The Heir I Refused to Bear

I woke to a bucket of ice-cold water thrown over me.

Before me was Victor’s face, etched with disgust.

“If you're awake, stop faking it,” he said, looking down on me. “You know I'm announcing the heir tomorrow. Did you have to run off to another city for treatment? Trying to make everyone think Sophia's the villain here?”

Sophia stood behind him, holding an infant, tears streaming down her face as she looked the picture of heartbroken innocence.

“Mrs. Russo, I know you hate me. But you can take it out on me. Why did you have to get Donna to try and take my child?”

“That assistant was still shouting as they dragged her away, screaming that Donna was going to get the papers to have my child signed over to you, saying I wasn't fit to be the heir's mother…”

I opened my mouth, but no words came out. I could only shake my head, trembling as I begged:

“I… didn't… Take me to the clinic… the babies… they can't hold on…”

“You're lying again!” Victor frowned impatiently. “My mother rushed out of the clinic and had lawyers working overnight. Weren't you the one pulling her strings? Did you think you could steal Sophia's child and become the heir's mother?”

“Didn't you have your children yesterday? Still pretending to be critical? Trying to make me feel sorry for you? In your dreams!”

Pain wracked my body. The blood from my lower body had long since clotted, sticking to my skin and emitting a heavy, foul stench.

Sophia covered her mouth and retched, her eyes welling. “Sister, you know I can't stand the smell of blood after giving birth. Are you refusing to clean yourself up just to make me sick?”

She cried until her face was pale, shrinking into Victor’s arms, looking utterly pitiable.

“Look at the state of you!” Victor's face was full of disgust. “Like a madwoman, stinking. You're a disgrace!”

He waved his hand, and a soldato poured bucket after bucket of cold water over me until my face was ashen and my body trembled uncontrollably. Only then did he stop them.

Sophia, nestled in his arms, cried, “Mrs. Russo, I'm begging you, please don't separate me from my child… If you insist on taking my son, then I'll just jump out this window!”

She made a move as if to jump, and Victor quickly pulled her back.

His anger finally boiled over. He turned and kicked away the hand I had clutching his pant leg, then leaned down and hissed:

“Don't think you can keep your position just by manipulating my mother. I've already had the old mansion locked down. Nothing you two plot will work!”

“As for you—I've warned you not to bully Sophia and her child, but you won't listen! In that case, I'll have to take special measures.”

He whipped his head around and gave a cold order to a soldato:

“She drove Sophia to suicide; she'll pay the price. Go, pull her father's oxygen tube and throw him from the roof!”

“Victor!” I screamed, my voice tearing. “Are you insane! That's my dad! He saved your life!”

“So what!” Victor sneered. “To shove you into our family, to make your child the future Don, he made a big show of saving me, then used it to force my hand in marriage. You're married in, you got pregnant. If you can't give me my first child, you're useless. The debt is paid. I don't owe you anything anymore!”

“Now.”

I scrambled wildly toward the soldati, trying to stop them, but I was brutally kicked to the ground.

The dried blood on my lower body gushed out from the impact, like a bursting dam, instantly staining the floor red.

The pain was so intense I screamed until my throat was raw, curling into a ball.

Victor was about to drag me again when he saw my raised belly, exposed by the kicking, and the sea of scarlet on the floor. The color drained from his face.

He instinctively rushed to my side, holding me, and turned to demand of Sophia.

“What's going on?! I put you in charge of her delivery! Didn't you say she gave birth yesterday without any trouble, that the babies were in the nursery?!”

“Then why is her stomach still so big?! Why is she still bleeding!!!”