Eight years married, twelve pregnancies, twelve heartbreaks. Each time, a mysterious miscarriage stole my babies away. Everyone whispered it was my fault, that my wild youth had ruined my body. I endured countless IVF treatments, swallowed mountains of pills. But no matter what, I could never hold onto a pregnancy. I couldn’t bear to see Liam so tormented. Tears blurring my vision, I nodded, agreeing to let his childhood sweetheart, Chloe, bear him a child. Chloe became pregnant, and the baby was perfectly healthy. He wrapped me in a tight embrace, his face alight with pure joy. “Now you won’t have to go through the pain of IVF anymore. This child, once born, will be the sole heir to the Davies fortune.” I truly believed the storm had passed, that we could finally settle into a loving, peaceful marriage. But then, I stumbled upon a conversation between Liam and Chloe that shattered my world. “I knew your heart was always mine. I told you, I made Avery believe it was her fault, by putting miscarriage-inducing drugs in her food.” Liam gently stroked her belly, a soft smile gracing his lips. “She’s so unbelievably stupid. She believes anything I tell her. If it wasn’t for making her get the hint and divorce me willingly, I wouldn’t have even bothered with the drugs. Once our baby is here, everything in the Davies family will be ours. And his parents? They won’t be able to do a damn thing.” I thought about the endless IVF cycles, the infections, the internal damage to my body, and a wave of ice-cold horror washed over me. Eight years of marriage. It was all a lie. And it was finally time for it to end.
My fists clenched, my eyes burning red, my whole body shaking with pure rage. The sounds from the room continued, sweet whispers turning into fervent kisses. “Liam, my love, I remember everything you’ve done for me. You’ve worked so hard. Let me show you my gratitude.” “Stop, darling, you’re pregnant.” The tenderness Liam showed her, a tenderness he had *never* shown me, made my entire body ache, numb with pain. For eight years, he’d often held me, comforting me about our lost children, making me feel eternally guilty. He had suggested, with feigned anguish, that Chloe help us have a child. I couldn’t bear to see him suffer, so I agreed. I never, *never* imagined that the twelve children in my womb had been murdered by his own hands, all so he could be with Chloe. I turned and walked away, immediately sending the video I’d just recorded to his mother, Mrs. Davies. Mrs. Davies arrived quickly. The sounds from the room hadn’t stopped. As she listened, her face turned a terrifying shade of dark. I wanted to stop her, but she kicked the door open, ignoring everything else. Liam and Chloe gasped in shock, scrambling to pull the covers over their naked bodies. “Mom? What are you doing here?” Mrs. Davies landed a resounding slap across Liam’s face. The sickeningly sweet scent of their betrayal still hung in the air. I stopped at the doorway, mortified. Mrs. Davies’ shoulders heaved with fury. She pulled out her phone and played the video I’d sent her. “You animal! Those were your own flesh and blood! How could you do such a thing?” Liam finally realized what was happening, his face contorting with anger. He glared at me, his eyes burning with hatred, his jaw clenched tight. “You disgust me, Avery! How dare you tattle on me?” My heart turned to ice. I just stared at him, utterly heartbroken. He seemed to realize there was no point in pretending anymore. He gently stroked Chloe’s belly, then tossed a vasectomy report onto the bed. “Mom, you want a grandchild, right? The baby in Chloe’s belly will be the only child I’ll ever have. I’ve had a vasectomy. I can’t have any other children.” Mrs. Davies looked utterly shattered, her face drained of color. She swayed, almost collapsing, but I managed to catch her just in time. The report clearly stated that Liam’s vasectomy was permanent, with no possibility of reversal. Chloe, tears welling in her eyes, nestled gratefully into Liam’s embrace. She met Mrs. Davies’ gaze, her expression defiant. “Auntie, you forced me away once. But now, I’m carrying the only Davies heir. Do you really want to send me away again, and let your family line die out?” Mrs. Davies’ face flushed with anger, then slowly softened. She looked at me, a flicker of guilt in her eyes. “Avery, this is the Davies family’s *only* child. Be the bigger person, darling. Don’t fight them on this. The Davies family has wronged you, I know, but I promise you, the Lady Davies title will always be yours.” My face went deathly pale. I instantly understood her true intention. She wanted me to swallow my pain, to endure it until the baby was born. Before I could even respond, Liam’s voice cut in, full of resentment. “Mom, I don’t understand why you’re so against Chloe and me being together. Is it just her family background? Avery is nothing but a down-on-her-luck heiress herself. If I stayed with her, imagine how many people in this city would mock me for marrying into a bankrupt family?” He looked at me with utter contempt, the disgust in his eyes a sharp stab to my heart. He gritted his teeth. “Avery, even if you *pretend* to be the bigger person, I will *never* love you.”
