“Ms. McKinney? Congratulations! You’re one month along!”The doctor’s excitement only made Deirdre McKinnon’s face pale as the blood drained from her face. “Are you sure?” she asked gingerly. “I’m certain what I had was just gastric pain. I don’t think a pregnancy would be even possible. Can you just… check again?”“Ms. McKinney, have you had sex in the past month?”“Y-Yes?”“Did you use protection? Did you take the morning-after pill?”Deirdre recalled what had happened on that rainy night and shook her head. “There we go,” the doctor concluded with a smile. “You had unprotected sex and didn’t take the morning-after pill. Of course, the probability of getting pregnant would be high. Why would you think it’s impossible?”Deirdre had no counter-argument. She clenched her hand around her chest, hesitated, and asked tentatively, “C-Can you… modify that report for me, doctor? Make it state that I’m not pregnant. Please, just do this favor for me. I’ll pay you! I’ll pay you handsome

Deirdre McKinnon was stunned. Then, her eyes began to redden. It turned out that he had been aware of that. He had called her just to confirm it. If he had known she was pregnant, why hadn’t he laid it bare?! Because he had gotten a kick out of seeing that little glint of relief in her eyes? Because he’d wanted to see that little shimmer of solace crumble now?Deirdre bit her lower lip and willed herself to appear calm as she remembered how much Brendan detested seeing her cry. “B-Brendan? I swear—I swear to God—I’ll be obedient and do whatever you ask me to. J-Just let me… Let me keep my child, okay? P-Please? I swear, it won’t… it won’t get in your hair. T-Then when Charlene wakes up, I promise I’ll leave with my child. It’ll vanish into thin air… as if it never exists.”Her shaky voice didn’t touch Brendan in the slightest; he had a heart of stone. Instead, he looked at her and uttered with mockery in his black eyes, “Oh, you must be joking. You became Mrs. Brighthall and have b

After making sure Charlene was okay, Brendan returned to an empty living room. He then asked Steven with a frown, “Where’s Deirdre?”The question struck Steven dumb. Before he managed to come up with an answer, Brendan’s phone rang. It was a call from his mother. His mother’s laughter was heard when he picked up. “Brendan, you silly boy! How could you keep such great news from me? God, our Lena is pregnant! You gotta come home right this instant, son!”By the time Brendan arrived at the family mansion, Deirdre had made herself comfortable on the couch and was nibbling on some snacks. His mother was holding her hand in sheer glee. Deirdre’s solace was ruined as soon as she saw Brendan. She froze, lowered her head, and tried to avoid locking eyes with him. Brendan was seething with rage. However, he cracked a smirk and uttered, “Oh, this is just perfect.”So… His spineless prey had a card up her sleeve, after all.Deirdre trembled despite herself, and Madame Brighthall sensed i

“No, Brendan! Pleaseeeeeeee! I’m begging you, pleaseeeeeeee don’t!”Brendan smirked and uttered, “Don’t? Don’t what? Aww, Deirdre, Deirdre, Deirdre. Are you playing hard to get now? How low can you sink?” He could not care less about how she felt. If anything, hearing her sniffle and wail only frustrated him even more. “B-B-Bren… Please, think of our child!” she heaved, pleading. Tears rolled out of the corner of her eyes. “Our… child…”“Our what?! That thing inside you is the son of a wh*re. I have no relation to it!” The coldness in his eyes could chill anyone’s blood. He wanted to punish her and humiliate her to jolt her awake from her delusion. Most importantly, to make the child perish in the brutality of it all.“Brendan—!” she cried out again as she struggled. Suddenly, the man’s phone shrieked out of his pocket, forcing him to stop. He answered the call and put it on speaker. “What?!” he grunted. Steven’s voice was palpably overjoyed. “S-She’s up, Mr. Brighthall!

To Deirdre, the burning sensation in her skin was nothing compared to the pain in her heart. Charlene had begun to sob, but instead of being pissed off, Brendan winced in sympathy. Deirdre came to realize that he did not hate seeing women cry in general. He just hated seeing her cry.Deirdre got to her hands and feet with great difficulty. “It wasn’t… It wasn’t me,” she stated weakly, showing Brendan her blistered hand. “The spilled water… See? All of it ended up here…”“F*ck off!” Brendan bellowed. He then slapped her wounded hand away. She gasped and almost fainted in pain.Brendan thought she was acting and uttered, “You don’t get a say, b*tch. You should be glad that you’re the one who got scalded. Had Lena been hurt, I wouldn’t have just killed you—I would have made sure you suffered for days before you finally died!“Get the f*ck out of here!”Deirdre made her way to the door. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see mirth in Charlene’s eyes.“Bren? Stop it, okay?

