Vince's POV

Luisa’s crowd of b oy toys had also been brought to the press conference.

All of us, myself included, were surrounded by her bodyguards. They swung thick batons, striking our legs and groins without mercy.

The hall instantly filled with screams and cries of pain. The smell of blood hit the air, thick and metallic.

“Even if Luisa gave birth, and her husband wants to punish us, it's just fine,” one of the boy toys sobbed, “But does he really have to cripple us?! Agh—it hurts! Help! Someone help!”

Just then, I was also kicked to the ground, and a baton wrapped with nails smashed into me, tearing through skin and muscle. Within seconds, I was covered in blood, and my body was a mess of raw with open wounds.

My screams startled the other boy toys, and panic spread through the crowd.

“Wait, isn’t that Luisa’s husband? Why is he here, too? So who’s really behind all this?”

Writhing on the floor, I gritted my teeth and cried out, “Help us!”

Right then, Albion walked in, arm-in-arm with Luisa. He was dressed in a white suit, smug as ever, holding the hand of a little boy beside him.

The moment Luisa saw the chaos, the injured men writhing in blood, her expression shifted.

“Who told you to touch them?!” she barked at the bodyguards.

Albion covered his nose dramatically and said, “Ugh, what happened here? All your pretty boys are ruined. Who would be so heartless to do this to them?”

Before he even finished speaking, Luisa’s glare snapped to me. Without warning, she kicked me hard in the stomach.

“You filthy, jealous bastard!” she spat. “I leave for one moment, and you try to ruin them all? You can’t stand seeing them around me, can you?!”

Curled up on the ground, I looked past her at Albion, his smug smile, his victory shining in his eyes.

Through clenched teeth, I gasped, “It wasn’t me… It was him—”

“Still lying?” she shouted. “You think I don’t know you? This isn’t the first time your jealousy has hurt people! But this time, I’m not going to let it slide.”

Then she barked orders at the bodyguards. “Have every one of those men slap him across the face. After that, send them to the best hospital for treatment. And whoever hits the hardest gets a hundred grand reward.”

Quickly, the guards dragged me into the center of the room, paying no mind to the blood still pouring from my wounds.

One by one, the boy toys stepped forward, hesitant, eyes full of guilt as they raised their hands.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Carr,” one of them whispered.

And then the slaps began.

Over and over, palm after palm crashed against my face. My ears rang, and my vision swam. At some point, I couldn’t even hear from one ear anymore.

Once the crowd had been cleared out and the violence finally stopped, Luisa smiled with satisfaction. She took the hand of Albion’s son and pulled Albion himself up beside her, walking over to where I lay.

Covered in blood, my face swollen and bleeding, I looked up at her. For a split second, I saw hesitation flash in her eyes.

But then her chin lifted, and her voice was cold and sharp as she said, “Don’t blame me for letting them hit you. I needed to teach you a lesson. So you understand what happens when you let jealousy consume you and try to hurt others again. That way, you’ll stop dreaming of stealing the position of heir from Albion’s son again.”

My whole body shook as I looked up at her.

So it wasn’t just me who had come back from the past.

No wonder the moment Albion opened his mouth, she immediately accused me.

No wonder she said I’d done this before.

Because in our past life, she had framed me the same way, judged me guilty without trial, for Albion’s sake.

My eyes burned as tears welled up. But Luisa’s voice remained sharp. “Don’t try to play the victim, Vince. I’m not falling for it this time. I didn’t let you manipulate me into giving birth early, so your brats could snatch the title of my firstborn heir.”

I let out a bitter laugh, holding my blood-soaked side, and muttered, “Luisa, this time, I didn’t stop you from delaying the birth. I stepped aside for you and your perfect little family. So did our children. We gave up everything for you. So why? Why can’t you just let me go? Why did you still have to kill them?”

She froze. Her brows furrowed. “You crippled all of my men just now, and now you're crying over a few slaps? And what are you saying, I’m the one who won’t let go? What did I do? Tell me.”

Vince's POV

“The babies are safe in the nursery. Stop using them to manipulate me,” Luisa hissed.

Still, I begged her over and over to give them back. They needed emergency care. Every second mattered.

But she pulled her hand away in disgust, shaking me off like I was nothing.

“Drop the act,” she snapped. “As long as you behave, I won’t hurt those two little bastards. Oh, and tomorrow at the press conference, you’re going to admit publicly that you’re infertile. That you’re the one who’s useless. That’s why I had to have Toby with Albion. Then, you’ll transfer every single one of your shares and assets to him and his son. From now on, your only job is to serve them. Obediently.”

Then she threatened, “But if you try anything sneaky again, if you so much as touch a hair on that child’s head, I won’t just deal with you and your brats. Your dying father in that VIP hospital bed won’t make it, either.”

My eyes widened in disbelief. I stared at her like I was looking at a stranger.

“Luisa… has your conscience been eaten by dogs?! My father’s in a coma because he saved your life! And now you’re using his life to threaten me?”

She sighed in annoyance. “Look, as long as you do your job, take care of Albion and Toby, keep them happy, I won’t touch him.”

With that, she looped her arm through Albion’s and walked away, saying sweetly, “Albion, thank you for bringing me such a perfect heir. I need to give you a proper reward.”

Blood poured from my body as I lay there begging the guards at the press conference to please take me to a hospital. I also begged them to return my babies.

That was when my mother-in-law arrived. Her face went pale the moment she saw the blood all over the venue and me lying there with both my legs broken, soaked in red.

“Get him to the hospital now!” she screamed. “Where are my grandchildren?! If anything happens to those babies, I swear none of you will get away with it!”

