Carolina's voice, sweet and lilting, drifted from the second floor. "Regina, you're here."

I looked up to see her holding Carl, standing outside the master bedroom Jeremy and I once shared.

"I'm so sorry, Regina. Carl's been so fussy, and I was worried he'd disturb your rest, so I took the liberty of moving your things over there."

My gaze followed her pointing finger to the maid's quarters, tucked beside the kitchen on the ground floor.

Just then, Jeremy stepped out of the kitchen, swirling a baby bottle in his hand.

He shot me a cool glance. "The doctor said you're still coughing. Stay in your room unless it's absolutely necessary. We don't want to risk Carl catching anything."

I shook my head instinctively. "It's not contagious. You can ask the doctor yourself."

"Even if the cough isn't contagious, you've been popping pills for years. How can you be sure you don't have anything else that's contagious?"

I stood frozen, forced to watch as he and Carolina fed Carl together, his expression impossibly tender.

"Carl, do you like it? Which bottle is better, Daddy's or Mommy's?"

The word "Mommy" was like a punch to the gut. My hands clenched into fists, and the sudden urge to storm upstairs overwhelmed me.

But I had barely taken two steps before I heard Carolina's chuckle.

"I'm Carl's mommy. You're not trying to steal his affection, are you?"

Jeremy laughed with her. "My mistake. Of course he loves his mommy the most."

I stopped dead in my tracks, my mouth falling open as a question I was eager to ask formed on my lips.

I was Carl's biological mother. Even if Carolina had been listed as his legal mother for his future, shouldn't I be the one he called "Mom"?

But before I could get a word out, a maid suddenly clamped her hand over my mouth from behind.

"Regina, Mr. and Mrs. Sterling are busy with Carl. What are you trying to do?" she hissed. "Get back to your room and stop causing trouble!"

I flailed in panic, hands scrabbling at the air. The other maid seized my wrist, and together they dragged me toward the maid's quarters.

Just as the door slammed shut, Carolina looked up and flashed me a triumphant smirk that cut deeper than words.

They kept me locked in that room all day. It wasn't until the maids were occupied with their chores that I managed to slip out, tiptoeing toward the crib.

My fingers were just about to touch Carl's tiny hand when a furious shout rang out. "Regina, don't you dare touch Carl!"

The sudden shout startled Carl into tears. It made me jump too.

Carolina scooped up Carl, anxiously stomping her foot. "You're still coughing. How could you even think about holding Carl? What if you get him sick?"

The commotion brought Jeremy rushing out of his study mid-meeting. The moment he saw Carl crying, he didn't hesitate to slap me across the face.

"Are you incapable of understanding simple instructions? I told you to stay away from Carl," he snarled. "Don't you know how fragile he is? You could get him sick with just one careless slip."

We had been in love for eight years, and this was the first time he had ever laid a hand on me.

I choked back a cough, my neck stiff with defiance.

"This is my baby!" I shot back. "Jeremy, five years ago, when we lost our first baby, you promised you'd do everything in your power to protect my right to be a mother."

Right then, Carl's cries grew louder.

Jeremy's face turned ashen as he suddenly grabbed my wrist and yanked me into his study. The moment the door slammed shut, another slap landed hard across my face.

"The first baby? You've got some nerve bringing up our first baby!" he barked.

"If it weren't for Carolina, I'd still be in the dark. The baby was stillborn five years ago, yet you turned that loss into a calculated ploy just to keep me indebted to you for life."

As his accusations rained down on me, a gnawing pain shot through my knees and calves, like a million ants chewing me to the bone.

I struggled to keep myself upright, staring at him in disbelief. "Jeremy, you really think I plotted this against you?"

Hatred burned in his eyes as he spat each word. "Didn't you?"

"Of course not! I lost the baby after kneeling for two days straight," I shot back. "Jeremy, you'd rather believe Carolina than me?"

The words had barely left my mouth when another coughing fit seized me, so violent that my chest convulsed wildly.

Jeremy, however, just stood there, watching with cold indifference until the fit subsided. When I was red-faced and gasping, he said flatly, "There was a time when I believed you."

His phone rang. Without another glance at me, he answered it and walked to the other side of the room.

I leaned against the wall, my legs giving out as I slid to the floor. Snippets of the conversation reached me, and I heard my name mentioned on the other end.

He shot me a cold glare. "It's just her usual issues. She'll be fine with some rest. There's no need for surgery."

A humorless laugh escaped him. "If she could kneel in the snow for two days, a little pain is nothing she can't handle."

He hung up and told the maid to take me back to the maid's quarters.

As he walked past me on his way out, he tossed a final warning without so much as a backward glance. "Behave yourself, and I might let you catch a glimpse of Carl from a distance. But if you dare touch him again, don't expect me to play nice."

Carolina's laughter, mingled with Carl's soft giggles, drifted up from downstairs. I pressed a hand over my mouth to muffle a quiet cough while my other hand dug its nails into my calf.

The pain had plagued me for five years. I thought I had grown used to it, but since the delivery, it had intensified relentlessly, day after day, until it hit a breaking point today.

I didn't know how long I was out before the pain jolted me awake. My whole body felt submerged in ice water, chilling and wretched.

I couldn't take it anymore, so I fumbled for my phone to order pain relief online.

I tried to check out, only to find that the supplementary card I had linked had been frozen.

Desperate, I called Jeremy's assistant, Kenneth Ortiz. His usual eagerness to please was gone, replaced by an indifferent drawl. "Ms. Gomez, Mr. Sterling has instructed that all resources be prioritized for Mrs. Sterling and Carl."

