At eight months pregnant, my husband forced me to care for his childhood sweetheart, Serena, after her miscarriage. When she “accidentally” spilled hot soup on herself and blamed me, he had his men tie me up and shove me into an industrial steamer. “How dare you use our child as a shield to hurt Serena?” he snarled. “You’ll learn a lesson you won’t forget.” I begged him to think of our baby, promising never to compete with Serena again. He sneered. “A little stress makes a stronger child. And don’t worry—I won’t divorce you. I’ll just make you repay Serena’s pain a thousandfold.” He cranked the heat to maximum. The terror sent me into labor. My baby cried inside the steamer, but he thought it was a trick. “Lock it,” he ordered. “No one opens this without my command.” That evening, spoon-feeding Serena, he frowned. “Hasn’t Autumn learned? Who’ll cook for you if she keeps this up?” To his men: “Tell her I’ll spare her—if she kneels, apologizes, and cooks a week’s meals.” The staff exchanged glances. No one spoke. 1 “Mr. Astor… your wife… I don’t think she’s holding on. She hasn't made a sound for over an hour. We’ve been calling to her, but there’s no response.” “What are you afraid of?” Matthew said dismissively. “I know her better than any of you. She’s a master of theatrics. She knows the baby trick didn’t work, so now she’s playing dead. She won’t learn unless she’s suffered properly. Then she’ll think twice before hurting my Serena again.” The subordinate wiped sweat from his brow, his face pale. “But, sir… we really did hear a baby crying earlier. It only lasted for a few seconds.” “A recording, obviously.” Matthew waved his hand, cutting off any further argument. “Look, it’s a smart appliance. It has an automatic shutoff. It’s designed to detect a person inside and power down. She’s just being stuffy for a bit. She’s not that fragile.” The man fell silent, retreating with a haunted look in his eyes. Matthew had dinner brought up to the master bedroom. There, in our room, Serena was lounging on our bed, wearing my pajamas, smiling sweetly at her phone. “What’s so amusing, Serena?” Matthew’s mood lifted seeing her smile. He sat beside her, tilting her chin up to feed her a mouthful of chicken soup. “You need to get your strength back. That’s all that matters to me.” Serena’s smile faltered for a second before she threw herself into his arms, tears welling up. “My friends… they saw how you treated me and told me to leave you. But then I remember how good you used to be to me, and I just can’t… That’s why I was smiling like an idiot.” Her voice broke with a sob. “Matthew, it’s all my fault. I couldn’t control my feelings for you. That night… when you were drugged… I just wanted to give myself to you, then leave quietly with our baby, never bothering you again, but…” She choked back a sob. “But I lost the baby. If I lose you too, I don’t think I can go on.” She buried her face in his chest. “I know I’m being selfish. I’ll accept any punishment Autumn wants to give me. This little burn is nothing. She could stab me with a knife, and I’d let her! Just please… don’t make me leave you.” Matthew’s heart shattered. He held her tight, gently blowing on the tiny, nail-sized red mark on her thigh. “Serena, you’re too kind. It’s because you love me so much, so humbly, that a venomous shrew like Autumn dares to treat you this way. You have no idea how it broke my heart to see you cry.” He stroked her hair. “You’ve given me everything. You’ve saved me time and time again. You are my savior and my love. I won’t let anyone hurt you. Not even my own wife, carrying my child. She doesn’t have the right to lay a single finger on you.” A flicker of something unreadable crossed Serena’s face. Then, blushing, she squirmed. “Matthew… actually, the burn… it’s not just here. There are other places… I was too embarrassed to let the doctor see.” Desire flared in Matthew’s eyes. He pushed her back onto the bed. “Then let me be your doctor. Let me see just how red my Serena is…” And so, Serena, wearing the matching silk pajamas Matthew had designed for me as a wedding gift, made love to my husband on the bedsheets I had so carefully chosen. At the peak of their passion, Matthew grabbed her leg, and her flailing foot knocked over the picture frame on my bedside table. It was a photo a stranger had taken of us right after we’d signed our marriage license, a snapshot of our happiness. Now, the shattered glass split our faces apart. A broken mirror can’t be made whole. How foolish I’d been to fantasize, just a few months ago, that the birth of our child might bring him back to me. There was no chance of that now. Because I was already dead. It turns out, even ghosts can feel their hearts break. I listened to Serena coo about giving him another baby, and a fresh wave of agony washed over my spectral form. Matthew had been right about one thing. In that crucible of pain, my labor was terrifyingly fast. I had wished for the baby to stay inside me just a little longer, just a moment more, so I could absorb the searing heat for him, to buy him a chance at life. But my son was too good, too compliant. He was born in minutes. With my last ounce of strength, I managed to push the lid of the steamer open a crack. I begged the guards outside. “My baby is born! He’s not crying, he’s barely breathing! Please, have mercy, just get my baby out of here! Take him to a hospital!” They stared at me in horror, their hands moving toward the off switch. But then, Serena’s voice drifted from outside the cafeteria doors. “Matthew, how could she use the baby’s life to manipulate you like that? Does she have any idea her morbid words could become a self-fulfilling prophecy?” Her voice rose in pitch. “She’s so lucky, getting pregnant with your child, carrying it to term… and she doesn’t appreciate it at all. She’s cursing her own baby.” She sobbed into his chest. “She knows how desperately I wanted a child. Is she saying this just to hurt me? To rub salt in my wounds?” Seeing Serena fall apart in his arms, Matthew’s fury reignited. “It seems my punishment wasn’t severe enough! You still have the strength to use our child to torment Serena!” “Get me that iron chain! Lock it down! Make sure she can’t scream another word!” His men