My Runaway Groom Came Back I Became His Aunt! novel Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The look in Vincent’s eyes was so dark it was almost feral.

He crossed the room in three predatory steps and kicked Ethan flat onto the floor.

Ethan let out a scream. His wrist cracked against the mahogany, puffing up like a bruised plum. When he

looked up and saw who it was, his pupils shrank.

“U-Uncle… when did you get back?”

Vincent didn’t even bother looking at him. He drove another kick straight into Ethan’s chest.

Ethan flew backward like a rag doll and hit the floor hard, clutching his chest and coughing so violently he

couldn’t get a word out.

Summer’s arms stiffened around Aiden.

By instinct, she tried to hide him behind her, but Vincent caught her wrist in one brutal grip. His knuckles

turned white with force, the threat of snapping her radius hanging in the air.

“Ahh! It hurts!”

Summer shrieked and let go.

The second she loosened her grip, Aiden fell back into Vincent’s arms.

And yet when Vincent gathered him up, his touch was impossibly gentle.

His fingers brushed Aiden’s bluish face and the tacky copper at the corner of his mouth, and his whole body started shaking. Even his voice went hoarse.

“Aiden, Daddy’s here. Don’t be scared.”

I threw myself at him and clutched his arm, my own voice trembling.

“Vincent, get him to the hospital. Anaphylaxis, a concussion… they nearly killed him.”

Vincent lowered his eyes to me. Some of the murderous fury in them faded, leaving only pain.

He lifted a hand and wiped the tears off my face with unbearable tenderness.

“Baby, I’m here.”

“It’s okay now.”

“I’ll take care of the rest.”

Then, with Aiden in his arms and his other hand tight around my waist, he finally turned and looked at Ethan and Summer on the floor.

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His gaze was cold enough to cut.

“You laid hands on my wife.”

“You touched my son.”

“You’ve just signed your death warrants.”

Ethan still tried to drag himself up, bluffing through sheer panic.

“Uncle! You can’t do this to me! I’m a Vale! The family will be mine sooner or later!”

Vincent gave a short laugh, full of contempt.

Then he lifted a hand to signal the bodyguards behind him.

“Take them downstairs.”

“If

my wife and son suffer even a scratch’s worth of trauma-”

“I’ll make them beg for death.”

The bodyguards moved immediately and pinned Ethan and Summer down before either of them could run.

They struggled wildly, but it was useless.

Vincent led us out of that toxic apartment, leaving the screams behind. We got into the car, and he drove like a man possessed.

One hand stayed locked around the steering wheel. The other gripped Aiden’s tiny hand the whole way, and he kept speaking to him in a low, steady voice.

“Aiden, don’t be scared.”

“Daddy’s here.”

Outside the ER, Vincent pulled me into his arms and pressed his chin to the top of my head.

I could feel him shaking.

His heartbeat was pounding hard and fast against me.

When he spoke, his voice was so low it came out rough.

“Baby, I’m sorry.”

“I came back too late.”

“I failed you both.”

I held him back just as tightly, forcing down my tears.

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“This wasn’t your fault.”

“They’re the ones who went too far.”

“Vincent, Aiden is going to be okay.”

The light above the emergency room stayed on for what felt like forever before it finally went dark.

The moment the doctor came out, both of us rushed forward.

“He’s not in life-threatening condition.”

“The allergic reaction sent him into shock. On top of that, he has a concussion and soft tissue injuries. He’ll

need to stay for observation for a week.”

My knees nearly buckled.

Vincent caught me before I could fall.

In the hospital room, Aiden slept peacefully.

His face was still pale.

A bandage covered his forehead.

One small hand curled around my finger.

Vincent sat beside the bed, stroking his hair over and over, his expression so soft it barely looked like him.

It wasn’t until late that night that Aiden finally stirred awake.

The moment he saw Vincent and me, his watery eyes blinked open and he reached both arms out.

“Daddy, Mommy… hug.”

Vincent enveloped us both.

Aiden buried his face against Vincent’s neck and whispered, “Daddy, I protected Mommy. I bit that bad lady… but I couldn’t beat that bad man…”

Vincent’s eyes reddened instantly,

He patted Aiden’s back, slow and gentle, his voice low and warm.

