One Night for the Lifetime

Celia Shi was certain she was going to die. Every direction she looked, raging fire would come before her eyes. She knew it was only a matter of time before the fire would consume her, turning her into ashes.

Frightened to the core, she closed her eyes, bracing herself for the doom that would befall. But before the fire could get to her, another force came into action. It was an invisible redemption, freeing her from hell.

Her consciousness sank into the abyss with redemption.

Ding!

The alarm clock pulled Celia Shi out of the abyss. She woke up with a start. Her heart rapidly thudded against her chest. And blood began to pound in her ears, almost deafening her.

It was the same nightmare!

Since the night of the rainstorm, she had been seeing this same dream. It was both terrifying and vivid!

With the back of her hand, she cleaned the beads of sweat that had formed on her forehead. Lowering her head, her gaze fell on her slightly bulging belly. She couldn't help but caress it lovingly. There was a hint of bitterness in her eyes.

Once again, she recalled the events of the past. Four months ago, when she learnt she was pregnant, she told Karl Luo the good news. But to her disappointment, he stopped picking up her calls. Even though she had gone to his office, she hadn't managed to see him.

After having known him for seven years, she didn't think he was capable of such cruelty.

'No, my Karl isn't like this.' She couldn't understand why he was abandoning her. She was determined to get to the crux of the matter.

She was in her office, lost in thoughts. Suddenly, the door was pushed open. A man and a woman entered, hand in hand.

When Celia Shi raised her eyes, she was shocked to see who they were.

It was Karl Luo!

The woman whose hand he was holding was Lana Shi, her half-sister. Paying her no heed, he continued to look at Lana, making sure she was alright. With his support, Lana sat on the chair. Then he carefully sorted out the woman's collar with his bony fingers.

'Why is my fiance tidying up some other woman's collar in front of me?' She couldn't wrap her head around that. Seeing this, pain coursed through her heart.

Before she could get over this shock, something else caught her attention. Lana Shi had her hands protectively wrapped around her belly. The little doubt Celia Shi had was cleared when she met Lana's eyes. She passed her a complacent, self-explanatory smile.

"Doctor, the baby's father and I are here for prenatal check-up. Please show us the ultrasound."

Lana Shi referred to Karl Luo as the baby's father with an intention to pierce Celia's heart. And her mission was accomplishment. Celia Shi felt wounded.

The baby's father! 'Is Lana pregnant with Karl's child?'

She looked at Lana Shi in disbelief, and then her gaze shifted to Karl Luo. Even though she was a woman who believed in behaving professionally at her work place, this revelation made her lose her calm. "You got to be kidding me! What is this rubbish? Today is not April Fools' Day. How could Lana be pregnant with your child?" she burst out angrily.

Instead of being ashamed, Karl's handsome face contorted with rage. Without meeting her eyes, he replied, "Yes, you heard it right. I will call of my engagement to you and get engaged to Lana."

Frozen, Celia Shi felt like someone had stabbed her with a knife.

Fear clawed up her throat

"Why are you doing this?" After everything she had heard, she wasn't in a position to speak.

Making use of this opportunity, Lana Shi said, "Why? What do you mean by why? Don't you know how this happened?" After a short pause, she went on, "On the night of your engagement ceremony, Karl was beyond elated. To make the best out of it, he ended up drinking too much. Swaying and stumbling, he went around searching for you. But you were nowhere to be seen. I was the one who took care of him. It was also the night when I got…" Then, she took another break, watching to see the impact her words on Celia Shi. "I hope you get what I am trying to say. I will spare you the details. Anyway, coming back to you, you disappeared the whole night! No wonder you were nowhere to be found at the engagement ceremony. It turned out you had climbed onto someone else's bed."

Lana Shi raised her eyebrows and a trace of viciousness flashed through her eyes.

Celia Shi was in a daze, trying to recall the events of that dreadful night.

From what she remembered, Lana Shi had given her a glass of wine. After gulping it down, she began to lose her consciousness. Lana promised she would take her back to her room.

This was all she remembered.

'If it wasn't Karl with me that night, who could it be?' she thought, filled with trepidation.

"Celia, our relationship is over," Karl Luo said, bringing her back from the reverie. Pain was hidden under his calm exterior.

The truth was, he knew it was all Lana's plot. But in order to protect Celia Shi from further pain, he admitted he had sex with her that night. But he hadn't expected that Lana would get pregnant with his child.