The door flew open. Vince.

His eyes landed on Sophia in her pool of blood, and his face drained of all color.

"What did you do?" he roared, dropping to his knees beside her. He didn't even look at me. It was like I wasn't even there.

"She pushed me," Sophia sobbed, pointing a trembling finger at me. "She tried to kill our baby!"

What baby?

"Isabella!" Vince whipped his head toward me, his eyes burning with a rage from hell itself. "What did you do?"

"I didn't push her! I just—"

SMACK.

The blow sent me staggering back. My cheek exploded in pain. My ears rang.

And in the middle of the shock, a sharp cramp tore through my abdomen. A sickening warmth spread down my thighs.

"Are you insane?" Vince snarled, his voice dripping with disgust. "She's carrying my heir!"

Heir.

The word was a poisoned knife straight to my heart.

Vince scooped Sophia into his arms, her blood staining his white shirt. "Get a doctor! Now!"

"Vince, let me explain—"

"Explain what?" He was already moving toward the door with her. "That you tried to hurt an innocent woman? That you tried to kill my child?"

They disappeared down the hall. Vince’s men grabbed my arms before I could fall, dragging me after them like a prisoner.

I stood in a daze, my cheek on fire, the cramps in my stomach making it hard to stand.

Five years of marriage, and he didn't even look at me. Not for a second.

I tried to make it to the restroom to see how bad it was, but my legs gave out and I collapsed.

The last thing I heard was the doorman who'd recognized me earlier, screaming for a doctor for me.

"Ma'am, what's wrong? Hold on, we're almost at Sacred Heart Clinic!"

Sacred Heart was the Moretti family’s private clinic.

As they rushed me into the ER, I saw Vince pacing frantically outside an operating room.

Doctors and nurses were a blur of panicked motion.

They pushed me into another exam room.

The pain in my abdomen was getting worse, a deep, twisting agony. I gripped the bedsheets, my hair soaked with cold sweat.

A few minutes later, a middle-aged man in a white coat—Dr. Martin—ran out, a syringe in his hand.

"Boss!" he shouted, rushing to Vince's side. "It's bad. They're both hemorrhaging. Your wife and Miss Sophia."

Vince froze.

"We only have one dose of the serum," Dr. Martin pleaded. "It's the only thing that can stop this kind of bleeding and save the baby. Boss, you have to choose. Your wife... or Miss Sophia. We can only save one."

Time stopped.

I lay on that cold gurney, staring through the half-open door at Vince.

My husband. The father of my child.

Who would he choose?

He never even looked my way.

Without a second of hesitation, he pointed to Sophia's room. His voice was ice.

"Her. Save her."

And just like that, he signed my baby's death sentence.

"I need an heir," he added, his voice devoid of any emotion.

I watched Dr. Martin take the syringe that could have saved my baby and walk into the other woman's room, his face a mask of despair.

My world shattered.

The pain finally took over.

The last thing I heard was Vince's voice, cold and clear. "Secure the room. Make sure my heir is safe."

He called that liar's non-existent baby his heir.

And ours? Nothing.

Just... darkness.

When I woke up, there was a hollow ache deep in my belly, like something had been ripped out of me.

Dr. Martin stood by my bed, his face pale as a sheet.

"My baby…" My voice was a raw whisper.

The doctor wouldn't meet my eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Mrs. Moretti. You lost the baby."

Rage burned through me.

I remembered the moment Dr. Martin told Vince I was miscarrying.

He didn't care.

I ripped the tape from my arm and sat up, ignoring the nurse's protests.

"Mrs. Moretti, you need to rest—"

"Get out."

I shoved past her, my bare feet hitting the cold floor.

Every step sent a fresh wave of pain through my abdomen, but I didn't care.

It was nothing compared to the agony in my chest.

Sophia's room was on the third floor.

I kicked the door open.

There she was, lying in bed, looking pale and pitiful.

Vince sat beside her, gently dabbing sweat from her forehead.

What a sweet, sick picture.

"Get out." Vince’s face darkened when he saw me. "You've done enough damage."

"Damage?" I laughed, a sharp, ugly sound. "You want to know who's been damaged?"

I walked toward him, every step deliberate, filled with murder.

"Our baby is dead, Vince. And you killed him."

"Th-that's not my fault." He stood, squaring his shoulders, trying to reclaim some shred of dignity. "If you hadn't gone after Sophia—"

CRACK.

I slapped him with every ounce of strength I had. Harder than he'd hit me.

Final.

"You bastard!" My voice echoed in the sterile room. "You killed your own child for a whore! Have you forgotten who made you the heir?"

Vince touched the raw, red mark on his cheek. For a long moment, he said nothing. I thought I saw his eyes glisten with tears.

But when he looked at me again, the guilt was gone, replaced by a cold, hard resolve.

