OLIVIA’S POV

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+20

The room was quieter now, but the silence wasn’t empty–it was full of everything we hadn’t said yet. I was still sitting on the couch beside my mother, still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I was sitting next to her, breathing the same air, after more than two decades.

“I don’t understand why you would feel this way,” she finally said, her voice a blend of confusion and pain. “Why did they adopt you if they were going to treat you so harshly?”

I let out a bitterugh–more air than humor. “Even I don’t know. They weren’t… the warmest. I was just the extra mouth to feed. I was never really part of their world. Just a charity case, I guessb./bb” /b

Her brows furrowed deeply, and she clenched her jaw. “Did they hurt you?”

“No,” I said after a pause. “Not physically. But ithey /iignored me. I never felt like I belonged. No birthday parties, no hugs when I cried, no bedtime stories. I think that’s why… I stopped expecting love from anyone. It just didn’t feel like something I deserved.”

“And that was just the beginning,” I continued, needing her to know the full weight of it. “A few years back, they were struggling financially, and I met this guy… a billionaire. At first, he seemed like a dreame true–charming, generous, attentive. My adoptive parents were thrilled. They pushed for the marriage hard.”

Her eyes narrowed. “They forced you to marry him?”

I nodded slowly. “Not with fists. But with pressure. Guilt. Threats. They made it seem like I owed them everything. And once I married him, the mask fell. He was nothing but a monster. Controlling, maniptive… cruel.”

“And when you told them?”

I scoffed. “They didn’t even flinch. All they cared about was the money he brought in. He was funding their failing business, and I was the price. They told me to ‘tough it out‘ and ‘be grateful.”

“So they were using you,” my mom whispered, her voice shaking now–not from grief, but fury. “They used you as a source of ie.”

“Exactly,” I replied. “Till now, they still don’t realize all the pain they caused.”

“pain?” my mom asked her face filled with curiosity

There was a pause. I looked down at my hands, then slowly ran my fingers over my stomach. My voice dropped to a whisper. “yeah, I hmm, I lost one of my unborn babies. It was early, but it still hurt. They weren’t directly the cause, but they were all connected.”

My mother gasped. Her entire body seemed to stiffen as she turned toward me fully.

“You had a miscarriage… because of them?” she said, her tone low and sharp.

I nodded, blinking back btears/bb. /b“I didn’t even get to hold one of them. I never got to hear a heartbeat. Just emptinessb.” /b

That bwas /ball it took. The emotional, tearful woman beside me was gone, reced by someone fierceb–/bsomeone ready to protect.

“They messed with the wrong family,” she said through clenched teeth. “You’re going to write down everyone’s names that bwere /binvolved, and I’ll see to it they rot in jail. Everyst one of them.”

I blinked, caught off guard by her intensity. “Mom…”

“No, Olivia. You’ve suffered long enough. They don’t get to walk away from this like nothing happened.”

bI /bnced at Julian, unsure of what ito /isay. He raised his hands in surrender, his bface /ba mix of amusement and warning.

“There’s no need for that. It bwas /ban ident. My husband’s lover was the one who caused me to lose it,” I said, my voice trembling just a little as the memories tried to push their way back in.

My mother’s expression changed instantly. Her calm and tender demeanor bwas /bquickly reced by a fiery one as she bprocessed /bwhat I’d just said. “Oh, so your husband had a lover, and she was involved in thisb?/bb” /bshe repeated, her voice low and tight with restrained fury. “That’s not a problem- we’re going to add them to the list too.”

She immediately started rummaging through her purseb, /bclearly looking for her phone. And knowing what I did about wealthy people, especially ones with influence and connections, I knew what that meant. Just one phone call and someone’s life could fall apart in an instant. I’d seen it happen before.

I reached out and gently ced a hand over hers, halting her frantic search. “It’s all right,” I said softly. “There’s no need for that. I’ll handle them myself.”

+20

She paused, her hand freezing mid–motion, then slowly looked at me. Her eyes searched mine for a moment, trying to read just how serious I wasb. /bThen she turned to nce at Julian, silently asking for his opinion. He gave a small nod

“Fine, if you say so,” she said atst, letting out a small sigh. “But they must pay for what they did to you. No one–and I mean no one–gets to hurt my daughter and walks away unpunished.”

“And they will,” I said, a fire of determination rising in my chest. “Every single one of them.”

There was a brief moment of silence. Then she nced down at my stomach and said in a quieter voice, “I would have really loved to see my grandchild.”

Her words hit me like a bittersweet breeze. My hand instinctively went to my belly, and for the first time in a while, I smiled–really smiled. A genuine, warm, hopeful smile that spread across my face before I could stop it.

My mother blinked at me, clearly confused for a moment. She watched me closely, tilting her head slightly as if she were trying to solve a puzzle “Wait…” she said slowly. “You said one of your babies. Does that mean…?”

I nodded, trying to keep my excitement from bubbling over. “Yes,” I whispered, “I’m still pregnant. I’m still carrying one of the twins.”

It took a moment to register, but once it did, her eyes lit up and she let out a happy gasp. She leaned in and wrapped her arms tightly around me, holding me like I was the most precious thing in the world. “I’m going to be a grandma,” she whispered, her voice trembling with emotion.

let out augh—small, joyful, and uncontroble. It had been so long since I’d felt this kind of warmth, this kind of love. “Yes,” I said softly. “You are.”

“This is wonderful, dearie,” she said, pulling back just enough to cup my cheeks. “You should’ve told me you were expecting. This is the best news bI’ve /bheard in years.”

“Well,” I replied with a small chuckle, “we just met. I wanted to give us some time to settle down before dropping any more big surprises.”

She opened her mouth to say something else, but just then, my phone buzzed on the couch beside me. I turned to look at the screen, and my heart skipped a beat. The name shing across it was thest one I expected to see.

Adrian.

He rarely called. Ourmunication had been reduced to the asional cold message or short conversation. For him to suddenly call me now… something had to be up.

My mom must have caught the shift in my expression. “Is something wrong?” she asked gently.

“I need to take this call,” I said, already standing as I grabbed the phone, dread, and curiosity mixing inside me.