hesitated. Enraged, Matthew snatched the chain himself and wound it tightly around the steamer, sealing it shut. For a fleeting moment, he thought he heard the faint, kitten-like cry of an infant from within. He paused, a flicker of doubt in his eyes. But then Serena whispered, “Autumn was always so good at impressions. It reminds me… that night was supposed to be our first time, Matthew. But the next day, she put on a fake voice, pretended to be me, and tricked you into thinking it was her…” Matthew’s face contorted with a disgust so profound it was almost inhuman. “All of you, get out,” he commanded. “Get out before that bitch tricks you into letting her go.” “When Serena’s leg stops hurting, I’ll let her out myself.” He chased all the employees away, leaving me to my screams inside the scalding metal coffin, and locked the cafeteria doors behind him. My baby… he only cried for a few moments. Then, in my arms, his tiny body slowly grew stiff, his skin losing its warmth. I wept until I had no voice left. My body began to break down, my flesh dissolving in the steam and water. At that very moment, Matthew, wanting to make up for the six months Serena had been pregnant and alone, decided to propose. Even without a marriage certificate, he would give her the honor of being his wife. While my body was turning into an unrecognizable slurry, he bought out the top ten trending spots on social media and rented digital billboards in every major city, all of them scrolling his vows of eternal love for Serena. As I took my last breath, he was in a helicopter, showering an entire city with rose petals, descending from the sky to propose to her in a live-streamed spectacle for millions to see. And now, as a ghost, I watched them spend their wedding night in my former bed. Matthew held her tenderly. “I’m sorry, Serena. Autumn tricked me. She claimed she was the one who saved me that night I was drugged. I only married her out of a sense of responsibility. But we are married, and I couldn't just divorce her and be the kind of man who abandons his duty.” He kissed her forehead. “But don’t worry. She owes you too much. After this, she’ll have learned her lesson. She’ll be docile. She won’t interfere with our life anymore. You just focus on getting better and having our baby. The three of us, plus Autumn and her child… the five of us can live together happily.” A flash of disbelief crossed Serena’s eyes. “What?” “Don’t worry,” he soothed. “Even though she’s my wife, in public, I’m yours. Just think of her as a live-in nanny to cook and clean, and our child will have a playmate.” Hearing this, a look of venomous cunning crossed Serena’s face. She forced a smile. “Okay. Whatever you say. I’ll try to get along with her.” I could only laugh. A bitter, soundless laugh. Even now, he wouldn’t let me go. He actually believed I would tolerate his affair, that I would debase myself to become their maid. I took a deep, spectral breath, watching my invisible tears fall. I knew why he was so certain. I knew why he thought he could hurt me this badly and I would never leave. Because for so long, I had endured everything in silence. A month ago, Matthew’s first love, Serena, had suddenly collapsed on our doorstep. I rushed her to the hospital. But when she woke up, she clung to Matthew, weeping, accusing me of pushing her down the stairs and causing her to miscarry. I tried to explain, to tell him I had only found her and brought her here. Matthew just stared at me with cold, dead eyes. When he wouldn’t listen, I pulled out her medical records to show him—the miscarriage had happened before I even found her. But the moment Serena started crying again, he slapped me so hard I fell to the floor. “Enough! You’ve gone too far! Serena has already forgiven you, why can’t you just admit what you did?!” He had his bodyguards take me home and lock me in my room to “reflect on my actions.” I was naive. I thought if I just waited, his anger would cool, and he would listen to reason. But after two weeks of confinement, the next time I saw him, he looked at me with the pure, unadulterated hatred one reserves for an enemy. At the time, I didn't understand why. I clung to the hope that once our baby was born, he would change his mind. Now, I finally understood. It was all because of what happened a year ago. A year ago, Matthew’s company was on the brink of collapse. And at that exact moment, Serena had cleaned out his accounts and vanished without a word. Devastated by the double blow, Matthew had become a recluse, locking himself in his room. Frantic, I did everything I could. I chased down leads, took clients out, got blackout drunk night after night until I finally landed a deal big enough to save the company. I burst into his house, got on my knees, and begged him to remember the brilliant, ambitious man he used to be, to give himself one more chance. He was moved. He came with me. We closed the deal. But that night, the client’s mistress took a liking to Matthew. She drugged his drink, planning a one-night stand. I was terrified the client would find out and cancel the deal, but my heart broke seeing Matthew writhing in agony. I lied, claiming we were a couple, and got us a room. He was delirious, pulling me onto the bed with him. We spent the night together. When I woke up, I panicked. I was afraid he wouldn’t be able to handle his business partner becoming his bed partner. Afraid he would push me away. So, I ran. Three months later, I found out I was pregnant. Shyly, nervously, I confessed everything to him. He looked at me with a complicated expression, silent for so long I was sure he was going to reject me. Then, he let out a long breath and, with a small smile, pulled me into his arms. “Autumn,” he’d said. “Maybe you’re the angel heaven sent to save me, to help me start a new life.” I cried and I laughed. Laughed and cried. Crying for how pathetic I was. Laughing at how tragic it all was. And that night, during my two weeks of confinement, had been twisted by Serena into this monstrous lie. She claimed she was the one who had slept with him, then left with his child, and that I was the wicked usurper, passing off a bastard as his. No wonder he looked at me with such revulsion.
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