“Aiden was so brave.”

“You protected Mommy already,”

“Daddy’s proud of you.”

Aiden nodded, then turned and burrowed into my arms.

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“Mommy, I don’t hurt anymore. I’m just a little hungry.”

I kissed his forehead.

“When you’re feeling better, I’ll make your favorite wonton soup.”

Later that night, after Aiden had fallen asleep again, Vincent wrapped an arm around me and led me into the

hallway outside the room.

He pinned me with his gaze.

“Baby.”

“What do you want done with Ethan and Summer?”

I looked at him and thought of everything Aiden had suffered.

Little by little, my eyes turned to flint.

“Didn’t they want a child so badly?”

“Then let them find out what it feels like to abandon their own.”

Vincent studied me for a moment, then nodded.

“Okay.”

“I’ll handle it.”

By the next morning, the truth of the abandoned child came to light.

After Ethan’s parents had sent him to a state ward, the baby had needed an expensive surgery because of his severe congenital heart disease.

The institution hadn’t been able to afford it.

He hadn’t survived.

Later, his body had been donated to a research program.

When Vincent came back and told me, his tone was flat.

“The body’s still there.”

“They used it for fluorescent labeling not long ago. The whole specimen was preserved in dye.”

“Now it glows green in the dark. Pretty unsettling to look at.”

When I heard that, I smiled instead.

“Perfect.”

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“At least from now on, they’ll never have trouble recognizing their own blood ever again.”

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Chapter 5

Ethan and Summer were locked in the interrogation room beneath the Vale estate.

The air reeked of mildew.

A single yellowed bulb hung overhead.

Behind the one-way mirror stood Vincent and me.

Inside, Ethan was already shoving all the blame onto Summer.

“You crazy bitch! If it weren’t for you, I never would’ve ended up like this!”

Summer let out a cold laugh.

“Oh, please. Don’t act innocent now.”

“You were the one who ran from the wedding. You were the one who abandoned that child. And now that everything’s blowing up in your face, suddenly it’s somebody else’s fault?”

Ethan’s face turned a sick shade of green. He lunged at her, his fingers hooked like claws for her throat.

But the guards intercepted him with practiced brutality, pinning him back into the bolted chair.

Vincent sat behind the glass, watching the security feed, his voice calm and flat.

“Start.”

Evan gave a short nod.

The next second, the screen at the front of the room lit up.

Document after document flashed across it in chilling clarity.

The intake record from the state orphanage.

The diagnosis confirming congenital heart disease.

The failed resuscitation report.

The consent form authorizing body donation.

And finally, the screen stopped on the death certificate,

The line where the child’s name should have been was blank.

The room went dead silent.

Summer was the first to lose her color.

“Wh-what is this…?”

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Ethan stared at the screen, his lips moving, but no sound came out.

Then Evan’s voice came through the overhead speaker, cold and merciless.

“This was the child you abandoned with your own hands five years ago.”

“The welfare institution couldn’t afford his surgery.”

“He died before he turned one.”

The silence that followed was suffocating.

Summer cracked first.

“It wasn’t me! I wasn’t the one who didn’t want him!”

“Ethan said the baby had a heart defect and would only be a burden if he lived! He was the one who said to throw him away!”

Ethan whipped around so hard his eyes went red.

“That’s bullshit!”

“You were the one who kept crying and saying that baby was bad luck, that even holding him made you sick!”

“If you hadn’t kept pushing and pushing, I never would’ve sent him away!”

Summer shrieked right back.

“Oh, now you want to pretend you’re the good guy?”

“You were the one who signed the papers sending him to that institution!”

“You were the one who agreed to shove Elena at another man!”

“Ethan, you’re filthier than I ever was!”

The more she said, the more hysterical she became, until she was practically screaming.

“And Aiden!”

“Yes, I knew all along he wasn’t my child!”

“That’s why I did it on purpose, I fed him oatmeal on purpose. I let him fall on purpose!”

“He was in my way!”

The moment those words left her mouth, the entire basement seemed to go still.

Behind the glass, I stared at Summer on the screen and slowly clenched my hands into fists.

She had finally said it.