"The past is the past," he said, his voice dropping, his fists clenching at his sides. "Now? You're just a barren housewife who couldn't give me a child for years. I need an heir. A son to carry the Moretti name. Not some jealous, hysterical woman."

"But I was pregnant... with your child!"

"And he's dead!" Vince shook his head, turning his back on me to face Sophia. "Right now, the only thing that matters is what's inside her. You," he said, his voice utterly void of emotion, "and that dead baby of yours... you're worthless to me now."

Worthless.

He said I, and our child, were worthless.

I looked at him, the man I had loved for five years, and felt nothing but cold, dead ash inside me.

"Vince," my voice was chillingly calm. "Mark my words."

I turned and dragged my hollowed-out body away, every step like walking on shards of glass.

Behind me, I heard him cooing to Sophia.

"Don't cry, baby, our child will be fine. He'll be my only heir."

With our lives on the line, Vince had made his choice.

Now, it was time to make mine.

The elevator doors slid shut, sealing him out of my world for good.

Back home, I went straight to the toolbox and pulled out a hammer.

The first strike shattered our wedding photo, the one where we were smiling so brightly. Glass flew like the fragments of my heart.

The second strike pulverized the diamond on my finger, the one he swore would last forever.

The third, every gift he'd ever given me.

Every crack, every shatter, was a funeral for the child I'd never hold.

I pulled out a new burner phone and dialed a number I hadn't touched in five years.

"DeLuca residence."

"This is Isabella," my voice was dangerously quiet. "I'm coming home."

There was a pause on the other end, then a respectful, immediate reply. "At once, Princess. The jet will be waiting for you at O'Hare in one hour."

I hung up and started to pack.

I took only what was mine. The rest, along with five years of memories, I left for this filthy city.

I stood at the door of the jet, taking one last look at the city that had buried my love and my child.

Isabella, the wife of Vince Moretti, died in Chicago.

The woman returning to New York was the Princess of the DeLuca family.

And I would make them pay.

In blood.

Vince's POV

After Isabella left, the only sound in the hospital room was Sophia’s weak sobbing.

I should have been relieved. I’d saved the only thing that mattered—my heir. But a raw, jagged feeling was tearing at my gut.

All I could see was Isabella’s face, her eyes when she’d whispered, 'My baby is dead.'

They were like cold ash.

Just then, Dr. Martin walked in, holding a file.

"Boss," he hesitated, sensing the tension in the room. "We have Miss Sophia’s detailed blood work."

"Read it," I commanded, wanting this whole nightmare to be over.

"Her injuries are superficial, and the blood loss wasn't life-threatening." Dr. Martin paused, taking a deep breath as if steeling himself. "And... the report shows her HCG levels are... completely normal. She was never pregnant."

The room went dead silent.

Time froze.

Slowly, like a rusted machine, I turned to face Sophia.

"What?"

"I... I thought I was. I really did," Sophia stammered, her face whiter than the sheets. "My period was late, I just..."

"You lied," my voice was low, dangerous, the calm before a hurricane. "You fucking lied to me!"

"Vince, I love you! I just wanted to have your baby so badly!"

"Love?" I lunged forward and wrapped my hand around her throat, lifting her from the bed as a hellish rage consumed me. "You made me murder my own flesh and blood! For a phantom you cooked up in your head!"

Sophia choked and gagged, her face turning purple.

I threw her aside like a piece of trash.

I sacrificed Isabella's child because I thought I was getting an heir I could control.

But now... that heir was nothing but a goddamn lie.

I stormed out of the hospital and drove home like a madman.

Isabella... Bella...

Maybe I can beg for her forgiveness.

We could have another baby. We could start over.

But when I burst through the door, I was met with a scene of total destruction.

An empty hole on the wall where our wedding photo used to hang. Shards of glass covering the floor.

Every gift I'd ever given her was smashed to pieces.

Her closets were bare.

She was gone.

She was really, truly gone.

A tsunami of regret and fear crashed over me, drowning me.

I lost her. I lost my child. I lost everything... because of a lie.

A raw, animal sound tore from my throat as I collapsed to my knees.

Just then, the landline rang.

I lunged for it like a drowning man grabbing a lifeline.

"Bella? Is that you? Where are you?" my voice was a desperate plea. "Come home. We can talk. Please!"

"Vince," her voice on the other end was pure ice, "our marriage died with our child."

"No! That was a mistake! I didn't know she was lying! We can—"

"The divorce papers will be on your desk tomorrow. We're done."

"Isabella, please—"

"Don't ever call me again, Vince."

The line went dead, leaving only a cold, hollow silence.

I let the phone drop from my hand and crumpled to the floor. My world had shattered.

——

Isabella's POV

The DeLuca estate was magnificent in the dawn light.

I hadn’t been back in five years.

The guards at the gate recognized me instantly, their posture snapping to attention.

"Welcome home, Princess."