Audrey's POV.
My knuckles were raw from pounding on the door.
Still, I kept knocking.
"Uncle! Please open the door!"
The heavy wooden door of my uncle's study didn't move. Not even the handle rattled.
I hit it again.
And again.
Each strike sent a dull ache shooting through my hands, but I barely noticed the pain anymore. My voice had already gone hoarse from shouting. From pleading. From trying to make someone inside that room listen to me.
"Please!" I cried.
Silence answered me.
The hallway felt enormous and empty. The only sound that broke the quiet was the steady ticking of the grandfather clock near the staircase.
Each tick felt deliberate.
Cruel.
Like it was counting down the final minutes of my life as I knew it.
My arm finally dropped.
All the strength drained from my body at once.
Slowly, I slid down the wall until I was sitting on the floor with my back pressed against the cold wood paneling.
My entire body trembled from exhaustion.
From fear.
From the horrible uncertainty clawing at my chest.
I buried my face in my hands, trying to muffle the sobs threatening to break free.
My mind wouldn't stop replaying the moment Uncle Saul had locked me out as he stormed out of the house earlier that evening.
He had gone to meet Roman.
And even though a part of me had known how unlikely it was… I had still hoped.
I had hoped Roman would listen.
That the man who had once looked at me with such intensity would at least hear me out.
The door behind me suddenly clicked open.
I jerked upright.
Uncle Saul stepped into the hallway.
His appearance shocked me.
His tie was loosened, his hair slightly disheveled. His face looked pale, as if he had just returned from fighting a war.
But he didn't look at me.
He walked straight past me without a word and entered the living room.
I scrambled to my feet and followed him.
"Uncle?" I asked breathlessly. "What happened?"
He sank heavily onto the old leather sofa.
For several seconds, he stared at the dark fireplace without speaking.
The silence stretched so long that my heart began pounding painfully in my chest.
Finally, he spoke.
"It's done," he said quietly.
My breath caught.
"We settled it."
Hope fluttered weakly inside my chest.
"He… understood?" I asked carefully. "He's going to help?"
My uncle slowly turned his head toward me.
The look in his eyes made my stomach drop.
"He agreed to pay five million dollars."
Relief crashed through me so suddenly that my knees nearly gave out.
"Five million?" I breathed.
That was enough money to save the company.
Enough to support a child.
Enough to start over.
"That's… that's enough," I said weakly. "That's enough for you to make up for the merger you lost. Enough for the baby."
My uncle's expression hardened.
"It's not for the baby, Audrey."
The sharpness in his voice made my relief freeze in my throat as he hesitated to complete the sentence while he avoided my eyes.
"He paid for a termination."
For a moment, I didn't understand the words.
They sounded distant.
Unreal.
"What?" I whispered.
"The money cleared ten minutes ago," he said flatly. "Everything is settled. Your appointment is tomorrow at noon."
My entire body went cold.
"You go to the clinic," he continued, his face now morphed into something dark. "And this problem disappears."
"No."
The word tore out of my throat before I could stop it.
I staggered backward, one hand instinctively pressing against my stomach.
"You didn't," I said, shaking my head violently. "You couldn't have done that."
"It's my child!"
My voice broke.
"You had no right to sell my baby!"
"I didn't sell anything!" he snapped, jumping to his feet. "I fixed a disaster!"
His face twisted with anger.
"Roman Lennox was ready to destroy us! That money saves my company."
"By taking blood money?" I cried.
Tears streamed freely down my face.
"Send it back!" | begged. "Send it back right now!"
"We can't."
The voice came from the hallway.
Sasha stepped out of the shadows, leaning lazily against the doorframe with her arms crossed.
Her expression looked bored. Amused.
"Dad already authorized the wire transfers." she said casually. "The money is gone, Audrey. It went straight to the corporate creditors and the estate's mortgage accounts."
Her lips curled into a faint smirk.
"When you ruined the Mercer merger, you triggered the penalty clauses. The bank called in our loans. That five million covers the breach-of-contract fee and stops the foreclosure on this house. If we return Roman's money, we default by morning. We lose everything."
Her gaze slid toward me with open disdain.
"You created this mess, Audrey. The least you can do is fix it."
The cruelty in her voice cut deeper than anything else that night.
"Fix it?" I whispered. "By killing my child?"
