The Second Life of a Doomed Heiress

Chapter 3

I knelt on the cold marble floor, the chill slicing straight through my skin to the bone.

For the sake of the baby inside me, I bit down hard on my lip, tasting blood as I forced out two humiliating barks.

"Woof... woof... I'm a filthy bitch..."

Emily Cooper pressed the stiletto tip of her heel against my chin, forcing my face up toward her.

Her red lips curled into a cruel smile, victory gleaming in her eyes.

"Sophia Chen, do you remember how I once knelt in front of you?" she sneered.

Her manicured fingers lazily traced over the curve of my swollen belly.

"How does it feel now that the tables have turned?"

A memory flashed across my mind—Emily, soaking wet from the rain, barging into my office in tears, begging for my help because of her so-called 'true love' for Justin Cooper.

But the marriage between the Cooper and Chen families had been tied to three major international projects.

If I had backed out, my family would've faced billions in penalties.

The chlorine from the nearby pool burned my eyes, but a far sharper pain ripped through me—deep and brutal.

I doubled over, clutching Emily's skirt in desperation.

"Please... save my baby... call an ambulance..."

Justin's leather shoe came down hard on my hand, crushing it against the floor.

He yanked me up by my hair and slammed my head against the marble.

The sickening thud echoed in my skull.

"You filthy whore! Did you really think you could pass off some bastard as a Cooper heir?"

A warm, horrifying wetness seeped down my thighs.

When the first drop of blood hit the floor, time seemed to freeze.

My baby... my baby was slipping away...

"You promised..." I choked on blood and tears. "You said you'd spare the child..."

Emily giggled and wrapped herself around Justin, her voice dripping with mockery.

"I only promised I wouldn't kill it," she said sweetly, tapping his chest with a manicured finger.

"Justin never agreed."

"You're dead!" Justin snarled and kicked me hard in the stomach.

I flew across the floor like a discarded doll, slamming back-first into a Roman column.

Something inside me cracked—loud, sick, final.

Blood bloomed beneath me like a grotesque flower.

When I felt the last flutter of life inside my womb fade into stillness, I lifted my head with what little strength I had left.

I smiled at them—broken, bloody, unafraid.

"Justin... do you think Vincent knows... what's inside your study safe?"

Emily's face went ghostly white.

She panicked, rushing into the living room and grabbing a climbing rope.

Meanwhile, Justin dragged me by my hair across the blood-slicked floor toward the pool.

Red streaks smeared behind us like the trail of something dying.

"Please... don't..." I begged hoarsely, my body wracked with pain.

They tied me up in a humiliating knot and tossed me into the water without hesitation.

The cold hit me like knives, and I thrashed uselessly, choking as water filled my lungs.

Above me, Emily's laughter rang out, cruel and sharp.

"Don't worry. By the time Vincent finds you, all he'll see is a bloated corpse..."

Just as my consciousness began to fade, the rope tightened around my waist.

Justin hauled me back to the surface, slamming his foot onto my belly.

"Last chance," he snarled.

"Who's the bastard's father?"

A violent contraction tore through me, worse than anything before.

I curled around my abdomen, shuddering—

And then—

The villa's front doors exploded open with a deafening crash.

"Sophia!"

Vincent Cooper stood framed in the doorway, his icy gaze sweeping across the scene.

Behind him, two dozen armed bodyguards poured in like a black tide.

In Vincent's hand was a bloodstained paternity test—

And in that moment, Emily's face went deathly pale.