Mrs. Davies dragged me away, practically by force. Behind us, Liam’s furious accusations still echoed, but Mrs. Davies held herself upright, refusing to collapse. Her trembling hand clasped mine. “Avery, Liam is the only heir left in our family. Chloe’s baby simply *cannot* be harmed. For my sake, please, just let it go.” My heart felt like it was being squeezed in a vice, a desolate pain settling over me. Liam and I weren’t just a business arrangement; we were childhood sweethearts. He was the one who chased me as a child, insisting he’d marry me someday, setting this whole engagement in stone. “What about my twelve lost children? Am I just supposed to pretend they never existed?” “Let bygones be bygones. We need to focus on the future. As a woman, you have to be more understanding.” Mrs. Davies’ tone grew impatient, as if I was being utterly unreasonable. The light in my eyes slowly faded. After the truth came out, Liam dropped all pretense and spent his days at the office. I couldn’t care less about seeing him. Since we still worked at the same company, bumping into Liam and Chloe was an everyday occurrence. Chloe suffered from severe morning sickness, but Liam didn’t have her stay home to rest. Instead, he made her his personal assistant at the office. Naturally, the whispers among the staff began. “Look at how careful Mr. Davies is with her. That baby the assistant’s carrying has got to be his, right?” “But I heard Mr. Davies and his wife were so in love?” Someone scoffed, cutting in. “In love? Please. Mrs. Davies went through IVF a dozen times and couldn’t keep a baby. Rumor has it her uterus was ruined from all her past wild partying. Look at Mr. Davies – one try with someone else, and the baby’s perfectly healthy.” Before the words even finished, everyone’s gazes flickered to me, filled with blatant contempt and mockery. I ignored them, walking straight into my office. “Ms. Shaw, your assets are deeply intertwined with Mr. Davies’. It’s very difficult to separate them without his signature. You’ll need to discuss this thoroughly with Mr. Davies.” I sighed, a wave of helplessness washing over me. Liam would never agree to this easily. I wanted to sort out the assets first before filing for divorce, just to avoid any further complications. “So, all I need is his signature?” “Sign what?” Liam pushed the door open, his entrance perfectly timed to my phone call. Before I could answer, his eyes landed on the contract on my desk, and he frowned, displeased. “You want to split our assets? Typical. Always putting profit first, terrified of losing a single thing.” I met his gaze, my expression chillingly calm, a faint smile playing on my lips. I softly called his name: “Liam.” My voice was so cold, it made him visibly flinch. He just stared at me, dumbfounded. “What do you *think* I should do? Hand over everything I own to my husband and the child he had with another woman? Do you honestly think I’m that stupid? Don’t forget, you’re the one who murdered my children. I haven’t sought revenge. You should count yourself lucky.” He had never seen me look at him with such intense hatred, as if I wanted to sever every last tie. His face darkened considerably. He stood there, forcing himself upright, his eyes sweeping over the contract on the desk. He let out a series of cold, hollow laughs. “Fine. If you want to cut ties, I’ll grant your wish. I don’t care about your paltry assets anyway. Just don’t come crying to me later.” Liam signed the contract, then flung it right at my face. He sneered, a superior smirk on his face. “What’s the point of just signing a property division agreement? If you’re so brave, divorce me outright! Deep down, you just want to use our marriage to control me. You don’t actually want a divorce.” He wore an expression that suggested he knew me inside out, then scoffed and turned to leave. I gave a self-deprecating smile, bending down to pick up the contract before handing it to my lawyer. “I’ve sent all the divorce-related details to your email. You can handle it from here.”
