A Love Built On Scorn Chapter 04
Sebastian shook his head, trying to clear the chaos inside him.
Only then did his vision, fractured into endless overlapping shadows, finally sharpen.
The video on his phone was still playing. It was short, only a few minutes long. But what it contained was enough to rattle him so violently that he nearly lost all sense of himself.
Along with Caitlin’s terrified screams and desperate pleas for mercy, there was also a man’s voice in the recording. The man who had just spoken—even if he were reduced to ashes, Sebastian would still know him.
Once, the Wofford Group had come within inches of being destroyed by that man’s hand. If Caitlin had not stepped in back then, drinking with clients until she ended up with a stomach hemorrhage just to secure an investment in time, the Wofford Group might have taken a devastating blow.
“But how did Caitlin end up in his hands? And this video… No. This can’t be real,” he thought inwardly.
In a panic, he snatched up the phone that had fallen to the floor and dialed Caitlin’s number. The line had barely rung twice before someone answered.
Wild with relief, he grabbed his coat and headed for the door. “Caitlin, thank God you’re okay—”
“Sebastian.” The voice on the other end was laced with mockery, as though he had already anticipated Sebastian’s every move.
Sebastian stopped dead. The apartment was warm, the heat running high, but it felt as though he had been dropped into an ice pit. He nearly roared through clenched teeth, “Edmund D’Angelo! What did you do to Caitlin?”
Edmund deliberately drew out his words. “Her? She begged me for mercy with tears all over her face, but sadly, my men didn’t go easy on her… You have no idea how easy she was to trick. All it took was an emerald bracelet from the auction—the cheapest one there, the absolute lowest-priced lot—and she came right to me.”
“If you don’t want the full video of Caitlin, intact and uncensored, plastered across the front pages of every major platform, then bring me that downtown property in exchange. Sebastian, my patience is limited. One hour. Meet me at the coffee shop downstairs from my office.”
The call ended, but Sebastian had already seized on one detail with razor-sharp instinct.
“The emerald bracelet… I told Jonas to buy everything at that auction. How did that emerald bracelet end up in Edmund’s hands?” he thought.
In the haze of it all, he suddenly had the sickening sense that something was slipping away from him, little by little, moving beyond his control. Despair and regret churned violently in his chest.
With a savage sweep of his arm, Sebastian sent the empty bottles on the bar crashing to the floor. The sound of shattering glass woke Kayla in the bedroom.
She opened the door, her sleep-heavy eyes unfocused. She couldn’t understand why Sebastian had suddenly flown into a rage. Spoiled by the bottomless indulgence he had shown her these past days, she spoke in a soft, aggrieved tone without thinking.
“Sebastian, what’s wrong? Do you have any idea I—”
“Shut up!” Sebastian barked.
Kayla froze on the spot. All the time she had been entangled with him, Sebastian had always been gentle and indulgent with her, never once speaking to her harshly. She had never seen him like this—never seen him this furious.
Jonas, his face grim, picked up a lab report from the couch. “Mr. Wofford…” He handed it over to Sebastian.
Early intrauterine pregnancy, approximately 5 weeks. On the line for the patient’s name, written clearly and unmistakably, was Kayla’s.
Seeing the shock on Sebastian’s face, Kayla mistook it for surprise and joy. She slowly came downstairs, took Sebastian’s slightly trembling hand, and placed it over her lower abdomen, where the swell wasn’t yet visible.
“Sebastian, I’m pregnant. You said that if I ever got pregnant, you’d let me keep the baby. I know my place, and I would never fight Ms. Vernon for the position of Mrs. Wofford. I only want this child to grow up safe and healthy…”
She believed that by retreating like this, by sounding humble and understanding, Sebastian would look at her with aching tenderness and say, “I lost my feelings for Caitlin a long time ago. Divorce is only a matter of time. Now that you’re carrying my child, you’ll be the future Mrs. Wofford.”
The flicker of joy that had only just risen inside her was shattered by Sebastian’s flat, emotionless voice.
“What the hell are you?”
His words were cold and cutting. The way he looked at Kayla now was like looking at a stray dog soaked in the gutter.
Kayla’s smile was still on her face. “What?”
He pulled his hand away coldly. Jonas, reading the room, immediately handed him a wet wipe. Sebastian wiped again and again at the hand that had just touched Kayla’s stomach. The disgust on his face was the same expression someone might wear after brushing against a pile of filth.
“When I’m interested, you’re a convenient toy. When I’m not, you’re nothing but roadside trash. And you really thought you could rise in status just because you got pregnant? The position of Mrs. Wofford has belonged to Caitlin from the beginning. She’s the only woman worthy of it.”
“And if I remember correctly, we used protection every time. How could you possibly be pregnant? Even if it was an accident, I won’t acknowledge this child. Jonas is taking you to the hospital now. You’re getting an abortion.”
