I Can Hear My Unborn Baby’s Thoughts, and We’re Taking Down the Other Woman Together Chapter 06

I Can Hear My Unborn Baby’s Thoughts, and We’re Taking Down the Other Woman Together Chapter 06

The day I was discharged, the sun was beautiful.

Declan went to handle my checkout and bring the car around, telling me to wait for him on a bench in the hospital lobby.

But the second he walked off, a beat-up van screeched to a halt at the entrance.

The side door slid open, and a few thugs in cheap clothes jumped out. Before I could scream, they grabbed my arms and started dragging me toward the van.

“Let go of me! What are you doing?!”

I struggled, my hands clamped over my belly.

“Shut up and move!” a familiar, vicious voice snapped.

Marla who’d been missing for five months—poked her head out. Her eyes were sunken, her face a mask of gambling addiction. She pointed at me and yelled at the men, “Hurry up! Don’t let anyone see! We’re getting this done today!”

Beside her sat a guy in loud clothes, chewing his fingers and drooling. Bobby “Boo” Cline.

They shoved me into the van, slammed the door, and tore off.

Half an hour later, we stopped in front of the county clerk’s office.

Marla and the two thugs dug their fingers into my arms and dragged

me toward the building.

[Mom! Fight! Don’t let them take you inside!]

My baby’s baby voice became a terrified shriek, loud in my skull.

[In the past life, this is where that mean old lady and her goons pushed you. You wouldn’t marry that idiot, so they shoved you down the stairs. You started bleeding really bad. I didn’t make it. Mom, please protect your belly!]

Past and present collided. A chill shot from my feet to my scalp.

I stared at the high concrete steps. My palms were slick with sweat.

Marla was so deep in debt—over a hundred grand—that she was willing to kill a pregnant woman right here.

“Marla, are you insane? Declan’s alive! He’s at Serenity Hills!”

I clawed at a nearby pillar and screamed at her.

“Don’t you threaten me with that cripple!”

Marla spat, her face twisted as she grabbed my thigh.

“He’s been gone five months. Even if he’s alive, he’s useless. I already gambled away his benefits. You’re marrying Bobby today for the money, or I swear I’ll die right here!”

The two thugs exchanged a look, lost patience, and kicked at my hands to pry them off the pillar.

I closed my eyes, curling my body around my belly.

But the pain never came.

CRUNCH—!

A sickening thud of flesh hitting flesh. The two men holding me flew through the air like broken kites, screaming, and crashed into the clerk’s office glass doors, shattering them.

A towering, dark figure landed in front of me, radiating pure, killing fury.

Declan.

His jacket was gone. Just a thin shirt, soaked with sweat from running. His black eyes were completely bloodshot, veins bulging on his forehead and neck like they might burst.

For the first time, I saw the unshakable, emotionless rescue captain lose his mind in front of everyone.

“D-De… Declan?!”

Marla fell back onto the steps, her face gray as a ghost. “You… you’re not messed up? How—”

Declan ignored her. He turned and, with shaking hands that could barely make a fist, carefully pulled me to my feet. When he was sure I wasn’t hurt and the baby was fine, he let a fraction of the violence in his eyes cool.

He wrapped me completely behind his broad back and turned to face

Marla.

“You. Touch. Her. Again?”

“Son! I’m your mother!”

Marla saw she was losing and slapped her thigh, putting on a show right there on the steps, wailing for the crowd.

“This ungrateful boy! He comes back and tries to kill his own mother over some slut! Everyone, look!”

People gathering outside the clerk’s office circled around, pointing and whispering.

Marla, emboldened by the audience, pointed at my face and screamed.

“You think this bitch is innocent? Who knows whose bastard she’s carrying!”

“I married your dead father for his money and an easy life. You think I raised you ’cause I loved you? You were my cash cow! I sent you to that rescue group so you’d make big money for me—not so you’d lay a hand on me over some slut!”

In her frantic attempt to seize the moral high ground, she spewed every secret like a broken slot machine.

The crowd went dead silent. Then gasps.

She wasn’t Declan’s real mother. She was a stepmother. His mother had died of illness when he was young. His father remarried, then

died in an accident two years later.

Marla had taken everything, living off Declan’s pay and survivor benefits for years, gambling it all away.

Every bit of pain, isolation, and memory loss Declan had suffered for five months—it was all her doing.

“Good. Very good.” I stepped out from behind Declan, wiping tears I didn’t know I’d shed, and stared at Marla. “Marla, every word you just said—the clerk’s office cameras and every person here heard it.”

Declan’s fists were so tight his nails cut into his palms. Blood dripped between his fingers onto the steps.

He didn’t say another word to Marla.

With his uninjured left hand, he pulled out his work phone and dialed security and the police. His voice was still hoarse, but every word was clear and final.

“This is Declan Hayes. Outside the county clerk’s office. Attempted kidnapping of a pregnant woman, falsification of dependent’s documents, and massive fraud. Send units now.”

At the words “kidnapping” and “units,” Marla and the two thugs panicked and tried to run.

But black SUVs had already surrounded the area. Dozens of rescue team members in uniform, their eyes cold, appeared like ghosts before the police even arrived.

“Captain Hayes!” They saluted in unison.

Sirens grew closer.

When the cuffs clicked onto Marla and the thugs’ wrists, she finally understood fear. She struggled, crying and begging, “Son! I raised you! You can’t do this to me! God will punish you!”

Declan stood like a statue, his hard face showing nothing.

He just covered my ears with his hands and pressed my head into his chest, blocking out the filth.