprint for first place while I cheered at the finish line.
Against his chest, I heard that familiar heartbeat and his desperate roar:
"You crazy bitch!"
"Who said you could die?! You don't deserve to join my child!"
"Open your eyes! Don't you dare die! Do you hear me, Ashley?! DON'T DIE!"
I bounced in his arms, feeling his body shake with fear.
Not enough. Lane Silver hadn't suffered nearly enough.
Through the beeping hospital equipment, I heard the doctor say,
"Mr. Silver, your wife is pregnant. She's suffered severe trauma and vascular damage. Whether the baby survives depends on her will to live..."
For this child, my will was iron.
A month earlier, my private detective reported that Eva had been visiting fertility clinics.
I'd immediately arranged for IVF.
I needed to end this before Lane became attached to another woman's child.
Planning the birthday party, deliberately provoking Eva's revenge - it was all for today, to let Lane receive what he once desperately wanted at the peak of his guilt.
I felt a cold, trembling hand grip mine as Lane whispered,
"What the fuck are you doing, Ashley..."
"Isn't this what you wanted? For me to break?! You're insane!"
"Fine! I give up! Just please... please don't take my child from me again..."
"I'll do anything if you just stay alive."
But I had no intention of dying.
After all my careful planning, I didn't want his pathetic regret.
I wanted to take back everything he'd stolen from me.
Lane Silver was the one trapped in the past now.
