1 When the son of her 'white moonlight'—Ethan—was kidnapped, he collapsed before me, his forehead striking the floor until blood ran red. "Leo is just a child. If you want to kill someone, take me instead." I instinctively shielded my wife's swollen eight-month belly, utterly baffled by his words. But Olivia's face darkened. "I’ve been too lenient with you, haven’t I? How could you do something like this?" Olivia, who had always doted on me, now gripped my throat with bruising force. As my vision blurred, a chilling realization dawned: they believed I had hired the kidnappers for Leo. Because the ransom wasn't delivered on time, the kidnappers mercilessly executed Leo. Ethan clutched Leo's broken body, teetering on the edge of suicide. Olivia, her eyes raw and red, brought in the top experts in bioengineering. After a sleepless month of frantic work, they finally secured Leo’s cloned cells. But Ethan's wife had died years ago. After a moment's contemplation, Olivia’s gaze fell upon my eight-month pregnant wife—the one carrying my child. I shook my head in horror, kneeling and clutching Olivia's belly. "Olivia, I sympathize with Ethan's suffering, but I swear I had nothing to do with Leo’s kidnapping. You can't do this to me!" "Alex, Ethan's wife passed away years ago. Leo was his only hope for survival. Even if you were jealous, you had no right to harm his child." "This is what you owe Leo." She completely ignored my desperate pleas, brutally forcing the premature delivery of our child. Our little Noah was full-term; he cried when they pulled him out, but they smothered him, silencing his cries forever. I never even saw the face of the child we had conceived in hope and love before Olivia turned and walked back into the operating room. Having just lost our own flesh and blood, my wife was now preparing to carry the bloodline of my supposed enemy. I stormed into the operating room, sweeping every instrument from the trays, desperate to stop them from performing the implantation surgery on Olivia. Olivia’s gaze turned to ice. "Alex, if you continue this tantrum, don’t blame me for what comes next!" Seeing that I wouldn't leave, Olivia ordered them to immediately perform a vasectomy on me. I struggled with all my might, fighting to stay awake even as they injected me with an excessive dose of anesthetic. My resistance prolonged the procedure, and with Leo's precious cells on the verge of dying, Olivia walked back in, carrying the tiny body of our child. Watching Noah, his eyes tightly closed as if asleep, my heart bled tears. Olivia’s hand clamped around Noah’s neck. "Comply now. If Leo's cells die and the surgery fails because of you, your child won't get a proper burial either." "Olivia! That's your flesh and blood too!" I screamed, my voice tearing, but my body grew heavier, more sluggish. "You're a father yourself. How could you be so cruel to Leo?" Olivia looked at me with a pained, reproachful gaze. It wasn't me. But no one believed me. My body slowly lost the strength to fight the anesthetic. Consumed by grief and injustice, I closed my eyes. When I woke again, my hands and feet were secured tightly to the hospital bed. The two fresh wounds on my lower abdomen confirmed it: not only had Noah truly left me, but I had also been stripped of my right to be a father forever. And in my wife's womb, the bloodline of my supposed enemy now thrived. I lost the will to live, biting down hard on my tongue. Olivia pushed open the door. Seeing the pristine white sheets stained crimson with the blood gushing from my mouth, she rushed forward, pinching my cheeks, forcing my mouth open. I clenched my jaw, letting out a hollow, desperate laugh as I stared at her. Her eyes burned crimson. She summoned every doctor in the hospital again. I thought she was worried about me, but after the frantic rescue, she slapped me hard across the face. "I'm warning you, you won't commit suicide to escape punishment until Leo is safely born." 2 She looked down at me. I stared at the canine tooth that had been knocked out and lay on the floor, my heart a barren wasteland. To prevent another suicide attempt, she ordered them to fit me with a bite guard. I had lost a portion of my tongue and could no longer speak clearly, though it made little difference. No one listened to me anyway. Once my tongue had fully healed, I was no longer restricted to a liquid diet. Olivia personally brought in a bowl of broth. She sat silently beside me, gently removing the bite guard with soft, careful movements, just as I had once cared for her when she was pregnant. "Alex, making your son give up his place for Leo was your punishment. As long as Leo is born healthy, Ethan won't pursue this any further." She chattered on, but I offered no response. "I forced the delivery of our child to teach you a