The Only Heir Speaks from The Womb

I was born with a curse—a true Jinx Effect—and the first life I cursed was my own. I landed in the womb of Delilah Summers, the soon-to-be-disposed-of trophy wife of Reed Harrington, the scion of a powerful New England dynasty. I’d barely opened my embryonic eyes when I heard Blair Foster, the family’s golden-girl adopted daughter, gloating to my mother. “Dee, darling, Reed just dropped a hundred million to keep the artisanal oat milk brand I like from going under. A hundred million! What exactly are you bringing to the table?” I couldn’t have my mother looking defeated. I stretched my tiny limbs inside the uterine cocoon and muttered lazily. “Rich guy, huh? Investing without due diligence. What if the deal goes sour?” The Jinx Effect triggered instantly. Reed’s assistant called moments later. The boutique dairy company he blindly invested in had completely imploded after a massive health safety scandal. Not only was the hundred million dollar investment gone, but the fallout connected to the Harrington name caused the family’s publicly traded shares to plummet thirty percent. My father, Reed, was livid. He stormed into the room, pointing a trembling finger at my mother. “Delilah, I’m going to make sure the entire Eastern Seaboard knows you’re nothing but a desperate tramp who thought she could trap a Harrington heir! Once I get you and your little bastard off the premises, Blair moves in for good!” I barely lifted an eyelid. “So quick to discard your only chance at an heir. What if you damage your foundation, Dad? What if I end up being the only Harrington legacy you’ve got?” The next second, Reed suddenly clutched his groin, letting out a horrific, guttural howl of pain.

1 Blair Foster jumped back, shocked, rushing to steady him. “Reed, what is it? Don’t scare me! What’s wrong?” But he was already doubled over, his face contorted in agony. He only managed a choked “Get to the hospital,” before collapsing, unconscious. Reed was the only son of Arthur Harrington, the patriarch of the empire. He was rushed to the best private hospital, where the Chief of Surgery himself tended to him. Half an hour later, the doctor emerged, looking grim. “Mr. Harrington, your lifestyle—the abuse, the heavy drinking—it’s damaged your system. Permanently. I’m afraid you have total reproductive failure. You… you won’t be having any more children.” “What?!” Reed completely lost it. He began madly smashing every piece of medical equipment nearby. “How is this possible? I’m the sole heir of the Harrington name! My parents are relying on me for the next generation! I can’t be infertile!” Blair’s eyes widened in stunned silence. Everything had been fine just hours ago. But she quickly spun the narrative, pointing at my mother. “Delilah, this is your fault! You must have been clinging to Reed day and night, driving him to exhaustion until he ruined his health! You’ve ruined the Harringtons!” My mother, though clearly shaken by the unbelievable turn of events, immediately defended herself. “That’s a lie! Reed and I only had that one night—a drunken accident. Nothing since!” Tucked inside my mother’s womb, I could hear her heart hammering—she was terrified. I gently nudged the wall of her uterus, trying to send a silent signal to calm her frantic pulse. Just then, Arthur and Eleanor Harrington, my grandparents, arrived. They’d already heard the devastating diagnosis from the doctor and were both on the verge of collapsing. “Reed, what in God’s name happened? How can you suddenly be unable to have children?” Arthur’s voice cracked. “Our multi-billion dollar estate… who will inherit it now?” Eleanor wept. Before anyone else could speak, I took action. I gave a sharp, sudden tug on the umbilical cord. My mother gasped, involuntarily clutching her belly and stepping forward slightly. The small, protective gesture was immediately spotted by my grandmother. Eleanor’s eyes fixed on my mother’s hands. “Child… your stomach…” My mother knew she couldn’t hide it anymore. “Mr. and Mrs. Harrington, I’m pregnant. I’m carrying Reed’s child.” “Is it true? Oh, my sweet girl!” Eleanor’s face lit up, and she rushed to embrace my mother, her touch now impossibly gentle. “Stop calling us that! Call me Eleanor! Call me Mom!” Arthur, the family patriarch, beamed. “This is our legacy! The last remaining hope for the Harrington name! Thank you, child, you’ve saved us!” “Since this is the case, you must come back to the estate immediately to rest and recuperate. We will spare no expense for you.” Seeing her opportunity vanish, Blair instantly panicked. She grabbed Reed’s hand, tears streaming down her face. “Reed, you said you were going to marry me!” “Now your parents are taking Delilah, that… tramp back to the house! What am I supposed to do?” Despite the fact that my mother was carrying his one and only child, Reed’s infatuation with Blair blinded him. He slammed his hand onto the table. “Mother, Father, I refuse! I will never marry this low-class woman who wormed her way into my bed!” But Arthur, who had always indulged his son, didn’t hesitate. He delivered a stinging slap across Reed’s face. “Shut up, Reed! This is the Harrington legacy you’re talking about! She must be protected at all costs! If anyone objects, they are challenging the entire Harrington family!” 