He added, "After the fortune he's spent on your medication over the years, I'd say you should be content."

I heaved in ragged breaths and dragged myself to the door, certain that death would claim me soon if I couldn't get relief.

But I hadn't expected the maid's quarters to be locked from the outside.

The terror amplified my agony. I weakly slapped the door with my palm, too drained to call for help.

Suddenly, the door swung open.

Carolina stood over me, arms crossed. "Still breathing? You're tougher than you look."

She stepped aside. "Don't say I never did you any favors. Jeremy's in the courtyard."

With no energy to question her sudden kindness, I braced myself against the wall and pushed to my feet, shuffling forward, step by agonizing step.

As I reached the doorway, I heard Jeremy's voice, low and humble.

"Mr. Jenson, you have my word. You saved my life back then. I'll spend the rest of my days taking care of Carolina and cherishing her."

My hand tightened on the doorknob as I watched him bow repeatedly to no one in sight. The moment he hung up and turned to see me standing there, the pleasant look on his face froze into a cold mask.

"Who let you out?" he snarled.

Behind me, Carolina sighed dramatically. "Regina kept begging me. She said Carl is her own flesh and blood. I couldn't bring myself to ignore her…"

I clutched the hem of my shirt, my eyes boring into him. "Jeremy, I was the one who begged Mr. Jenson to step in. You don't even believe I saved your life?"

He scoffed. "Saved my life? Mr. Jenson said it was Carolina who pleaded with him. What claim do you have to take the credit?"

With that, he brushed past me, his voice softening for Carolina. "You're far too softhearted. That's why she's been stealing your credit for five years. As I've told you, Carl is your son. He has nothing to do with her."

I couldn't hold it in any longer. I scraped together the last of my strength and roared, "Have you forgotten I knelt in the snow for two days and nights?"

Jeremy wrapped an arm around Carolina, his face cold with fury. "Mr. Jenson told me himself that it was Carolina who begged him for help. You just put on a little show for him when he walked out the door."

"Regina," he added. "I've been more than generous letting you stay in this house. Don't you dare test my patience again!"

Jeremy's words cut like twin daggers, each one plunging deep into my chest. My ravaged body could no longer hold itself up, and I crumpled backward.

Just as my consciousness wavered, one of the nannies, Marilyn Turner, rushed down from the second floor, shouting, "Mr. Sterling! Mrs. Sterling! Carl's burning up!"

Through my hazy vision, I saw Carl cradled in her arms, his face flushed crimson, his eyes tightly shut, and his lips murmuring faintly.

Panic seized Jeremy. He pressed a hand to Carl's forehead, and his expression darkened. "Get Carl to the hospital now!"

Carolina flew into hysterics, charging at me with a vicious shove. "This is your fault! I told you you'd get Carl sick. Why didn't you listen? Why did you beg me to let you out?"

She kept blaming me. "Carl's barely a month old, and now you've infected him. Are you happy now?"

She shoved me with all her strength. The back of my head slammed into the wall, a hot trickle of blood sliding down my neck.

Still, I clung to consciousness, my blurred vision catching Jeremy as he rushed out with Carl in his arms.

He passed right by me as if I were invisible. Only when I scrambled forward and grabbed his ankle did he reluctantly stop.

"Jeremy," I begged, "please take me with you."

"Get off!"

He kicked me aside, his face twisted with rage. "A liar who's been playing me for five years doesn't deserve to be Carl's mother."

He turned to the maids. "Get this lunatic out of here and lock her up! Don't let her out again until I say so!"

His kick sent me sprawling backward. Pain seared through the back of my head and my abdomen as Jeremy stormed out with Carl in his arms.

Then, Carolina walked up to me.

She delicately wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and crouched, leaning in so close I could feel her breath on my ear.

"Regina, give it up. With your body falling apart like this, how could you ever raise a child?" she sneered. "Thank you for giving me a son with inheritance rights and sparing me the pain of having to bear him myself."

When the maids closed in to drag me away, she stood up. "Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. Jeremy proposed. We're getting our marriage license tomorrow, and the wedding's next month."

She pulled a necklace from beneath her collar. Dangling from the delicate chain was a transparent orb.

My eyes widened, and a raw scream tore from my throat. "Give it back! That's mine!"

Carolina's fingers traced the orb, her lips curling into a smirk. "I heard this holds the ashes of your stillborn child. Jeremy couldn't stop thinking about his first baby, so he gave it to me as a proposal gift."

Her voice brimmed with triumph. "He told me these ashes, Carl, and I are his whole world."

With that, she sniffled, tears spilling down her cheeks as if on cue.

I roared and lunged for the necklace, but the maids pinned me to the floor. Helpless, I could only watch as she walked out, climbing into Jeremy's car.

At that moment, everything I had was ripped away. All that remained were my broken body and a heart drowned in despair.

That evening, Carolina was called home by her father, Theodore Jenson. Jeremy returned alone with Carl, whose fever had already broken, only to find the house shrouded in darkness.

He frowned and flipped on the lights. He called for the maids a few times, but no one answered. He settled Carl into the crib and headed upstairs to look for them.

After searching the second floor to no avail, his irritation flared. He went into his study to find their contact information. Just as he was about to dial, he heard a faint rustling near the kitchen.

A knot of dread tightened in his stomach. He bolted toward the nursery next to the kitchen.

The room was cold and still. There was no sign of me.

He spun to the crib, but it was empty too.

I had taken Carl and disappeared.