4
My heart jolted. I felt a chilling premonition.
And sure enough, the next second, Damien’s voice continued, “In my previous life, I died for you, yet you refused to even look at me until the very end. Now, you suddenly say you love me, and I can’t be sure how much of that love is real.”
“I would throw my life away for you, so I wanted to see how far *you* would go for me. Evelyn, once I’m certain of your love, I will love you without reservation.”
“As for the child? If you want one, we can always have another later.”
I felt like I’d plunged into an icy abyss.
I never, ever imagined *this* was the reason I’d been dragged through hell.
It was utterly absurd!
After Damien left, I cried and laughed, a hysteric mess.
4
But then a nurse rushed in, her face pale, saying something had happened to my mom.
Apparently, two hours earlier, Tiffany had accidentally fallen down the stairs. She was bleeding heavily and needed immediate resuscitation.
Her blood type was rare, and the only match was my mother, who was still recovering in her hospital room.
By the time I arrived, my mom had already been drained of 2000cc of blood.
Damien stood beside the doctor, his expression icy as he commanded, “Continue.”
I lunged forward like a madwoman, trying to fight them off. “Stop! Make them stop! If they take any more, my mom will die!”
Seeing me, Damien seemed surprised.
“How did you get out? You haven’t recovered yet, go back!”
At that moment, I couldn’t hear anything else. I just kept sobbing and repeating my pleas.
Damien’s face darkened.
“Evelyn, stop this. Tiffany is pregnant. Do you want me to just stand here and watch her lose both her and the baby’s lives?”
I shrieked hysterically, “Her life matters, but my mother’s doesn’t?!”
Even so, Damien didn’t stop them.
It wasn’t until they had forcibly drawn another 1000cc of blood from my mother that he finally signaled them to stop.
“I’ll have the best doctors work tirelessly to save your mother. She’ll be fine.”
With those words, he turned and walked away without looking back.
But it was too late.
My mother was already critically injured. Losing so much blood now was the final blow.
An hour later, she died in the operating room.
Before she passed, she clutched my hand, sobbing uncontrollably.
“My child… listen to your mother. Don’t sacrifice yourself anymore. Leave him.”
I sobbed uncontrollably, nodding fiercely.
The life I owed Damien Thorne from my previous life? My mother had repaid it with her own.
Add to that the two precious lives in my womb that never got to see the world.
I owed him nothing mo
The next afternoon, clutching my mother’s ashes, I boarded a plane out of the country.
Damien Thorne.
The world is vast, Damien. But from this day forward, we are dead to each other.
Damien stood by Tiffany’s hospital bed, a nagging unease stirring within him.
As if something crucial was slipping away from him.
Evelyn’s tear–streaked face from the blood donation room entrance yesterday afternoon flashed unbidden in his mind.
She had looked so genuinely heartbroken.
Had he gone too far?
But Tiffany’s condition had been critical. She had saved him once, after all. Even if their relationship was just a facade, he couldn’t just stand by and let her die, could he?
Besides, it was just a little blood. It wouldn’t kill her. He’d even brought in the most renowned specialists to treat her mother. Surely, she’d be fine.
As for Evelyn, he’d just have to say a few more nice words to her.
Since his rebirth, facing Evelyn’s sudden change in attitude, he’d been both exhilarated and uneasy.
Exhilarated because he had finally obtained what he’d pursued across two lifetimes. Uneasy because he couldn’t tell how genuine Evelyn’s feelings for him truly were.
To confirm it, he’d set up test after test for Evelyn.
Thankfully, Evelyn had passed every one of his trials.
Her reactions, each time, had pleased him immensely.
It was only now that Damien finally believed in her feelings for him.
The thought sent a shiver of excitement through him. For some reason, he suddenly desperately wanted to hold Evelyn.
Damien was a man of action. He stood up, ready to leave.
Suddenly, a soft hand clutched his.
Tiffany was awake, gazing at him with tear–filled eyes.
“Damien, is my baby… is it alright?”
Damien’s brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.
“What If it is? What if it isn’t? Tiffany, you weren’t seriously planning on bearing my child, were you?”
Tiffany froze. She had walked through the gates of hell and back, barely conscious, only to wake up to such a chilling statement.
She stared at Damien, lost and bewildered, her lips trembling. “Damien, what do you mean?”
Damien, however, flung her hand away in disgust.
“Only Evelyn gets to call me that. Tiffany, I might have been ‘decent‘ to you lately, but you haven’t forgotten your place, have you?”
Damien’s voice was frigid, his words utterly heartless.
“You were merely a tool I used to confirm Evelyn’s feelings for me. How could a child of Damien Thorne be born from a mere tool?”
Tiffany was aghast at his coldness. She’d been by his side for years, and now he was turning on her like this!
The ‘kindness‘ he’d shown her all this time had made her foolishly harbor improper thoughts.
Tiffany sobbed, clutching at Damien’s shirt sleeve.
AM
“The baby is innocent…
Damien, please, let me keep this child! I promise I won’t compete with Ms. Price!”
www.
“Compete?”
Damien let out a low, chilling chuckle.
“You’re not worthy of that word. And know this: my children will only ever be born from Evelyn. No one else, don’t even dream of it.”
Damien stood, looking down at her with disdain.
“Get ready. First thing tomorrow morning, the doctor will be here to perform your abortion.”
Tiffany suddenly laughed, ‘tears streaming down her face.
But Damien ignored her hysteria, turning and walking away without a single backward glance.
The moment he stepped out, he dialed Dr. Lewis.
It had been a while. He wondered how Evelyn’s mother was doing. He just hoped she’d recover quickly, or Evelyn would surely be in tears
again.
But the doctor’s next words froze him to the spot, because he said…
“Mr. Thorne, you don’t know? Ms. Price’s mother passed away last night, shortly after you left, despite our best efforts.”