The moment Mrs. Davies found out Liam and I were estranged, she called me. Her voice, when she spoke, was laced with accusation: “Avery, what is going on with you? I hear you’ve moved out? How can a wife abandon her husband like that? Liam made a mistake, yes, but he’s learned his lesson. Chloe’s baby will be your child too, someday. You need to show some care. It’s done, Avery. Can’t you just be the bigger person?” Mrs. Davies didn’t give me a chance to speak, her accusations tumbling out one after another. She had no idea I’d already decided to divorce Liam. Whatever happened to Liam and Chloe, it had nothing to do with me anymore. Before anything else, I needed to go back to the family estate, to the old graveyard. I wanted to visit my twelve lost children. They were still buried in the Davies family plot. When I arrived home, I could hear Liam’s triumphant sneer from a distance. “Oh, look who decided to come back. I thought you’d be out running wild forever.” Chloe nestled into his arms, then leaned in provocatively and kissed the corner of his mouth. She raised an eyebrow at me. “Liam, darling, don’t blame Avery. She just doesn’t like me, that’s all, right? If she’s constantly around us, I’d worry about it affecting our baby.” I scoffed, ignoring them both, and headed towards the back hill of the estate. I had erected a tombstone for each of my twelve lost children, burying them in the Davies family graveyard. One after another, the cold, stark tombstones lined up before me. My eyes burned, and tears freely streamed down my face. If I hadn’t walked in on Liam and Chloe, I would have remained completely oblivious to the truth. After burning some offerings for my children – a tradition I’d maintained – I went back inside, packed the things I’d prepared for my unborn babies into a suitcase, and headed out. Liam saw me and, displeasure etched on his face, strode over to block my path. “Where are you going now?” He snatched my suitcase impatiently, opened it, and frowned. “Aren’t these things for *our* child? They’ll be perfect for Chloe’s baby. After all, it’s still *my* child. The agony of childbirth – you don’t have to suffer it now. Chloe’s doing it for you. Shouldn’t you be grateful? We’re not even asking you to thank her. Why the long face all the time? Who are you trying to impress?” Liam’s accusations rained down on me, one after another. Each word was a knife, twisting deeper into my heart. I looked up at him. “They were my flesh and blood! I yearned for them, dreamt of them coming into this world, giving them names, watching them grow. But in the end, they never even got a chance to live, their lives snuffed out by their own father. Now, there’s nothing but cold, desolate tombstones. You never even bothered to see them once! Just because they weren’t carried by someone you *loved*, does that make you so heartless, so cruel? Liam Davies, when you lie awake at night, don’t you ever worry that our children will come back to haunt you, demanding retribution?” My frenzied outburst clearly terrified Liam. His face went ashen, and he stumbled back, step after step. Finally, a faint flicker of guilt crossed his features. Seeing this, Chloe stepped forward, cradling her swollen belly, shielding Liam. She pointed an accusing finger at me, indignant. “It’s your own weak body that couldn’t hold onto those babies! What does that have to do with us? Besides, Liam never liked you from the start. He certainly wouldn’t have liked your babies. *Our* child is the crystallization of true love. Yours were nothing. Why should Liam feel sad for a bunch of embryos? They died in your womb. They deserved it.” I snapped. My hand shot out, delivering a stinging slap across her face. Chloe was stunned. Liam immediately stepped in front of her to shield her. I kicked him away, grabbed his shirt collar, and slapped him, hard, again and again. But the pain of my palms striking his face was nothing compared to the agony in my heart. I roared, “How dare your ‘true love’ be built on *my* suffering? If you didn’t want me to have those children, you could have just said so! Why did you have to murder them in secret? Your hands are stained with their blood! Both of you murdered them!” Liam was so startled, he forgot to fight back for a moment. Chloe reached out, clawing at my arm, trying to pull me away. But reason had abandoned me. All I wanted was for the people who’d destroyed my children to feel a fraction of my pain. I violently shook Chloe’s hand off, just as I was about to unleash more. Then, a pained shriek erupted from behind me. I froze, turning to look. Liam had shoved me, hard, sending me sprawling onto the floor. Chloe was curled on the ground, trembling with agony. Her white dress was rapidly blooming with scarlet. “Help! My baby! Someone, please, help my baby!”
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