Love's Finale in Lies

Caden Vaughn's childhood sweetheart had been secretly in love with him for ten years to no avail.

Yet on our wedding night, she went to a bar to drink her sorrows away and ended up in a car accident.

When she woke up, she claimed to have had a prophetic dream.

As the events from her dream began coming true one by one, everyone went from roaring with laughter to believing her without question.

Then, at a Vaughn family dinner, she pointed at me and declared that I would cheat on him, get pregnant with another man's child, and still be treated like a treasure by the Vaughn family.

Caden Vaughn stepped in front of me, completely unbothered, and said with a smile:

"It's just a dream. You can't take it seriously. I'll always believe in Anne, so please don't say things like that again."

The very next day, I was told the baby I was carrying had a defect and had to be aborted.

But as I was losing consciousness before the surgery, I overheard a nurse's curious question.

"Her fetus is developing perfectly. Why does President Vaughn want to get rid of the child, and even have her uterus removed?"

...

Before I was wheeled into the operating room, Caden Vaughn held my hand tightly, leaned down to kiss my forehead, and looked into my eyes with a gaze full of deep affection.

"Anne, don't be scared. It'll be over in a little while. It's going to be okay, it won't hurt. I'll be waiting for you right outside."

I placed a hand on my lower abdomen, forcing back the sorrow in my heart as I squeezed out a smile for Caden Vaughn.

Our little angel, whose arrival I had been so eagerly anticipating, turned out to have a defect. I had no choice but to be cruel and send it back to where it came from.

The doctor administered the anesthetic, and my gurney was wheeled into the operating room.

As I drifted into unconsciousness under the stark white glare of the surgical lights, a nurse's curious voice echoed in my ears.

"Dr. Shaw, this patient's baby is developing perfectly. Even if they didn't want the child, there's no need to remove her entire uterus, is there?"

"Hush. Don't ask questions you shouldn't. This is what President Vaughn wants."

"Oh, this can't be about that rumor, can it...?"

'But doesn't the baby have a defect? What did she mean, remove my uterus? What rumor?'

An immense panic seized me. I struggled to sit up, to demand an explanation, to stop the surgery, but my consciousness was already being dragged into a bottomless abyss.

When I finally opened my eyes, the only person in the hospital room was Caden Vaughn.

His face was covered in stubble and his eyes were bloodshot, the clear image of a man who had stayed up all night watching over me. His eyes lit up the moment he saw I was awake.

"Anne, you're awake. How do you feel?"

A throbbing pain radiated from the incision on my abdomen. I felt a vast, empty space inside my body, as if a cold wind were blowing right through me. Tears streamed uncontrollably from the corners of my eyes.

I had truly believed Caden Vaughn trusted me. I never imagined that because of Kara Jolie's slander, he would be cruel enough to murder our own flesh and blood, and even strip me of my right to ever be a mother.

I had stayed by his side every moment to reassure him. How could I possibly have had an affair?

But what I didn't realize was that my eagerness to prove my innocence was, in Caden Vaughn's eyes, a sign of a guilty conscience.

Caden Vaughn assumed my pain was from losing the child and tried to comfort me, saying we would definitely have another one someday.

I stared at him, unable to believe how one person could be so loving and so heartless at the same time.

"Caden Vaughn, did what Kara Jolie said that day really not bother you?"

I just wanted an answer. An answer that might lessen my agony.

Caden Vaughn reached out and gently flicked my forehead, then chuckled indulgently.

"Anne, I already told you, it was just things she said in a dream. Why do you remember it so clearly? Don't worry. I love you so much. Who would I trust if not you?"

A bitter feeling washed over me. I choked back my tears and swallowed the accusations on the tip of my tongue.

After I spent two weeks recovering in the hospital, Caden Vaughn took me home.

The moment I stepped through the doors of the Vaughn family home, I heard the cheerful sound of Kara Jolie laughing with Mrs. Vaughn.

A wave of deep unease washed over me. I frowned and looked at Caden Vaughn, only to see him acting as if this was completely normal.

Ever since Kara Jolie's accusation, I couldn't stand having her anywhere near me. Caden Vaughn had even promised that he wouldn't let her come to the Vaughn family home again.

Disappointment spread like wildfire, and I had the strange, sinking feeling that this was only to be expected.

The moment Kara Jolie saw us, she clutched her belly and fell to her knees before me, her eyes brimming with tears, her face a mask of guilt.

"Anne, I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me when I drugged Brother Caden. I know I was wrong, but the baby is innocent. Please, I'm begging you, forgive me and my child."

The news hit me so hard my mind went completely blank. I couldn't process a thing.

Mrs. Vaughn, clearly doting on Kara, who was carrying her future grandchild, shot me a look of displeasure.

"Kara already knows she was wrong and has apologized. You should stop holding a grudge."

Mrs. Vaughn, who once took pity on me because my parents weren't in Veridia and had treated me like her own daughter, had been finding fault with everything I did ever since Kara Jolie's accusation. Her attitude had become so cold and unfamiliar it left me baffled.

I could ignore all of that. The only one I cared about was Caden Vaughn, the man who repeatedly claimed to love me.

I turned my head to look at the silent Caden Vaughn, the sting of impending tears burning in my nose.

"When did you find out?"