His Secret Son Cost Me My Baby

My husband, Liam, was slipped a spiked drink when he was young.

He had a one-night stand with a woman, and she ended up pregnant.

In the third year of our marriage, he looked at me with a guilty expression and said:

I didn't find out about the boy until he was already six. He is the only mistake of my past, but a son of the corporate empire cannot be left raised in the slums. He carries my blood.

The child was innocent, after all. So, I agreed to let him move into our home.

Unfortunately, the boy, Leo, hated my guts.

"You're a wicked woman! If it weren't for you, my mommy would be living with my daddy right now!"

I couldn't stand his daily screaming and tantrums anymore.

I proposed sending him to a prestigious boarding school.

But Liam flatly refused.

"He's just a six-year-old child. Even if he dislikes you, what harm can he actually do? Since when did you become so heartless, Hailey?"

And that brought us to todaywhen Leo pushed me down the stairs, causing me to miscarry.

When Liam heard the news, he merely pinched the bridge of his nose with an exhausted sigh.

"If you had just treated him like your own son, why would he have done this to you?"

At that exact moment, the harsh truth finally clicked.

In his heart, that boy was his family. I was just an outsider.

Clutching my empty, aching stomach, I dialed my billionaire brother's number.

"Julian, my baby is gone. Please, come and take me home."

Right after I hung up, Liam walked into the VIP hospital room.

He was holding his illegitimate son, Leo, by the hand.

The little boy had his lips pouted, looking completely defiant.

"I didn't do it on purpose! She slipped because she's clumsy..."

Liam tapped the back of the boy's head and said in a cold tone, "I'm saying this for the last time. Apologize to Hailey."

For the past three months, he had been trying to force Leo to call me "Mom."

And every single time, Leo would throw the exact same hysterical tantrum:

"No! I won't!"

"I already have a mommy! She took care of me for six years. We just don't live together right now!"

He threw his arms around Liam's waist, sobbing.

"Daddy, why don't you want my real mommy? She's so sweet. Why can't we be together?"

Liam froze, speechless.

He had always avoided explaining to Leo why he and Chloe couldn't be together.

Looking at the boy's tear-stained face, Liam's eyes filled with intense guilt.

After the nanny took Leo out of the room, Liam pulled up a chair and sat down beside my bed.

"I've made him come here and apologize. You can't seriously expect a six-year-old to get down on his knees and beg for your forgiveness, can you?"

I clenched my fists under the blanket, my throat burning.

"So my baby deserved to die?"

During the three months since Leo arrived, he had spiked my water with harmful herbal extracts and abortive tea mixes more than once.

A six-year-old child could never have come up with that on his own.

It was glaringly obvious who was pulling the strings behind him.

I had warned Liam before: "Send the boy back to his mother."

But Liam had remained silent, smoking on the balcony all night long.

Later, as Leo kept sweetly calling him "Daddy" day after day, Liam's cold exterior began to melt.

The next time I brought it up, his face was like ice.

"That's out of the question."

"Chloe is manipulative and unstable. She will ruin my son if she raises him."

A suffocating silence hung in the hospital room.

Liam rubbed his temples and said in a raspy voice, "I can compensate you in any way you want, Hailey. Just don't ask me to send Leo away."

I turned my head away from him. "Then there's nothing left to say."

Liam stared at my belly, a flicker of pain crossing his eyes.

"Hailey, I've already lost one child. Do you want me to lose another?"

"You should know that no one can ever threaten your position as my wife."

I kept my eyes lowered, swallowing the bitter taste in my mouth.

Liam and I had an arranged marriage for business alliances.

But looking back, we did share three years of genuine love.

That was before we knew Leo existed.

Back then, he aggressively outbid everyone at a high-end charity auction to win back my late mother's vintage jewelry just to make me smile.

He even shut down a private harbor in New York for an entire night just to throw a fireworks show for my birthday.

But all of that ended abruptly the moment a six-year-old boy appeared.

I touched my lower abdomen.

Now that the anesthesia had fully worn off, a sharp, cramping pain flared up inside me.

I closed my eyes and said quietly, "Liam, let's get a divorce."

Liam stiffened, then let out a cold, cynical laugh.

"Over a child?"

"I know you hate Leo, and I know you've been paranoid about his mother."

