When Damien Thorne and I broke up, he held my fake pregnancy report and stubbed his cigarette butt right over my heart.
How dare you lie to me?
Those words cost me my decent job and left my face disfigured.
The day I left the city, he announced his engagement to a wealthy heiress.
I clutched my stomach and ran.
Four years later, he pointed at the child in my arms, his eyes filled with a chilling certainty.
“That’s my child, isn’t it?”
I saw Damien again late one night at the hospital.
My daughter, Lily, was nestled in my arms. She was already used to IV drips and injections, quietly enduring the entire process.
Even when she saw Damien, she stayed calm, only tugging at me sleepily, a puzzled look on her face.
I opened my eyes, instantly locking gazes with his cold, captivating ones.
Past memories flooded back, making my heart seize.
I stiffly stood up, ready to bolt, then realized my daughter was still hooked up to the IV.
The moment my hand touched the IV bottle, Damien’s grip slammed down on it.
“Long time no see, Elara.”
“Is this your daughter?”
Just a few light words, but my legs started shaking uncontrollably, turning to jelly.
Lily tilted her head, asking who he was.
He curled his lips into a cold smile, speaking slowly, deliberately.
“An old acquaintance of your mother’s.”
More than an old acquaintance, wasn’t he?
Five years. Countless nights of desperate passion.
But those heavy numbers, so significant to me, were nothing more than trash to the high and mighty Damien, discarded without a second thought.
I buried my head, my face pale.
In the silence, Damien’s friend walked over. At first, he didn’t get a clear look, playfully gesturing at Lily.
“Look at you, Damien! What a lucky guy! A little stomach bug on a business trip, and your wife and daughter show up from miles away to comfort you!”
Not long after I left the city, I saw news online about Serena’s pregnancy.
I never imagined she’d also had a daughter.
Taking a couple of steps closer, the man finally saw my face and let out a stunned, “Holy hell!”
“Damn, you’re Elara, right? You’re actually still alive?”
His surprised, mocking words stabbed at my heart, which had just barely begun to heal.
I instinctively covered Lily’s ears, shielding her from harsher insults.
“You faked a pregnancy, nearly gave old Grandpa Thorne a heart attack back then, and you still have the nerve to show your face to Damien?”
“Don’t tell me you’re broke? Right, a woman who just relies on men for money, isn’t that right? You’re clearly just a gold-digger.”
“And this scrawny little girl is your daughter? You’re not trying to say this is Damien’s kid, are you?!”
Numb as I usually was, the last sentence made me snap my head up in shock.
“No! She has absolutely no connection to Mr. Thorne!”
My distant tone made both men pause.
After a moment, Damien pushed his friend aside, stepping closer to me, his intimidating presence as oppressive as ever.
“How old is the child?”
“Three years old!”
The words burst out of me almost immediately.
He pressed in another step.
“Your ID. Let me see it.”
I stumbled back, forcing a faint smile.
“My ID is at home. I forgot it.”
He was about to speak, but I cut him off.
“It’s late, Mr. Thorne. You should head home early, so Mrs. Thorne doesn’t worry.”
Bringing up Serena seemed to make him ponder, a rare sight.
A bitter laugh welled up inside me.
Four years ago, I was so desperate, I knelt in the dirt, asking Damien why he didn’t believe me, why he was marrying Serena Maxwell.
He’d gripped my throat, his eyes filled with disgust, icy cold.
“She’s not like you. She’s pure, and she doesn’t lie.”
“Besides, I love her.”
I had been with him for five years, and he’d never once said he loved me.
I thought someone as dignified as Damien was incapable of love.
Until he said he loved Serena and wanted to give her a home.
I’d always thought that love wouldn’t last. Now, it seemed, I was naive.
Seizing his distraction, I swiftly pulled out the IV bottle and fled, my daughter in my arms, never looking back.
I vaguely heard the man behind me say something.
I didn’t catch it, and I didn’t care.
I didn’t stop until I was out of the hospital, my heart pounding fiercely.
Lily touched my cold face, a puzzled expression.
“Mommy, why did you lie to that uncle?”
I kissed her soft, round cheek.
“Mommy was protecting you.”
Protecting you from being taken away.
Damien now had a wife and daughter. Why would he want to snatch mine?