2 My mother was brought back to the Harrington estate and treated like a queen. To ensure her pregnancy was smooth, Arthur and Eleanor hired the best private physician for 24-hour on-call care. Expensive supplements and tonics were delivered by the truckload. Blair saw the lavish attention and her eyes turned green with jealousy. She ran to Reed, sobbing uncontrollably. “Reed, what are we going to do? Your parents only have eyes for Delilah! They’ll never accept me as their daughter-in-law!” “If I can’t marry you, I might as well die!” Reed, the absolute idiot, hugged her tighter. “Blair, don’t worry. I will never acknowledge the little bastard in her womb. Even if I have no other children in this life, I will marry you.” The two conspirators schemed, and Blair slipped Reed a vial of potent abortifacient, disguised as an herbal supplement. Honestly, when Reed came into the room with the tea tray and a sickly sweet smile, I was on high alert. He had always despised my mother. He’d only slept with her that one night to degrade her reputation and please Blair. His sudden attention could only mean trouble. I tumbled in the amniotic fluid and spoke up. “Dad won’t trip over his own two feet, will he? He won’t spill that tea all over the floor, right?” Predictably, the Jinx worked immediately. Reed stumbled, the tray flipped, and the black liquid splashed across the polished floor. He froze. But before he could clean up the mess, the 24-hour on-call physician rushed in. Even if it was just a spill, and even if Reed had prepared it, the Harringtons’ orders dictated that everything going into my mother’s body had to be checked. As the doctor prepared to swab the liquid with a test strip, Reed panicked. “What are you doing? That’s my child she’s carrying! Do you think I would harm her?” The doctor shook his head apologetically. “Mr. Harrington, these are Mr. Arthur Harrington’s explicit orders. My apologies.” The test results were, unsurprisingly, conclusive: a lethal dose of abortifacient, enough to kill both mother and child. Arthur and Eleanor’s faces were white with rage. Arthur delivered another vicious slap to Reed. “Reed, have you lost your mind? That is your only child! The future of the Harrington empire! And you tried to poison her!” Eleanor grabbed his collar and slapped him again. “Tell us, was it that fox Blair Foster who told you to do this? Tell us!” Despite their fury, the love-struck Reed didn’t point the finger at Blair. He took full responsibility. He was grounded, all his credit cards cut off, and locked in the estate study. But even that didn’t stop him. Late that night, he managed to slip past the security guards during a shift change and crept into my mother’s temporary suite. He turned the thermostat all the way up to fifty degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). “Delilah, if the temperature is high enough, you will miscarry,” he whispered to her sleeping form. “Without the child, my parents won’t protect you. I’m marrying Blair, and you deserve to be the laughingstock of the city.” He locked the door from the outside. As the room temperature soared, my sleeping mother frowned in discomfort. I woke up, instantly sensing Reed’s sinister plot. But I wasn’t scared. I spoke up calmly. “The thermostat won’t break, will it? The temperature won’t just drop back to a stable, comfortable seventy-five degrees, will it?” The air conditioner immediately sputtered, died, and the room temperature stabilized in the comfortable, pre-set range. My mother’s tight frown smoothed out. However, the noise of the struggling AC and Reed’s earlier movements finally attracted the attention of the security detail. When Arthur and Eleanor checked the security footage and saw Reed breaking into the room and cranking the thermostat to induce a miscarriage, they lost it. They grabbed a pair of golf clubs and beat him until he was bloody and bruised. Arthur grabbed Reed’s shirtfront. “Reed, I investigated! It was that wretch Blair Foster who put you up to this! Fine! You wait right here. I’m summoning her parents—the Fosters—for an immediate confrontation! I want to know how they raised that wicked girl!” 3 Under Arthur’s furious mandate, Mr. and Mrs. Foster (the parents of Blair, who were also Dee’s biological parents, a fact unknown to the Harringtons) were dragged to the Harrington mansion late that night. Arthur roared at them. “Mr. Foster, your adopted daughter has boundless audacity! She encouraged my son to poison my daughter-in-law’s supplements! What exactly are your intentions? And Delilah is your birth daughter—don’t you protect her?” The Fosters were startled by the sudden upheaval, but their first reaction was still to protect their favorite, Blair. Mrs. Foster