Reincarnation Failed, I Became A Cat To Save The True Heiress Chapter 05

Reincarnation Failed, I Became A Cat To Save The True Heiress Chapter 05

Silence. The kind that sucked the air out of the room.

Serena threw herself off the bed. She hit the floor hard, still bleeding, and dragged herself toward the compartment on her hands and knees.

“Baby…” She was on her knees, hands hovering, too terrified to touch.

The baby’s eyes were shut. Her chest wasn’t moving.

“Doctor! Somebody, do something!”

The scream ripped out of her, raw and almost inhuman.

Alistair’s eyes darkened with fury. He seized the attending doctor by the collar and hauled him to

the floor beside the baby.

“If she dies, you’ll never practice medicine again.”

The doctor scrambled to the baby and went to work.

Airway cleared. Chest compressions started. A tiny oxygen mask pressed over the baby’s face.

The only sound in the room was the soft, rhythmic thud of the doctor’s hands on that tiny chest.

My front claws were shattered from the impact. The pain was white-hot.

But I didn’t look at them. My eyes were locked on the baby.

(Don’t you die on me. I wrecked my whole body getting you out of there.]

One minute. Two. Nothing.

Serena’s teeth were buried in her lower lip. Blood ran down her chin.

She was coming apart right in front of us.

Off to the side, a sick gleam of triumph flickered across Julian’s face. He smothered it fast, but not

fast enough.

He arranged his face into grief and moved toward Serena.

“Serena… you have to let go. Maybe she never made it. We still have our little girl…”

“Get away from me!” She shoved him so hard he stumbled. The look in her eyes could have killed

him.

Then

A thin, reedy cry split the air.

Color flooded the baby’s face, blue fading to pink, and her tiny fists unclenched and wayed.

“She’s breathing! Sir, she’s alive!”

The doctor sagged backward, drenched in sweat, and released the breath he’d been holding.

Serena lunged for the baby and pulled her to her chest, hands trembling from how hard she was trying to be gentle.

She looked down, and her breath caught.

A tiny red birthmark on the baby’s left earlobe. The family mark, carried by everyone in the bloodline.

The same one behind Alistair’s ear.

Serena’s head snapped toward the nanny. Toward the other baby.

Fair skin. Chubby cheeks. And behind each ear, nothing.

No mark. No shared blood. No question.

Julian’s face went ashen.

Chloe’s knees buckled, and she hit the floor.

The imposter’s voice shrieked inside my head. [No! No! Why didn’t she die!]

[Daddy, do something! I don’t wanna go to an orphanage!]

I dragged myself toward Serena on broken claws and pressed my head against her leg.

[That’s your girl, Serena. The one you carried for nine months. She’s right here.]

Alistair stood over Julian. He didn’t need to raise his voice.

“Anything else to say, Julian?”

Julian dropped to his knees and pointed hard at Martha.

“It was her! Alistair, it was all her!”

“She was trying to steal the baby and sell her! I had nothing to do with it. I swear!”

Martha’s head snapped up, her mouth falling open.

“You liar! How can you pin this on me?”

“It was you and Chloe who…”

“Shut up!” Julian lunged and kicked Martha in the chest.

Martha crumpled, gasping like she was about to throw up.

Alistair didn’t flinch. He lifted one hand.

Two of his men pinned Julian facedown on the tile.

“Let her talk.” Alistair crouched in front of Martha. “The truth. All of it. Tell me the truth, and your family stays safe. Lie to me once, and there won’t be a corner of this city you can hide in.”

Martha grabbed his ankle, sobbing.

“I’ll tell you everything. Everything!”

“It was Julian and Chloe. They put me up to it!”

“That baby didn’t come from outside the family. Chloe gave birth to her two weeks ago at a private

clinic!”

“They told me to make the switch while Serena was still weak from delivery!”

“Half a million to keep quiet, and they’d send my son overseas. That was the deal.”

The room erupted.

Serena held her baby tight and turned her gaze on Chloe.

“Chloe… you had a baby two weeks ago?”

“All those months in baggy clothes, telling me you’d gained weight, that you were on a diet…”

“You were carrying my husband’s baby the whole time.”

Chloe was shaking her head, face wet with tears, clawing at the edge of Serena’s gown.

“Serena! She’s lying! I didn’t… I would never…”

“She’s making it all up to save herself!”

I watched her grovel.

[Still lying. Even now.]

My eyes found the emerald locket on the floor. Right where it had fallen after I shredded Chloe’s

scarf.

I limped over and batted it to Serena’s feet.

Serena looked down at it.

That hairline crack. She’d know it anywhere.

“You said this was a knockoff, Chloe.”

Her voice was terrifyingly even.

“The back is engraved with Julian’s initials. J.H.”

“Did your knockoff come with my husband’s monogram too?”

Chloe’s face went gray. She sank to the floor and said nothing.

Julian tried one last time.

“Serena… just let me explain…”

“It was her! She came on to me!”

“I was drunk. I thought she was you!”

“I love you! Serena, please… just this once…”

The imposter’s voice cut in, gleeful and vicious. [Daddy’s such a liar! Every night, he says Serena’s boring and cold, and only my mom knows how to make him happy!]

[He also said once he gets the money, he’s going to sell Serena to traffickers overseas!]

Every hair on my body went rigid.

This man was worse than an animal.

I snarled and launched myself at the nanny.

The nanny shrieked and dropped the baby onto the bed.

One swipe of my claw split the swaddle open.

The baby’s bare back came into view.

A dark birthmark the size of a coin sat on her right shoulder blade.

Serena stared.

Julian had the exact same mark in the exact same spot.

Proof. Undeniable.

Serena closed her eyes. Tears ran down her face without a sound.

Three years of marriage. Eight years of friendship.

Every last bit of it had been a setup designed to destroy her.

She opened her eyes. There was nothing warm left in them.

“Alistair.” Serena looked at her brother.

“Destroy them.”