Chapter 4

Leah Sterling POV

I don't know how I dragged my bleeding leg up to the road, or how I got a cab to the hospital.

In the emergency room, the doctor cleaned the gravel embedded in my wounds while looking at my blood test results, frowning deeply.

"Miss Sterling, you have severe soft tissue damage to your knee and lacerations on your palms. But the most critical issue right now is that you're pregnant."

My nerves, numb from pain, instantly tensed at the word "pregnant."

"What did you say?" I stared in disbelief, eyes wide.

"You're six weeks pregnant." The doctor sighed, his tone serious.

"But your physical condition is terrible. Severe malnutrition, combined with long-term mental stress, and now physical trauma. Your progesterone is extremely low. You're showing serious signs of threatened miscarriage. You must rest in bed immediately for fetal protection, or you absolutely cannot keep this child."

I touched my still-flat lower abdomen in a daze.

Here, a small life was actually growing?

For three years, I'd dreamed of giving Tristan Cole a child. I thought that if we had a child, the layer of ice between us would melt, and he would slowly fall in love with me and return to our family.

This unexpected news was like a crack of light torn through my pitch-black, desperate world.

Despite the doctor's advice, after simply bandaging my wounds, I took the ultrasound report and limped to hail a cab straight to Cole Group headquarters. I couldn't wait to tell Tristan this news. I even fantasized about whether he might show even a trace of a smile when he heard it.

The executive floor where the CEO's office was located was eerily quiet. The secretary wasn't at her desk.

I walked to Tristan's office door and was about to knock when I realized the door wasn't closed. Inside, I could hear several men talking. Tristan's friends.

"Tristan, now that Vanessa Sullivan is back, what are you going to do? You and Leah Sterling have been married three years. What if she gets pregnant someday and has a Cole family child? You can't just divorce her then, can you?"

Hearing this, my raised hand froze in mid-air, my heart leaping to my throat.

The office fell silent for a few seconds, then came Tristan's voice, cold to the extreme.

"She can't get pregnant."

That voice held no warmth whatsoever, as if discussing some lifeless object.

His friend sounded somewhat surprised. "How are you so sure? Did you..."

"I replaced her daily multivitamin with long-acting birth control pills." I saw Tristan light a cigarette, his tone flat. "Vanessa was in a car accident abroad years ago. Her uterus was damaged. She can never be a mother. I would never let Leah Sterling bear my child and stimulate Vanessa's fragile nerves."

Boom.

My mind went completely blank, as if a heavy hammer had struck my head.

Birth control pills.

The "imported vitamins" he personally poured water for and insisted I take every day were actually birth control pills!

To protect Vanessa Sullivan's fragile nerves, he had unhesitatingly stripped me of my right as a woman to become a mother. He personally severed all possibilities between us.

No wonder I couldn't conceive despite three years of trying to improve my health. No wonder every time I mentioned children, he looked at me with that mocking expression.

Turns out in his eyes, I was just a toy not even worthy of reproductive rights!

The ultrasound report in my hand silently slipped away, falling onto the thick carpet without making a sound.

I covered my mouth, desperately suppressing the sob about to break from my throat. I didn't push the door open to confront him, because I knew that before that man's absolute cruelty, my breakdown would only be a joke.

I dragged my broken body away from Cole Group, step by step.