The Hollow Inheritance Chapter 1

At eight months pregnant, I was pushed from the second floor. The bleeding wouldn't stop.

Liam acted like a madman, rushing me to the hospital and calling in top specialists for the surgery. Thankfully, the baby was saved.

When I woke up, neither my baby nor Liam was anywhere to be seen.

I struggled to get out of bed, limping out of the room to find them.

But outside the morgue, I overheard a conversation between Liam and the doctor.

"Mr. Sterling, the baby was clearly still breathing! Why did you suffocate him? That's your own flesh and blood!"

"Better to die early and be reincarnated. He never should have been born in the first place."

"Chloe just gave birth to my son yesterday. I promised her that our child will be the sole heir to the Sterling family. I absolutely will not allow anyone else to compete with him for the inheritance."

It turned out that my happy family was nothing but a delusion I maintained all by myself.

The marriage I was so proud of was nothing more than a freezing hell.

Since that was the case, all I had to do was leave.

...

The doctor looked hesitant:

"But you plan to use Chloe's child to deceive your wife. What if she finds out?"

"Newborns all look the same. She won't notice. I'll bring him over in a minute."

"Clean up the body. And give me that new drug your hospital has—the one that causes permanent sterilization in women. I'm going to feed it to Nora."

The doctor was horrified, speaking urgently:

"Mr. Sterling, to bring Chloe's child into your home, you've already killed your wife's baby. Why do you also have to sterilize her? Isn't that too cruel?"

The chill from the morgue seeped into the hallway, but Liam's words were even more chilling:

"I promised Chloe that our child would never suffer the slightest grievance in his life. He will never have any siblings competing for his father's favor. Even though she's married to someone else now, I have to give her peace of mind."

The doctor looked sympathetic:

"Mr. Sterling, I must remind you, that drug was only recently developed. It hasn't even entered clinical trials, and the side effects are severe. Do you really have the heart to do this?"

Liam paused for a moment, then sighed:

"I have no choice. Nora will be waking up soon. If we perform a hysterectomy now, she'll definitely get suspicious."

"She'll just have to endure the side effects. I'll compensate her well in the future, but I absolutely cannot allow Nora to ever have the possibility of getting pregnant again."

As soon as he finished speaking, Liam's phone rang. He put it on speaker, and a man's excited voice echoed through the morgue:

"Mr. Sterling, I received the five million. Don't worry, I'm leaving the city right now. The Mrs. will never find out that you ordered me to push her down the stairs, hehe."

Footsteps approached from inside the room.

Ignoring the pain in my leg, I stumbled and scrambled back to my hospital room.

Thinking of my baby's tiny body lying in the morgue, I clutched my chest tightly. Tears fell onto my bandaged leg.

So, being pushed down the stairs at the mall wasn't an accident.

It was my loving husband, clearing obstacles for the woman he loved and their child.

My baby hadn't been saved. He had been suffocated to death by his own father.

In Liam's eyes, my son and I were nothing but stumbling blocks.

"Nora, you're awake?"

Liam walked in holding a baby, sitting down by the bed with a bright smile.

"Look at our baby. Doesn't he look exactly like us?"

"Wife, thank you for giving me such an adorable son. I promise I'll be a good father."

I looked at the baby sleeping peacefully in his arms, a sharp pain piercing my heart.

Liam was wrong. No mother could ever misidentify her own child.

The baby's brow and eyes resembled Liam's, but the nose and chin were practically copied and pasted from Chloe's face.

This was their child.

And my baby was nothing but a cold corpse right now.

"Nora, does your leg still hurt? Here, take some painkillers."

The concern and gentleness in his eyes were the same as always, but it was all just a facade to paralyze me.

I looked at the pills in his hand, remembering the conversation I had just overheard.

"Liam, the pills are too bitter. Can I take them later?"

You've already killed one of my children. Can't you at least leave me the right to be a mother?

Liam hesitated for only a second before smiling and stroking my hair:

"You're a mother now, why are you acting like a child? You've suffered so much giving birth, and your leg is hurting. My heart aches so much I won't be able to sleep all night. Nora, just take pity on your husband, okay? I still have to be a good dad to our baby."

"I added honey to the water, it's very sweet. Come on, let me feed you."

No, that's not my baby. That's yours and Chloe's!

Liam held the pills to my lips, leaving me no room to refuse again.

My blood ran cold. I closed my eyes and swallowed the pills dry, refusing the honey water.

I didn't want his hypocritical sweetness!

The drug took effect quickly. My lower abdomen felt like it was burning with hellfire, as if someone were carving me open with a knife. Blood began to seep from between my legs.

"Nora, what's wrong?!"

Liam called for the doctor. I passed out from the excruciating pain.

In my hazy consciousness, I heard the doctor say:

"Mr. Sterling, your wife's entire uterus has been corroded away. She will never be able to have children again."

Liam let out a long sigh of relief.

When I opened my eyes again, his eyes were red, and he looked at me with profound heartbreak:

"Nora, the doctor said you suffered a sudden, massive postpartum hemorrhage. You'll never be able to have children again."

"Don't be sad. Thank God we already have Andy. When he grows up, he'll definitely be a dutiful son to you."

Andy?

He had already picked a name for Chloe's child this fast?

Liam refused to let the nurses wipe me down. Ignoring his usual germaphobia, he personally fetched warm water and cleaned the blood off my body.

He told me his mother wanted to see her eldest grandson, so she had already taken the baby home.

By the time he finished, it was late at night.

I looked at his slightly exhausted face and forced a weak smile:

"I'm fine. You've had a long day, get some rest."

Liam kissed my forehead:

"Okay. Wake me if you need anything. Tomorrow I'll take you to pick up Andy, and our family of three will live happily ever after."

After he fell asleep, I quietly picked up his phone.

To show his "loyalty" to me, Liam never kept a passcode on his phone.

But I had never known that he had set up a dual operating system.

And the password to switch systems... was Chloe's birthday.