put on a show of lightly slapping Blair, then immediately knelt before Arthur and Eleanor. “Mr. Harrington, it’s my fault for raising her so poorly. I let Blair cause trouble for you,” she wailed. “Please don’t be angry. I guarantee it will never happen again!” Mr. Foster, pale and shaking, also knelt. “Mr. Harrington, Blair is still young. She certainly didn’t mean any harm!” He then pointed a finger at my mother. “I say, all this chaos is the fault of Delilah, that black sheep! Our family disowned her long ago. I advise you to kick her out once she gives birth! Save the Harrington family from her curse!” Hearing this, I gnashed my gums (if I’d had teeth) in fury. How could my grandparents humiliate my mother like this in front of the Harringtons? They called her a black sheep! Did they have no ounce of love for their biological child? I was blood-bound to my mother. I felt her tidal wave of grief—nothing hurts more than being stabbed in the back by your own parents. But the Harringtons were not swayed by their pathetic plea. They shielded my mother behind them. “You won’t worry about the affairs of the Harrington family,” Arthur snapped. “This is a final warning. If Blair Foster ever tries to harm my daughter-in-law again, I will ensure there is no place for the Foster family in New England society!” With this threat, Arthur and Eleanor waved their hands, and security guards dragged the Fosters and a wailing Blair out of the estate. Seeing that my mother still had the Harringtons’ trust, I finally relaxed. It seemed we might have a few days of peace. For the next while, Blair disappeared and Reed made no further moves. My mother successfully carried me past the three-month mark. All her checkups were perfect, and Arthur and Eleanor had transferred a nine-figure “nutrition allowance” to her account. But on the day of her next prenatal appointment, Reed suddenly burst into the villa, with Blair in tow. They were followed by a man in a black tunic—a high-end, fraudulent psychic. Reed pointed at my mother’s abdomen in front of his parents and raised his voice. “Mom, Dad, Delilah has been lying to you! The thing she’s carrying… is a demon that will bankrupt the Harrington family!” 4 Arthur and Eleanor, of course, refused to believe this lunacy. Eleanor grabbed a glass vase from a nearby table and smashed it at Reed’s feet. “Reed, get out! The child in Delilah’s womb is yours! If you don’t care, we do!” Arthur chimed in just as fiercely. “We will never allow a single thing to happen to the Harrington heir! Don’t speak such nonsense!” Seeing his parents unmoved, Reed became desperate. He knelt on the glass shards and bowed, his head hitting the floor repeatedly. “Mom, Dad, I’m serious! I hired a renowned medium to consult the spirits! He says the baby in Delilah’s womb is a jinx—a demon! If she gives birth, the Harrington Group will collapse!” “I cannot stand by and watch the foundation of our ancestors be destroyed by this tramp and her little bastard!” “You have to believe me. This child cannot stay!” Hearing him, I started to panic. Did the medium really figure out my Jinx ability? While I’d used it to protect my mother, in their eyes, it could easily seem like a terrifying curse. As I fretted, my mother seemed to sense my anxiety. She gently stroked her belly, reassuring me. Seeing Arthur and Eleanor hesitate, Blair pressed her advantage. She threw a stack of fabricated photos onto the floor at their feet. The photos purported to show my mother in compromising situations with various male models and unsavory characters. “Mr. and Mrs. Harrington, look! Delilah is no innocent sweetheart! She’s lived a life of debauchery, sleeping with every man she can find!” “I’m telling you, this child is absolutely not Reed’s! Delilah is just after the Harrington fortune and she’s trying to pass off a bastard child! Once the child is born, it will not only curse the family with misfortune but also ruin your reputation!” Eleanor’s face went white looking at the stack of sleazy images. Her voice was thin and shaky as she looked at my mother. “Delilah, tell your mother the truth. Is any of this real?” “No, Mom, it’s not!” My mother sobbed her denial. In the past few months, Arthur and Eleanor had genuinely treated her like a daughter, and she had begun to call them Mom and Dad sincerely. Seeing the situation spiraling, she knelt before them. “Mom, Dad, please believe me…” “Reed is the only man I have ever been with. I have never done anything to disrespect this family!” But Reed stood up and slapped my mother across the face. “You tramp! You’re still lying after all this!” While Reed and Delilah were entangled, Blair quickly winked at the psychic, urging him to begin his “cleansing ritual.” I saw the situation deteriorating and desperately tried to open my mouth to trigger a Jinx. “This psychic is fake, isn’t he? He’s just a fraud trying to scam money, and nothing he does will work!” But as I opened my mouth, I realized something was terribly wrong. I couldn’t speak.