Pregnant With His Heir, He Married The Actress Instead Chapter 08

Pregnant With His Heir, He Married The Actress Instead Chapter 08

An hour later, the rescue team still hadn’t found Raina.

Zayne immediately pulled every string he had.

“Even if you have to drain the ocean dry, find her.”

Then, as if something had occurred to him, he added viciously, “Seal the whole city off from the outside world. Ground every flight. Shut every port down.”

“Anyone leaving Seattle must undergo a thorough inspection.”

After giving the orders, he put on professional dive gear and prepared to go back into the water.

He had only just reached the shoreline when the butler stepped in front of him.

“Mr. Hale, the storm hasn’t fully moved out yet.”

“There was a rip current here an hour ago. If someone gets caught in it, they lose control almost immediately and get dragged into deep water. Miss Lane… I’m afraid the odds aren’t good.”

A biting cold seemed to sink straight into Zayne’s bones, and his whole body started shaking.

He clenched his jaw and drove his fist into the man.

“Shut the fuck up, old man. Raina is still alive.”

“My child is too.”

By seven that night, East Harbor Terminal was still lit up like day.

The water was over sixty feet deep. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Wave after wave of rescue divers rotated through, and still no one found Raina.

Zayne didn’t allow himself a single moment of rest.

Even after he ran through one oxygen tank after another, he refused to come back up.

In the end, he had to be rushed to the hospital after passing out from lack of oxygen.

When he woke up, three days had passed.

“Zayne, you’re finally awake!”

Cassidy sounded overjoyed.

Zayne turned his bloodshot eyes on her like a beast, savage and bloodthirsty. “Cassidy, did you really think I was with you because I wanted to marry you?”

“Everything I did was because I had my eye on that ancestral East Harbor Terminal your family has had for generations. Now it belongs to the Hale family, which means you’re worthless to me.”

“Get out.”

Cassidy froze. “What are you talking about? We signed a short-term lease agreement last week.”

Zayne gave her a cold sideways glance and smiled with chilling cruelty. “Maybe you should read the contract again.”

“You just signed wherever I told you to. Stupid enough not to realize you signed away the ownership rights.”

Cassidy went rigid. Her pupils seemed to lose focus.

East Harbor Terminal was the only thing keeping the Chambers family in the room with Seattle’s power players.

And she had handed it away herself.

“Zayne, you can’t do this to me. If my father finds out, he’ll kill me.”

Zayne got out of bed, grabbed her by the throat, and snarled, “I found out you were the one who told Victor about Raina’s pregnancy.”

“If it weren’t for you, she wouldn’t have been hurt.”

“You’re the one to blame. You killed my Raina. You killed our child.”

“If your father doesn’t kill you, I will.”

Cassidy’s face turned red from the pressure on her throat. She couldn’t get out a word.

Evelyn rushed in and pulled him off her.

After Cassidy left, Zayne tried to go back to East Harbor Terminal to look for Raina.

But before he could even make it out of the hospital room, his weakened body gave out and he collapsed again.

Evelyn’s heart twisted in pain.

If she could go back three days, she would stop Victor from doing something so reckless.

She would save Raina.

The next morning, the rescue team found Raina’s phone on the ocean floor.

After the data was recovered, they discovered two unsent emails inside.

Both were addressed to Zayne.

His face went white as paper. His hands shook as he opened the first one.

[Zayne,]

Do you remember? Five years ago, you told me that when it snowed in Seattle, you’d marry me.

The weather report says it might snow this year.

I hate Seattle so much. Why didn’t it snow once in five whole years, only to show up now, when you’re about to marry someone else?

Zayne, when I found out I was pregnant, I was truly scared. I was scared this baby would never get the chance to come safely into the world. I was so stupid. I thought you would accept the child. I wanted to tell you like it was a surprise, and instead I saw your wedding invitation with Cassidy.

I hate you so much. You let her hurt our Spud, and I really can’t forgive you for that.

Zayne, let me call you that one last time.

I don’t regret the seven years I spent with you. The gap between us was too wide. Something like us was always bound to end because of the difference in our status. A man like you was never free to decide his own marriage. I was the one who wanted too much. I was the one who failed to see my place. I’m sorry.

I didn’t realize until today that the ring you gave me had our initials engraved inside it. I don’t know when you had it made, or what you were feeling when you slid it onto my finger.

You said you’d give me endless money and a huge house. I didn’t know how to answer you then, but the truth is, I never wanted any of that.

I only wanted you.]

By the time he reached that last line, a brutal pain was tearing through his chest.

With red-rimmed eyes, he opened the second email.

[Zayne, I hate you.

I saw the video of you kissing Cassidy. It made me think of everything we used to be, and my head hurt so badly that the only relief I could find was crying.

I cried in public. People on the street were staring at me. It was humiliating.

Do you know what I dreamed last night? I dreamed I had a daughter. She had huge eyes. She was adorable. Beautiful.

I braided her hair and took her to school, but the other kids whispered that she was a child without a father. They bullied her. They put cockroaches and frogs in her desk. They shoved centipedes into her pencil case. She came running home crying and telling me about it, and I couldn’t do a single thing for her. I felt so guilty.

Zayne… I think I’m losing my mind. I kept thinking that if being with you meant staying your mistress, maybe that would still be worth it. But that kind of thing is wrong. I looked out at Elliott Bay through the car window and felt like a complete lunatic. A pathetic one.

Zayne, I made an appointment for an abortion. I’m sorry. I don’t want to use this child as leverage.

He was never leverage. I loved him the same way I loved you.

Zayne, in all these seven years, you never once told me anything about your past relationships. I only found out recently that you chased Cassidy for half a year. Was all your passion left back then? I was so jealous of her.

A man like you, thriving in that world of money and power, how could you not have known my feelings for you were real?

In this relationship where we each took what we needed, I want to ask you one thing.

Was there ever a moment when you meant any of it?

Goodbye. I hope life is kind to you. I really do.

The email had been scheduled to send ten days later, on the seventh anniversary of the day they met.

Zayne choked back sobs, trembling as he cried like a child.

Then a violent rush surged up through his body. Blood spilled from his mouth onto the blanket, and he blacked out.