"Callista,what’s wrong with you?Don’t scare me!"

The bathroom door was suddenly pushed open.Edward saw Callista lying on the floor,clutching her stomach and his eyes instantly turned bloodshot.

"Liora!Callista was worried about you,so she came back to check on you.What did you do to her?!"

Edward suddenly looked up and shouted furiously.

But then he saw Liora looking extremely disheveled,her face swollen,breathing heavily with her mouth wide open.

For a brief moment,the fury in his eyes came to a halt.

He suddenly remembered the symptoms Liora had shown during her previous allergic reaction and panic rushed in as he instinctively moved toward her to check.

But at that very moment,Callista suddenly fell to her knees,clutching her belly and kowtowing to Liora several times in a row.

"Liora,I swear I didn’t put seafood in the porridge and I didn’t mean to tell him that you were planning to get an abortion."

"If you’re angry,you can take it out on me however you want,but please,I’m begging you,don’t hurt my child."

Edward glanced at Callista’s pitiful appearance,sobbing and pleading for mercy and when he thought of how Liora had been cruel enough to want to abort their child from the very beginning,his gaze turned cold again without hesitation.

"Liora,haven’t you acted enough?Callista has been driven to this point by you,so what else do you want?"

Callista immediately reached out and clung to Edward’s sleeve.

"Don’t blame Liora,it’s all my fault,I…Ah!My belly!"

As she spoke,Callista gripped her stomach and cried out in pain.

There was a particularly distinctive rose-shaped birthmark on her belly.As her pregnancy progressed,her growing belly made the birthmark look like a blossoming flower,which was a unique and eye-catching feature.

And the small scratch she had made herself had been torn open into a horrifying,bloody gash,positioned just beside the rose birthmark.It had completely ruined the visual beauty of it.

Callista screamed and looked up at Edward,her expression filled with a mix of sorrow and accusation.

"Sobs,I’m so sorry...it’s all my fault for not protecting myself.The international art festival is approaching soon.What if this scar ruins your inspiration for your work…"

As expected,Edward’s attention was immediately drawn to the wound.

His eyes turned bloodshot in an instant and he looked at Liora’s hands with an expression of manic rage.

"Someone,come in!Use the family discipline!Hit her hands,every single finger!Don’t stop until all ten are broken!"

Because of the allergy,Liora’s breathing had grown increasingly labored,her pulse was weakening and her consciousness began to blur,leaving her completely powerless to resist.

Ten fingers were linked together in front of her chest.

After the searing pain,there was nothing but numbing silence.

What was more,when she received the news that Edward had been buried in the mudslide,she dug through the debris with her bare hands for three full days and nights and the wounds on her hands had still not fully healed to this day.

Liora eventually fainted from the pain.

When she regained consciousness,she discovered that she had been confined to a hospital ward.

Edward never showed up again.Instead,his assistant,Caelum,came to deliver a message.

"Ma'am,Mr.Gravemont said that your husband encountered an unexpected issue and will have to postpone his return for a few days."

"Is that so?"

Liora did not care anymore.

Because of the miscarriage earlier,Edward likely felt guilty and tried to comfort her by saying that Edward Gravemont was still alive.

Now,he had his assistant delay Edward’s reappearance,which was precisely what Liora wanted.

After all,the fake death Edward had painstakingly staged would become an irreversible reality once his accounts were completely erased three days later.

Liora would not allow Edward to return from the dead as he had planned,nor would she let herself be manipulated again by his arrogant confidence in always winning,like a caged bird trapped by his power and cruelty.

She hoped with all her heart that there would be no Edward in this world again.

Soon,the three days came to an end.

After receiving confirmation that Edward’s accounts had been officially closed,she went directly to the hospital to complete her discharge procedures.

But just after she started her car,she suddenly saw Callista standing right in front of it.

Liora slammed the brake pedal all the way down in a panic.

But even though the car had not touched her at all,Callista collapsed straight to the ground and the blood pooling beneath her quickly stained the pavement red.

Edward,who had come chasing after,saw the scene and clenched his fists tightly,his eyes turning red as if blood might seep out from them.

Bam!

He used all his strength to kick Liora away.

Blinded by rage,he immediately called for a doctor without hesitation.

"Draw as much blood as Callista has lost."

Liora was strapped down and wheeled into the operating room.

She looked up at Callista,who stood nearby with a smug smile on her face and tried to struggle,but she could not move at all.

"Don’t waste your energy."

Callista patted Liora’s face,her expression twisted and grotesque with glee.

"Wrenford,what are you,really?You’re nothing but an old,washed-up woman.If Ed hadn’t pitied you,he never would have even thought of bringing you back."

"I’m carrying his only child and I’m the muse he’s most satisfied with,the perfect inspiration for his art.Compared to you,I am the woman he truly loves."

"Look at this.I only had to pretend to have a car accident and he couldn’t wait to hand you over to me to do whatever I pleased."

"Come here,draw her blood."

As she spoke,she burst into cold laughter.

Before Liora had time to recover from the blow of Edward’s violent kick,a thick needle was suddenly jabbed into the vein of her arm.

As time passed,her face turned paler and her body temperature continued to drop lower and lower.

