Kim_Li_0078

#DARK ROMANCE 
Lin Yueyao spent five years of her youth married to Shen Xiao, a man whose heart was as cold as steel. She believed that her gentleness would eventually melt his indifference, but the only thing that melted was her own dignity.

Every night, she endured his cruel touch, his words like blades, and his silent disgust. But no matter how much it hurt, Yueyao clung on – for the sake of their son, Xuanxuan, and for the sliver of hope that someday he might see her.

That hope shattered completely when his first love, Bai Zhi, returned from abroad. The very night Bai Zhi came back, Shen Xiao left Yueyao alone to dine with her. His gaze, once cold and dismissive, turned tender only for Bai Zhi.

Then, just as Yueyao discovered she was pregnant again, Shen Xiao handed her divorce papers. Abandoned while carrying his child, betrayed by her husband, and discarded like a stain on his life, Yueyao’s world collapsed.

Even their son, Xuanxuan – the little boy she’d nearly died giving birth to, the one she raised with unwavering devotion – rejected her, clinging instead to Bai Zhi with innocent adoration.

But fate was crueler still.

Kidnapped straight from her hospital bed by men demanding ransom, Yueyao realised no one was coming to save her. Her husband hadn’t even noticed she was missing. As she lay in that abandoned factory, trembling in pain, all illusions crumbled.

She was done waiting for love from a man who treated her like dirt.

This time, she would save herself. And when she returned, it wouldn’t be as the pitiful Mrs. Shen, but as a woman reborn from ashes – with a heart no longer beating for Shen Xiao.

But will he realise her worth only when it’s too late?

Love After Divorce: Her Second Chance

And the child she never even knew she carried had been cut out of her before she could feel it flutter inside her womb.

"Why…?" she croaked out into the darkness, her voice trembling and hoarse, "What… did I… do… wrong…?".

Her dry lips trembled as silent tears pooled under her lashes.

She thought of Shen Xuan's little face, how he had once buried his nose in her neck, giggling softly as he hugged her tight with his chubby arms. "Mommy, I love you the most in the world," he had whispered once at bedtime, falling asleep to the sound of her heartbeat.

She thought of Shen Xiao's cold eyes looking down at her in the hospital, filled with nothing but disgust. His lips twisted when she cried, and his voice was so empty as he told her to stop embarrassing him with her sympathy-seeking antics.

She thought of Bai Zhi's delicate smile as she pressed her hand over Shen Xuan's head, whispering, "Good boy… Aunt Bai will always be here for you…"

A hoarse, broken scream ripped from Yueyao's throat before she could stop it. The sound bounced off the cement walls and returned to her ears, mocking her with its ugliness and despair.

"Please…" she sobbed, her shoulders shaking violently despite the ropes that dug into her flesh. "Please… someone… anyone… please…"

No matter how much she called for help, no one was going to hear her... She had no one...

Her tears dripped down onto the filthy floor, mixing with the blood that had crusted beneath her cheek. Her shoulders twitched as silent sobs racked her chest, each inhaling scraping her ribs with pain.

In the darkness, memories began to twist into nightmares.

She saw herself standing in a sunlit courtyard, her belly swollen with life as Shen Xiao approached her with a bouquet of pure white calla lilies. He smiled down at her gently, brushing a strand of hair from her face.

But when she reached for him, his image blurred and shattered like glass. The calla lilies rotted into black, twisted vines that coiled around her wrists and throat, squeezing tighter and tighter until she couldn't breathe.

She heard a child crying. Desperately, she looked around, her eyes wide with terror.

"Xuan'er…? Baby… Mommy's here… Mommy's here…"

But when she turned, it wasn't Shen Xuan standing there. It was a tiny, bloody infant, its face blurred and eyes hollow. It reached out a small, skeletal hand towards her and whispered in a rasping voice:

"No… no… no… please… I didn't know… I didn't know…!" Yueyao screamed, thrashing weakly against her bindings, her tears flowing like rivers. "Please… I'm sorry… I didn't know…"

But the infant only repeated, over and over in that empty, echoing voice:

"You let me die… You let me die… You let me die…"

The words clawed through her skull like shards of glass.

When she jerked awake from the hallucination, her breathing was harsh and ragged. Her entire body trembled with cold sweat, and her clothes clung damply to her fevered skin.

She stared blankly into the darkness for a long time, her mind emptied of thought. Slowly, a numb calm settled into her chest like a rotting weight.

Not Shen Xiao. Not Shen Xuan. Not even God was at her mercy.

Her lips curved into a broken, bloodied smile as she closed her eyes.

Chapter 21; Then so be it