"But I've told you a thousand timesyou are my only wife. There is absolutely no need to be jealous of a woman who poses zero threat to you."

He always referred to Leo's mother as "that woman."

But he had no idea what a desperate woman would do for the sake of her child.

The day I fell, Leo's remote-control car had rolled right under my feet at the top of the stairs.

I was five months pregnant back then. With my belly blocking my line of sight, I tripped and tumbled all the way down the grand staircase.

I still remembered the look in Leo's eyes.

Panic, fear, but also a sick, subtle trace of satisfaction.

He had clutched his smart-watch phone, his childish voice trembling as he spoke into it: "Mommy, she's bleeding so much..."

On the other end of the line, Chloe had whispered in a rushed, hushed tone:

"Wait a little longer before you call for help."

"Listen to me, Leo. You cannot let her give birth to that baby. If she does, your father's wealth will go to someone else."

"Only if that baby is gone will everything belong to you. And only then can mommy come back to your father's side where she belongs..."

There were security cameras all over our house.

Liam was a ruthless, sharp businessman. It was impossible for him not to know.

He just chose to turn a blind eye.

For the sake of his son, he would always harbor a subconscious soft spot for the boy's mother.

On the day I was discharged, the nurse gave me a strange look.

"Where is your husband?"

I looked down at my phone.

Liam had sent a message just minutes ago: [Leo says his mother is sick.]

[Don't worry, I won't go see her myself. I'm just setting up a team of doctors to take care of her.]

I closed my eyes, letting out a long, heavy breath.

"My husband is dead," I told the nurse.

The nurse blinked in surprise, then offered me a knowing, supportive smile. "Congratulations."

Once my body recovered, I immediately began liquidating my assets.

Julian's company had invested $900 million into Liam's firm back when we married. Pulling out that capital and dividing our assets was going to be a messy, massive war.

I walked out of my family's corporate office holding a thick stack of legal documents. On my drive back, I got stuck in a heavy traffic jam.

My car ended up stopped right next to an elite private elementary school.

"Daddy! You actually came to pick me up today!"

Holding the steering wheel, I glanced at my rearview mirror. I saw Leo jumping eagerly into the back seat of my car.

The car I was driving belonged to Liam's fleet. The boy hadn't even looked at the license plate before hopping in.

The second he saw me in the driver's seat, his face turned paper-white.

"Hailey..."

Just then, a woman rushed over from the sidewalk, grabbing him out of the car and pulling him into her arms.

"What do you think you're doing? Why are you trying to kidnap my son!"

"Just because you lost your own baby doesn't mean you can steal mine! Leo didn't mean to hurt you!"

I narrowed my eyes.

I recognized her instantly. Chloe.

Leo's eyes darted around before he buried his face in her chest, crying loudly.

"Mommy! While you were gone, this lady kept hitting me!"

"She wouldn't give me food, and she wouldn't let me see Daddy!"

Chloe gasped dramatically, her eyes wide with manufactured horror.

"How could you be so cruel? How could you abuse my little boy! He might not be yours, but he is the baby I raised with my own sweat and tears..."

The street was packed with other wealthy mothers picking up their kids.

Hearing this, several of them threw their takeout coffees and trash right at my windshield, whispering loudly:

"Unbelievable. Stepmothers are always evil. She's just bullying a child who doesn't have his real mom around!"

"Exactly. Look at her luxury clothes. She's clearly a homewrecker who chased out the real mother and took her place!"

Chloe held Leo tightly, weeping as though she were the ultimate victim.

I rolled up my window, grabbed some tissues, and calmly wiped the coffee off my window.

Then, I sent Liam a text: "Get over here."

It showed as read, but there was no reply.

I sent another one: "At Leo's school."

He grabbed the location pin immediately. Within ten minutes, his black SUV screeched to a halt nearby.

After getting a quick rundown of what happened from the security guard, Liam glared coldly at the mother and son clinging to each other.

Chloe swallowed hard, looking terrified.

"I'm so sorry, Liam... I was just so worried about Leo. I didn't mean to misunderstand your wife..."

Liam didn't even look at her. He turned to me and said, "I know you're angry. I'll make her apologize to you."

Chloe caught on quickly. She lowered her head submissively. "I am deeply sorry, Mrs. Vance."

Liam waved his hand dismissively, signaling her to take the child and leave.

I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel and let out a sarcastic chuckle. "That's it? That's all you're going to do?"

Liam watched Chloe's retreating figure.

After a long pause, he sighed.

"She's still the boy's mother, Hailey. Don't push her too hard."

I looked away.

My eyelashes fluttered slightly.

When I first found out about Chloe, Liam had knelt before me and swore:

"I was only nineteen when I was drugged."

"That woman only wanted my money. If I ever see her again, I will make sure she loses everything."

And yet, here they were, reunited.

Staring into the eyes of the woman who shared his son's face, his heart had inevitably softened.

A dramatic reunion, wrapped in lingering looks of pity.

I let out a breath, feeling a wave of nausea. I stepped on the gas and drove away.

Rain began to pour down, splashing cold water through the half-open window onto my face.

Right then, my phone lit up.

I wiped my eyes. It was a message from Julian's corporate legal team.

[Hailey, we have finished auditing the assets. We are ready to pull our funding from Liam's company at any moment.]

I typed back instantly:

[Do it. We pull out tomorrow. The faster, the better.]

When I got home, I immediately started reviewing the paperwork, double-checking every clause of the divorce agreement.

When we got married, I had made Liam sign a prenuptial agreement.

If any illegitimate children ever surfaced, he would have to leave the marriage with absolutely nothing.

I still remembered the night he signed it under the glowing fireworks in New York. Back then, he would have agreed to anything I asked.

I still remembered how my heart had fluttered.

But now, I felt absolutely nothing for the girl I used to be.

The door opened. Liam walked in.

A faint scent of unfamiliar perfume clung to his sleeves.

"Are you still mad at me?"

"I sent Leo to sleep at his mother's place tonight."

He walked over, trying to sound patient. "I know you want a family, Hailey. I'll make sure Leo respects you and calls you Mom."

I didn't even look up from my laptop. "He will never be my son."

Liam's face darkened.

He walked to the window and lit a cigarette.

"Hailey, I don't get it. Why are you so hostile toward a child?"

"It seems like you've hated him from the very second he walked through our door."

He was wrong.

It was Leo who hated me.

When we first met, I had bought him a beautiful welcome gift.

But not only did he throw it in the trash, he used the remote-control car to kill my unborn baby.

At the thought of this, I shut my laptop and looked up at him coldly.

"Liam, you know the truth."

"The truth about what?"

"Every time you look at that boy, you see his mother."

Liam's hand holding the cigarette shook violently.

He let out a bitter, defensive laugh.

"If there were ever a chance of me getting back with her, do you honestly think you would be my wife right now?"

A sharp pang went through my chest.

He despised Chloe's low-class schemes, but that didn't stop him from using her existence to humiliate me.

Seeing that I didn't argue back, a smug smile returned to his face.

"Be good. Didn't you always want to see the Northern Lights? I cleared three days of my schedule. Let's fly out tomorrow, okay?"

I turned my head away silently, completely checked out.

The next morning, Liam saw my packed suitcases sitting by the door. He let out a soft laugh.

"You already packed your bags? Look who couldn't wait."

Just as I was about to pull out the signed divorce papers, Leo came bursting into the foyer, crying his eyes out.

"Daddy! Today is the school's Family Day!"

"My daddy and mommy have never showed up together. All the other kids have both their parents there. They laugh at me and call me a charity case..."

"Daddy, please come with Mommy just this once. Please..."

Liam hesitated for a second.

But in the end, he nodded.

The Northern Lights we were supposed to see drifted further out of reach.

He couldn't even look me in the eye as he walked out the door.

A few minutes later, my phone buzzed with a text from him.

[I'm only doing this for the kid. I'm just showing up so he doesn't get bullied.]

I smiled bitterly to myself.

First, it's just showing up for the kid.

Then what?

A family photo? A family dinner? A family vacation?

With a living child bridging them together, Liam and Chloe would never truly be apart.

Fortunately, I had already built my exit strategy.

At 2:00 PM, I finished loading my suitcases, waiting for Julian's private security detail to pick me up.

But just as I opened the front door, I ran right into a sweating, panicked Liam.

In his arms was a pale, whimpering Leo.

The boy's leg was covered in blood, looking absolutely gruesome.