The bodyguards forced me to the ground as the iron rods came down on my arms again and again. The sound of bones cracking filled the air, and the burning pain made my vision blur.
In that haze, it felt like I was back on that night when Max had taken the beating for me. My mind drifted as I softly hummed the lullaby I had made up long ago.
Back then, he had been beaten until he lost consciousness, and I had been terrified, terrified that he wouldn’t wake up, and that there was nothing I could do to help him.
I could only stay by his side, softly singing to him, hoping it might ease even a little of his pain.
Max froze for a moment, his expression unreadable. “This tune… it sounds kind of familiar…”
He took a small step closer, trying to listen, but Paige clung to his arm.
“Max, my arm hurts so much.”
Max’s face turned cold again. He took off his coat and gently draped it over her shoulders.
“Lila, this is the last time.”
When the final rod came down, I thought, Max, I don’t owe you anything anymore.
The bar owner rushed in and took me to the hospital to set my broken bones. She didn’t trust me to stay alone, and a few days later, she came with me on a plane heading overseas.
……
Max sat in his office, his mind tangled with the gossip he’d just overheard from his employees.
“Did you hear? She got jealous and tried to push Miss Vargas off a building. Crazy, right?”
“No wonder the President won’t touch her. Even that lost child came from IVF. People say the allergy is fake, that he just finds her disgusting. Can you imagine? Married five years and still untouched…”
His mood was complicated, realizing this was how everyone spoke of Lila behind his back.
He knew his allergy came from the trauma he had carried since childhood, but things couldn’t go on like this forever.
Lila hadn’t reached out to him for days, for the first time. Maybe he should give her a real child, just to silence everyone once and for all.
For the first time, he contacted Calvin, who had also once been trapped by that wealthy man and had now managed to move on with his life.
When Calvin heard what he said, he congratulated him again and again, even saying he wanted to see a photo of the little mute.
Max sent him a picture of himself with Paige.
Half a minute later, a reply came. [Max, I think you’ve made a mistake. This girl is definitely not the little mute.]
