The Frame-Up He Believed Chapter 02

The Frame-Up He Believed Chapter 02

But I didn’t die.

When I opened my eyes again, Dominic was there, eyes bloodshot, keeping watch by my hospital bed. He crushed me against his chest, his voice shaking.

“Ela, you scared the hell out of me.”

“No more. No more kids on the side. I promise.”

But once you break a promise for the first time, you’ll break it a hundred more.

The second time Irina got pregnant, Dominic smoked all night.

I knew he was hesitating. He felt sorry for her. And he felt trapped by his word to me.

Irina showed up at my door. Before I could even speak, she fell.

The baby was gone.

That was the first time I saw Dominic lose it. He had his hand around my throat, screaming for me to pay.

“I already promised you! I told her she’d get rid of it! Why couldn’t you just stay away from her?!”

That was the second time I almost died.

The air was crushed out of my lungs, inch by inch. Just when I thought I was gone, he threw me aside like trash.

The look in his eyes—pure disgust. Nothing hidden.

All my explanations died in my throat.

Dominic moved out of the townhouse we’d built together.

After that, every time I needed to reach him, I had to get Irina’s permission first. Only then would he pick up.

Two months later, the family clinic doctor told me I was pregnant.

He called it a medical miracle. Probably my only chance to be a mother. The news was kept top secret—just me and the doctor.

I texted Dominic.

But Irina showed up instead.

She walked straight into my study.

“You think this baby will bring Dom back?”

“Don’t be stupid. You know what he said in my bed last night? He said your face makes him sick. If you hadn’t taken that knife for him back then, he’d have dumped you back in Brooklyn already.”

Before she left, she poured hand soap all over the bathroom floor.

The moment I slipped, blood flooded my vision.

I called Dominic. Busy. Over and over.

The tenth call finally went through. One sentence.

“Irina said no.”

The ambulance took too long. By the time they came, the blood had already gone cold.

The baby was gone.

I lay in that hospital bed, staring at the ceiling, numb. I couldn’t understand how we’d ended up like this.

Then I figured it out.

Maybe the baby knew better than to come into this world.

It would’ve only been born into a house full of fighting. A last name that made its mother a joke.

Fine.

Whatever.

Let it go.

From that day on, I think I stopped loving Dominic.

Now, watching him walk away with Irina, I felt nothing.

My phone buzzed—that one ringtone I’d set for a certain someone. I picked up.

“Yeah. The family lawyer already drafted the asset division agreement. I’ll give it to him tomorrow.”

“Day after tomorrow, pick me up at JFK.”