Chapter 4

In the examination room, the doctor stared at my lab results with a deep frown.

"Your allergy levels are off the charts. You have a severe seafood allergy! Why on earth did you eat so much of it?"

"A little more, and your airway would have swollen shut. Do you not value your own life?"

I kept my eyes down, my throat too tight to utter a single word.

Ethan stood beside the bed, quietly apologizing and taking the blame upon himself.

Once the doctor left, we were the only ones left in the room.

He grabbed my wrist, his voice carrying a tired, defensive tone. "I didn't mean to force you, Chloe. But today was a special occasion. You embarrassed my parents and Hailey. You were being childish."

He sighed, trying to reason with me. "Hailey isn't a bad person. We’re going to be a family eventually, so you need to learn to tolerate her. Making a war out of this helps no one."

Hearing him protect Hailey even now, the last shred of my childhood affection for him shattered completely.

After the IV drip finished, Ethan drove me back.

The moment we stepped into the courtyard, my heart stopped.

There, piled in a messy, dirty heap in the corner of the garden, were my parents' belongings.

The picture frames were covered in dirt, and their precious ornaments were scattered everywhere.

Panic seized me. I rushed over and grabbed the housekeeper, demanding to know what was happening.

Before the housekeeper could speak, Hailey strolled out of the living room.

"I had them thrown out," she said casually.

"I’m going to be living here permanently now. Keeping a dead couple's stuff around is bad luck. The Reed family already agreed to it."

Those were the only things I had left of my parents.

With tears streaming down my face, I rushed forward to grab the photos.

Seeing this, Hailey suddenly lost her balance and fell straight back into the artificial pond.

Behind me, Ethan’s face went pale. He ran past me without a second thought, diving into the water to pull Hailey out.

She was soaking wet, shivering pitifully in his arms.

Ethan turned to glare at me, his eyes filled with absolute disgust and fury. "Just because of what happened at dinner, you decided to push her?!"

"She threw away my parents' things! I was just trying to stop her! She tripped on her own!" I cried out, my body shaking violently.

Ethan let out a bitter, mocking laugh. "Hailey is gentle. Why would she throw herself into a pond? You’re still making excuses."

He turned to the gardeners. "Burn all of it. Now."

The fire roared to life. My parents' smiling faces in the photos twisted and blackened in the flames.

It felt like my own chest was being burned alive.

Desperate, I lunged forward, trying to grab whatever photos were left.

My fingers instantly blistered from the roaring heat, the agonizing pain shooting up my arms.

But Ethan showed no mercy. He grabbed my shoulder and threw me away.

I crashed onto the hard dirt, my palm tightly clutching a half-burnt photo of my mother.

My tears mixed with the soot on the damaged paper.

Hailey, wrapped in Ethan's jacket, walked over to the fire.

Noticing the half-burnt photo in my hand, she snatched it away and threw it back into the flames.

She leaned down, her hand gently stroking her flat stomach. Her voice was quiet, but her words were poison.

"I didn't want to be this cruel, Chloe. But I'm pregnant with Ethan’s baby."

"I can't let my unborn child be surrounded by the bad luck of dead people. Getting rid of this trash is for the good of our new family."