I had no idea how much time had passed, but the pain in my belly never let up. I could only lie down, gasping loudly for breath as I fought to stay conscious. Just then, I heard the door open.

It was Dr. Walters. He had a few bodyguards with him, and Aldrich was also on the phone with him.

"Hurry up! We must save her baby!"

I thought that Chrissy had finally given birth and that Aldrich had finally remembered about me. Tears of joy and relief sprang from my eyes.

However, to my shock, the bodyguards just grabbed me and put me back on the cold, hard bed in the basement. And this time, they bound my hands and feet to the bedframe even more tightly than before.

Dr. Walters stared down at me and said, "Chrissy is losing a lot of blood and needs an emergency transfusion. Coincidentally, you share the same blood type as her."

I immediately understood what their motive was and started to struggle. But that only made the constraints around my wrists hurt even more.

"No! I'm also carrying a baby in me! My baby will die if you do this!"

"Shut up!"

Dr. Walters kicked at the side of the bed so hard that I felt my brain and other internal organs shaking within me.

"The baby in Chrissy's belly is the future heir to the Lohan family! You should feel honored to give up your baby in exchange for its life!"

With that, the needle was mercilessly inserted into my veins once again. This time, I could feel my life force being gradually siphoned away from my body. My vision turned blurry, and the pain in my belly started waning out as I lost energy. I felt like a thread about to snap.

I had completely lost consciousness at that point. I was lying on the bed like a lifeless doll.

For some reason, Dr. Walters suddenly panicked after noticing that I wasn't moving anymore. He immediately stopped the transfusion and called Aldrich again.

"Mr. Lohan, Mrs. Lohan seems to have passed out. Should I still continue drawing her blood?"

Aldrich was furious. "Chrissy's life is in dire peril! How dare she pretend to pass out? Just go on! And wake her up. I don't care what you do to her."

So, Dr. Walters told the bodyguard to fill up a bucket of ice-cold water and pour it right down my head.

The bone-chilling wetness seeped right into my body, and my thin nightgown was completely soaked. I shuddered hard as I barely registered consciousness.

Seeing that I had woken up, Dr. Walters inserted the needle once more. But this time, I didn't even have the strength to fight back anymore.

The pain in my belly was still there. Ice-cold water was still dripping down my face, every single drop feeling like an icicle stabbing right into my skin. I opened my mouth, wanting to tell them to stop taking my blood, but the most I could manage was a weak and wispy exhale. I sounded like an animal on its last breath.

Soon, the blood bag was finally filled, and I didn't know how long it took.

Dr. Walters removed the needle from my arm and didn't even offer a cotton ball to stop the bleeding before turning to leave. Just before he left, he turned around to spare me one last glance. "Mrs. Lohan, be good and stay where you are. I'll be back if Chrissy needs more blood."

I felt dread washing all over me. If they continued taking my blood, it wouldn't just be my baby who'd be in danger—I'd lose my life as well.

Fine, Chrissy's baby was treated like a national treasure; but did I or my child deserve to be treated so poorly in contrast?

After what felt like forever, I finally managed to regain some strength and rolled to the ground from the bed.

I couldn't stay another minute in this basement. Otherwise, I would just be a sitting duck waiting for them to come back again whenever they needed more of my blood.

At the very least, I needed to keep my child alive.

I used up all of my energy to crawl toward the door. Just then, the door suddenly opened, and my maid, Joanne, walked in. She had always been quite close to me. When she saw me, she let out a loud shriek because I was currently covered in blood and sweat.

I looked as pale as a ghost as I crawled along on the ground. I was a sorry sight.

When I saw that it was her, I did my best to produce a sound from my throat. "H-Help me… Please…"

Joanne got a huge scare. "What happened, Mrs. Lohan? Why were you locked up in here?"

"I'm about to give birth… Please send me to the hospital…"

Joanne quickly picked me up from the floor and helped me up. She immediately took out her phone to call the ambulance. However, after thinking for a while, she decided to call Aldrich instead.

"Mr. Lohan, Mrs. Lohan looks like she's about to give birth. I'm going to send her to the hospital now. Is that okay?"

Aldrich's tone was impatient. "Why bother? Chrissy is still in danger at the hospital. We're going to need her around in case we need more blood. And there's no need to send her to the hospital. I've already told Orlando to give her a tocolytic injection. She won't give birth now," he said.

Then, he ended the call before Joanne could get another word in.

I subconsciously gripped Joanne's shirt hem even tighter, silently begging her not to abandon me. Joanne gave me a long, meaningful look. In the end, she still called the ambulance for me.