"Ms.Ravenshade,we can’t draw any more,or she’ll go into shock."

The doctor’s hesitant voice echoed in her ears.

However,Callista did not seem to care at all.

"Keep going...Ah!"

Before she could finish her sentence,Liora,who was no longer being restrained by the doctor,broke free after she managed to somehow loosen her restraints.

The thick needle in the back of her hand was ripped out and stabbed directly into Callista’s arm.

Callista let out a blood-curdling scream.

At that moment,the operating room door was flung open in the midst of chaos.

Edward saw what was happening and his face instantly turned pale.He ordered the bodyguards forward to restrain the now unsteady Liora.

He stepped on her hand and crushed it down harshly,his expression icy and filled with murderous fury.

"Liora,you should never have done that to Callista!"

Liora coughed up a mouthful of blood yet smiled through the pain.

"Then I’ll go ahead and wish the two of you eternal imprisonment together,Edward Gravemont."

When he heard those last three words,Edward’s expression flickered with panic.

"You must be so far gone that you’re starting to mistake people."

"Take her away.Send Liora to the mental hospital immediately."

This time,Liora did not resist.She got into the car quietly and without protest.

But after the vehicle began crossing the bridge,she suddenly lunged forward and seized control of the steering wheel.

Creak!

Bang!

The sound of sudden braking,followed by the car flipping over and crashing into the water,echoed through the air like thunder.

The impact shattered the car window and Liora seized the opportunity to escape from the dangerous wreckage.

But she had lost too much blood and her injuries were so severe that she could barely make it to the shore.

Edward’s noble and aloof demeanor had always masked a deep paranoia and an obsession with control.

Even when he desired Callista,he was still unwilling to let Liora go.

While she was in the hospital,Liora had thought of countless ways to escape.In the end,she had settled on a plan.She would find a plausible excuse to drive on the day of her discharge and then escape midway.

But she had not anticipated Callista making her move first and so she was forced to take this reckless and dangerous route instead.

Thinking about all this,Liora’s swimming strokes slowed down more and more and her body grew colder and heavier.

Just as her body completely sank to the bottom of the sea,a large,somewhat familiar hand suddenly reached through her blurred vision.

At the moment she was pulled from the water,with a deafening sound,the car that had fallen in exploded in an instant...

On the other side.

Edward immediately ordered the doctors to give Callista a comprehensive examination and only after confirming that she had suffered no injuries did he breathe a sigh of relief.

But a flicker of doubt crossed his mind.

Hadn’t Callista just been hit by Liora?

Callista’s eyes flickered,but tears quickly welled up and spilled down her cheeks.

"Ed,it must be our child protecting me.That’s why I came out unharmed."

"It’s such perfect timing,too,since the international art competition is approaching.If I’m fine,I definitely won’t be a burden to you."

When Edward heard her mention the international art competition,the look on his face softened and he did not dwell on the earlier doubts.

Instead,he stared at her belly with a burning,intense gaze and couldn’t help muttering to himself in an excited voice.

"Yes,this will be my first time creating art using the human body.It will absolutely leave the world in awe."

Callista did not catch what he said clearly.Just as she was about to ask,Edward’s assistant suddenly called with an urgent voice.

"Mr.Gravemont,something’s happened.Your wife is in danger!"

"Ugh!"

All of a sudden,Callista bent over and began to vomit quietly,all on her own.

Edward’s attention,which had just been caught by his assistant’s call,immediately shifted back to her.He rushed over without hesitation and quickly helped her lie down on the hospital bed.

Callista forced a weak smile.

"I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been so stressed these past few days,but my stomach suddenly started feeling a bit uncomfortable."

"Ed,you should go check on what’s happening with Liora.I’ll be fine just staying in the hospital anyway…Ugh!"

As she spoke,Callista continued to display signs of discomfort,one after another.

Edward did not pay any attention to the assistant’s message at all.Without a second thought,he hung up the phone.

"Nothing is more important than you right now.Just lie down and rest,I’ll go get the doctor."

As he turned to leave the room,a flash of determination flickered across Callista’s eyes.

While Edward was out calling the doctor,she quickly picked up his phone.

"Caelum,Ed is busy taking care of me and our baby in the hospital right now.Please don’t bother him with any other trivial matters,"she said smoothly before promptly hanging up.

Just as she set the phone back down,Edward returned to the room.He glanced at her and frowned slightly.

"What were you doing with my phone?"

Callista’s expression faltered in a flash of panic,but before she could explain herself,Caelum appeared at the door,visibly distressed and sweating with anxiety.He rushed inside the room and handed the documents in his hand without so much as acknowledging Callista’s glaring eyes.

"Mr.Gravemont,something has actually happened to your wife."

Edward’s expression darkened with visible displeasure."Didn’t I instruct the bodyguard to escort her to the mental hospital?What on earth could possibly happen to her?"

"Or are you conspiring with her,putting on a show to win my sympathy…"

Suddenly,before he could finish speaking,Edward’s words were abruptly cut off.

He quickly flipped through the accident report in his hands and the moment he saw the full account of what had occurred,all the color drained from his face.

"This…this is impossible!"he growled.