My Husband Sold My Innocence Fifteen Times Chapter 04

My Husband Sold My Innocence Fifteen Times Chapter 04

After that day, I didn’t get out of bed. My body simply refused to heal. Liam stationed guards outside my door around the clock — not to protect me, but to keep me alive.

Liam came every day — sat at the edge of my bed, reminisced about the good years, spinning tales of the future like nothing had changed. Ethan, on the other hand, barely looked at me. I’d scared Chloe, and he still hadn’t forgiven me for it.

He came by every few days, just long enough to make sure I was still alive. But each time, he brought a fresh batch of my favorite cookies, baked from scratch.

A month later, the doctors confirmed what Liam had wanted all along. I was pregnant.

Liam lit up with the kind of pure, unguarded joy I hadn’t seen on his face in years. He grabbed my hand and held it tightly. “Audrey — we’re having a baby! Remember how much you wanted this? It’s happening.”

The warmth in his expression dimmed slightly, something more measured replacing it, as he held out an evening gown.

“It’s Chloe’s birthday tonight. You can give her that apology at the party — clear the air.” He paused. “You’re going to be a mother. Start over. Do it for the baby.”

Something stirred in me — faint, barely there — like feeling returning to a limb I’d thought had gone dead. For the first time in weeks, I felt a familiar prickle behind my eyes.

My hands shook when I took the dress, not from fear this time. A baby with Liam. Once, back when we were first married, that had been my biggest dream.

But he didn’t know a baby couldn’t keep me here. It was all going to end tonight.

I hadn’t been under real lights in so long that the banquet hit me all at once — chandeliers blazing, everything too bright, too sharp. Liam guided me through the crowd and up to the stage, his hand steady at the small of my back.

Every guest in the room could do the math. A wife missing for three years, abducted, then auctioned off. It didn’t take a genius to figure it out. They looked at me the way you’d look at something dirty.

Chloe watched the room’s reaction, and something behind her smile sharpened, satisfied and blade-bright.

Ethan exhaled slowly beside me, and when he spoke, his voice was rough with something between relief and guilt.

“After tonight, we put all of this behind us. You apologize, and everything goes back to the way it was — you’re my sister, and I’ll make sure no one in this city lays a hand on you. I promise.”

He meant it. I could hear it in his voice.

None of it mattered anymore. I let the faintest smile settle on my face and looked past the city lights to where the Serpentine River glinted in the distance.

Chloe took my hand, her face still sweet, still soft, but her nails sank into my skin like she wanted to leave a mark.

Her voice dropped so only I could hear. “Want to know why I convinced them to let you off that night?”

“Because if it had ended there, it would’ve been too easy for you. I want you to watch — see for yourself — just how much they love me.”

Before I could react, she grabbed my hand, slammed it into her own face as hard as she could, then stumbled toward the river, wailing, tears streaming.

“Audrey, forget the apology — it’s my fault! I’m the one who shouldn’t be here! I’m sorry — if I’m gone, you won’t have anyone to bully, and Ethan and Liam won’t have to worry anymore!”

The room exploded — guests rushing to Chloe, voices overlapping in panic — and every glare that turned on me was venomous.

Liam and Ethan came running from wherever they’d been putting together Chloe’s surprise, gifts spilling from their arms and hitting the ground, forgotten the second they landed, and tore through the crowd to reach her.

Liam lunged for Chloe at the river’s edge, grabbing her around the waist and dragging her back from the railing, both of them crashing to the pavement. Ethan stood frozen, white as a sheet, chest heaving, still processing how close they’d come.

I watched the whole performance, and a bitter smirk twisted my mouth. “So this was your little setup—”

His slap cracked across my face before I finished the sentence.

“Audrey — I asked you for one thing, Audrey!” Liam’s voice tore through the noise. “One apology, and you couldn’t even do that without pushing Chloe to the edge!”

Ethan’s fists were clenched at his sides, disappointment hollowing out his eyes. “I had a gift for you tonight. Clearly, that was a waste.”

Neither of them looked at me again. Liam scooped Chloe up and carried her toward the ambulance, murmuring into her hair. Ethan walked beside them, pulling silly faces, coaxing out a watery laugh — anything to make her stop crying.

I pressed my hand to my stinging cheek and, before I even realized what I was doing, called out after him. My voice came out steady, almost gentle.

“Goodbye.”

It was the period at the end of a sentence that should never have been written.

Something cold went through Ethan. He turned back, uneasy in a way he couldn’t explain.

“Why did that sound like—” He couldn’t finish the thought. “She wouldn’t try anything again. Right?”

Liam barely looked back. His answer came without a shred of doubt.

“She’s pregnant. She wants this baby more than anything. She’s not going to throw that away.”

They loaded Chloe into the ambulance and motioned for the bodyguards to come over — to take me back, lock me up, and keep me alive.

A scream tore through the air behind them — sharp, hysterical, unmistakable.

“She jumped! She jumped into the river!”