lesson. Life isn't a game. If you admit your mistake, we can try for another baby." I couldn't hold back any longer. I twisted my head to look at her, but my gaze froze on the contents of the bowl. There, unmistakably, was our baby's placenta, prepared as a grotesque 'tonic.' I gagged, a wretched sound, and vomited. Olivia meticulously wiped the filth from the corners of my mouth with a wet wipe. The next moment, she clamped my jaw shut and forced a spoonful of the sickening mass down my throat. "Alex, this is highly nutritious. You've just had surgery; it will help your body recover." I wanted to struggle, but my hands, feet, and head were all restrained. I could only endure as the boiled, mangled substance slid down my throat. Seeing that I had swallowed it all, Olivia released her grip. "Ethan's mental state is still fragile. I'm taking him abroad to clear his head. During this time, you're to stay home, diligently praying and meditating for Leo, and don't cause any more trouble." "If you behave, I'll find a good resting place for Noah. But if Leo complains to Ethan in a dream that you haven't prayed enough, you won't get Noah's complete ashes back." "Wasn't Noah your child too?" I managed to ask, the salty tears streaming down my face, more bitter than any sorrow in my heart. Her footsteps paused, but she didn't turn back. "With a father like you, he would have been a curse even if he had lived." The door closed. The last ember of feeling I held for Olivia extinguished then. Her departure lasted nine long months. During those nine months, I spent every day praying and meditating for Leo, fasting and becoming a shadow of a man. He seemed to sense my hatred. With every word I uttered, my head throbbed as if caught in an iron vise. Migraines relentlessly pounded through me every single day for nine months. I rapidly withered, my body gaunt, my eyes bulging, eerily prominent. Olivia called daily, not to check on me, but to supervise my unwavering devotion to Leo's spiritual journey. Ethan even leaned into the phone, pressing his ear to Olivia's swollen belly, talking to Leo from across the video call. To ensure I couldn't escape my duty, my hands and feet were shackled to Leo's makeshift memorial for nine months. The wounds from my struggles had long since fused with the shackles, but no one cared, as long as the candles and incense for Leo's memorial never dwindled. In the month leading up to the delivery, Olivia and Ethan finally returned from abroad, their reluctance palpable. "Why are you so thin?" That was the first thing Olivia said to me after nine months. 3 "So weak, you didn't let Leo's memorial rituals falter, did you?" Seeing the thick layer of ash beneath Leo's incense burner, Olivia nodded in satisfaction. "Once Leo is born, I'll make sure you get good care to recover." "Leo, Daddy finally gets to see you again. This time, I'll never leave your side, I swear you'll never be harmed again." Ethan looked at Olivia's heavily pregnant belly with a gaze full of fatherly love. "Olivia, could you leave me alone with Leo's memorial for a moment?" Olivia immediately looked at me with suspicion. After confirming that I, in my near-dead state, posed no threat to Ethan, Olivia left the memorial room, glancing back constantly. Ethan's gentle expression vanished instantly. "Leo's death? I orchestrated the whole thing myself." His eyes were fixed on me, a smile playing on his lips, utterly devoid of warmth. "Do you know why I did it?" Ethan leaned in close, his nose almost touching mine. He carried the subtle, woody scent of Olivia's perfume, the very one I had personally chosen for her before she conceived Noah. My eyes held a blank indifference; I offered no response. "Five years ago, Mr. Caldwell, to break up Olivia and me, didn't hesitate to orchestrate a cruel deception, having someone pose as my wife and seize everything I had, forcing me out of the country. Olivia had promised me she'd never marry another. But when I finally managed to escape Mr. Caldwell's influence abroad and rushed back to find Olivia, I learned she had married you a year ago!" Ethan's expression turned vicious. "I suffered so much abroad, yet she never once tried to contact me. I thought Mr. Caldwell was controlling her, but then I found out she'd completely forgotten about me!" "I had Olivia first! What right did you have to steal her?" "And I thought you were some scion of an esteemed lineage, someone who could match Olivia's status. Turns out, you're just an orphan, a nobody compared to me!" Ethan grew more agitated with each word, then slammed a fist into my face. A metallic tang of blood filled my mouth. I spat the blood directly onto his face. He seemed unable to comprehend that I would dare do such a thing. He furiously wiped his face, his expression even more distorted with the