1 After three miscarriages, I finally had a baby girl. My husband celebrated by setting off city-wide fireworks. Then, an unknown caller cried, "Mom." Holding my newborn, I was bewildered. "Wrong number." The teen on the line pleaded, "Please, I'm your daughter, calling from eighteen years in the future. I know it sounds insane, but you must listen. Dad is cheating on you with Gemma. She caused your miscarriages to clear the way for her own son. When you find out, you'll fall into depression and jump off a building. Please, leave him now, or you will die." The line went dead. Staring at my phone, a sharp pain pierced my chest. I looked toward the adjoining suite where my husband and sister had just slipped in, claiming they were planning my anniversary surprise. The moment the call ended, a dull, throbbing pain flared through my lower body, a lingering ache from giving birth. But before I even realized what I was doing, I had already dragged myself out of bed and stood trembling outside their door. Low, intimate sounds drifted through the thin wood. "Careful, James. My sister is right next door." "Why so shy now? Isn't this exactly what you wanted, babe? You chose this room just to drive me crazy, didn't you?" My mind went entirely blank, a deafening roar filling my ears. My breath caught in my throat, shallow and shaking. Just hours ago, when James saw me screaming in the delivery room, his eyes had brimmed with tears. He had held my hand so tightly, whispering, "Nora, sweetheart, after this baby, no more. I can't bear to see you in pain." His tenderness had felt so pure, so incredibly real. But now, his low, satisfied groans were equally real, slicing through my heart like a dull blade. "How is the soup? Sweet enough? Want me to feed you some more?" "What about my sister? She must be thirsty too," Gemma giggled, her voice dripping with mock concern. "She just went through hell to give you a daughter. Shouldn't you save some for the big hero?" "Jealous again, you little wildcat?" James chucked, his tone dripping with affection as he comforted her. "Everything I did with those babies was for you. When you told me you didn't want them, didn't I get rid of them exactly like you wanted?" Every drop of blood in my veins turned to liquid fire, then to ice. When I lost those three babies, I had wanted to die. I blamed myself constantly, weeping over my supposedly broken body. I had endured countless hormone injections, taking pills until I threw up, my skin mapped with painful bruises from the needles. James had played the doting husband so perfectly. He even got matching tattoos and claimed that we were one flesh, that he felt every ounce of my pain. But he was the executioner all along. I bit my lip until the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. I slammed the door open. The two of them were tangled together on the hospital bed. Gemma shrieked, scrambling backward. James's instinct was to shield her, pulling the blanket over her bare shoulders. He looked up at me, his expression a chaotic mix of surprise, annoyance, and guilt. "Nora, don't blame Gemma," he said. He got out of bed, casually pulling on his robe as he walked toward me. "It was my fault. I had too much to drink one night and mistook her for you. Besides, Gemma is different from you. She is wild, uninhibited. I became addicted, and I just can't quit her. But don't worry, you will always be my wife." He used the same soothing tone he always used to calm me down, but the words were pure venom. I shook so hard I could barely stand. Gemma crawled off the bed, kneeling at my feet with a look of utter innocence. "Nora, it's my fault. I was just worried about James. He was so lonely, and I wanted to help you keep him happy. Please don't fight because of me." Her eyes brimmed with tears, but her fingers dug painfully into my wrist, gripping me like a vice. Furious, I wrenched my hand away. The moment I did, James shoved me hard. "Nora! Gemma is your sister. How can you be so heartless?" I stumbled back, crashing heavily against the doorframe. The impact sent a sharp jolt through my abdomen, and I felt a sudden, warm rush of postpartum blood soak through my gown. A flash of panic crossed James's face, and he reached out to steady me, but I violently smacked his hand away. "I'm going to expose you both," I rasped, choking on the pain. Gemma burst into fresh tears. "It's all my fault. I'll leave right now. Nora, please don't take your anger out on James." Looking at her run past me, James glared at me, his eyes dark with rage. "Nora, is this what a good sister does? Are you trying to drive her to suicide? Let me warn you, before you open your mouth to anyone, you better think about your daughter." Without waiting for a response, he chased after Gemma. Not even an hour later, my phone lit up with a text from Gemma. It was a picture of her and James, their fingers tightly intertwined, with a messy hotel bed in the background. James was so worried I'd run away that he promised to exhaust me tonight. You don't mind, do you, big sister? A crushing weight settled on my chest. I stared at the screen, swallowed down