Vince Holt and I were Manhattan royalty—and sworn rivals. I loved his brother Elias; he obsessed over my sister Isabelle. Everything changed the night a deranged woman held a blade to my throat, screaming I was her rape-conceived bastard child. As Elias coldly declared, "Let the psycho’s daughter die," Vince grabbed the blade bare-handed. "If my brother won’t have you, I will." We married. After nearly dying birthing twins, I believed his tears when he vowed to get a vasectomy. Then our children vanished on their fourth birthday. Found bloodless, their tiny bodies drained. Elias’s shout outside my hospital room revealed the truth: "You drained your own children in one go?!" Vince’s reply froze my soul: "Isabelle needed the blood. We can always make more." Fine. They’d get exactly what they deserved. 1 "Vince, you knew how much Stella loved Leo and Lily. Yesterday was their fourth birthday!" "I didn't want to do it! But who knew Isabelle would have a relapse yesterday?" "Elias, you know her rare blood disorder can only be managed with blood from a direct relative. The twins were a perfect match. I've been taking them for small donations every year, storing it for her. This time... I was desperate. I panicked and took it all!" Vince’s voice cracked, a frantic edge creeping in. I bit down on my own knuckle, hard enough to draw blood, swallowing the metallic tang in my throat. So this was the truth. The two souls I had nearly died to create were just medicine bags for the woman he truly loved. But it didn't make sense. The night the children disappeared, Vince had been a portrait of frantic despair. He’d raced to their preschool to pull the security footage himself, deploying his security team to search every inch of the neighborhood. And the next morning, when the police knocked on our door with the two small, colorless bodies, he had shattered every piece of porcelain in the living room, his roars for the killer's head echoing through the house. Outside my room, Elias pulled out a cigarette, then remembered he was in a hospital and shoved it back in its pack. He rubbed his forehead, a picture of weary frustration. "Vince, Stella was never the favorite in her family. You orchestrated that whole 'hero saves the day' scene, releasing her birth mother from the asylum just to play the savior and trick her into marrying you. Turning your marriage into a chess game is one thing, but to leave her without her children… that’s a new level of cruel, even for you." My blood turned to ice in my veins. A cold numbness crept up my scalp. Twenty years of bickering and fighting, followed by four years of what I thought was a deeply devoted marriage. I never imagined he was capable of such monstrous evil. Vince let out a cold snort. "That's because you were too soft, Elias. You could never bring yourself to properly reject her, which made Isabelle feel insecure. She had no choice but to turn to me for help." The moment he mentioned Isabelle, his tone softened, transforming into something tender, almost reverent, like a zealot speaking of his god. "I would do anything to ensure Isabelle's happiness." The blood-soaked truth lay bare before me. I clutched the bedsheets, leaning over the side of the bed and gagging, my stomach heaving with violent, empty retches. On our wedding night, I had asked him when he first fell in love with me. He’d flicked my forehead gently, a look of fond exasperation on his face. "You idiot," he'd said. "In all of Manhattan, out of all the people I could have tormented, why do you think it was always you?" I had blushed, convinced my own heart had been too slow to see the truth. I’d completely missed the flicker of mockery deep in his eyes. Elias was silent for a moment before sighing. "But Stella is stubborn. I'm afraid she'll dig until she finds the truth." "I've already arranged for a scapegoat. Don't worry about it, brother," Vince said, his voice regaining its confidence. "Besides, Stella is in love with me now. She would never suspect me." He paused. "We'll have more children. And I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to her." Elias clapped him on the shoulder, a note of approval in his voice. "Well said. The men of the Holt family don't do divorce. Only death. And I will only ever have one wife: Isabelle." 