Chapter 2 The Bloody Truth

The operating room doors closed like the final page of a book. In an instant, Yvonne and I were cut apart, as though we had been pushed into two different worlds.

I wanted to laugh, but something caught in my throat. A metallic taste spread through my mouth, and something darker, heavier, sank inside my chest. Hopelessness was growing in me.

I stood behind the hose cabinet like a broken statue for what felt like an eternity. By the time the doors finally opened again, the wind had already dried my tears.

A pale Yvonne was pushed out from the room. Her best friends huddled around her, and the first thing that came out of her mouth was, "Set up the next punishment. We had those perverts choose him this time. Smuggle him to Southeast Aldoria next time. The underground circles there are far worse.

"He can be the toughest man alive, but he'll still come back broken."

One of her friends seemed unable to bear it anymore and frowned. "I don't think that's a good idea. He's been loyal to you, Yvonne. Everything you have now comes from him. If you don't love him anymore, just say it out loud. Staying is just torment for both of you. You've punished him twice. Just let it go—"

Yvonne interrupted her friend coldly, "Don't tell me what to do. Shut up if you want out. Someone else will take your place. That bastard lied about the vasectomy and made me go through this. He has to pay."

Her fury frightened the others. They immediately nodded along. "Alright, calm down. We'll handle it right away."

I could feel my fury boiling, burning me from within. My nails were digging into the cold, rough walls of the hospital.

"What if he starts suspecting you if you don't stop?"

Yvonne sneered and scoffed at the remark. "So what? He's an idiot who won't see the truth. He'll always think I would love him back if he never stopped loving me. Even if he does find out, he probably won't do anything."

Her detached expression and merciless words struck me again and again. Every word snuffed out the embers of love I had for her until they died out. They turned my head and forced me to face the truth whether I liked it or not.

That explained everything. The stripping, the slave seal they seared on me in the black market. Everything I had suffered, all the humiliation and torment meant to strip away my dignity, had never truly been about the fake vasectomy.

It was because there had been even the slightest chance that the child was mine.

She wanted to clear every single obstacle standing between her and Zachary. She was disgusted by my very existence. She hated my soul and thought of me as nothing more than trash that had to be taken out.

Even my bloodline was something she had to purge, to keep herself "clean." It was absurd. It was despairing. Both feelings tangled together in my mind and dragged me down like heavy water.

Zachary was approaching Yvonne with a bouquet of beautiful roses in his hand. The ice-cold fury on her face melted instantly. She became a tearful woman in love, touched by her lover's surprise.

Then, she threw herself into Zachary's arms and kissed him, even though they were still in a public hallway.

I clenched my jaw until pain spread through me. My hands had nearly lost all strength, and every part of me ached.

Even so, I held tightly to the wall, as if it were the only thing keeping me upright. With the last of my strength, I dragged myself away from that suffocating place.