STIGMA

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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On the seventeenth day of the eighth lunar month, YT Group's 27-year-old CEO, Brody Ye, and the 21-year-old daughter of the SU Group, Tracy Su, took their marriage vows. On this auspicious day, the Ye Family's luxurious mansion was decked out in festive decorations in celebration for the joy and expectations of the event.

Later that night, at half past eleven, Tracy Su stumbled up the stairs in a white dress.

"Bang!"

The bedroom door was suddenly thrust open by her. When she turned around and prepared to close the door behind her, a handsome yet devilish face suddenly filled her vision.

Her hand instantly froze on the doorknob, and the fear in her eyes expanded. She wanted to run, but it seemed as if her feet had taken root to the spot, and she could not move.

"Run, run away! Why don't you run?"

Brody Ye said expressionlessly from where he stood at the door. His cold voice seemed to cut to the bone and chilled her to the marrow.

Hearing the malicious voice, Tracy Su came to her senses and withdrew her hand from the doorknob. Then she spun around and ran towards the window.

However, as she opened the window–

"Come back here–"

An angry voice sounded, and then Tracy Su was pulled by a strong force, and her back collided with a strong chest.

Instantly, the window was slammed shut.

"Let me go, Brody! Why did you do this to me? Do you hate me so?" Tracy Su shouted as she struggled in Brody Ye's vice-grip arms.

She was the pitiful image of misery, but her newly wedded husband was unmoved by her tears.

She looked up at him with large fear-filled eyes, remembering that only moments before he had been in the living room and had treated her so disrespectfully in front of the servants. To do that kind of thing to her in public.

She was afraid of the kind of man she had married.

Brody Ye clamped his hands over her struggling hands and smiled coldly. "You have clearly overestimated yourself. If you want to know why, you should go ask your father. But first, since you are now married to me, you should fulfill your duty as my wife."

"No, don't do that..." With her eyes shining with innocent tears, Tracy looked at her husband with great fear.

What he said made no sense for her. She had no concept of what had happened between her father and him, or of what kind of hatred had resulted because of it.

She didn't know why, but her father had suddenly ordered her to marry Brody. Neither did she have thought that this strange husband her father had chosen would be so cold and ruthless.

"No matter whether you want it or not, it's not up to you anymore!"

What Brody said stripped Tracy's nerves raw. Instinctively, she nervously clenched her fingers onto the fabric of her dress.

"Brody, you should know that no matter what kind of grudge you hold against my father, it is a matter between you and him, and it has nothing to do with me. It is unfair to punish me."

Tracy shivered in his arms, hoping to appeal to his humanity.

However, Brody moved to grab her. Tracy continued to try and push him away, and she helplessly beat her fists on his chest.

She felt wronged. She had not accepted her forced marriage to Brody, and she was the victim, but now it seemed that all the blame was being laid at her door.

"Unfair to you? Hasn't your father told you what he has done? It's something worse than a beast. Or perhaps he doesn't dare to tell you what he has done? Is everything he does fair to me?"

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