Despite my doubts, I still took Lily to a small clinic.
It was past two in the morning when we finally got home.
Sleep wouldn’t come, so I opened Serena’s Ins.
Every day, she posted about her lavish life and her precious, pampered princess.
The comments were full of praise for her gentle beauty.
It was hard to imagine that this was the woman who had personally slashed my face with a knife.
Even now, no matter how hot it got, I dared not lift my thick bangs, exposing the ugly scar on my forehead.
I only took half a day off for Lily. In the afternoon, I drove her to kindergarten in my old sedan.
On the way home, a luxury car brazenly blocked my path.
The window rolled down, and a beautiful woman peeked out.
“Elara!”
I froze, meeting Helena Hayes’ gaze.
She looked even younger than she did back then.
If we walked together, people would likely mistake us for sisters.
I abandoned my car and hurried away, but she opened her car door and chased after me in her expensive leather heels.
“Elara! Please, just look at me, darling!”
Perhaps she ran too fast, as her voice was laced with a slight sob.
I didn’t understand why she was chasing me.
It was she who had cast me aside for wealth and status.
It was she who, in front of everyone, had claimed I wasn’t her daughter.
It was she who, to gain approval from her stepdaughter Serena, had personally forged my pregnancy report.
Back then, her bright red nails had poked angry red marks all over my face.
“You’re alive thanks to me! What right do you have to accuse me? If I’d known you’d obstruct my path to riches, I would have strangled you the moment you were born!”
Lost in my memories, the driver, at Helena’s signal, slammed on the brakes, cutting off my escape.
I was startled and fell to the ground.
Helena reached out to help me up.
“Elara, I just wanted to see you.”
I violently pulled away from her hand, a sneer on my face.
“See me? To see if I’m dead yet? Or to see if I’m still trying to steal Serena’s man?”
“Don’t worry, Mrs. Hayes, I’ve learned my lesson. I won’t bother Damien and Serena’s married life, and I’ll stay far away from them and your lavish life!”
Helena looked hurt by my words, her eyes reddening.
“Elara, that’s not what I meant.”
Her gaze fell on my custom-made phone case, adorned with a picture of Lily and me.
Her tone shifted abruptly.
“That child, back then…”
Hearing that, my resolve crumbled. I stammered.
“What child? That child was already taken care of by you, wasn’t she?”
I desperately tried to hide my phone case behind me, the cold ground reminding me of the private clinic operating table four years ago.
Helena’s sinister gaze had fixed on my belly.
“This child must go! Don’t think I don’t know what you’re planning. I will never allow you to have this bastard child and threaten Serena’s marriage!”
To teach me a lesson, she hadn’t allowed any anesthesia.
The operating room had been filled with my heart-wrenchwrenching screams.
In the end, it was the compassionate surgeon who secretly helped me.
Now, Lily was my everything. I didn’t want to relive the agony of nearly losing her, so I desperately insisted.
“That child is truly gone! If you don’t believe me, ask the doctor. You saw the… the remains yourself, didn’t you?”
“I truly don’t love Damien anymore, and I won’t go back to tempt him!”
To convince her, I lifted my shirt, recklessly exposing the ten-centimeter scar on my abdomen, my voice urgent.
“Look, the scar is still there. The child died ages ago, you can even feel it if you don’t believe me, it’s real!”
I grabbed her hand and pressed it against the scar.
The next second, she suddenly embraced me.
“Elara, don’t… don’t do this…”
I froze for a moment, then frantically struggled. She fell to the ground.
I scrambled around her car and fled.
After only a few steps, I tripped and fell hard.
Ignoring the stinging pain in my knees, I scrambled to my feet and kept running.
Back home, I immediately packed my important documents and money.
Meeting Damien last night, then Helena today.
This couldn’t be a coincidence!
I submitted my resignation to the company where I’d worked for two years and called my landlord to terminate the lease.
After buying train tickets, it was almost time for school to let out. I drove my old sedan to pick up Lily and complete her withdrawal from kindergarten.
I planned to take her far away from here, never to return.
However, at the school gate, Ms. Evans looked surprised.
“Lily’s father already picked her up,” she said. Then her face paled. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I just assumed… The resemblance was so strong.”
After four years, I unblocked Damien.
The moment he picked up, he chuckled softly.
