The scholarship student, Izzy Waite, whom Craig Green had been funding, decided to seek some thrills by engaging in group intimacy in the open sea. They messed around in a way that drew blood and unintentionally attracted a shark.

I risked my life to drag her back to shore. Once we made it to land, I warned her the ocean was full of bacteria and that she should get a check-up, just in case.

She nodded and pretended to listen. However, the moment I turned my back, she ran to Craig, claiming I’d slandered her reputation. She even threatened to throw herself back into the ocean in some dramatic attempt to end it all.

Craig was furious. Without giving me a chance to explain, he shoved me into the mouth of a massive, still-living shark. I beat against the inside of that monster’s stomach, screaming for help.

The fishermen on the beach panicked at the sight. “Mr. Craig, please. This’ll kill her!”

Craig simply held the weeping Izzy in his arms and sneered. “I heard people can survive inside a shark for a whole month. Doesn’t she love studying marine biology? Now, she can do some real research from inside.”

Trapped in utter darkness, I curled up, gently cradling my belly.

“Baby, this time, Mommy can’t protect you…”

One month later, Craig finally came to gut the shark himself and bring me home. Unfortunately, all he found on the wind-swept shore was a skeleton.

In the darkness, I curled up, trembling inside the belly of the shark.

At first, the stench of blood and decay, mixed with my pregnancy symptoms, made me vomit over and over again. However, I had since grown numb to it, and all that remained was a dizzying nausea that never left.

Still, I knew I couldn’t let myself pass out. I had to conserve my strength and call for help. The baby inside me still needed me to hold on. I had to survive until Craig Green came for me.

Just two hours ago, he had taken Izzy Waite to a fast-food restaurant nearby for dinner. A small monitor was set up in front of me, allowing me to see a live feed of the world outside. So, I waited and waited until, finally, I saw him.

Craig appeared arm-in-arm with Izzy. The two of them were laughing and sipping iced drinks, casually taking turns drinking from each other’s cups like a picture-perfect couple. That scene hit me like a knife to the heart.

They stopped about ten meters away from where I was trapped. Craig wrinkled his nose in disgust, clearly bothered by the stench of rot lingering in the air.

“Andrew, how’s she doing?” he asked flatly.

His assistant, Andrew Barker, glanced nervously at Izzy, hesitating to speak.

“I asked you a question. Are you mute now?”

Andrew stiffened. “According to the monitor, sir, her vital signs are stable, so she should be fine.”

There was a medical sensor stuck to my skin, transmitting my vitals to a display outside.

Izzy leaned over to read it and let out a surprised little gasp. “Wow! Her heart rate’s spiking, almost double mine. I’m only in the fifties.”

Craig scoffed, reading the numbers. “Well, considering she was out in the water with multiple guys, it’s no surprise she’s full of energy. I guess that stamina really comes in handy.”

Izzy giggled. “Craig, Jane is sensitive and petty. I’m afraid she’ll come after me once she gets out.”

His voice softened, so much that I almost didn’t recognize it. “Then I’ll keep her in a little longer. If she hadn’t tried to drag your name through the mud, she wouldn’t be in this mess. She needs to learn her lesson.”

Then, he turned back to Andrew with a command. “Notify the media right away. Leak everything. Tell them Jane’s been living wild behind my back. If she wanted to be the talk of the town, I’ll make sure she gets her wish.”

He glanced down at Izzy, smiling tenderly. “Come on, let’s head to the villa. You deserve some rest—a nice spa, maybe. You’ve been under too much stress.”

Izzy beamed and clung to his arm as they turned to leave.

However, one of the fishermen on guard couldn’t hold back anymore. He called out, “Mr. Craig! Your wife… She’s been screaming for help hundreds of times a day. Her voice’s gotten weaker and weaker. If this keeps up, she’s not going to make it…”

Craig stopped in his tracks, his expression darkening. “Who asked for your opinion?”

