CHAPTER 20%
Even as Victoria’s agonized screams echoed through the phone, Alexander didn’t so much as flinch.
Instead, he just smiled at me, calm and unfazed. The transformation was chilling like watching a mask slip away to reveal something cold and calculating underneath.
“Victoria,” he said smoothly into the phone, “I already know you drugged and pretended to be my wife that night. This child can’t be kept.”
My blood ran cold. Drugged him? What was he talking about?
His voice was steady and emotionless. “As for those fake posts you paid to spread online, the ones claiming Lauren Hudson is infertile, I’ve had them wiped clean.”
I stared at him in shock. There had been rumors circulating on social media after our divorce, cruel whispers about why we never had children. I had assumed they were just gossip, but Victoria had been behind them?
“You see,” Alexander continued, “slandering my wife comes with consequences.“>
Marcus stepped closer to me, his face pale as he listened to Alexander’s words. The man we thought we knew was disappearing before
our eyes.
Alexander paused, his smile growing colder. “From today on, you will never have peace and kids again.“}
There was heavy, breathless silence on the other end of the line. Then came a panicked, choked sob.
“Mr. Hudson! please, I wasn’t thinking straight, I didn’t mean it!” Victoria’s voice was barely recognizable through her terror. “I’ll take any punishment you want, just please, spare the baby! Please! No, no, don’t… Aaaahhh!“}
Victoria’s bloodcurdling scream pierced through the phone like a knife.
I instinctively blinked, my eyebrows furrowing. The sound was horrible, in human. Whatever was happening to her was beyond anything I could have imagined.
Marcus grabbed my arm protectively. “What the hell is going on?” he whispered.}
Noticing my reaction, Alexander immediately ended the call. The sudden silence in the room was deafening.
Then, as if nothing had happened, he gently took my hand and placed it against his cheek. His pale face wore a look of deep tenderness that made my skin crawl.
“Lauren,” he whispered, “I’ll have the surgery pictures sent to you later.”
Surgery pictures? My stomach lurched.}}
“When you’ve watched it yourself… maybe, just maybe… you’ll forgive me. Even just a little.”}]
“Even a little,” he murmured, his eyes closing as he pressed my hand against his skin, “would be enough.“}
I pulled my hand away like it had been burned. The feel of his skin made me sick.
“You’re insane,” I breathed, backing toward Marcus. “What have you done to her?“}
Alexander’s eyes opened, and for a moment, I saw something that terrified me with complete and utter devotion mixed with madness.
“I did what needed to be done,” he said simply. “She hurt you. She lied about the baby being mine. She tried to destroy your reputation. She had to pay.”
“The baby…”
“Isn’t mine,” Alexander said calmly. “The DNA test proved it. She drugged me that night and made it look like we were together. Then she spent six years blackmailing me with a lie.”
My mind reeled. Six years of marriage destroyed by a lie? Six years of feeling worthless, unwanted, pushed aside for another woman and it was al! based on deception?
“You knew?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper. “You knew the baby wasn’t yours?“}
“I suspected for a long time,” Alexander admitted. “But I needed proof. I needed to be sure before I acted.”
“So you let me suffer,” I said, anger rising in my chest. “You let me think you chose her over me. You let me believe I wasn’t good enough.“>
“I was protecting you,” Alexander said earnestly. “If Victoria knew I suspected, she might have hurt you. She was dangerous, Lauren. Unstable.“}
Marcus stepped forward. “So instead, you psychologically tortured your own wife for six years?“}
Alexander’s gaze shifted to Marcus with cold disdain. “I did what I had to do to keep her safe.“}
“Safe?” I laughed bitterly. “I tried to kill myself, Alexander. I was so broken by what you put me through that I wanted to die. How is that safe?”
For the first time, Alexander’s composure cracked. His face went white. “What?“}
“The night I found out about Victoria’s pregnancy,” I continued, my voice shaking with emotion, “I stood on the bridge outside our house for two hours. The only reason I didn’t jump was because Marcus called me.“}
Alexander looked like he’d been struck. “Lauren, I didn’t know…“}
“Because you never asked!” I shouted. “You never checked on me! You never cared how your lies were destroying me!”
Tears were streaming down Alexander’s face now. “I thought… I thought you were stronger. I thought you could handle it until I could fix everything.”
“I’m not your possession,” I said firmly. “I’m not something you can break and then fix when it’s convenient for you.“>
112 A4 8
8:27 PM
.
Looking down at the broken man before me, I felt nothing but pity and disgust.
“This hospital’s psychiatric department is pretty well–known,” I said flatly. “You should consider checking yourself in.”
Alexander gave me a fragile smile through his tears.
“Alright,” he said softly. “Whatever you say.”
He reached for my hand again, but I stepped back.
“I love you, Lauren,” he whispered. “I’ve always loved you. Everything I did was because I love you.”
“That’s not love,” I replied. “That’s obsession.”
Marcus put his arm around me, and we turned to leave. But Alexander’s voice stopped us at the door.
“I’ll get better,” he called after us. “I’ll become the man you deserve. I’ll spend every day proving that I’ve changed.“}
I looked back at him one last time. He was sitting up in the hospital bed, his face streaked with tears but his eyes bright with determination.
He had wronged me too deeply, too many times to count. But none of that mattered to him anymore. He had finally realized his mistakes, and he was determined to spend the rest of his life making up for it.
Or so he thought.
