Ticket for Cheating novel Chapter 20

Chapter 2

The second I finished, something vicious flashed in Vanessa’s eyes.

Then she screamed and collapsed to the floor.

“My baby! Oh God, it hurts!”

The door exploded open. Dominic stormed in and kicked me aside without a second thought.

He rushed to Vanessa, holding her tight, panic all over his face.

“Vanessa! Are you okay?”

She collapsed against him, sobbing.

“Dom… the baby… what if something happens to our baby…”

When Dominic turned back to me, his eyes were pure rage.

Before I could even get my balance, his hand cracked across my face.

“Sophia! How could you be this evil!”

“Marcus took a bullet for me! Vanessa’s got nobody in this world, I swallowed your cold looks before!”

“But NOW? You KNOW she’s pregnant, and you pull this shit?”

“That baby is EVERYTHING to her! The last of the Sterling bloodline!”

My cheek burned, but I barely felt it.

Just stared at him, voice shaking.

“She’s pregnant? With your baby?”

The way he shielded her belly felt like a knife straight through my heart.

Dominic’s voice went ice cold.

“If anything happens to Vanessa or this baby, I will NEVER forgive you!”

He paused, seemed to realize how harsh that sounded.

Then his eyes dropped to the necklace around my neck.

“Take off that necklace.” An order.

“Give it to Vanessa. Call it an apology.”

The necklace?

1 stumbled backward, hands flying up to protect it.

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“This was my mother’s! She traded her LIFE for this bless charm!”

“Dominic! You made promises at her deathbed-you forgot already?!”

He paused for half a second, then his face hardened.

“You married me. Everything you have is MINE.”

“It’s just some old necklace-you think that’s worth more than a life?”

Then he grabbed my throat and ripped the necklace off my neck.

I hit the floor hard from the force, crawling toward him to take it back-but he shoved me away again.

“Give it back!”

When my mom was dying, she’d begged me not to marry Dominic.

But Dominic stayed by her bed for three months straight, took care of everything. Then knelt in front of her and swore:

“Ma’am, I’ll treasure Sophia more than my own life.”

“As long as I’m breathing, she’ll never suffer. Not once.”

Mom finally gave in.

With trembling hands, she’d placed that necklace in Dominic’s palm and watched him tie it around my neck.

He knew better than anyone what it meant to me.

Vanessa barely glanced my way as she took the necklace from him; played with it for a second.

Then casually tossed it out the window.

The wind caught it. It disappeared into the distance.

“NO!”

I threw myself at the window, half my body hanging out.

Dominic looked stunned for a moment. Then his face hardened:

“Sophia, it’s just a necklace. Let it go.”

“Acting crazy like this-what if you scare Vanessa and the baby?”

He ignored my breakdown and wrapped an arm around Vanessa.

“Don’t worry. I’ll take you home. We can’t risk the baby.”

The necklace drifted farther and farther away.

The wind burned my eyes, but no tears came out.

“Dominic. I want a divorce.”

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The air went dead silent.

He spun around, staring at me like I’d lost my mind.

“Over a stupid necklace? You want a DIVORCE?”

I stood up slowly, straightened my clothes, picked up the signed divorce papers from the table.

I looked him in the eyes.

“Yes.”

His shock twisted into pure rage in an instant.

“Sophia, when did you become this damn ridiculous?”

“Don’t forget-without the Blackwells, without ME, you’d be homeless!”

“Five years and you couldn’t even get pregnant. Everyone in our circle knows you’re my leftovers. What man would want you now?”

He snatched the divorce papers and ripped them to shreds.

“Divorce? In your dreams!”

Then he shoved me hard and carefully helped Vanessa out.

I slammed into the coffee table edge, pain tearing through my ribs.

Without even looking back, Dominic said gently to Vanessa.

“When the baby’s born, we’ll give him the Sterling name.”

“I’ll take care of him-honor Marcus’s memory properly.”

“And if Sophia ever messes with you again, tell me. I won’t go easy on her.”

I stared at my own miserable reflection in the window and suddenly laughed.

Three days.

Whether he signed or not, I was gone.

But that night, I was jolted awake by a splash of boiling water.

I opened my eyes to find Dominic’s hands around my throat, eyes wild.

“Sophia! I warned you to behave!”

“You bribed the housekeeper! Poisoned Vanessa’s pregnancy meds! She’s hemorrhaging at the hospital right now-almost lost our baby!”

I could barely breathe, kicking and struggling.

“Poison? I didn’t-I don’t know anything about-”

He threw me into the car, sped to the hospital, and dumped me at Vanessa’s ward.

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Before I could stand, he kicked the back of my knee, forcing me down onto the freezing marble floor.

“Kneel. You apologize when Vanessa wakes up!”

Everything hurt. My vision kept going dark.

Then the hospital door burst open.

Vanessa came at me with a knife.

“You murderer! Give me back my baby!”

I tried to dodge, but the blade sank deep into my side anyway.

Pain exploded. I clutched my bleeding waist and looked at Dominic.

Once, when I’d cut my finger cooking, he’d rushed me to the ER in the middle of the night for stitches.

Now I was bleeding out, and he just calmly adjusted his cuffs.

“Sophia. You owe her this. Relax. You won’t die.”

I couldn’t speak through the pain. Just stared at him.

Vanessa’s eyes were bloodshot. She pulled the knife out and came at me agaih.

Once. Twice.

Warm blood kept spilling out. I coughed up red and collapsed in the spreading pool.

Only then did Dominic step forward to stop her.

“Vanessa, that’s enough.”

“She’s been punished. Don’t actually kill her-bad karma for the baby.”

She leaned into him, sobbing.

“But she almost killed OUR baby!”

“Dominic, if you protect her one more time, I’m taking this baby and go die with Marcus right now!”

Then she turned the knife around.

Pointed it at her own belly.

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