the bitter bile rising in my throat, and redialed the mysterious number. "What happens next?" my voice trembled. "Between me and James? And... you? Are you okay?" "You divorced him," the girl on the other end paused, her voice cracking. "But on paper, Gemma became my mother. She... she was never kind to me." I stopped breathing. "That's impossible. You're my daughter, Daisy. How could Gemma be your mother?" By now, there was no doubt in my mind. This girl was indeed my daughter. "Mom, think back," Daisy said urgently. "Right before you gave birth to me, did Dad make you sign any documents?" My heart dropped. Yes, he did. While I was screaming through active contractions, James had suddenly pulled out a set of papers. Nora, honey, we fought so hard for this baby. We need to secure her future. Sign this for her. In my agony, I had trusted him blindly. I signed my name without reading a single word. "That was a divorce agreement," Daisy said, her voice shaking with quiet anger. "On your anniversary last year, Dad didn't go on a business trip. He was with Gemma. Things got wild, and she had an accident that resulted in an emergency hysterectomy. She can never have children of her own. To make it up to her, Dad planned to have you get pregnant one last time. Once you gave birth to me, he would use the signed divorce papers to take me away and legally hand me over to Gemma." The room spun violently. I collapsed onto the edge of the bed, my remaining strength instantly evaporating. No wonder. No wonder James had been so unusually affectionate when he returned from his "trip" last year. He had clung to me every night, refusing to let me go. When I playfully asked why he was being so clingy, he had wrapped his arms around me and whispered that he was making up for missing our anniversary. At the time, my heart had soared with love. But it was all a lie. I was nothing but a breeding machine for his mistress. The betrayal cut so deep it felt physical. Choking back my tears, I asked Daisy when I finally discovered the truth in her timeline. She went quiet for a long moment. "When I was five years old." She explained that when I finally uncovered the affair, I tried to expose them to the public. But James was steps ahead. He painted me as a mentally unstable woman driven mad by multiple miscarriages, even fabricating evidence that I had abused my own baby. In the end, everyone believed him. I was labeled a lunatic, locked away in a psychiatric facility, and left to rot. My skin crawled with dread. "But Mom, we can change it," Daisy pleaded, her voice cracking with a vulnerability that broke my heart. "It's not too late. You need to start gathering evidence now. Wait for the right moment, divorce him, and take me with you. Mom... I don't want to grow up without you." The raw loneliness in her voice made me weep. I gripped the phone, tears streaming down my cheeks as I looked over at the bassinet. Seeing my tiny, helpless daughter sleeping so peacefully, a fierce resolve took root in my chest. I would not let history repeat itself. Over the next few days, I remained quiet and focused on recovering. When James came to take me home, he noticed I didn't bring up Gemma. He assumed I had swallowed my pride and accepted the situation. "I'm glad you're being reasonable, Nora," he said, adjusting the baby's blanket with a gentle smile. "Our daughter needs a complete family. No matter what is going on between me and Gemma, we have years of history together. You should trust me." I forced myself to look away, a dull ache throbbing in my chest. We had been together since college. I used to think our love was unbreakable. When I was drowning in self-doubt and darkness, he had been my guiding light. When my life was threatened by a mugger years ago, he had thrown himself in front of me, taking a blow that nearly killed him. He was the love of my life. I never could have imagined that the man who saved my life would eventually hold the blade that destroyed it. The moment we stepped into our house, Gemma strolled out of our master bedroom wearing one of my silk nightgowns. It was obvious she had made herself entirely at home while I was in the hospital. James quickly stepped in. "Gemma's lease ended. Since you two are sisters, I figured she could stay here for a few days." Gemma bit her lip, looking at me with faux-timidity. "Nora, please don't get the wrong idea. I was just so exhausted last night..." The dark, purplish bruises on her neck were impossible to miss. I looked away, refusing to give her the satisfaction of seeing me cry. "I don't care," I said coldly, walking past them into my bedroom. In the middle of the night, Daisy's sharp, panicked crying woke me up. Dragging my aching body down the hall to the nursery, I pushed the door open, only for my blood to run cold at the sight before me. "What the hell are you doing?" I lunged forward, throwing Gemma away from the crib. Daisy's tiny arms and legs were covered in fresh, red pinch marks. "Calm down," Gemma sneered, her delicate facade vanishing instantly, replaced by a cruel, venomous grin. "If I wanted this little brat dead, she wouldn't have