“I thought you were really willing to never contact me again for the rest of your life.”
I stood in the cold wind, gripping my phone.
“Where is Lily?”
The words had barely left my lips when Lily’s innocent laughter echoed through the phone.
Damien’s voice was like a snake’s hiss.
“Elara, is Lily my child, or not?”
I remained firm.
“No, Damien. Give me back my daughter.”
He scoffed.
“It’s fine if you don’t admit it. I can get a DNA test. You remember what happened the last time you lied to me.”
The cigarette scar he’d burned into my chest still hadn’t faded.
Whenever my chest ached, it felt like that scar was throbbing, mocking me for loving a man I shouldn’t have.
Thinking of it, I sank to the ground, trying to hold back the tears stinging my eyes.
Damien abruptly hung up. I took a moment to compose myself, then stood up and headed towards his mansion.
Four years later, I stepped onto the grounds of the Thorne family estate once more, memories flooding my mind.
I remembered my first day moving in, clutching Damien’s hand and asking him, what if someone tried to kick me out?
His smile was gentle, unwavering.
“You’re my woman. Who would dare touch you?”
Later, it was he who ordered his people to strip me of every piece of clothing he’d bought for me, driving me out of the mansion.
It was snowing heavily. I walked through the snow, my body numb with cold, tears freezing on my face.
He stood on the second floor, looking down as I struggled, step by painful step, out the mansion gates.
To this day, photos of me naked in the snow still circulated online.
The comments either condemned me as deserving, or believed I was dead, paying for my sins to Grandpa Thorne.
I walked with my head down on the mansion’s path, the humiliation of the past rising up.
I didn’t notice that the roses I once loved still bloomed vigorously in the garden.
Damien was already waiting in the living room.
Dressed in a black suit, he looked like a wolf who had planned his attack.
I stood far away, controlling my anger.
“Where is Lily?”
“She played herself tired, she’s sleeping upstairs.”
Hearing this, I rushed towards the stairs, but he swiftly grabbed my arm, pulling me into his embrace.
The familiar woody scent hit me, sending shivers down my spine.
“What’s the rush? We still have unfinished business.”
I thought he was referring to the time I supposedly framed Serena for stealing creative work.
Even though she had stolen my work.
But no one believed me.
In the end, I was fired from my company, all my projects met with scorn and boycott.
However, years of hardship had worn away my pride.
I pushed Damien away, dropping to my knees with a thud.
“Mr. Thorne, I understand my mistake from back then, and I’ve paid the price. If it’s still not enough, I can even kneel and apologize to Mrs. Thorne, as long as you give me back my daughter.”
My desperation did not soften him. He furrowed his brow, his voice icy.
“Get up.”
I didn’t move, speaking again with genuine plea.
“Mr. Thorne, you can humiliate me however you want, as long as you return my child.”
Damien let out a humorless laugh, crouching down to meet my gaze.
“Your child? Whose child are you talking about?”
I froze for a moment, then quickly replied.
“My ex-husband’s.”
Afraid he wouldn’t believe me, I pulled out my marriage certificate to show him.
“Damien, I’m not lying. I really am married. Lily is my ex-husband’s and mine!”
I was indeed married, but only to ensure Lily could have a legal identity and as a precaution.
But he merely glanced at the certificate, then snatched it, tearing it to shreds. He pulled me up.
“Elara, can’t you see how much this child looks like me?”
I avoided his gaze, struggling to get free and run upstairs to find Lily.
He grabbed me by the waist, threw me onto the couch, twisted my arms behind my back, and pinned me down, his eyes dark with menace.
“I’m asking you one last time. Whose child is she?”
My eyes widened, and I found myself struggling to breathe.
In a haze, I remembered the memory of him aiming that gun at me after Grandpa Thorne’s death.
That bone-chilling fear returned, and my tears spilled out uncontrollably.
“Damien, I’m begging you, let me go! I can’t die, Lily is so young! She can’t lose me!”
“She’s really not your daughter! If it makes you happy, you can do whatever you want to me, just leave me alive, just don’t take Lily away!!”
He wiped a tear from my eye, his brow unfurrowing.
“When did I ever say I was going to take your daughter?”
I froze, a sudden thought flashing through my mind about Serena’s Ins posts.
Her daughter, like her, had a congenital heart condition…
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