He Showed No Mercy When I Gave Birth Chapter 01

He Showed No Mercy When I Gave Birth Chapter 01 Paid in Blood

All I did was call Adrian Sterling, my own husband, “honey.” That was enough to make Rosalie Sullivan snap. She was his late brother’s widow, the fragile woman everyone in the Sterling family treated like glass. One second, we were sitting at the same table. The next, she swept the dishes to the floor, silverware crashing everywhere, then ran out sobbing like I had stolen something from her. Adrian did not go after her. That night, he came to me instead. For the first time in a long time, he touched me like I was still his wife. Like he still wanted me. Like Rosalie had never existed. We stayed tangled in bed until well past midnight. Nine months later, Rosalie and I went into labor on the same day. To make sure Rosalie’s son was born first and became the Sterling family’s eldest grandson and heir, Adrian pressed his own hand against our baby’s crowning head. Then he shoved him back inside me. Pain tore through my body. My vision went white. And my son, my tiny son, turned blue inch by inch. I begged Adrian with the last of my strength. He only leaned close, his voice gentle enough to make the cruelty worse. “Hold on a little longer, Iris. Once Rosie delivers, I’ll let him out.” Then Rosalie said she felt dizzy. That was all it took. I had just hemorrhaged on the delivery table, but Adrian still ordered the doctors to draw more than two pints of blood from me and give it to her. I was rushed to the ER due to blood loss. Adrian did not come. He was busy in the kitchen, following the recipe I had once taught him to make Rosalie soup to help her recover. After the doctors pulled me back from the edge of death, I held my son’s tiny, cold body and knelt before the Sterling matriarch, Eleanor Sterling. “You saved my father’s life once,” I said. My voice barely sounded like mine. “And I gave Adrian five more years. Whatever debt I owed the Sterling family has been paid.” I looked up at her. “Please let me go.” … Eleanor’s face tightened. “Iris, Adrian lost his head for a moment. That’s all. You can still have more children.” I was about to speak when the doctor walked over. His expression told me everything before he even opened his mouth. “Mrs. Sterling, I’m sorry. Because the baby was violently forced back during delivery, your cervix suffered a severe tear. I’m afraid you may not be able to carry another child.” For a second, the whole world went silent. My knees almost gave out. The prayer beads in Eleanor’s hand snapped, scattering across the floor. “Five years ago, after Adrian’s car accident, you gave him blood from your own heart to keep him alive. “To let him live like a normal man, you damaged your heart again and again. Every two weeks, you gave him your blood. “You loved him that much, Iris. Is there truly no way back?” My heart’s blood had been the beginning. With it as the anchor, Adrian needed 120 transfusions to break free from that living-dead state and become a healthy man again. For five full years, we had never missed one. Not once. But the moment Rosalie came back into his life, Adrian threw away every bit of sense he had. I held my son’s body tighter. He was so small. So cold. “He gave up the final dose himself,” I said hoarsely. The matriarch went still. I lowered my eyes to the child in my arms. “I already went against divine will to keep Adrian alive. As for what happens to him now…” My voice turned calm. “That is for fate to decide.”