blood smears. "To win back a worthless woman, would you truly sacrifice your own flesh and blood?" He froze. Then, he laughed. "A worthless life with no name, what good is it alive?" "Since it's useless, why not gamble with it?" "I only meant to use him to get rid of you and the bastard in her womb. But who knew Olivia cared so much about me? She even found a way to resurrect Leo with cloning technology! I never imagined she'd go to such lengths for us, father and son." "The 'worthless woman' you speak of wields power enough to bring the dead back to life. Do you still think I was wrong to gamble my own flesh and blood to win her back?" "If you had cooperated back then, Olivia might have even kept some of your child's hair or fingernails. Too bad she rushed to cremate every last trace of him~" Mentioning Noah stirred an uncontrollable surge of emotion within me. I snarled, wanting to lunge and bite Ethan. He laughed, taking a large step back, but a high-pitched shriek, incompatible with his smirk, escaped his throat. "Ethan!" Outside the door, Olivia's frantic footsteps grew closer. Ethan, without hesitation, bit hard into his own palm. My breathing quickened. With a crash, Olivia kicked open the door and burst in. 4 Ethan had successfully bitten his right hand until it bled profusely, then replaced his pained expression with one of tearful sorrow. However, Olivia's anxious gaze only lingered on his wounded hand for a fleeting moment. She stood frozen, then suddenly crumpled, sobbing, to the floor. Ethan’s shriek had startled her, triggering premature contractions. Olivia’s water broke. She had no time to mediate Ethan's grievance. Even so, Ethan's face contorted with a venomous expression. This terrifying man, who even envied his own son. Olivia swiftly summoned the most skilled obstetricians, but upon seeing the injury on Ethan's hand, she coldly commanded: "Perform a C-section. And while I'm in surgery, castrate Alex too. Don't give him any anesthetic. Let him watch his testicles being removed, fully conscious!" "My apologies, Mr. Caldwell." After seeing Ethan escort Olivia away, the doctor put on his gloves, speaking softly and sympathetically to me: "Don't blame me. I'll make it as quick as possible, to spare you some suffering." The moment the cold scalpel sliced into my skin, my soul vibrated with pain. I learned then that a human could be butchered like a piece of dead meat, stripped of all dignity. I screamed until my throat bled, losing consciousness several times. To keep me awake, the doctors had to inject me with adrenaline. By the end, I had completely lost all sense of self, forgetting I was even human. Leo's first cries were like a pardon for me. The moment I heard Olivia had delivered, the male doctor on the surgical team quickly injected me with a painkiller. "Mr. Caldwell, it's all over. Get some rest." As I closed my eyes, the agony throughout my body vanished instantly. I thought it was just the painkiller working. My body grew lighter, relaxing completely, but then I found myself floating uncontrollably. When I opened my eyes again and saw myself from a bird's-eye view, looking down at my mutilated self on the operating table, I realized I was already dead. If the entire operating room hadn't been empty except for me, I wouldn't have believed the person on the table was myself. After losing Noah, I hadn't looked in a mirror. My once-muscular physique was gone. Skeletal limbs, wrists, and ankles bore permanent scars where my struggles had caused the long-term shackles to fuse with and then tear my skin. I gazed for a long time at my shattered, unrecognizable form. The operating room door opened. It was Olivia. Even in death, my soul trembled uncontrollably. What was she doing here? Did she think the punishment she’d inflicted wasn't enough? If she discovered I was dead, would she grieve, or would she resent me for dying too soon, for not suffering enough to atone for Leo? She cradled her waist, carrying in a basin and a kettle of boiling water. Did she think I was sleeping instead of serving her after childbirth, and planned to scald me awake? She poured in the boiling water, then added cold, repeatedly testing the temperature with her hand. I began to feel confused. Apparently satisfied with the temperature, Olivia took out a soft towel, soaked it in the basin, then wrung out the water. She lifted one of my arms and meticulously began to wipe it with the towel. Olivia was washing my body. I let out a disbelieving, hollow laugh. After tormenting me to death over a crime she'd wrongly pinned on me, was she now staging some tender act? I couldn't wait to see the expression on Olivia's face when she realized I was truly dead. To my shock, the next moment, my corpse opened its eyes.
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