Chapter 1 Termination

• It's freezing.
• Natasha Yarborough felt a chill run down her spine as she slowly opened her eyes, only to be met with a blinding fluorescent light. She found herself on a hospital operating table, bound with ropes and chains, and her mouth taped shut.
• Panic surged through her, her instincts screaming at her to run. Hearing voices outside the door, she pretended to be unconscious.
• "Mr. Fletcher, terminating the pregnancy might harm Ms. Yarborough's chances of conceiving in the future with her condition—"
• "I told you to terminate it. Don't interfere."
• That voice... It couldn't be.
• Natasha cracked her eyes open and saw Shawn Fletcher entering. She stared at him in disbelief as his steely expression rendered her dumbstruck.
• Her fiance, Shawn, was the one who wanted to end the life inside her.
• It was disbelief, then anger, that flooded Natasha.
• It was Shawn's child. Why would he…
• She tried to speak but couldn't, so she just glared at him.
• Then, she heard high heels approaching. Kateryn Yarborough entered in her tight dress, her curvy figure oozing seduction.
• Natasha's eyes widened. How did Kateryn end up here?
• Kateryn was her half-sister, always targeting her.
• Seeing Natasha, Kateryn smiled coldly. "What a wh*re. You were impregnated by someone else while engaged to Shawn!"
• Kateryn seemed pleased by Natasha's inability to answer. "Why are you staring at me like that? Don't you realize that the man you were involved with nine months ago wasn't Shawn but an old, unattractive, and deranged man? You've brought disgrace upon the Yarborough family and Shawn. Do you think we will allow the illegitimate child to survive?"
• Impossible!
• Natasha shook her head in anguished denial. How could that man not be Shawn?!
• Kateryn seemed delighted by her discomposure. "Shawn, your opinion?"
• Shawn glanced at Natasha, his gaze dark. No one knew that the child wasn't his, but his cruel and influential uncle Sebastian Fletcher. Sebastian's standing within the family meant that once Reginald Fletcher, the family patriarch, discovered this, Shawn would be ruined.
• Shawn gestured to the doctors. "Go ahead."
• Natasha struggled hard but was then administered a sedative unwillingly and passed out.
• Thirty minutes later, crying sounds resonated in the room. Natasha had twins, but the girl had already died while the boy screamed and sobbed. He was removed to an incubator, and Kateryn regarded the baby coolly before scornfully carrying him.
• As Kateryn left, she shot Shawn a meaningful gaze. "Thanks, Shawn! Once I become Mrs. Fletcher, I'll reward you well."
• The door swung shut at once, and Shawn felt nauseated by the gory smell within. After staring at the shallowly breathing Natasha on the table blankly, he ordered, "Get rid of her. She's tainted. Feed her and her dead b*stard to the sharks!"
• …
• Sebastian was frowning beside the glass window in the office of the Fletcher Group CEO when the door opened abruptly to reveal his assistant Brent Larson, who looked uncharacteristically overwhelmed.
• "Mr. Fletcher! I've found the owner of the bangle as instructed!"
• "Who is it?"
• "Kateryn Yarborough, the younger Yarborough daughter."
• …
• Six years later, Natasha left the premium exit at the Glendria airport with a doll-like curly-haired girl in a white princess dress while dressed in a tan-colored coat, enormous sunglasses that concealed half her face, and a mask that hid the bottom half. The girl looked up at Natasha innocently, "Where's Uncle Angus, Mommy?"