Hong City, First People’s Hospital, Department of Obstetrics.

Serena Whitfield was drenched in sweat. One wave of contraction after another tore through her stomach, hurting so bad her face had gone ghostly white. She opened her mouth and dragged in deep breaths, looking like a fish tossed onto dry land, barely hanging on, forcing herself to breathe with the doctors’ instructions.

"Push harder. We can already see the baby’s head."

"Don’t be scared. The baby will be out soon."

"The baby’s here. Congratulations, it’s twins—a boy and a girl."

"This is bad. The mother’s blood pressure is rising. Massive uterine bleeding. Prep for surgery."

After what felt like the hardest fight of her life, Serena finally gave birth. She was soaked through, every last bit of strength wrung out of her. With huge effort, she glanced at the babies, both covered in blood. Her lips moved, but not a single word came out. All she could do was let the doctors move her around as they wanted. Then dizziness hit, hard, and she blacked out.

"Just look at these two. Pretty little things, red lips, fair skin... shame they’re just fatherless bastards with no clear background. Tsk, tsk..."

Serena woke to that grating voice in the middle of a noisy blur.

The moment she opened her eyes, she saw Vanessa Holloway standing by the crib, sizing up her babies like she was picking apart merchandise.

The babies?

Then it all came rushing back.

She had just crawled through hell in the delivery room. She had nearly died giving birth, and right after the babies came out, she’d passed out from massive uterine bleeding.

But she’d been saved.

She was still alive.

That alone felt unreal.

"Serena Whitfield, so you’re awake."

Vanessa turned around. When her eyes met Serena’s desperate yet guarded stare, the corner of her mouth curled into a mocking smile. "The two little bastards you gave birth to are actually pretty good-looking. Too bad nobody even knows who their father is."

As she spoke, she reached out like she was about to pick one of the babies up.

"Don’t touch them!"

Serena’s pupils shrank sharply.

The second she saw Vanessa move, something fierce exploded inside her. She had just become a mother, and that raw instinct was stronger than the weakness crushing her body after childbirth. Ignoring the pain, ignoring how shaky she was, she threw herself out of bed with shocking speed, slammed straight into Vanessa, and shoved her away. Then she stood in front of the twins like a mother hen guarding her chicks with her life.

"Vanessa Holloway, what the hell are you trying to do?"

She stared at Vanessa with full-on vigilance, her eyes thick with disgust and hatred so deep it almost felt solid.

Vanessa Holloway staggered back and barely caught her balance. She shot Serena Whitfield a vicious glare, but then, as if something crossed her mind, she let out a cold little laugh.

"Serena Whitfield, wow, I really didn’t expect this. You actually care this much about these two bastards. I’m just curious—when they grow up and find out they’re fatherless little mistakes, how do you think they’ll feel?"

The second those words landed, Serena’s whole body went rigid. The hatred in her eyes surged up like fire breaking through dry grass.

If Celeste Holloway hadn’t set her up back then, if she hadn’t pushed her into that nightmare with a stranger, Serena would never have gotten pregnant. She would never have ended up abandoned by everyone, shoved into a corner with nowhere to go. Even now, her father still saw her as the disgrace of the Whitfield family, the stain that had dragged their name through the mud.

It had happened at night.

Her first time had been stolen from her in the dark.

What she remembered was barely anything—just a faint, hazy impression of a man, and that unmistakable scent on him, a cool, rich ambergris fragrance that was oddly clean and unforgettable. Other than that, she knew nothing. Not his face. Not his name. Nothing.

"Vanessa Holloway, shut your mouth."

A flash of ruthless anger cut through Serena’s eyes. Taking advantage of Vanessa’s smug, careless moment, she lunged forward without warning. Her hand came up fast, left and right, and several sharp slaps landed square across Vanessa’s face before the other woman could even react.

Old grudges, fresh hatred—stacked together until they were overflowing.

She had wanted to do that for a long, long time.

"You hit me?"

Vanessa clutched her burning cheek, her expression twisting. Her eyes turned poisonous, like a snake ready to strike. "Serena Whitfield, do you even know this hospital was funded by the Holloway family? With one word from me, you and these two little bastards will be thrown out right now."

Serena’s gaze flickered. She quickly scanned the room, and then her eyes landed on a small fruit knife sitting on the table beside the bed.

The corner of her lips curled into a cold smile.

Without hesitation, she rushed over, grabbed the apple knife, and held it tightly in her hand.

"Perfect," she said, voice low and icy. "Before you call someone to throw me and my children out, I can ruin your face first."

She raised the knife slightly as she spoke, the blade catching a glint of light.

At this point, other than her two babies, she had nothing left.

Nothing.

So what was there to be afraid of losing?

Motherhood had changed her. Life had changed her. The soft, gullible Serena from before—the girl who was easy to fool, easy to crush—had been worn down and reforged into someone much harder.

People like Vanessa always acted tough, but the truth was simple: the arrogant feared the desperate.

Worst-case scenario? She’d go all in with her.

Vanessa’s heart skipped hard. For the first time, real panic flashed through her. She was suddenly afraid Serena might actually do something crazy.

"Serena Whitfield, I’m warning you, don’t do anything stupid, or I’ll—"

"You’ll what?" Serena cut in, gripping the knife as she stepped closer and closer. "Kill me? Or keep scheming against me like before?"

