Chapter 9
Mary’s heart jolted as if seized by a nightmare-that was Ralph’s voice!
Commotion instantly erupted inside the carriage.
“What’s happening?”
“Look! Someone’s banging on the train door!”
“Is he insane? The train’s about to accelerate! Does he want to die?”
Mary glanced back, noticing attendants urgently speaking into walkie-talkies…
Given Ralph’s status, influence, and ruthlessness, he’d never give up until he got what he wanted!
She instinctively pressed her mask tighter, trembling fingers clutching her nurse uniform.
Her heart hammered against her throat…
Mind racing: Go faster, train… Faster!
Mary’s prayers worked.
The train gradually accelerated as scheduled!
Outside, four security guards restrained Ralph while the supervisor reasoned: “Mr. Walker, this train carries military personnel on critical missions. We can’t stop unless absolutely necessary! Who are you urgently seeking?”
“Who?” Ralph watched the vanishing train, hypnotic memories flooding back.
me…”
His voice turned gravelly: “Mary… I won’t let you leave me……
“Even if you flee to the warzone-even if you descend into hell-I’ll drag you back!”
Ralph resolved to find Mary in the warzone.
Before departing, he visited the private hospital to see their unborn child.
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Chapter 9
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Outside Karen’s room, he spotted two delinquent girls smoking inside.
They chattered excitedly: “Boss, when can we play with Mrs. Walker again?”
“Last time at your place, when we burned her legs with the curling iron-her screams were priceless! Didn’t you record it, Karen? Play it for us!”
Karen froze upon seeing Ralph in the doorway, her face draining of color.
“Mr… Mr. Walker…”
Ralph’s expression hardened.
He’d handpicked Karen-nineteen, bearing seventy percent resemblance to Mary, matching her zodiac sign, height, and weight. The perfect surrogate.
Yet this girl harbored such viciousness!
He recalled forcing Mary to care for Karen’s pregnancy, only to find her lying corpse-like on the sofa. He’d accused her of laziness.
Even when she limped away, he thought she was faking!
She was truly injured!
Burned by these wretched girls!
Ralph’s voice shook with each syllable: “You burned my wife… and recorded it?”
The delinquents scrambled to flee but Ralph blocked them single-handedly, sending both crashing-one against a chair, the other into a nightstand.
Karen stammered: “You misheard, Mr. Walker! I don’t know these-”
“What?
Don’t you know us?
A delinquent girl with a bleeding, broken head immediately exposed Karen when she saw her friends trying to pin all the blame on them.
They all said: “Ralph, it was Karen who told us to start the fight!”
“Karen was the queen of bullying at our school! Tormenting younger students was her
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When Mrs. Walker got bullied, we were just pawns-she was the mastermind!”
“That day in the apartment, she ordered us to pin Mrs. Walker down. She said Mrs. Walker’s legs looked so fair and tender they’d smell delicious when roasted!
She’s the one who took the curling iron and seared Mrs. Walker’s legs!”
“Yeah, blame Karen if you want revenge!”
Each word from the delinquent girls hammered against Ralph’s chest.
His thoughts drifted to the past.
To help Mary feel connected to their child, he’d indeed asked her to care for Karen.
He remembered finding Mary lying motionless on the sofa that day in the apartment.
He recalled lifting her from the couch-her face ghostly pale, body drenched in sweat.
He remembered accusing her of faking illness, watching her eyes redden before limping
away.
Waves of pain tightened around Ralph’s heart.
Why hadn’t she defended herself then…
Why…
He never understood before. But staring at his wedding ring now, remembering how she’d given his diamond ring to a garbage-collecting elder, he finally grasped it.
Because he’d never listened.
Even if she spoke, he wouldn’t have believed her-just like all those years when she claimed his nephew bullied her, when she said his mother mistreated her. He dismissed every word…
So she gave up…
When she stopped relying on him, she wanted nothing to do with him.
The Mary who used to smile and nestle against his chest had abandoned him.
A hollow laugh escaped Ralph’s lips-the sound of a man confronting unforgivable mistakes
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while surveying his own wretched existence.
Karen studied Ralph’s expression.
She couldn’t decipher his laughter…
Was he another pervert who got off on others’ suffering?
Her kind of monster?
Karen’s face relaxed into a twisted smile. “Mr. Walker, your wife’s sobs were actually quite melodic. Want to hear?”
She pulled out her phone, tapped the video, and extended it toward him.
“Care to watch?
Might give you that… orgasmic thrill too!”
Cruelty danced across her nineteen-year-old features.
Ralph glanced at the device. As he took it, bloodshot eyes flickered with suppressed murderous intent.
He’d chosen this creature to bear his and Mary’s child.
He’d been blind.
No wonder Mary divorced him, choosing grueling battlefield nursing over his embrace.
Agony gnawed at Ralph’s heart like ten thousand insects.
Just then, a nurse from the private hospital rushed in.
Smelling smoke, she opened windows while admonishing: “Miss Green, you’re on bed rest. No exposure to smoke during pregnancy.”
Ms. Green’s face darkened as she raised her hand to slap the nurse. “Who do you think you are, daring to jinx my precious gem!”
“My baby is perfectly fine!”
Before her words fully faded, Ralph’s voice cut through: “This pregnancy isn’t worth saving.”
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