That night, Alaric, who had never cared about my nighttime habits before, suddenly offered me a glass of milk.
“You’re in your third trimester now. You need more calcium and protein. Be good and drink it.”
I stared at the milky liquid. The smell was off—sweet, yet slightly metallic.
“I don’t want it.”
He forced a smile, trying to maintain the illusion of care.
“It’s for your own good—and the baby’s. Come on, be obedient.”
Then, without warning, he pressed the glass to my lips and poured it down my throat.
The moment the liquid touched my tongue, an overwhelming drowsiness overtook me. My vision blurred, and my limbs turned heavy. In the haze, I thought I saw shadows—people—moving around my bed.
By the time I woke up the next morning, my body was aching all over. I could barely sit up.
As soon as Alaric left for work, I reached under the bed and retrieved my phone. I had hidden a tiny camera inside the flower pot in the corner—just in case.
When I played the footage, shame and fury exploded inside me.
In the video, Alaric and Calla entered my room. He wrapped his arms around her like a lover, not a brother.
“Brother,” she whispered, “isn’t this too much? She’s already eight months pregnant…”
Despite her words, her tone held no remorse—only twisted satisfaction.
Alaric looked down at my unconscious form with a chilling coldness.
“If she hadn’t forced you to leave back then, we’d never have been apart. Now she’ll learn the price of hurting you.”
He waved his hand, and a strange man stepped into the frame.
“Alaric,” the man said, eyeing me, “won’t this affect the bet?”
“The baby’s already formed. All we have to do is wait for the birth and run a DNA test,” Alaric replied flatly.
The man laughed, and Calla walked over and kicked me—hard.
“You’re sure the sedative was strong enough?”
“She’s been drugged like this for months. She won’t wake up.”
Alaric’s voice was calm, calculating.
“Once she gives birth, I’ll have the DNA results. Then I’ll publicly shame her—call her a whore, strip her of her dignity, and kick her out of the Vane family. No one will stop us from being together.”
A flicker of ruthlessness flashed in Alaric’s eyes—it pierced through me like a dagger. My chest tightened painfully.
Then, without another glance, he wrapped his arms around Calla and turned away, leaving me stranded in the darkness of despair. I felt like I was drowning in an abyss, unable to escape.