Chapter8
Ethan Sterling rushed toward me, his face lit with joy as he tried to draw me into an embrace.
I instinctively stepped back.
His hands froze midair, the smile on his lips collapsing into awkward stillness. He forced a bitter
laugh.
“Vivian, I’ve searched everywhere for you. Why are you acting like this?”
I stared at him blankly. In barely a month he’d become a stranger. Even the cedar scent I once loved
now made me sick.
“What do you want?” My voice was flat, lifeless.
His eyes flicked over mine, flinching at their coldness. Desperation clouded his gaze.
“Vivian, thank God you‘ re safe. Come back with me. Life without you… it’s unbearable.”
His voice cracked, his eyes brimming with tears. But I felt nothing, only numbness.
“Vivian, I know I was wrong. I should never have abandoned you. If I could do it over, I would have chosen you.”
I arched a brow. That’s it? That’s all he regretted?
He went on, words spilling out, raw with guilt.
“That day I panicked. Our baby was already gone, and I couldn’t face losing the one Sloane was carrying. I was terrified.”
He reached for my hand. I jerked away.
The last trace of hope drained from his face. He managed a trembling smile, his tone slipping into a pitiful plea.
“Vivian… are you still angry? Please, come home. I’ll make it up to you.”
Before I could speak, Miles Prescott appeared, stepping between us. His tall, broad frame–nearly six foot three–radiated a quiet force that pressed against Ethan like a wall.
Ethan froze. His eyes widened, disbelief flooding his features as he recognized him.
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“You?!”
His gaze whipped back to me.
“Vivian… how could you be with him? You two-”
Miles cut him off with a cold laugh.
“You ungrateful jerk. Move.”
He clasped my hand firmly and turned.
“Let’s go home.”
“Home?” Ethan lunged forward, rage sparking in his eyes. He tried to grab my arm.
“Vivian, you‘ re my wife. How dare you live with another man?”
I stopped and turned, my lips curling into a mocking smile.
“Ethan, the moment you left me bleeding out on that operating table, the moment you killed my
child–you stopped being my husband. From then on, you were nothing to me.”
My gaze sliced into him like a blade.
“If I had my way, I’d never see you again for the rest of my life.”
His body jolted as if struck. He staggered, his entire frame trembling under the weight of my words.
Guilt and anguish flashed across his eyes.
“I–I didn’t mean it. I never thought things would go so wrong-
“Does intention change the result?” I sneered, sliding my arm through Miles‘ s and walking away.
Ethan vanished for several days.
When he returned, he stood in front of me, clutching a box draped in black cloth. His hands shook as he lifted it toward me.
“Vivian… I‘ ve avenged you.”
He pulled away the cloth and opened the lid.
Inside was a glass jar. Floating in liquid was a small, purplish lump, faint limbs visible.
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My breath caught. Horror and disbelief locked me in place.
Ethan looked nothing like himself. In just days, he had wasted away. His jaw was shadowed with
unkempt stubble, gray streaks threaded his perfectly groomed hair. He looked a decade older.
His bloodshot eyes burned. His cracked lips trembled as he spoke.
“I got rid of Sloane’s baby. It was that child that tore us apart.
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Chapter8
