I Was Sent to the Casino Tycoon as Debt Repayment Chapter 04

I Was Sent to the Casino Tycoon as Debt Repayment Chapter 04

The floor beneath me was cold and wet. Every contraction dragged me closer to blacking out.

Stella glanced at the puddle spreading beneath me and recoiled with theatrical horror. “Oh my God, did you just pee on my floor? That’s revolting.”

Dignity was gone. Pride was gone. The only thing left in my head was my baby.

“It’s not… it’s not pee. My water broke… I’m in labor. You have to… get me to a hospital.”

Stella crouched and pressed her palm flat against my belly, curious as a child poking a dead animal. “I’ve never watched someone give birth before. Go ahead — push it out right here.”

I stared at her, my voice scraped raw. “Hospital… please. Just the hospital. Please.”

Stella picked at her nails without looking up. “If you’re going to beg, at least do it right.”

The contractions were coming so fast they swallowed every thought. My pride screamed no, but desperation won out.

I dragged myself up onto my knees at Stella’s feet. “Please, Ms. Mercer. I’m begging you. The hospital.”

The last word barely left my mouth before the next contraction hit. My arms buckled, and I went down hard.

Something warm spread beneath me again, but this time it wasn’t clear. It was red. Blood pooled across the white marble in wide, dark blooms.

The room went still. Stella looked down at me, smiling.

“You actually believed that? Oh, honey. You’re not going anywhere. You push that baby out right here, or you bleed out on my floor.”

I choked down the blood crawling up my throat and locked eyes with her. “If I die in this room, Victor will burn your world to the ground. You know that.”

Stella leaned in until her lips were at my ear. “You think I set all this up just to let you walk out and run crying to Victor?”

“Nobody’s coming for you. You die here.”

The pieces locked into place. The ring dismissed as a fake. Victor back in the country and never coming for me. Stella had been behind all of it.

Real fear — the kind I’d never felt before, not once through all of this — crept through me like ice water. I searched the room, desperate, and my eyes found my mother.

“Mom… please. Not for me — for the baby. Just get me to a hospital.”

Something flickered in Mom’s face — guilt, maybe, or the last reflex of motherhood. Her hand started to reach for me.

Behind her, Stella cleared her throat. Mom’s hand dropped.

I grabbed the hem of Chloe’s skirt with bloody fingers. “I’m Victor’s wife, Chloe. Get me to a hospital right now, and everything between us — all of it — is forgiven.”

The words came out broken, fractured by contractions. Chloe wrenched her skirt free from my grip.

“Ms. Mercer says you deliver here. So you deliver here.”

Stella walked toward me, and something glinted in her hand — a knife, long and thin. She held it over my belly, point down. “You won’t push? Fine. I’ll cut it out myself.”

Steel kissed my skin, and something inside me shattered. I couldn’t stop shaking. “No… don’t. Stella, don’t. You can’t… Victor will kill you for this.”

My terror fed something in her. The more I shook, the wider she smiled. “You’re about to die and you’re still saying his name. Pathetic.”

She pressed down. The blade sank in, and my body split open with a pain so total it swallowed the contractions whole.

“Oh, this is fun.” Her voice was bright, childlike. “Let’s play a game — boy or girl? Place your bets.”

The room held its breath. Chloe recovered first, scrambling forward with her best sycophantic smile.

“A girl — I’m guessing girl.” Mom’s voice came from behind, shaking. “She’s carrying high. Probably a girl.”

Something lit up behind Stella’s eyes, feral and bright. She angled the knife. “Guess we’ll find out when I open her up.”

The blade drove deeper. Pain yanked me back from the edge of consciousness, and I screamed with everything I had left. “You’ll pay for this, Stella. I swear to God, you’ll pay.”

The burst drained everything. I collapsed, staring up at the chandelier overhead — crystal and gold, beautiful enough to die under. Hatred was the only thing keeping my heart beating.

Inside me, the baby thrashed — frantic, fighting, alive. Stella’s jaw set. She leaned her full weight onto the blade. “Die already.”

A voice carried through the heavy door. Male. Familiar. Every nerve in my body recognized it before my brain did.

“Did the men I sent for my wife make it back yet?”

Victor. Stella’s face went white, and in the same instant, she bore down harder on the knife.

I seized the blade with both hands. Steel bit into my palms, and I didn’t care. I screamed his name with everything my ruined body had left.

“VICTOR!”