At five months pregnant, I rushed to the hospital with abdominal pain—until my husband’s secretary, Vanessa, shoved her poodle into my car. “My ‘baby’ needs the vet first!” “Call a cab,” I snapped, transferring her money. “My child can’t wait.” That night, Julian raged: “Vanessa had to walk in 113°F heat!” “Are her dog more important than our baby?” I asked. He softened. “Of course not, darling.” Weeks later, on my due date, he drove me into the desert. A drone screen loomed above, showing him smirking with Vanessa in his arms. “You said adults know how to call cabs,” he mocked. “Let’s see you try now.” … The image of his mocking face on the screen grew sharper, but even in the 140-degree heat, a bone-deep chill washed over me. Through the screen, my gaze locked with Julian’s. "Get me to a hospital. Now. The baby can't take this heat." The disgust in his eyes deepened. "Can't take the heat? Then why did you have the audacity to make Vanessa walk in it? Don't say I didn't give you a chance. Get on your knees, apologize to Vanessa, and I might just be merciful enough to let you go." I looked up, incredulous. "Apologize? I gave her the money. I did nothing wrong. Julian, how can you be so heartless? This is your child in my belly!" He let out a cold, humorless laugh. "Oh, I forgot to tell you. Vanessa's carrying my child, too." As he spoke, he gently placed a hand on Vanessa’s flat stomach, his eyes filled with a tenderness he hadn't shown me in years. I stared in shock, but the brutal sun had already sapped my strength. Severely dehydrated, I collapsed onto the scorching sand. My phone tumbled from my pocket, its screen mockingly displaying a dozen different ride-share apps. Julian’s lips curled into a sneer. "I even downloaded the apps for you. You were the one who said to take a cab. So go on. Call one." Beside him, Vanessa’s smile was triumphant and venomous. I curled into a ball on the desert floor. The searing pain of my skin blistering on the sand and the agony of my contractions were nothing compared to the thousand shards of ice piercing my heart. This was all for her. He was doing all of this just to appease Vanessa. The heat intensified. Sweat drenched my clothes, and the pain in my belly grew sharper, more insistent. And through it all, he just watched, his expression cold and detached. My eyes burned, my voice trembled. "Julian, have you forgotten the vows you made?" That seemed to be the final straw. His face contorted with rage. "Vows? Vanessa saw you with another man! She saw you getting too close!" Seven years. We had been married for seven years. I never thought the man who had once worshiped the ground I walked on would cheat on me, let alone abandon me to die based on his secretary's poisonous lies. I pushed myself up, speaking through gritted teeth. "I didn't. I would never…" "Enough!" he roared, cutting me off. "I don't want to hear your lies! This is your lesson. For every ounce of suffering Vanessa endured that day, you will pay it back a thousand times over!" On cue, a helicopter appeared overhead. A bodyguard began scattering something from above, showering it down on the sand around me. Julian’s voice was cold enough to freeze the desert air. "If you can't get a cab, you can walk." As the objects landed, I saw what they were and gasped. Boxes and boxes of shattered glass. I fumbled for the charm I always wore, a gift from another man. He’d told me that if I ever pressed the hidden button on the back, he would find me, no matter where he was. He would come for me. He had to. But my hands were shaking too violently from the sunstroke. The charm slipped from my grasp and was instantly swallowed by the sand. All I could do was pray the signal had gone through. Before throwing me out, Julian had taken my shoes. My bare feet sank into the scalding sand, now laced with razor-sharp glass. The skin tore instantly. On the screen, Vanessa feigned concern, but her eyes danced with triumph. "Oh, Sienna, darling, just say you're sorry. I'll forgive you. I promise I won't hold a grudge. You don't have to be so stubborn." She tugged on Julian’s sleeve. "Julian, maybe we should just let her go. I don't want her to—" His expression hardened. "No. I promised you she would apologize." Vanessa stood on her toes and pressed a kiss to his throat. My heart felt like it was being flayed. The pain from my feet was so intense that my vision began to blacken. I clutched my stomach, forcing myself to stay conscious. A trail of blood marked every agonizing step I took. One of the bodyguards on the screen looked uneasy. "Sir, your wife is about to give birth. She's in a fragile state. This could be life-threatening." Julian scoffed. "Life-threatening? Did she consider that when she forced Vanessa to walk in this heat?" He looked at my bleeding feet, apparently still not satisfied. A helicopter landed in front of me. A bodyguard jumped out and roughly pinned me down. I tried to shield my belly, struggling with all my might, but he was too strong. He strapped heavy iron weights to my wrists and ankles. Julian's voice boomed from above. "Vanessa was carrying her little dog that day. I want you to feel what that was like!" Weak and exhausted, the added weight sent me crashing to the ground. The instant my palms hit the sand, the skin sizzled and peeled away, the glass shards embedding themselves in my raw flesh. "Vanessa said she didn't dare stop, not even for a second," Julian's voice continued, relentless. "So, Sienna, let's see you walk without stopping!" A bodyguard hauled me to my feet. When I hesitated for a fraction of a second, a whip cracked across my back. "Ah!" A scream ripped from my throat, echoing across the desolate landscape. Vanessa’s fake-pitying voice drifted down. "Julian, stop it. She's a spoiled little princess. She can't handle this kind of hardship…" "Spoiled little princess?" The words ignited Julian’s fury. "Don't think I don't know! You've always looked down on me because you're a Sterling!" I had been with Julian for three years before we married. I was willing to be disowned by my family, the powerful Sterlings, to be with him. I helped him build his empire from nothing. Back then, he treated me like I was the most precious thing in the world. A papercut was enough for him to rush me to the emergency room. But as he became more successful, he grew to resent my "privilege." He said I used my family name to belittle him. And so he turned to his obedient little secretary, a woman who would worship him. Now, he was torturing me just to prove a point to her. I had thought a baby would change things, bring him back to me. But she was having his baby, too. At that thought, the last ember of love in my heart died. Seeing my silence, my refusal to beg, Julian's face grew darker. On the screen, Vanessa's eyes filled with tears. "Julian, please, let's just stop. If people see her like this, they'll think I'm the one bullying her. So what if I got a little sunburnt and almost died of heatstroke? I can handle it… I'm fine…" Her words were gasoline on the fire. Julian’s eyes blazed. "Sienna, I'm coming down there to teach you a lesson myself!" The helicopter carrying them landed. He stormed out, grabbed a fistful of my hair, and slapped me so hard my head snapped to the side. "Apologize to Vanessa!" My eyes were bloodshot. I spat out the word. "Never." His gaze swept the area and landed on a large, flat rock baking in the sun. He dragged me over to it and, without a word, shoved me onto its scorching surface. My skin sizzled on contact. The smell of burning flesh filled the air. My once-flawless skin was now a mess of angry, weeping burns. Julian let go with a grimace of disgust and ordered his men to hold me down. The moment the searing stopped, they would pull me up, only to slam me back down onto the rock again. Over and over. I could feel my life draining away. But a deep, pulling pain in my belly reminded me I had to hold on. I couldn't let my baby die before he even had a chance to see the world. I bit my tongue, the sharp pain keeping me lucid. Soon, the rock was stained with my blood. Julian stared at my ravaged skin, his eyes terrifyingly cold. "Vanessa got burned, too, when she walked to the vet. Sienna, have you learned your lesson yet?" My body was wracked with violent tremors. I tried to speak, but no sound came out. Suddenly, a pain unlike any other tore through my womb. A warm gush of fluid streamed down my legs. No… my water just broke. "Julian," I gasped. "My water… it broke… get me to a hospital…" Vanessa rushed forward and pressed both hands down hard on my convulsing stomach. A horrific scream tore from my lungs as I instinctively shoved her away. She stumbled back and then dropped to her knees beside me, slapping her own face. "I'm so sorry, Sienna! I used to be a nursing student, I was just trying to see what was happening! I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…" Julian planted his foot on my pregnant belly, his face a mask of fury. "You dare hurt Vanessa!" Then, a strange thing happened. He knelt, his touch surprisingly gentle as he stroked my stomach. For a fleeting second, a spark of hope ignited within me. Maybe he still cared. But his next words plunged me into the deepest pit of despair. He leaned close, his voice a soft, intimate whisper. "You always said you wanted me in the delivery room with you. Well, how about this? I'll watch you give birth right here."
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