2 When Vince pushed open the door to my room, I fought back the wave of nausea and revulsion, pretending I had just woken up. "Stella, my love. They found the killer," he said, his voice soft. "A repeat child abuser. I swear to you, I will make him pay." He opened a thermos and poured a bowl of steaming chicken soup. After gently blowing on the spoon to cool it, he brought it to my lips, coaxing me to drink as if I were a fragile doll. "Darling, I've already scheduled the vasectomy reversal. As soon as you're strong again, we can try for another baby." "Stella, you have to let go. We have to look forward. Our life together is still long." I grabbed his sleeve, my knuckles white. I wanted to scream, to tear him apart, but before any words could form, the tears began to flow, hot and silent. "Don't cry, my love," he whispered, his own eyes welling up as he brushed the tears from my cheeks. "Please, don't cry. You're breaking my heart." Suddenly, as if struck by an idea, he gripped my hand, his tone urgent. "Stella, let's… let's lay Leo and Lily to rest today. It will help you find closure, help you move on." I stared at him, my whole body trembling. "No," I croaked. "It's too soon. There are arrangements to make. We can't just… bury them today." "I know, but I can't stand seeing you in so much pain. I thought it would help." Before he could say more, I threw back the covers and ran from the room. "Stella! You don't have any shoes on!" I fled the hospital and hailed the first cab I saw. "The Crestwood Manor, and hurry!" As soon as the car stopped, I used the facial recognition scanner and burst into the villa. When the police had brought our children home, I had fainted on the spot. Vince, busy rushing me to the hospital, had no choice but to leave them in the nursery. I pushed open the door. There they were, Leo and Lily, lying so still they looked like they were only sleeping. My hand trembled as I reached out to touch their cold, waxy faces. The tears I had been holding back finally broke free. "It's mommy's fault," I sobbed. "Mommy married a monster." I was about to call the funeral home to have them moved to a morgue when a flicker of movement caught my eye. Lily’s tiny finger had twitched. My heart hammered against my ribs. I pressed my ear to her chest, holding my breath. After what felt like an eternity, I heard it. A faint, fluttering heartbeat. I immediately dialed the emergency line. "I need an ambulance!" By the time Vince arrived at the children's hospital, Lily was already in the ICU, surrounded by a team of doctors fighting for her life. His face was a mask of shock and guilt. "She's alive? Lily's alive? Oh, God, it's all my fault! I should have checked, I should have known! I swear, Stella, I will protect you and our daughter with my life!" I ignored him, my eyes glued to the closed doors of the ICU, a barrier between life and death. For two days and two nights, I didn't sleep, didn't even blink. Finally, a doctor emerged. The news was a fragile, double-edged sword. Lily was out of immediate danger. His expression was grave. "Your daughter suffered massive blood loss. She'll likely need medication for the rest of her life." But I was already crying with relief. "As long as she's alive, that's all that matters." For the next week, I never left Lily's bedside. Isabelle showed up one day, Vince at her side, carrying a container of food. I immediately handed it to a nurse and told her to have it tested for toxins. Isabelle’s eyes filled with tears. "You think I'd poison the food? Stella, how could you? I'm your sister. Lily is my niece." Vince looked at me, his face etched with pain. "Stella, you've lost your mind." On the seventh day, Lily finally woke up. I shot up from my chair, my hand reaching for the call button to summon the doctor. But her small fingers wrapped around mine, stopping me. I looked down. Lily swallowed, her eyes wide with a child's simple desire. "Mommy," she whispered, "I want a candy apple." "Oh, sweetie, you're still too weak. You can't have snacks right now." Her little eyelashes fluttered. "But Mommy... it hurts." My heart broke. "Okay, baby. Okay. Mommy will go get you one right now. You stay right here and be a good girl, don't move, okay?" She nodded, her voice small and sweet. "I'll be good." I called a nurse and made her promise not to take her eyes off Lily for a second, then ran out of the hospital. I was back in less than ten minutes, a giant, glittering candy apple in my hand. But as I reached her room, the doctor blocked the doorway. His face was a grim mask. "Ms. Bernstein, please, you need to prepare yourself. Your daughter... she went into sudden cardiac arrest. We did everything we could, but she's gone." I shoved past him. The heart monitor was emitting a single, flat, continuous tone. Lily's body, which had been warm just moments ago, was already growing cold. The candy apple slipped from my grasp, hitting the floor with a dull thud. The next second, I lunged at the doctor, my nails digging into his flesh. "You killed her! You must have done something! You killed my baby!" Nurses rushed to pull me away. I fought like a wild animal, screaming and clawing, until Vince, hearing the commotion, came running. 