Her face was pale from blood loss, but there was something frightening in it now, something dark and sharp.

"Let me make this crystal clear. I’m not the idiot I was a year ago, the one you could trick whenever you wanted. If you dare set me up again, or lay a finger on my children, I’ll finish you first."

She didn’t actually intend to kill Vanessa.

But the humiliation, the rage, the suffocating misery she had swallowed for an entire year—it had all piled up inside her. Right now, she just wanted to teach Vanessa a brutal lesson and make her feel even a fraction of what she had suffered.

"You—you wouldn’t dare."

Celeste Holloway kept backing up, one step after another. But then the thought of being scared off by Serena Whitfield made her face burn with embarrassment. She forced herself to straighten her back, puffed up her chest, and was just about to shout for help when Serena, weak as she was, moved crazy fast. In two quick strides, she was already in front of her, the knife pressed hard against Celeste’s throat.

"Celeste Holloway, since you treated my words like trash, I’ll show you exactly whether I dare or not."

Her hand lifted, then came down. The blade was about to slash across Celeste’s neck when a large hand suddenly grabbed her wrist midair.

"Serena, have you lost your mind? Do you even know what you’re doing?"

A cold, sharp voice rang out.

Serena turned her head and met Preston Langley’s disappointed, accusing stare. Her heart clenched for a second, sharp and ugly. But the moment she remembered how he and Celeste had teamed up to shove her into this hell, that flicker of pain got swallowed whole by hate.

She violently shook off Preston’s grip. The knife flashed in her hand as she swung it backward without hesitation, slicing straight through the sleeve on his arm. Blood seeped out at once.

Preston covered his injured arm and stared at Serena in disbelief.

"Serena, you hurt me?"

There was a time when Serena loved him more than her own life. Forget hurting him—if he so much as scraped one finger, she would’ve felt like her heart was being cut open. But now, when she looked at him, there was nothing left in her eyes except coldness and hate.

"Preston Langley, if killing people wasn’t against the law, I would’ve ended both of you right here."

Serena bit out every word through gritted teeth.

The humiliation of being set up and left with no way to defend herself, the helplessness of being thrown out by her furious father—every bit of it surged back the moment she saw the two people who had ruined her. All of it twisted into a thick, suffocating hatred she couldn’t shake off.

"Preston, I was only trying to tell Serena that her father is gone, and that she should go back to pay her respects. I really don’t know why she got so worked up. She wanted to kill me, and now even you..."

Hiding behind Preston, Celeste Holloway spoke in a trembling voice, stopping halfway like she had more to say but didn’t dare.

"What did you say? What happened to my father?"

Serena felt like she’d been struck by lightning. Her whole body went numb for a second before she rushed forward in panic. Celeste instantly grabbed Preston’s clothes with both hands, her face pale with fear.

"Preston, save me!"

Preston shielded Celeste and retreated step by step. His voice dropped low.

"Serena, don’t do anything stupid. My people are all outside. If I give the word, neither you nor your children are getting out."

Serena’s eyes flickered.

Right. She still had her babies. No matter what, she could not let those two animals get their hands on them.

"Preston Langley, tell me the truth. What happened to my father?"

Her eyes shifted slightly, a thought flashing through her mind. She forced herself to soften, at least for the moment.

She had to make sure she and the babies could get out of this alive, in one piece.

Seeing her back down, Preston’s expression eased a little.

"Serena, your father heard you were about to give birth. He got so angry his heart condition flared up, and he passed away. And one more thing—before he died, he left a will handing Whitfield Group over to me. As for you, his biological daughter, you were already kicked out of the Whitfield family."

Celeste Holloway’s words smashed the last bit of hope Serena Whitfield had been clinging to.

"Celeste Holloway, that’s bullshit. My father had physical checkups every year. The doctors all said he was healthy. He never had any heart disease."

Serena let out a low, furious growl. "Did you two do something to him together? Because even if I was thrown out of the Whitfields, there were still my uncles. No matter how you slice it, Whitfield Group should never have ended up in Preston Langley’s hands."

Preston’s gaze darkened.

Celeste said, "Preston, I think Serena’s gone full paranoia after giving birth. In her condition, there’s no way she can raise the children properly. Since your uncle spent so much effort grooming you, why don’t we bring the babies home and raise them ourselves? That way Serena can remarry later too."

Preston turned to look at her. "Celeste, you’d really be okay with that?"

"The boy and girl are both beautiful, and Serena was once someone you cared about. I just want to help her out."

Celeste curled her lips into a smile, two shallow dimples showing.

Preston nodded. "Alright. I’ll call someone in to carry them out."

Serena’s heart dropped hard, and a murderous chill flashed through her eyes.

When Preston walked toward the twins, Serena rushed forward with the knife in hand and stabbed straight into his injured arm. While he reeled in pain, she snatched up the twins, grabbed her bag from the small table, and bolted.

Even after she ran out of the hospital room, she could still faintly hear Celeste’s voice behind her, no longer bothering to keep up the act, screeching curses like a madwoman.

She ran out of the hospital, flagged down a taxi, and jumped in. The moment she turned her head, she saw several bodyguards in black charging after her outside the window.

Her heart was in her throat as she told the driver to go faster.

Preston had sent people after her. She could not let them take her babies back. If the children fell into Celeste’s hands, then with her vicious methods, there would be no good ending waiting for them.