Izzy quickly chimed in, “Jane’s vitals are perfectly stable, and she’s got access to nutrients in the shark’s body. We even gave her bottled water. She’ll be just fine.”

Craig’s frown relaxed, and he reached out to gently pat her head affectionately.

“You’re right. I wouldn’t trust anyone else, but you’re the top of your class in marine biology. If you say she’s okay, she’s just being dramatic.”

Right then, I felt something snap inside me. She was lying. I knew it.

That vital sign monitor? She had tampered with it last night while no one was watching and manually boosted the numbers. The truth was that my body was already going cold, and my breathing was shallow.

Amidst the despair, I closed my eyes and clutched my belly tightly. Hot tears slid down my freezing cheeks, and for a moment, I thought I was hallucinating.

A bitter smile curved at my lips. ‘So that’s it, Craig… You really don’t love me anymore.’

In my memories, there was a time when Craig loved me, like his life depended on it.

Izzy, the scholarship student he’d been funding, had fallen for him so hard that she didn’t even care about her dignity. She showed up at our wedding and made a scene, threatening to slit her wrists right there in front of everyone.

In reply, he slapped her across the face.

“Have some self-respect,” he snapped. “The only woman I’ll ever marry is Jane Shaw. Keep acting out like this, and I’ll send you back to the mountains you came from.”

However, three years into our marriage, I found out the truth. The basement was packed full of Izzy’s things, and every night, Craig would go down there alone and cry.

“I’m sorry, Izzy.” I overheard him whisper one night. “I had to follow my family’s plans, but in my heart, you’re my real wife.”

It turned out he’d fallen for Izzy a long time ago.

I was dazed, but I was also pregnant, so I swallowed it all and kept quiet.

Later, while I was out on a work trip near the coast, I ran into Izzy again. She was out in the open water, messing around with a group of people.

Trying to be decent, I went over and reminded her that they should be careful out there, only for her to respond by screaming insults at me. Then, right as things got wild, she cramped up, started drowning, and because someone had bled in the water, she attracted a shark.

Everyone else panicked and swam for their lives. I was the only one who steered a boat out to rescue her.

Yet, what did she do? She turned around and told Craig that I had slandered her—that she was just swimming, nothing more. She even accused me of being the one sleeping around in the sea and said I’d pushed her into the water to silence her.

Craig’s eyes turned bloodshot as he wrapped his hand around my throat.

“You whore,” he growled. “I’ve spoiled you too much, haven’t I? No wonder you keep coming out here to ‘do research.’ It turns out it’s just an excuse to hook up with random men.

“You love studying marine life so much, don’t you? Now, you can study it from the inside.”

He ordered his people to sew me into the belly of a shark.

No matter how much I tried to explain, he refused to believe me. The real liar causing all the chaos was Izzy.

…

An hour passed, and the stench of rotting fish forced my eyes open.

Everything around me was pitch black. The surveillance camera feed hadn’t moved at all, and there was no sign of help. Word had it Craig was out shopping with Izzy, not sparing a second thought for me.

My heart was numb with pain. Every inch of my body felt like it had been flayed open.

The giant shark had been flung ashore by a tornado, and that was when I was shoved inside.

Due to the storm, sand and wind were everywhere. If it continued like that, the shark’s body would dry up and disintegrate in no time. However, I was still pregnant. I couldn’t let anything happen to my baby!

Desperate, I pounded on the shark’s belly and shouted to a fisherman on the beach.

“Please,” I begged, “call Craig’s assistant, Andrew. Tell him I’m carrying Craig’s child. The baby can’t die like this. Please, just let me out.”

The fisherman looked shocked but kind. Without hesitation, he called Andrew.

Not long after, Craig showed up, with Izzy by his side.

“Mr. Craig,” the fisherman said urgently, “your wife says she’s pregnant. Please, let her out. That baby can’t take this.”

Craig paused for half a second, but his face eventually turned ice cold.