survived the delivery room." I stared at her, horrified. "Why? When our parents finally found me and brought me back, you were so kind to me. Why are you doing this?" Gemma let out a mockery of a laugh. "If I wasn't nice to you, how else would I get you to trust me? How else could I get you to push our parents away?" She stepped closer, her eyes flashing with pure hatred. "I may be adopted, but before you showed up, I was the only princess in that house. I finally had a life where I was loved and pampered. Why did you have to be found? Why did you have to come back and steal everything from me?" So that was it. All these years, this was how she saw me. "I never wanted to compete with you..." "Stop acting so innocent!" Gemma snapped, her face twisting into a hideous snarl. "Even James was part of the plan. At first, we just wanted to make a fool out of you. James was supposed to play the hero, rescue you from some hired thugs, make you fall madly in love with him, and then dump you. But the idiot actually fell for you. He married you instead!" A violent shudder ran through my body. The mugging... the life-saving rescue... it had all been a staged performance. My heart shattered into a million jagged pieces. The pain was so intense I could barely draw breath. Suddenly, Gemma wiped the smirk off her face. She snatched Daisy from the crib and sprinted toward the door, her face twisting into a mask of pure terror. "James, help! Nora has gone crazy! She's hurting the baby!" James's heavy footsteps echoed in the hallway, his face instantly darkening as he stepped into the light. "That's a lie!" I screamed, shaking. "She did this!" "Nora, I know you hate me because of James," Gemma sobbed, clutching Daisy to her chest as if protecting her. "But our baby is innocent! How could you take your anger out on her?" "I didn't touch her! Gemma was the one pinching her!" "Enough!" James roared, cutting me off. "How can you be so sick, Nora? You're so desperate to hurt me that you'd abuse your own child?" He didn't believe a single word I said. Instead, he grabbed my arm, dragging me down to the cold, damp basement and throwing me inside. "Stay down here until you've cleared your head," he snapped, locking the heavy door. He knew about my severe nyctophobia. He knew that staged attack had left me terrified of the dark. He had once held me during a blackout, promising that he would never let the darkness touch me again. "James, please, open the door! You can't do this to me!" My voice trembled, raw with mounting panic. I could hear his footsteps lingering right outside the door. He hesitated. But then, Gemma's soft, patronizing voice chimed in. "Nora is acting like a spoiled child. She does something terrible to the baby, and then throws a tantrum. It's Daisy I feel sorry for..." Hearing her words, James's hesitation vanished. "You brought this on yourself, Nora." The sound of shifting fabric and a low grunt came from the other side of the thin wooden door. "James, stop... your wife is right in there," Gemma whispered, her voice laced with breathless excitement. "That's what makes it fun. She can't see us, but she can hear everything..." Before long, the sickening, rhythmic sounds of their passion echoed through the basement door. I curled into a ball on the cold concrete floor, my fingernails digging into my palms until they bled. Every gasp, every groan from the other side of the wood was a physical blow, carving away whatever love I had left for him until there was only a hollow, aching numbness. When the sounds finally faded and they moved upstairs, I pulled out my phone and dialed the future number again. "What about my parents?" I whispered into the dark. "What happened to them in your timeline?" "Shortly after you were put away, they died in a tragic car accident," Daisy's voice sounded incredibly small and hollow. "They loved you so much, Mom. But Gemma kept telling them that you hated them, that you blamed them for losing you when you were little. Grandma used to hold your old photos and cry herself to sleep every night, whispering how sorry she was." A tear slipped down my cheek. They did love me. Thank god. There was still time to fix this. The next morning, James unlocked the basement door. Dehydrated and pale, I dragged myself out. "Stop making a scene, Nora," he said coldly. "Daisy's one-month celebration is coming up, and the invitations are already out. You wouldn't want to miss your own daughter's party, would you?" So, I played along. I behaved perfectly. When the day of the celebration arrived, my parents were among the first to show up. Watching my mother cradle Daisy, cooing softly as my father smiled beside her, a wave of warmth rushed through me. There was so much I wanted to say to them. Right then, Gemma walked in, dressed in a stunning gown and clinging to James's arm. "These heels are just too high to walk in, so I had James help me," she giggled, looking at our parents with her usual bubbly, innocent demeanor. "You don't mind, do you, Nora?" James stepped away from her, wrapping an arm around my waist instead. "You've worked hard today, Nora. Once this is over, we'll