"I'm also a mother. I've given birth before, and I know that you're in a lot of pain now."

I was so touched the moment I got wheeled into the ambulance that I nearly cried tears of relief. I thought that I would finally be saved, but as soon as we arrived at the general hospital, there was no available medical equipment for me to safely give birth.

It was all Aldrich's doing. He had ordered all the hospitals in the city to transfer their birthing equipment to the hospital where Chrissy was.

The hospital called Aldrich again, since he was my next of kin and had to be informed.

"Hello, is this Ms. Kelsey Raine's family member? She's currently experiencing dystocia, and her life is in great danger."

However, Aldrich just started yelling from the other end of the line. "Kelsey Raine! How dare you leave the house? And how dare you get someone to lie to me like that?

"I'm warning you, you'd better go back right now to where you came from. Chrissy is still in the operating room. If something terrible happens to her, I'll never let you off the hook!"

My attending doctor just sighed. Seeing that my life was in critical danger, he immediately arranged for me to be transferred to the nearest private hospital.

But even that took another hour, and the private hospital ended up being the same one that Chrissy had been admitted to. No matter how much the doctors tried to persuade Aldrich otherwise, he just refused to release any of the bookings he made on the rest of the medical equipment—not even a single one.

I listened to the argument inside the room and fell to the ground helplessly.

Just then, someone suddenly popped their head out of the room and made eye contact with me in the hallway for just a brief moment. I immediately recognized the person as Edgar.

He went looking for Aldrich, albeit hesitantly, and said, "Mr. Lohan, that bloody woman out in the corridor looks a lot like Mrs. Lohan…"

"That's impossible," Aldrich said, interrupting Edgar at once. "She loves money more than anything. Even if she were to escape, she'd only go to the general hospital. She'd never come to such an expensive private hospital."

"But—"

"Get out and stop bothering me!" Aldrich yelled. "Chrissy is now in great danger, and these people are already annoying enough, asking me to release medical equipment for other people. And now, you still want to annoy me even further? One more word from you and you're immediately fired!"

There was nothing Edgar could do but shut up after that.

And after a prolonged argument with Aldrich, the doctors still succumbed to his threats after that, and they had to apologize to me.

I didn't think that even after escaping the basement, my life would still be entirely at Aldrich's mercy, and he still wouldn't cast me a lifeline.

I closed my eyes in despair. Then, I borrowed a phone from the doctor and made a call to a number that I had memorized by heart.

"Ky, I don't want to fight anymore… Please, save me…"

Less than ten minutes later, a helicopter landed nearby.

My elder brother, Kyson, immediately rushed over to me, along with a few world-renowned doctors in tow. I was carried into the helicopter and immediately flown to the best hospital in the country.

The doctors rushed to help me deliver my baby. After what felt like forever, I finally heard them heave a sigh of relief.

"The baby's here!"

However, I didn't hear a sound coming from my baby. I had a terrible, terrible feeling after that. My voice shook as I asked, "My child… Is my child okay?"

The doctor gently guided me to lie back down on the bed.

"Don't simply move around. There are some complications with your baby, and we might need to perform emergency treatment on it."

I just closed my eyes and waited anxiously. There was nothing else I could do.

Just then, Kyson walked into my ward. His brows had been deeply scrunched into a frown ever since he laid his eyes on me. The frown never went away since.

"How did you end up in such a sorry state?"

The moment I heard his voice, I felt all of my fears and grievances bursting out of my chest. I began to cry without even knowing it.

"Ky… what should I do? I want to divorce Aldrich, but he'll never let me go…"

Kyson walked up next to my bed and gently patted me on the head. "Don't worry. I'll make sure to take care of everything."

…

As soon as the operating room doors were open, Aldrich nearly rushed in at once. Chrissy had successfully given birth to a son, and they were both safe and healthy.

Aldrich rushed in and took the baby in his arms, rocking him gently and happily in his embrace. His eyes were filled with joy.

"Congratulations, Chrissy! Your son looks a lot like Anton!"

Then, he suddenly felt stunned for a bit. He couldn't help but wonder if his own baby would look more like him or more like me.

So, he told Edgar, "It's time. Bring Kelsey to the hospital and tell the hospital to prepare all of the best medical equipment for the birth of my child."

However, Edgar stammered with his words. He didn't dare to speak. His eyes were filled with terror.

Aldrich frowned. "Must I repeat myself? Don't you know that giving birth is a very dangerous process? There's absolutely no room for error here!"

"B-But Mr. Lohan… Mrs. Lohan and her baby… have both died."