“Pregnant? What a joke. With how much she sleeps around, who knows whose bastard that is? Tell her, a fake pregnancy is not an excuse for her to escape punishment. She tried to drive Izzy to suicide. She needs to sit in there and think about what she’s done.”

My heart sank again.

I wanted to tell Craig this was his baby. If he didn’t believe me, he could go ahead and get a paternity test. However, no words came out of my mouth.

My throat was dry as dust. Days without water had left my mouth bone-dry and tasteless. I was dying of thirst.

Desperate, I begged, using the last bit of strength I had to bang against the inside of the shark’s belly.

“Please, Craig, let me out…”

Unfortunately, my voice didn’t carry—not through the thick, suffocating walls of flesh.

One of the fishermen couldn’t take it anymore. “Mr. Craig, there’s barely any air in there. There’s no water either. She’s gonna die if this keeps up!”

Looking pitiful, Izzy butt in. “I looked it up. A person can survive in a shark for a month, and I’ve been sending her water every day. She drank every last drop! Jane must be mad at me and lying to Craig on purpose. That woman is manipulative!”

That was what she said, but I’d seen the truth through the surveillance camera. Every single bottle of water she was supposed to send me, she dumped straight into the ocean. Then, she’d laugh into the lens, right at me.

“Thirsty? Too bad. You can drink the shark’s leftovers!”

Craig didn’t know. All he saw were the empty bottles scattered on the ground, and he sneered.

“What's there to say? It looks like she’s been eating and drinking just fine.”

The fishermen fell silent, none daring to speak up.

Then Izzy, clearly not done stirring the pot, added with a sweet, evil voice, “Why do you always listen to Jane, huh? Have you fallen for her or something?”

Right on cue, Craig’s expression turned ice cold.

“That woman’s never known her place,” he growled before turning to the fishermen, eyes sharp and cruel. “And you, get out of here, unless you want me to wipe this whole village off the map.”

The men scattered, too afraid to even look back.

My last bit of hope vanished, like someone had crushed my heart in their fist. Inside me, I could feel my baby kicking, like they were struggling too.

“I’m sorry, baby. I’m so, so sorry…”

I felt myself growing numb—inside and out. I didn’t know what else to do.

The stench was so unbearable and putrid that it made me retch again and again. However, if I kept throwing up like that, I’d die of thirst or suffocate.

No. I had to get out of here!

In the pitch-black darkness, I fumbled around. I had no weapons or anything sharp. The only thing I could use was the hairpin tucked into my bun.

I pulled it free and tried to use the sharp end to slice my way out through the shark’s belly, but every cut was slow and weak. The shark’s skin, thick and rubbery, might as well have been steel. I put everything I had into it, but all I managed was a small tear.

Time lost all meaning. Then, a sudden, gut-wrenching pain twisted through my lower abdomen. Something slipped from my body—soft, bloody, and warm.

My trembling hands reached for it, but they got stuck between the shark’s ribs. It took me a second to understand what had happened; it was my baby.

A broken sob tore from my throat, but I didn’t even have the strength to cry.

“My baby… My poor baby…”

Rage surged up from somewhere deep inside me.

Why didn’t he believe me? Why did he kill my child?

I didn’t know how many times I passed out and came to again. The darkness was endless. My whole body convulsed as if I were already dying… or maybe already dead.

Back on the shore, Craig frowned at a sudden spike in the monitor’s readings.

“What is going on in there? Why is she still pulling this crap? Put it on the screen,” he ordered. “I want to see what she’s doing in there.”

The feed turned on. Everyone could see me twitching and shaking violently inside the shark’s stomach.

Izzy snorted. “Wow, Jane sure is full of energy. It looks like she’s throwing a party in there.”

Craig scoffed coldly. “She’s got that much strength, but she still won’t apologize to Izzy. She deserves everything she gets.”

Just then, one of the monitoring techs hesitated and could not help but speak, “Sir, there’s blood. It’s coming from under her.”