Chapter 4My Dead Husband Ran Off With My Pregnant Best Friend

The grinding sound of the cutting tool against stone made my teeth ache.

Pinned to the floor by the air marshal, I could only watch as the heart-shaped stone was slowly cut open.

Fine white dust scattered across the table.

There was nothing inside.

Nothing at all.

It was just an ordinary piece of marble.

The cabin immediately erupted in laughter.

Chloe looked as though she could no longer hold herself together. She threw herself into Adrian’s arms and burst into tears.

“Hailey, I let you cut it open. Will you leave me alone now?”

Adrian stared at the pile of stone dust on the table.

Whatever trace of doubt had remained in his eyes disappeared completely.

“Happy now, Hailey?

“You keep saying I was responsible for losing our last baby. But do you even know what really happened?”

My chest tightened.

He looked down at me.

His voice wasn’t loud, but everyone around us could hear every word.

“When you were rushed to the hospital, the doctors said there was still a chance of saving the pregnancy. But there was no guarantee it would work.”

“I told them not to take the risk.”

All the blood drained from my body.

“Your mother agreed. She signed the consent form.”

“What did you just say?”

Adrian’s expression didn’t change.

“I knew that once you woke up, you’d cry and make a scene and use the baby to tie me to you for the rest of my life.

“So instead of letting you get even more obsessive, I told them to end it.”

I stared at my parents in disbelief.

Neither of them looked shocked.

They just avoided my eyes.

My mother clenched her hands and finally admitted in a low voice, “That consent form authorizing them to terminate the pregnancy was signed by me.

“Hailey, we did it for your own good.

“You were in such a bad state back then. Keeping the baby wouldn’t have been good for you or Adrian.”

For a moment, I couldn’t even cry.

The miscarriage I had spent all this time believing was an accident had actually been a decision.

A decision they had all made for me.

Adrian crouched in front of me, his tone almost patronizing.

“You can always have another baby.

“If you stop this nonsense today, I’ll still come home and spend the second half of the year with you after Chloe has the baby.

“But if you keep acting like this, I can’t promise I’ll come back at all.”

The air marshal tightened his grip around my wrist and prepared to drag me off the plane.

“Take her away.”

Adrian immediately urged him on.

“Hurry. We still need to take off. Chloe has a prenatal appointment to get to.”

I struggled desperately, digging my fingers into the edge of the doorway.

I couldn’t leave.

The real stone had to still be on Chloe.

If she got it out of the country, we might never recover what was hidden inside.

Seeing me continue to struggle, Chloe suddenly spoke in a timid voice.

“Why don’t we bring Hailey with us?

“But once the baby is born, if she tries to hurt the baby, we’ll have no choice but to send her home.”

Adrian’s face instantly darkened.

“She wouldn’t dare.”

The next second, he raised his foot and kicked me hard in the lower abdomen.

Agony exploded through me.

I collapsed onto the floor at the aircraft doorway.

Then I felt something warm rush between my legs.

Blood spread beneath me, staining the floor a horrifying red.

The entire cabin fell silent.

My mother’s face went deathly pale.

She stumbled backward.

“Hailey…”

Adrian froze too.

His lips began to tremble.

Just as the aircraft door was about to close again, the pounding of synchronized footsteps came from the jet bridge.

A heavily armed Customs Tactical Unit stormed toward the plane.

The officer in command rushed to my side.

The moment he saw the blood beneath me, his face changed.

“Director Chandler!

“You’re bleeding badly. Your baby may not make it!”

I raised a trembling hand and pointed at Chloe’s carry-on.

“Lock down the entire airport.

“Search everything.”