go home and get some rest." I fought down the sudden urge to vomit, remaining silent. When the ballroom was packed and the champagne was flowing, I quietly slipped away and pressed the button on the control panel. The massive projector screen, which had been displaying sweet photos of Daisy's first month, suddenly flickered. In an instant, the screen filled with crystal-clear footage of James and Gemma wrapped in each other's arms, whispering vulgar promises. The entire room fell into a dead, shocked silence, followed by gasps of horror. Gemma's face drained of all color. My parents froze, staring at the screen in absolute disbelief. James panicked for a split second, but he quickly recovered. He strode onto the stage, shut off the projector, and looked down at me with an expression of deep, tragic resignation. "Nora, please... you've had another episode." A murmur ran through the crowd. But James had prepared for this very moment. He pulled out his iPad and cast a document onto the screen—a psychological report claiming I had been suffering from severe prenatal and postpartum psychosis. Alongside it was a list of heavy anti-depressants under my name. "After her multiple miscarriages, my wife's mental state became unstable," James announced to the crowd, his voice filled with fake sympathy. "I apologize to everyone for the disturbance." Gemma quickly stepped forward, wiping away fake tears. "The doctor said Nora's depression makes her paranoid. I don't blame her for fabricating these deep-fake videos to hurt me. I just want my sister to get the professional help she needs." "This is ridiculous!" my father barked, his face turning red with embarrassment. "If you are sick, Nora, go get treated! Why would you drag your sister into the mud like this?" My mother looked at me with a mixture of pity and disappointment. "Nora, I know you still resent us for what happened in the past, but Gemma has done nothing but try to help you. How could you do something so malicious to her?" "No, that's not..." I tried to explain, but my voice was drowned out as a glass of red wine was splashed directly into my face. Cold, sticky liquid dripped down my cheeks, ruining my dress. "If she can fake a video like that, who knows what else she's lying about!" someone in the crowd sneered. "If she really is that crazy, she shouldn't be allowed around normal people. Lock her up!" The crowd's murmurs grew louder, hostile eyes glaring at me from every direction. Pretending to protect me from the hostile crowd, James grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the ballroom. The moment we stepped into the quiet alley outside, I gathered every ounce of strength I had and slapped him across the face. "You monster! I am not sick, and you know it!" James touched his bruised cheek, his sympathetic husband facade vanishing instantly into a cold, menacing sneer. "I warned you to think about the consequences, Nora. Since you were so eager to destroy Gemma, don't blame me for being ruthless." He pulled out his phone and called a private medical transport. "You're going to a psychiatric facility, Nora. I'll let you out once you've learned to behave." Gemma suddenly slipped out of the venue, running up to us. "James, let me go with her in the car. I want to talk some sense into her before she does something stupid." James nodded, trusting her completely. But as soon as the car drove off and reached a secluded, abandoned stretch of road, the driver pulled over. Gemma dragged me out of the backseat, throwing me onto the gravel at the feet of three burly, rough-looking men waiting there. "She's all yours, boys," Gemma sneered, tossing a thick envelope of cash to their leader. "Do whatever you want with her. Just keep her breathing long enough to sell her across the border." She stepped closer, raising her designer stiletto heel and slamming it hard onto my chest. Her heel caught on the heavy silver locket resting against my collarbone. "Nora, with you gone, James and I can finally be together legally." Despite the searing pain in my ribs, I looked up at her and let out a soft laugh. "Do you really think you've won, Gemma?" I gasped, spitting out a mouthful of blood. "Why don't you check your phone?" Gemma froze. She pulled out her phone, and within seconds, every drop of color drained from her face. Back at the venue, James stood in the corridor, exhaling a long breath. My defiance had annoyed him. He couldn't understand why I couldn't just accept my role as a quiet, compliant mother. "Well, this stay in the facility will teach her a lesson. She'll fall back in line," he muttered, smoothing down his tuxedo jacket. The celebration was still going on, so he put on his charming smile and pushed open the heavy double doors to the ballroom. But as he stepped inside, he found the room in absolute, suffocating silence. The massive projector screen had flickered back on. It was broadcasting a live feed. The moment James's eyes adjusted to the screen, his entire body froze.
? Continue the story here ?? ? Download the "MotoNovel" app ? search for "452525", and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel