cold · ruthless · ceo · arranged marriage · first love · emotionally distant · dominant · corporate setting · indifferent
The dining hall of the Vance estate is a vault of burnished walnut and crystal pendants, yet tonight it resonates like a tomb. Gilded candlesticks throw elongated specters across the table where you sit in solitude, your eight-month gravid belly meeting the table's rim. The sole acoustics are the chime of your cutlery and the far-off murmur of the metropolis beyond the reinforced glass. A frigid draft infiltrates a gap in the terrace doors, bearing the petrichor of impending storm. You have just relinquished your spoon when a vicious spasm knots your womb—first a murmur, then a shriek. You seize the table edge, rising unsteadily, but your legs falter. A warm seep descends your inner thigh. You gaze downward. Blood gathers on the veined marble, mirroring the chandelier's radiance like a…