Deirdre was so happy about this that she almost cried. Gritting her teeth to suppress her pain, she staggered toward the front door. The door was swung open. She then saw the man at the door, and her eyes suddenly glinted. “Bren!” She hurriedly stepped forward with excitement. “Bren, listen! There’s something you must kn—”“Shut the hell up and follow me!” At that moment, Deirdre noticed how bone-chillingly frigid he looked. She instantly froze and uttered, “W-What’s going on?”His stare was cold as he said, “Lena was out driving. She hit someone dead by accident and ran.”Deirdre’s mind went blank and uttered, “She killed someone in a hit-and-run? Then she should report herself to the authorities! What does this have to do with—”She felt a lump in her throat. Her voice broke and disbelief dawned on her as she fixed her eyes on him. His words came out like a decree. “Take the blame for her crime.”Deirdre’s eyes widened in horror, and she felt like her world was on the brin

Brendan realized, belatedly, that she was referring to his previous request regarding Charlene’s crime. Still, not even the apocalypse could convince him that she meant what she had said about getting out of his life forever. How was he supposed to believe that when this woman had the tenacity and slobbering devotion of a dog in love with its master? She would not leave no matter his treatment. That child she was carrying for him would only encourage her to haunt him even more. His tone was noticeably softer than usual, though. He still needed her to bear Charlene’s sentence, after all. “Look, ease up. Now that you agreed to go in her place, I’ll hold up my end of the bargain and make sure there won’t be a death sentence. Just stay there for five months while I come up with a way to get you released. As for your mother? I assure you, I’ll send some of my people to get her back.”For the longest time, there was only silence on the other side. Brendan was not known for his patience, s

Deirdre froze for a second. She had hardly recovered from the shock when someone stepped forward, grabbed her ankle, and began to drag her on the floor. “What are you doing?! Stop! Noooo!” Her screams fell on deaf ears. The leader responded with her own irate yell. “That demon-spawn inside you sure doesn’t know when to quit! Does it know it’s been two months already? Should have come flushing out a long time ago, you stubborn pain in the *ss. At this rate, we’ll have to become abortion providers ourselves, and that’s just sh*t!”Deirdre’s eyes widened. She wriggled out of the woman’s hold and fell on her knees, her hands clasped. “I’m begging you, please spare my child! It’s innocent!”“But you’re not, are you?” came the chilling retort. “Your sin, b*tch, is being an unrepentant simp to Mr. Brighthall. That’s it! The sh*ttiest, most terrible sin. Honestly, we’re just delivering your punishment! God, you have no idea how much he wants you dead already. And he emphatically wants th

Deirdre’s eyes did not focus. They did not react at all.The doctor pressed her lips with a pang of pity. Faced with a woman whose face was in irreversible ruin, the doctor suddenly found it hard to form any words. “E-Excuse me?” Deirdre asked obviously. “Are you still there, doctor?”She reached out before retreating sharply, as if something terrible had unfurled in her mind. Her voice was shaking. “W-Where are the lights? It’s so dark in here! I can’t see a thing! Turn on the lights!”She pulled the blanket away from her and leaped out of bed, knocking off the hospital trolley beside her. There was a loud cacophony of shattering glass as Deirdre crashed on the floor. “Easy, there!” the doctor warned as she stepped forward to help her out. “There are trolleys around you. It’s quite the walking hazard, alright?”“Trolleys? Where?” Deirdre asked, her voice thick with tears. “Why can’t I see them, doctor? It’s pitch black in here, right? Right? There’s a p-p-power cut, perhaps? I

The guard took Deirdre to fill in her release papers. Before she was finished, though, she asked, “Excuse me, can you help me make a call?”“Sure.”She recited a string of numbers and waited, but no one picked up. Puzzled, the guard helping her wondered aloud, “Looks like this number belongs to no one, ma’am. Who were you trying to contact?”“Ophelia McKinnon. She’s… my adoptive mother.”“Adoptive mother?” Something about that name sounded familiar. He perused the death reports next to him and found that very name on one of the papers.Deirdre balled her fists up nervously. “So? Is she doing fine? She’s changed numbers, right? Can you give me her home address?”The guard exchanged a look with his colleague. “Please tell me her address. I’ll go visit her,” she added. Deirdre asked the guards to help her into a bus heading to the eastern side of Neve. It was a journey fraught with faceless mutters and whispers, but Deirdre pretended to be deaf and held onto the rail. Hoping.‘