"It's a five-million-dollar mistake that finally paid off," she scoffed. "You should be grateful he paid anything at all."
Her eyes gleamed.
"Most men would have sued you."
"I won't do it."
The words left my mouth before fear could stop them.
My voice trembled, but I forced myself to stand straighter.
"I don't care about the loan," I said. "I don't care about this house."
My hand pressed firmly over my stomach.
"I'm not going to that clinic."
My uncle stepped toward me slowly.
A vein pulsed violently in his temple.
"You don't have a choice."
"I signed the agreement with Lennox," he said coldly. "You are legally obligated to follow through."
"I never signed anything!"
"Enough!"
His roar shook the entire room.
I flinched instinctively, backing into the china cabinet behind me.
"You've lived under my roof for ten years," he continued, his voice thick with long-buried resentment.
"You ate my food. Wore the clothes I bought for you."
His eyes burned with anger.
"You owe me this."
"You will go to that clinic tomorrow, or I swear I will drag you there myself."
The last strength left my body.
I collapsed onto my knees.
"Please," I sobbed.
"Please don't do this."
"I'll leave," I said desperately. "I'll disappear tonight. Roman will never know the baby exists. I swear it."
My uncle hesitated.
A calculating look flickered across his face.
"If the procedure isn't done," he said slowly, "Lennox will demand his money back."
My heart clenched.
"He paid for the problem to vanish."
His voice lowered.
"If he finds out the child still exists… he won't just ask for a refund."
"Audrey, you know what must be done," he said sharply. "You cannot let this child bring shame to our family. You'll go to the clinic tomorrow."
My uncle leaned closer.
"He'll send someone to deal with it."
Fear washed through me like ice water.
Roman was powerful.
Ruthless.
The thought of him discovering the truth made my stomach twist.
"He won't know," I whispered desperately.
"I'll disappear. I promise."
For the first time that night, my aunt spoke.
She had been sitting quietly in the corner the entire time, flipping through a magazine.
"Saul," she said calmly.
"If the girl leaves tonight, Lennox will assume the job is done."
She looked up at my uncle.
"We keep the money."
Her gaze moved to me briefly.
"And we finally get rid of her."
The casual cruelty in her tone made my chest ache.
To them, I wasn't family.
I was just a liability.
My uncle rubbed his temples slowly.
Then he exhaled.
"Fine."
His eyes hardened when he looked down at me.
"You want the child? Keep it."
"But you leave tonight."
He crouched down until his face was level with mine.
His voice dropped to a whisper that chilled my blood.
"If you are still here after midnight, I will personally take you to that clinic."
"And if Roman Lennox ever finds out you kept the baby…"
His gaze turned cold.
"He won't just come for his money."
"He'll come for you."
I nodded quickly, wiping tears from my face.
"I understand."
"Good."
He straightened.
"You have one hour to pack."
His voice carried no emotion at all.
"After that, you no longer exist to this family."
*
Two hours later, I stepped out into the pouring rain.
The storm had swallowed the city.
Water ran along the streets in muddy rivers as thunder rolled somewhere in the distance.
I walked slowly toward the bus station with nothing but a small suitcase and the few savings I had left.
Rain soaked through my thin jacket almost immediately.
But I barely felt the cold.
The bus station smelled like wet asphalt and exhaust fumes.
I sat on a cracked plastic bench beneath the flickering lights.
The last bus north would arrive soon.
North.
Back to the small apartment my parents had once called home.
I pressed my hand gently against my stomach.
A strange mix of fear and determination filled my chest.
"I'm sorry," I whispered softly.
"I'm still trying to figure everything out."
The rain pounded harder against the metal roof.
Roman Lennox.
Just thinking his name made my chest tighten.
He hadn't just rejected me.
He hadn't just thrown me out of his office.
He had written a check to erase his own child.
To him, we were nothing more than a problem he had paid to make disappear.
I tightened my grip on the suitcase handle.
But the rain couldn't wash away the truth anymore.
"I'll protect you," I whispered to the life growing inside me.
"I promise."
The bus pulled into the station with a loud hiss of brakes.
Its headlights cut through the rain like glowing eyes.
I stood slowly and stepped toward the door.
Roman Lennox thought he had buried a secret.
But what he didn't realize…
Was that secrets have a way of growing.
And one day, he would have to face exactly what he tried so hard to erase.