3 "Stella, that's enough!" he roared, his voice cracking like a whip. "This is a hospital, not the goddamn asylum you crawled out of!" He slapped me. The force of the blow sent a ringing through my ears, and the world tilted. I stood there, stunned, my hand rising to my throbbing cheek. He seemed to snap back to reality, his expression shifting to one of horror. He pulled me into his arms. "Darling, I'm so sorry... The doctors, they're not gods. They did their best. You have to accept it." "Did you hear that? Her mother's a psycho. No wonder she's acting like this. She was terrifying." "Yeah, why do people like that even have kids? They just pass on the crazy." "A woman like that, with no class, no self-control… she doesn't deserve to be a mother." The nurses stood by the door, whispering, their eyes filled with disgust. I felt my hands begin to tremble. Vince saw it and spun around, yelling at the staff. "Shut your mouths! All of you! Say one more word and I'll have this hospital shut down by tomorrow!" He turned back to me, his voice fierce. "No one talks about my wife like that. No one." He was defending me, this man who had created the very situation that had brought me to this public humiliation. "Don't touch me!" I shoved him away and fled. I ran from the children's hospital straight to the nearest police station. I filed a report, accusing the doctor of negligence and malpractice, and demanded the police reopen the investigation into my children's deaths, insisting they had the wrong man. The officer on duty was patient, carefully writing down everything I said. But as I grew frustrated with his slow pace, I heard hurried footsteps approaching from behind me. The officer looked up, and a polite, professional smile appeared on his face. "Mrs. Holt, we're going to need you to cooperate with a quick examination." Before I could process his words, I felt a sharp prick in my neck. The world went black. When I slowly regained consciousness, I found myself strapped to a bed, my arms and legs bound. Isabelle was sitting beside me. Seeing I was awake, she dabbed at the corners of her eyes, feigning tears that weren't there. "Stella, you're finally awake! You scared me half to death." I looked around the sterile, white room, a cold dread seeping into my bones. "Where am I?" "Here?" she cooed, her voice dripping with mock sweetness. "Why, this is a psychiatric hospital. And I'll let you in on a little secret... your mother is right next door. You're finally reunited. Aren't you happy?" "Was it Vince?" I screamed, my voice raw. "Vince, you bastard! Get out here!" "Shhh," Isabelle said, placing a finger to her lips. "Don't bother. This is the most secure facility in the state. Once you're in, you never get out. Unless…" she leaned in closer, "someone intentionally lets you out." Seeing the color drain from my face, Isabelle let out a triumphant laugh. "Oh, you figured it out. Yes, it was Vince who let your mother out all those years ago." "And all because of one little thing I said. I told him I felt so insecure with you constantly chasing after Elias. I asked him to help me, and he did. He sacrificed himself and married you." A sharp, cramping pain seized my stomach, a physical manifestation of my rage. I forced myself to breathe, to remain calm. "We're half-sisters. Why do you hate me so much? Ever since we were children, you've taken everything I've ever wanted." "Taken?" Isabelle laughed, a shrill, ugly sound. Then her face twisted with fury, and she lunged forward, her hands closing around my neck. "If your mother hadn't seduced my father, you wouldn't even exist! You are a mistake that never should have happened! There should have only ever been one daughter of the Bernstein family!" Just as my vision began to tunnel and my lungs burned for air, she released me. She leaned in close, her breath hot on my ear, her words a venomous hiss. "So, I whispered one more thing to Vince. I told him I was sick, with a very rare blood disorder, and that only the blood of a direct relative could save me. I had everyone in the family tested, and what a coincidence… only Leo and Lily were a match." "That fool. He actually brought them in every year for donations. And this time, all I had to do was pretend to be a little sicker, a little more desperate, and he drained them completely for me!" Her eyes glinted with a wicked light. "You should have seen it, Stella. When his bodyguards held Leo and Lily down to draw their blood, they screamed so horribly. They kept crying, 'Daddy, it hurts, please stop!' But Vince was afraid I'd go soft, so he had their arms and legs broken. He sealed their mouths and eyes with duct tape." "But your little Lily, she was a tough one. She actually survived that. So I just had to faint in front of Vince one more time. You should have seen how panicked he was. He held her down himself, a struggling, crying child, and drew the rest of her blood with his own two hands." She smiled, a cruel, triumphant curve of her lips. "Tell me, Stella. Just how much must he love me, to sacrifice his own flesh and blood?"
? Continue the story here ?? ? Download the "MotoNovel" app ? search for "393691", and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel