Chapter 3: The Baby Is Yours TooA Life Without Looking Back

He had just snatched my phone away when we suddenly heard movement outside the door.

Siobhan was standing there, biting her pale lips, her eyes red and swollen. "You know now, don't you, Ginny?" Her voice trembled with fear.

Vincent immediately went to support her, positioning his body between her and me.

His voice was gentle as he soothed her, though there was a trace of anxious reproach in it.

"Why did you come out here by yourself? You should have put on something warmer. You just gave birth. You should be resting, not out here in the cold. Go back to the hospital, okay?"

Siobhan shoved him away and rushed inside, grabbing hold of me as she sobbed.

She explained, "I'm sorry, Ginny. It was all my fault. I secretly fell in love with Vincent, but he loved you. I couldn't destroy your relationship.

"I was despicable. Before you two got married, I got him drunk and put on your clothes. He mistook me for you, and that was how…

"We agreed that we would both forget it. We tried to pretend nothing happened, but I was greedy. I kept pushing my luck and going back to him again and again. Then I accidentally got pregnant, and I couldn't bring myself to lose the baby.

"I kept lying to you. Ginny, you should hate me. I don't deserve to be your family."

She clutched my arm as she cried, slowly sinking to her knees before wrapping her arms around my legs. "Ginny, Leo is yours, too. You're his godmother. You can hate me as much as you want, but don't take it out on Leo."

Vincent's eyes were filled with distress and pity as he helped her back to her feet.

As I stepped backward, my knee struck her nose.

More accurately, she had thrown herself into me as I stepped back. Blood immediately began streaming from her nose.

"Shivvy!" Vincent cried out in panic, but Siobhan just shoved him away and continued crying and pleading with me. "Ginny, please forgive me, okay?"

I stood there numbly, my head buzzing.

"Genevieve, say something." Vincent grabbed me by the collar and glared at me with such fury that it felt as though he might kill me if I said the wrong thing. "Say you won't blame her, and that you'll accept this child."

I gave a derisive laugh, then said coldly, "Why should I?"

Siobhan cried so hard she began dry-heaving. Her face was smeared with blood, yet she kept repeating, "I'm sorry."

Vincent shot me a resentful glare before forcibly picking her up and carrying her away.

Siobhan wrapped her arms around his neck. A diamond ring gleamed on her left ring finger—the one a mysterious man had given her after she became pregnant.

When she first told me about it, there was a sparkle in her eyes despite the sadness in her voice. "He proposed, but we both know it's just pretend. There's no way we could actually be together."

Apparently, once the baby was born, that had become possible.

My body swayed.

A splitting headache tore through my skull, and my stomach hurt terribly.

The city hospital where I had undergone an examination a few days earlier called me. The ringing mixed with the sound of someone rummaging through my things, shrill and grating, but I had no energy to answer.

I finally managed to find some painkillers and swallowed them together with sleeping pills.

Perhaps when I woke up, I'd find that this had all just been some absurd nightmare.

But I'd rather never wake up.