After 99 Forgiveness, I Faked My Death and Vanished

### Chapter 4

He hauled me into the car and dragged me home, then threw me into the bathroom.

He picked up the showerhead, twisted it to cold, and turned the water on me.

The water was freezing, and I kept flinching and twisting away from it.

"Randolph, are you out of your mind? I'm carrying your child!"

His eyes were red with the fury of a man who couldn't stand being defied. He roared.

"If anything happens to that child, it's the sin of you, its mother!"

I curled around my belly, sprawled on the floor, and remembered the day we first learned I was pregnant, when this man cried like a child.

He'd knelt in front of me, kissing my stomach again and again. "My baby, Daddy will give you everything, the very best. I swear it."

Half a year. That was all it took for him to stop caring about me, and about the child too.

Only when I was soaked through did Randolph throw the showerhead aside.

"Fix that princess temper of yours. The Farleys don't need an arrogant, overbearing lady of the house."

I looked into his cold, merciless eyes, and dimly remembered years ago, when I'd pouted and sulked because a pair of shoes I loved had broken.

He'd dropped to one knee, let me rest my foot on his trousers that cost a fortune, and gently rubbed it for me.

I'd asked him, half-joking, "Everyone says I have a bad temper. Will you get tired of me one day?"

"Other people can't handle it. I can. That way, you're mine for life."

Randolph, your life turned out so short.

I kept my head down, and on my dripping face the expression went colder.

"Fine. I'll let you have your way. Let's divorce."

Randolph took two steps, then stopped.

"What did you say?"

My voice had been too small. He hadn't caught it.

Before I could speak again, his phone rang. Lily's coy, weepy voice came through.

"Randolph, I twisted my ankle, it hurts so much."

His gaze flickered, hesitating, and then he walked out of the bathroom anyway. "Calm yourself down."

I watched him go without a backward glance, pulled at the corner of my mouth, and struggled up off the floor.

I held my parents' portrait, my fingers tracing the cold frame, shaking so hard I couldn't stop. "I'm sorry, Mom, Dad. Today's the anniversary of your deaths, and I couldn't even keep your things safe."

After a long while I wiped my eyes dry and gently tucked the frame into my suitcase.

Then I walked to the nursery next door and said quietly to the child inside me, "You must be disappointed too, having a father like this. Mommy's taking you away."

But the moment I pushed the door open, my head went hollow with a roar.

The ultrasound photo by the crib had been torn to shreds and scattered across the floor. In its place, the walls were covered with Lily's racy pinups.

The hand-painted forest and little animals had been painted over, the room turned a glaring fluorescent pink.

The 180 letters I'd written to my baby, the ones I'd kept in the cabinet, had been dumped into a metal pail and burned to ash.

I could barely stay on my feet. My voice came out shrill and broken.

"Who did this?!"

The housekeeper hurried over, stammering. "It, it was on Mr. Farley's orders."

He wiped at his sweat.

"Miss White wasn't feeling well, and Mr. Farley had us put the ashes in a sachet for her to wear, to ward off bad luck."

I couldn't hear anything but that shrill ringing in my ears.

My phone lit up.

A photo popped up.

Lily sat in Randolph's office chair, beaming. The sachet dangled from her finger, and she had something in her mouth.

I looked closer, and the blood in my body froze.

It was the pacifier I'd had custom-made for my baby.

"I figured I should reward him with something to 'bite' on too. What do you think makes a good reward?"

Staring at her message, the pain drove into me like a knife, into every organ, and the last thread of my reason snapped.

I rushed into the Farley Tower and went straight for the top floor. Randolph's secretary scrambled to block me. "Ms. Hughes, Mr. Farley is very busy right now—"

"Get out of my way!"

I shoved him aside and kicked open the door of the CEO's office.

In that instant, my legs nearly went out from under me.