Chapter 1
In the Kingsborough social circle, everyone knew that Ethan Caldwell drove his own father to death from a fit of anger just to marry a wine seller.
Facing public outrage, he even shaved his head in a dramatic act of atonement, retreating from society for months before finally bringing Wendy Winslow into his home–against all advice.
When she casually mentioned wanting the stars in the sky, he bought a planet and named it after her for her birthday.
She loved snow, so he built an ice palace on a private island.
Later, when Wendy gave birth, the baby had to be put into an incubator immediately due to a difficult delivery.
Ethan knelt in prayer until his knees ached, pleading with a revered priest to bless a baptismal cross for their son–praying that God would grant him a long and healthy life.
But now he tied their son to an operating table, using live dissection to force Wendy into revealing where she hid his pregnant adoptive sister, Lena
Caldwell.
“Wendy, be good,” the man sat across from her, idly twisting the rosary beads on his wrist with a tone of bone–deep tenderness. “The child in Lena’s belly was a mistake made in drunkenness, and I must take responsibility. If you don’t speak up, I’ll start by removing the boy’s kidney, then his liver… finally his heart.”
Where Ethan’s fingertips pointed, the small figure struggled futilely, letting out broken sobs. “Daddy, I am scared… Daddy…”
The child’s pleading cries failed to evoke the slightest mercy in the man. Wendy felt ice–cold all over, unable to fathom how this had happened. After learning that Lena had fled with her pregnancy, he blamed it all on Wendy. He had given her three days‘ time-
On the first day, he told her to bring Lena back voluntarily; she remained indifferent.
On the second day, he pinned her against the wall, his voice dripping with icy chill, “One day gone, and you’re still hesitating. Seems you need some motivation.”
On the third day–now–he was threatening to dissect their son alive to make her talk.
“Ethan!” Wendy’s entire body shook. “He’s your son! The one you crawled on your knees to the altar for, begging God’s mercy! Have
mind?”
you lost
your
damn
He leaned forward slightly, his eyes cold yet still smiling, “Baby, that’s not the answer I want.”
Looking at the man who had once held her dearest, Wendy felt an overwhelming sense of strangeness and coldness. She knew Ethan had always doted on his adoptive sister. Before marriage, others had warned her that she resembled Lena, who was studying abroad, too closely, cautioning her about being a substitute. She had never cared–until Lena returned and they ended up in bed, their affair only exposed when Lena’s belly could no longer be hidden.
Though he’d sworn it was just a drunken mistake, that he’d confused Lena for her, what about now? He was willing to kill their own son for Lena’s
whereabouts.
Seeing Wendy remain silent, the last trace of patience vanished from the man’s eyes. “You are
so stubborn–do you want to kill your
son?”
He lifted his gaze, signaling the doctor beside the operating table.
“Don’t!” Wendy screamed in collapse, but two bodyguards held her down firmly.
The moment the cold blade sliced down, blinding blood surged into her vision.
“Stop! Please, I’ll say it!” Wendy sobbed, all her resolve shattering under her son’s desperate howls. “Lena is at the Westside Medical Center! She said she didn’t want to destroy our marriage and made an appointment for an abortion this afternoon!”
Ethan’s brows furrowed instantly as he barked at the doctor, “Stop!”
He gently helped Wendy up, all traces of hostility vanishing from his eyes as he smiled reassuringly. “Baby, look how scared you are.”
He reached out with the familiar doting look in his eyes, pinching her cold, trembling cheek. “I was just scaring you. Don’t worry, the boy is fine.”
Without even a word of explanation, he didn’t spare a single glance at their son on the operating table, who was beginning to convulse from excessive blood loss.
He turned away without hesitation, rushing toward his “responsibility.”
“Someone help him!” Wendy lunged forward, pressing her hands tightly over the boy’s gushing wound. Warm blood seeped through her fingers, unstoppable.
Chapter 1
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But no matter how she cried out, in Ethan’s private hospital, nothing moved without his order.
Wendy could only hold the wound with one hand and tremble as she dialed emergency services with the other.
Ten minutes later, an ambulance from another hospital finally arrived. When the operating room lights dimmed, the doctor wheeled out a stretcher, his face heavy with regret. “It’s too late. If we’d come ten minutes earlier, we might have saved him.”
Ten minutes… Wendy staggered but forced herself to stand. She howled, hugging her son’s body tightly, trying to transfer her last warmth to him.
It was useless–she could only feel his body growing colder in her arms.
In the sweltering summer, the mortuary’s cold storage was bone–chilling. Wendy stood like a soulless statue beside her son, her blood seeming to have drained and frozen the moment he died in her arms.
“Does any family member want one last look before cremation?” a staff member prompted. After a long silence, Wendy took out her phone.
The moment Ethan answered, a girl’s sobbing voice burst through, “I don’t care! I have to get rid of this baby. It’s a mistake, a filthy mistake!”
There was the rustling of a struggle, followed by Ethan’s pleading–with a desperation she’d never heard, almost shattered. “Don’t do this, please, Lena. Don’t abort our child. I’ll go crazy.”
Wendy laughed bitterly. So he could go crazy for another woman–crazy enough to kill his own son…
She didn’t speak a word, just calmly moved the phone from her ear and tapped the red hang–up button. All noise was abruptly cut off.
She lifted her head slowly, taking one last greedy look at her son’s peaceful “sleep,” then said dully, “Cremate him.”
The heavy furnace door slammed shut. As the fire ignited, Wendy dialed her friend–Dr. Yvonne Shaw, a medical doctor. “You once said you successfully developed a drug to make people forget the past. Can you sell it to me?”
Yvonne sounded astonished, “What do you need it for?”
“I need to forget all the painful memories and leave Ethan!”
