I sat slumped in a pool of my own blood, my entire body in excruciating pain. But the pain was incomparable to what I felt in my stomach, the place that had once carried a new life.

A coppery taste filled my mouth as tears blurred my vision.

I stared at Harvey, who was coldly standing some distance away, and tightened my grip around Mom's urn. No matter how much I tried, I couldn't get up.

I reached out a trembling hand toward my stomach before hacking out a mouthful of blood all of a sudden. Frightened, Nelly grabbed Harvey's arm tightly, her face pale in terror.

"Stop pretending, Maddison! I barely touched you. So, stop acting like you're about to die!" Harvey stood arrogantly, his face dark as he irritably pulled out some tissue to wipe his shoes.

Nelly teared up and looked innocently at me. "Do you think she might be pregnant, Harv? Look! So much blood is trickling from her legs—how disgusting!"

She covered her mouth and bent down, as if she was about to retch.

Despite her obvious pretense, Harvey still got anxious and gently patted her shoulders. "Don't look if you find her disgusting, then."

He turned to me with a look of clear disgust. "How could she be pregnant? If she truly was, she would've made it known to the public, just so she could use this as leverage for a better life!"

Harvey sneered, making known of his contempt for me. "She's truly a calculative person!"

A sharp cramp seized my abdomen just as he was done speaking. It was a pain that went deep down, as if every nerve in my body was being squeezed tightly by two small hands. The baby inside me was expressing its rage by twisting my intestines painfully.

I coughed violently before breaking into a bloody laugh. "Look at what this is, Harvey!"

With trembling hands, I reached into my pockets and pulled out the pregnancy test report, staining it with blood as I handed it to Harvey. "I'll leave right after you finish reading it! I wish you both eternal happiness!"

My hand trembled as I held the pregnancy test report up. I wanted him to know that his earlier kick was what ended the bloodline of the Fishers.

"I have no time for your games, Maddison!" Harvey snatched the pregnancy test over but did not take a look at it. Instead, he crumpled into a ball angrily before throwing it into the pool of blood.

"Do you not understand words? I said that I'm losing my patience!" He grabbed my long hair and forced me to look straight into his eyes. "I asked you to give me the urn and apologize to Nelly! You're still Mrs. Fisher to me! Do you get it?"

A sharp pain spread across my scalp, and blood seeped out from my lips with how hard I was biting down. I managed to keep myself silent as I stared right at Harvey.

He eyed the urn in my arms and grew more furious. "Why are you still hugging it? She's already dead! How much longer do you want to use her against me? Give it to me!"

We both let out a guttural scream when Harvey managed to snatch the urn from me—one from extreme anger and another in complete anguish.

When I scratched him by the hand, he shot me a cold glare. "Fine! I'll give it to you!"

Harvey gave a loud yell before prying open the lid to the urn, hurling it toward the ceiling right in front of me.

"Mom!" I screamed, lunging forward to try and collect the scattered ashes. However, he forcefully pressed my head down, grinding it hard against the floor.

I cried, "Let go of me! I can't let Mom—"

Harvey threw me a harsh slap on the cheeks and yelled, "Shut up! Stop pretending! Aren't you just trying to garner more of my pity using your mother's death? Fine. I'll give you what you want!"

He yanked my head back and grabbed a handful of Mom's ashes before shoving them forcefully into my mouth. "Don't you love that old woman very much? Then, let her rest inside you! Open your mouth! Why aren't you opening your mouth?"

Grabbing my head, Harvey then slammed it down on the floor. "How dare you say you love her when you refuse to even open your mouth? Open up! Let me see how good of a daughter you are! Otherwise, don't think of becoming Mrs. Fisher anymore!"

I clamped my mouth shut, refusing to budge, yet Harvey continued to slap me to make me open up. He ended up grabbing my jaw and tried to pry them open forcefully.

His chest was heaving in rage as he yelled, "Hurry up! Apologize to Nelly now if you don't want to eat it, and then start begging me—tell me that you don't want to leave and want to stay here as Mrs. Fisher! "

A sharp pain shot through the corners of my mouth. It was as if my entire head was about to be ripped apart by him. But I continued to glare at him with my bloodshot eyes.

Having realized that I was about to die, Harvey's mind cleared up slightly and released his hold on me. Gasping for breath, I clambered on the ground as I tried to collect Mom's ashes.

Suddenly, Nelly opened up a window. "It's so stuffy here, Harv, and your lungs aren't that great. Let me ventilate this place for you."

She then turned on the high-powered ventilation air conditioning.

"No!" I ignored the pain in my entire body as I rushed forward.

In an instant, the strong wind from upstairs and the air from the air conditioning blew Mom's ashes away. All that was left was a few bone fragments, drifting across the floor with the wind.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Maddie! I'm just worried about Harv's lungs. That's why I opened the window. I didn't realize that Mrs. Lundell would—" Nelly walked over, looking innocent as she stepped over Mom's bone fragments.

Blinded by rage, I lunged forward and grabbed her by the neck. "I'll kill you!" I strangled her, wanting to die with her.

However, Harvey cared too much about Nelly to let me have my way. There was once I slipped and fell in my own puddle of blood.

"I've had enough of you, Maddison! Do you really not want to be Mrs. Fisher?" Harvey yelled, looking like an enraged lion. "If that's the case, why don't you just leave?"

I couldn't help but laugh scornfully. "Do you not understand words? You're the one who refused to let me leave when I wanted to!"

Harvey was about to rush over, but Nelly held him back. He could only point at me and yell, "Why do you want to leave, Maddison? How dare you leave! If you wanted to leave, then why have you been clinging onto me all these years? Are you that shameless? Isn't money what you're after?

"Wasn't it because your mother knew I was from the Fisher family that she'd save me back then? Was she trying to earn my guilt using her worthless life? She's done it now. Everyone has been telling me to treat you well since then! So, why are you leaving now?"

Harvey continued to yell in rage, shedding tears in disbelief. He couldn't believe that I would refuse to take the position of Mrs. Fisher when I had loved him so much before this.

His expression darkened completely. He remained seething with anger despite Nelly's urging for him to leave.

In the end, Harvey only snapped out of it when she told him that her neck hurt and that she had trouble breathing. He rushed to send her to the hospital.

Meanwhile, I lay slumped in the pool of blood, my bones broken and bleeding unattended to. Yet, he turned a blind eye to me.

Before I died, Harvey turned around and coldly barked, "Don't think of going to my grandma, or else—"

He did not bother turning back as the door slammed shut. "Don't blame me for forgoing our past relationship!"

Unfortunately, I had no strength left in me to stand up. I could only smile sardonically as I watched them leave.

When I could no longer hear their footsteps, I picked up Mom's bone fragments and cried uncontrollably.

The wind blew in through the window, and the blood-soaked pregnancy test report was unexpectedly blown to my feet.

I reached out a trembling hand for it. How did the wind blow it over when it was so heavy?

Soon, my consciousness began to fade, and my eyelids grew heavier. I slowly collapsed into the pool of blood, my heartbeat slowing as time passed. I could feel my vitality slipping away.

Before I died, I managed to dial a number, and I heard the sound of the door unlocking from the fingerprint lock. I assumed it was Harvey, but my eyelids no longer could stay open, fluttering shut eventually.

But at my very last moment, I heard a phone ringing—and it was gradually closing in.

I then saw Grandma appearing in front of me. Although she became a nun just to pray for the continuity of the Fishers, she remained the person holding absolute power in the Fisher family.

She cried out, "Maddie!"

At that moment, Grandma's prayer beads broke. The beads rolled over into the pool of blood beneath me.

Why did I have to see her right before I died?