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“That’s enough,Charlotte.Nothing’s more important than my son.I’ll cook for you.”
For a few days,Ethan cooked dutifully,but by the fourth,he snapped,“Charlotte,you’re an adult perfectly capable.You can cook for yourself, can’t you?”
Charlotte demanded that I resume cooking.
Perfect.
I brought another plate of leftovers and dumped it on her.
She leapt up,“What are you doing?Are you crazy?”
I stepped back,trembling.“Charlotte,it was an accident!Stay away from me—I’m pregnant!”
That enraged her further.She shoved me,screaming,“Pregnant?You’re nothing but a baby-making machine!Ethan only cares about me!”
I fell,blood pooling from my thighs—a blood pack I’d prepared.
I wasn’t pregnant;it was all part of my revenge.
Right then,Ethan burst in—I’d called him home.
“Charlotte,I accidentally spilled food on you.You knew I was pregnant—why push me?Ethan,help!Our son…”
Ethan rushed me to the hospital.
I’d arranged a doctor in advance.
The doctor emerged from the operating room,the doctor told Ethan,“I’m sorry, but the baby didn’t survive.It was a boy.”
Ethan collapsed,sobbing and glaring at Charlotte.
Charlotte stammered,“She fell on her own!It’s not my fault…”
With tears in my eyes,I said,“Charlotte,I’ve always respected you.Why do you keep hurting me?Can’t you stand the fact that I’m carrying Ethan’s child?”
Ethan froze,suspicious.“What do you mean?”
I sobbed,“I didn’t want to tell you,but early in our marriage,I was pregnant.Charlotte poured detergent in the bathroom,and I slipped…She told me not to tell you…”
Ethan was stunned.“Is that true,Charlotte?”
Charlotte lunged,screaming,“You’re lying!I’d never do something like that!”
I produced the medical record from that miscarriage, which I’d kept in a drawer.
“It was just us at home.If it wasn’t you, then who?Even if you deny that,what about this time?”
I wept convincingly.
Ethan stared at the receipt,dated six months ago,then at Charlotte,his eyes burning with rage.
I continued,“I know why you hate me.You’re scared that if I have a child, I’ll take your place in Ethan’s heart.”
Ethan slapped Charlotte.
“Why?!Why did you kill my son?!”
Charlotte clutched her face,incredulous.“You hit me?I’m your sister!You are hitting me for this woman?”
Ethan valued his sister,but his obsession with having a son trumped all.Twice,Charlotte had cost him a son.He looked at her like an enemy.
