SILLAGE

While I Was Bleeding Out, He Lit Lanterns For Her

Katie Oettgen

As I lay on the floor of our manor, bleeding out from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, I used my last ounce of strength to call my husband, Cole. I begged him for help, my vision blurring. But the only thing I heard was the clinking of champagne glasses and his mistress's giggle in the background. "Stop the drama, June," Cole snapped, his voice cold. "We're about to go on stage. Don't call again." He hung up, leaving me to die alone on the Persian rug while he accepted an award with another woman on his arm. I woke up in the hospital days later. My baby was gone. They had removed my fallopian tube. Cole finally arrived, smelling of expensive scotch and his mistress's perfume. He didn't hug me. He didn't cry. Instead, he leaned over my hospital bed, pressing his knee into the mattress until my fresh stitches tore open and bled. "You embarrassed me by calling an ambulance," he hissed. "My mistress, Alycia, says you're faking it. Clean yourself up." He left me bleeding again to go announce a $10 million donation to Alycia's "groundbreaking" medical research. I stared at the TV screen, numb. The research Alycia was taking credit for? It was mine. I wrote that patent years ago under a pseudonym. They thought I was just a poor, orphan housewife who needed Cole's money to survive. They had no idea I was actually a billionaire scientist hiding my identity. I pulled the IV needle out of my arm. A drop of blood fell onto the divorce papers I had been hiding. I didn't wipe it off. I signed my name right over it. Then I walked into the bank, reactivated my dormant account with $128 million, and bought the penthouse directly overlooking Cole's house. The mourning widow is dead. The avenger is born.

Romance Crime Revenge Pregnancy Enemies to Lovers Pregnancy Personal Growth

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It was a dim and gruesome basement.

Winter Josh had been dehydrated by three days, and her consciousness was clouded.

Her palm-sized face looked bloodless.

She was unwilling to die like this, but her only relative and grandma still needed her care, and the matter with her mother hadn't come to the surface...

"Water... I need water..." Winter opened her dried and withered lips, forcing out a few words.

Feeling a sudden cold sensation from her lips, she involuntarily opened her mouth and swallowed like a withered sapling welcoming a long-lost rain.

The abuse from a sharp voice went into her ears, "Eek, Winter, lowly bitch, you are still alive after three days!"

Winter slowly opened her eyes when Betsy Josh's enlarged face came into view. Under the dim light in the basement, her pretty face looked extremely hideous.

Her hand was grasping a wad of damp and dirty rag still dripping murky water.

Now Winter realized the coolness in her trance came from it.

This was outrageous! The mother and daughter had been trying every means to torture her. Her father not only turned a blind eye but even added insult to injury.

Unhurriedly Betsy took out her cell phone and played a video clip.

"Take a look at this. If you don't marry into the Lloyd Family, prepare to collect the dead body of your grandmother!" Her cold voice and ferocious expression sent a dull pain through Winter.

She had never expected her father, the mother and daughter should threaten her with the life of her grandmother.

"I'll marry!" She clenched her fists to the point that her nails dug deep into the flesh of her palms, "You'd better ensure my grandma's... safety... otherwise, I'll haunt you as a ghost!" Said Winter hatefully.

One day, she would make them pay for what they did to her today!

"My dear sister, why are you so insensible? The Young Lady position of the Lloyd Family is originally yours, and now I give it back. You should thank me!" As the fiancée of Mr. Lloyd, Betsy felt relieved and said in a voice dripping with sarcasm.

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