Finally, they rushed me and the twins to the hospital.

But there were no doctors.

Not a single one.

My mother-in-law, furious, demanded to know where all the medical staff had gone.

The nurses hesitated, then one of them explained, clearly distressed, “Ma’am, Miss Luisa has called every doctor in the city to her villa by the river. Mr. Chavez scraped his finger while giving blood, and she was afraid it might get infected, so she ordered all doctors to stay on-site just in case. Right now, there are no doctors available anywhere in the city.”

My mother-in-law lost it. She started calling every number she could think of.

“This is insane!” she cried. “Her husband and babies are dying, and she pulls every doctor away just to fuss over a third party and some illegitimate child?!”

Ten calls later, Luisa finally picked up, irritated.

“What do you want now?” she said flatly. “Is Vince throwing a tantrum again and using you as backup?”

My mother-in-law shouted into the phone, trembling with rage, “Vince is bleeding out! He’s already passed out! And the babies’ heartbeats have stopped! If they don’t get emergency treatment right now, they’re going to die! And you—you sent every doctor away?! Do you want to kill your husband and your children?!”

Yet, Luisa only laughed coldly. “He put you up to this, didn’t he? Please. He just got slapped a few times. That’s not ‘bleeding out.’ And the babies? I saw them with my own eyes when they were sent to the nursery. They were perfectly fine. What, now they’re suddenly dying? At least try to lie believably. Whatever, I don’t have time for this. I need to take newborn photos with Albion and our son. He wants doctors? Fine. I’ll send someone.”

My mother-in-law hung up and grabbed my hand tightly. “Don’t be scared, Vince. The doctors are coming. Just hold on, okay?”

I held the babies close to my chest, feeling their life slipping away.

And in that moment, I remembered the last lifetime how my children never even opened their eyes, never made a single sound before Luisa smashed them to death with her own hands.

Shaking uncontrollably, I clutched my mother-in-law’s hand and whispered through bloodstained lips, “Mom, three years ago, my father fell into a coma saving Luisa. You promised me... you said you’d treat me like your own son. And if Luisa ever turned against me... you said you’d help me divorce her.”

Vince's POV

“I’m begging you,” I said, my voice trembling. “Please let me divorce her. I swear, I won’t stand in the way of her first love’s son becoming the heir. I just want my children to grow up safely.”

My mother-in-law was already in tears, nodding over and over. “I know… At first, we only agreed to adopt you as a godson to repay your father for saving my life. That’s all I ever promised. But it was Luisa who fell for you. She was the one who confessed. She was the one who insisted on marrying you. She loved you so much… So, how did it turn into this?”

Her voice cracked with anger. “I know it now. It’s all that bastard Albion’s fault. If he hadn’t come back out of nowhere, none of this would’ve happened.”

I let out a bitter laugh. Yeah. How did things get this twisted?

That girl, who once stood at her coming-of-age ceremony blushing and vowing to love me for life, who said if she ever betrayed me, she deserved to be torn to pieces, was now the one tearing me apart for another man.

“Please… Mom,” I whispered hoarsely, gritting each word.

Hearing the last bit of breath in my plea, my mother-in-law finally nodded.

“Alright! When you two got married, I made her sign a divorce agreement just in case things ever went south between you. I’ll go home and get it expedited right away. Tomorrow, I’ll announce publicly that your children are my only heirs. As for that ungrateful daughter of mine and that illegitimate child, I’ll cut them off completely.”

She left immediately after that to handle it all.

As such, I was left lying in a hospital bed, the pain in my body and my heart crashing down on me like a tidal wave. I couldn’t stop crying out.

Her assistant, on the other hand, stayed behind, anxiously glancing toward the door, waiting for the doctors Luisa promised to send.

Finally, someone arrived.

But it wasn’t a doctor.

It was just a delivery guy.

He froze when he saw the blood-soaked emergency room, then quickly handed over a small bag and slipped a bandage out.

“Miss Luisa said it’s just a flesh wound,” he mumbled. “Nothing life-threatening. She said to stop bothering her on her wedding night.”

The assistant’s eyes filled with rage as she threw the bag across the room.

“Sir, I’m taking you to a hospital in another city. Hold on. Please, just hang in there.”

I screamed and writhed in pain, then everything went black.

When I woke up again, a bucket of ice-cold water was splashed over my body, shocking me awake.

Standing over me was Luisa with her face twisted in disgust.

“Drop the act,” she sneered. “You know I’m announcing Albion’s son as my heir tomorrow, and yet you still ran off to another city for treatment! What, hoping everyone would think Albion’s abusing you?”

Behind her, Albion stood holding the child in his arms, putting on a show of innocence and hurt.

“Mr. Carr,” he said gently, “I know you hate me. But if you want revenge, take it out on me. Why did you have to involve Luisa's mother and try to take my child away? The assistant was yelling right before she got dragged off, said your mother-in-law went back to file papers to adopt my child and I didn’t deserve to be the heir’s father.”

I opened my mouth, but no words came out. My throat burned. All I could do was shake my head in desperation, tears in my eyes.

“I… didn’t. Luisa… please, bring the doctors back. The babies… they won’t hold on much longer…”

“You’re lying again!” she snapped, frowning impatiently. “My mom left the hospital in such a rush and she took a lawyer to work overnight. You think I don’t know you’re behind this? You think stealing Albion’s kid will magically make you the heir’s father? Aren’t your two brats already born safe and sound? What more do you want? Faking their deaths now to win sympathy? Just to fight over the heir position? You’re disgusting!”