3: 3

Daniela nodded, took the dress in her arms, and went into the changing room.

It wasn't long before she came out wearing the gown that was supposed to be mine. The fit was uncanny, as if the dress had been made for her body from the start.

Russ looked at her, and there was no hiding the awe and infatuation in his eyes.

In that moment, I understood everything.

All those times he'd made me alter the sizing, it had never been to fit my body.

It had been adjusted, inch by inch, to Daniela's taste, and my stomach turned.

Daniela lifted the hem and took two steps toward me.

Then she cried out and pitched forward, straight into me.

Russ lunged over in long strides and caught her firmly against him, and his knee slammed hard into my stomach.

Pain tore through my belly, and I dropped to the floor.

Daniela leaned into Russ, clutching her ankle, eyes brimming with tears.

"Russ, it hurts so much. I stepped on the hem by accident."

He checked her foot anxiously, his whole face soft with worry for her.

When his gaze landed on my hand pressed to my stomach, his eyes went cold and contemptuous in an instant.

"Lily, you want his attention so badly you'll stoop to faking an illness now?"

"Because of you my hand can't drive a race car anymore, and now you want to hurt Dani's feet too, the feet she dances on?"

The pain left me unable to speak. All I could do was bite down hard on my lower lip.

A warm liquid trickled slowly down the inside of my thigh.

My eyes went wide with terror.

My baby.

"Russ, help me."

I reached toward him with everything I had, my voice so faint it was almost gone.

But Russ let out a cold laugh and kicked my outstretched hand away.

"Drop the pitiful act. Apologize to Dani right now, or you're not walking out that door today."

The cramping in my belly grew more violent, and my vision began to blur.

I looked at the disgust on his face, and at the quiet triumph in Daniela's eyes as she hid against his chest.

And all at once everything felt like it had lost its meaning.

I looked at them, my voice strangely calm.

"I'm sorry."

4: 4

He didn't spare me another glance. He turned, lifted Daniela into his arms, and carried her into the bedroom.

I stumbled out of the Matthews mansion.

The wind outside was bitter, cutting straight through my thin coat.

I hailed a cab and gave the driver the address of Downtown General Hospital.

"Please, hurry. I'm begging you."

The driver caught my ashen face and the blood on my skirt in the rearview mirror, and pressed the gas hard.

The whole way there I held my stomach with both hands, but the tears still fell, big and unstoppable.

At the hospital they rushed me straight into surgery.

The doctor examined me, then shook his head with regret.

"You came in too late. We'll have to do a D&C right away."

"Fine. Do it."

This child, never wanted to begin with, ended things in the most final way of all, severing the last thread of feeling I still had for Russ.

After the surgery I lay weak in the hospital bed, and the phone beside me suddenly buzzed like it had gone mad.

The nurse glanced at the screen. "Ms. Henson, it's someone named Russ Matthews. Do you want to take it?"

"Just hang up for me."

The phone went quiet for a few seconds, then rang again, furiously.

The nurse had no choice but to bring it over and put it on speaker.

Russ's enraged voice filled the whole room at once.

"Lily Henson! Think you've grown a spine, huh? Learned how to disappear on me."

"Where do you think you can run to? Without me, you can't even cover your mother's medical bills!"

"I'm warning you one last time. Get back to the Matthews house within half an hour and kneel down to apologize to Dani, or I cut off your mother's treatment."

"Russ," I said softly.

There was a cold snort on the other end. "What? Regret it now? Finally scared?"

"My mother died two weeks ago."

The line went silent for a moment.

"And I don't need you to cover the bills anymore." With that, I hung up.

After the surgery I was wheeled into a room.

The anesthesia hadn't worn off, and I was cold all over.

The door opened suddenly, and an old man with graying hair and a commanding presence walked to my bedside. Looking at my pale face, his eyes reddened at once.

"Miss, Chairman Henson sent us to bring you home."

I looked at him and managed a weak smile.

"Tom Fox, I can finally go home."

Years ago I was abducted and trafficked, passed from hand to hand until the Baxter family took me in.

The Baxters had their own daughter, Daniela, and for more than twenty years I lived like the family's maid.

Two weeks ago my adoptive mother died, and the Henson family finally found me.

I'd meant to wait until Russ finished his wedding, and then tell him all of it slowly.

But now there was no need.

An hour later, a private jet lifted off from Rivergate Airport, bound for Ashford City.