Chapter 5
506words
The celebration was held at my family's ancestral home.
He kept me firmly seated at the main table, right beside Lily's gaudy mother with her fingers laden with gold rings.
During dinner, Lily's mother dropped a chunk of greasy braised pork into my bowl.
"Eat up, Miss Sullivan! We country folk are honest, not like you city slickers with your fancy schemes. Look at you—carrying twins that still don't measure up to our Lily's golden boy. Useless, that's what you are!"
Frederick's expression darkened instantly—not to defend me.
He slammed his chopsticks down with a crack. "Since when," he said icily, "does some country nobody lecture my wife?"
He yanked me against him—not protecting a wife but asserting ownership of property.
He forced me to stand and toast Lily and the "golden grandson" in her arms.
Lily cradled her son, deliberately flaunting him before me. Around the baby's wrist gleamed a pure gold longevity lock, its brilliance stabbing my eyes.
My hand trembled around the wine glass.
As Lily passed with her child, she "accidentally" bumped into me.
Scalding tea splashed directly onto my swollen belly!
"Ah!" I screamed as white-hot pain shot through my abdomen, my knees nearly buckling.
The room erupted in shocked gasps.
But I didn't fall. I didn't cry.
Before anyone could react, I snatched the gold longevity lock from the baby's wrist and, with every ounce of strength, smashed it into Lily's over-injected face!
"AHHH!"
Lily's shriek—like a slaughtered pig—pierced the hall. She collapsed, clutching her face as blood seeped between her fingers.
I gripped the bloody gold charm, pointing at her ruined face. My voice wasn't loud, but each word cut like a blade.
"A whore who climbed the ladder with her womb dares to host parties in MY family home? This gold trinket wouldn't buy a decent grave for you and your bastard!"
Frederick stood frozen in shock.
He stared at the fierce fire in my eyes—that long-absent spark of the financial genius Sophie Sullivan—and for a moment seemed almost… morbidly thrilled.
He thought he was seeing his tamed eagle finally showing her talons again.
I faced him directly, each word precise and glacial.
"Frederick, even if these twins are worthless, they deserve better than to be tormented by you two mongrels."
"I'd sooner kill them myself than let them call this woman 'mother'!"
My words landed like physical blows—striking Frederick's face and piercing the hearts of every witness.
They suddenly remembered I wasn't just some pregnant woman to be abused at will.
I am Sophie Sullivan.
I am the Sophie Sullivan who once brought the financial markets to their knees.
I watched Frederick's expression morph from shock to fury, my heart cold as stone.
He believed he controlled everything, never realizing he'd just lit the fuse to his own destruction.
The pain in my belly intensified, but I stood tall—like a jade statue about to shatter, ready to bring him down with me.
