Chapter 1
Julian Thorne slapped me across the face, leaving my left cheek burning.
“You jealous witch! If you can’t have children yourself, fine!”
“But now Melody’s pregnant, and you’re trying to harm her!”
Behind Julian, Melody Hayes wore a triumphant smile.
“Julian, what if I told you she did it to herself? Would you believe me?”
I pressed a hand to my cheek, my voice barely a whisper.
Julian’s cold eyes narrowed, his anger mounting, as he let out a harsh snort.
“Are you saying she harmed herself?”
“Do you even believe that nonsense coming out of your own mouth?”
“Aubrey Sinclair, when did you become this kind of person?”
Melody stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Julian’s arm, her voice deliberately sweet:
“Julian, it’s my own weak body, don’t blame Aubrey.”
Julian sighed in exasperation, then tenderly stroked her head.
“My little Melody is always so kind.”
Then his voice hardened. “But that doesn’t mean I am.”
“Aubrey Sinclair, you should be grateful Melody is unharmed. If anything had happened to her, I’d have made you pay with your life!”
“But since you made a mistake, you must accept your punishment.”
“I’ll sentence you to kneel in the snow for three days and three nights. No standing.”
Melody gasped at his words, feigning concern.
“Julian, that’s too harsh! Our wombs are so delicate, what if…?”
Julian sneered.
“She doesn’t even have a womb, what’s there to fear?”
At his words, my hand instinctively went to my flat abdomen.
Yes, I didn’t have a womb.
And I couldn’t bear children.
But Julian seemed to have forgotten that if I hadn’t been stabbed in the abdomen while saving him years ago, forcing a hysterectomy, I wouldn’t be without a womb now.
“What are you waiting for? Guards!”
At his command, two bodyguards grabbed me and dragged me out into the snow.
Following Julian’s unspoken signal, they used electric batons to brutally strike the back of my knees.
I cried out in pain, forced to my knees in the biting snow.
Julian simply uttered, “You reflect on your actions here,” before wrapping his arm around Melody and leading her into the mansion.
Soon after, passionate sounds began to emanate from within.
Night fell quickly, but the sounds from inside showed no sign of stopping.
The sub-zero temperatures, dropping to minus ten degrees, froze me until I was numb.
Every time I tried to stand, the guards watching on the security cameras would spot me and strike my knees again.
After a while, I lost all strength to even attempt to stand.
I shivered uncontrollably, a thick layer of frost coating my face.
Inside the warm mansion, Julian ceaselessly took Melody, again and again.
At one point, I heard Melody Hayes say:
“Julian, if you treat Aubrey like this, what if Aubrey stops loving you?”
Julian scoffed at her words.
“Impossible. She loves me so much she’d throw her life away for me.”
He was right.
It was common knowledge among our set: I was utterly, hopelessly devoted to Julian Thorne.
Three years ago, when he was attacked at a gala, I didn’t hesitate to shield him from a fatal blow, leading to the removal of my uterus.
Two years ago, when his car plunged from a bridge into a lake, I rushed into the freezing water without a second thought to find him, leaving me with a chronic illness that makes my entire body ache every winter.
Five months ago, when Melody Hayes discovered she was pregnant, Julian brought her back to the mansion, and I was expected to cater to her every whim, on call 24/7. I even had to go out in the middle of a storm-lashed night to buy their condoms.
But what no one knew was that this love had an expiration date.
Due to the complications from my hysterectomy, my doctor had told me I had only ten days before I would completely lose my memory.