Chapter 8
She had told Nicholas with tears in her eyes, so happy she could barely breathe.
Samantha had been standing nearby.
When she heard the news, a tear slipped down her cheek.
Nicholas immediately went to comfort her.
And when he came back, he brought Katherine a bowl of herbal medicine.
He sat beside her, took her hand, and said gently, “Samantha was pregnant once too. Her ex-husband forced her to lose the baby. Seeing you pregnant brought it all back for her. She’s in a lot of pain right now. Let’s not keep this one. We can have children later.”
Katherine had felt the world go silent.
She knelt in front of him and begged him, tears streaming down her face, telling him that this was their child.
He only held her shoulders and said, “There will be other children.”
Then he forced the medicine down her throat with his own hands.
That same day, before she had even recovered, she and Samantha were kidnapped on the road and taken to a cliffside.
The kidnappers made Nicholas choose.
He chose Samantha.
Katherine fell from the cliff.
As she dropped, wind roaring in her ears, she thought, maybe this is for the best. Maybe dying would hurt less.
But she didn’t die.
When she opened her eyes again, she was lying in a cave, wrapped in a stranger’s coat.
The man who had saved her was young, striking, elegant in a way that did not seem ordinary. He wore simplicity like it was luxury and spoke with easy confidence.
When she thanked him and tried to offer money, he laughed.
“I don’t need money,” he said. “What I need is a wife. Marry me instead.”