Obsession His Runaway Bride (Noelle and Adrian) novel Chapter 51

Chapter 51: Tainted

Chapter 51: Tainted

Adrian’s world had already shattered. His screams had torn his that but it was nothing compared to the horror that unfolded before his eyes.

The doctor had done it.

The three–month–old fetus… his child—had been successfully removed from Noelle’s womb.

Adrian slumped forward in the chair as he gasped for breath. Sweat clung to his skin, mixing with the dried blood crusted along his wrists where the restraints had cut deep. His mind was disoriented, refusing to process what he had just witnessed.

‘This isn’t real. It couldn’t be.‘ He thought.

The past few minutes felt like a nightmare and an illusion that was so cruel that his mind rejected it outright.

But everything he saw was real.

And his child… was gone.

The thought slammed into him like a freight train, knocking what little breath he had left from his lungs. His heart pounded so hard, it was hammering against his ribs as if it, too, were fighting to escape this reality. But his body felt numb and hollow. Like something had been ripped out of him along with the life that had just been erased.

Then out of nowhere, footsteps echoed from the darkness of the room.

Valerian stood beside Adrian while his cold silver–grey eyes were fixed on the man beside him. He despised the sound of Adrian’s ragged breathing just as much as he had despised Adrian’s father. The Blackwood bloodline had always been a stain in his eyes—one he had no patience for. But this wasn’t about their history anymore.

At Valerian’s silent instruction, the doctor whose gloved hands still stained with blood–turned from the operating table and

walked toward the observation window. 1

Adrian barely had the strength to lift his head, but Valerian forced him to.

And when he finally did, his stomach twisted so violently he thought he might vomit.

The doctor stopped directly in front of the glass, positioning himself so that Adrian had no choice but to see.

Then, without hesitation, he lifted the container in his hands.

Adrian’s body went rigid. His breath caught in his throat. His pulse slowed for just a fraction of a second before everything in him collapsed.

Inside it was the fetus.

Not a mass of tissue. Not something insignificant.

A child.

His child.

His bloodshot eyes locked onto the tiny, lifeless fetus, his vision swimming with nausea. His entire body trembled, his throat convulsing, his breath coming in rapid, erratic bursts. The delicate shape. The barely formed fingers. The impossibly small body that had been severed from any chance at life.

So small.

Too small.

His mind broke down that he ended up utterly silent and not moving. He wanted to turn away, to shut his eyes, to force himself

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into darkness where he wouldn’t have to see this, but his body refused to obey. He was trapped. Forced to witness the brutal, irreversible reality of what had just been taken from him.

Then, Valerian spoke mockingly.

“Oh, would you look at that.

He then tilted his head slightly as he delivered the final, unforgivable blow.

“It’s got your eyes.”

Something inside Adrian snapped.

His entire body convulsed, his wrists yanking so violently against the restraints that the leather groaned under the pressure, threatening to tear. His pulse skyrocketed, his breathing so erratic it barely counted as breathing at all. His lips parted, but no sound came.

His fingers twitched uselessly at his sides, reaching for something that wasn’t there–something that would never be there.

Then, from deep within his chest, a sound tore free.

A strangled, guttural noise.

“АААААННННН!!!”

His entire frame shook violently as tears poured out from his eyes. His vision blurred as he looked at the child he would never hold.

A child he would never name.

A child erased before they ever had the chance to exist.

The child he was supposed to love–gone.

Valerian on the other hand was rather calm. After Noelle told him everything, he understood why she was scared and sorrowed at the thought of this child.

-A Few Hours Ago-

Noelle sat upright in bed, her back against the pillows, but her posture was stiff, tense–like she was holding something in, something too heavy to say aloud.

Valerian sat beside her, his elbows resting on his knees, his silver grey eyes fixed on her face. He had been patient, letting her gather her thoughts, but the weight of the question that lingered between them couldn’t be ignored any longer.

He exhaled slowly. “Noelle.” His voice was calm, steady, yet firm. “What do you want to do?”

She didn’t answer right away.

Her hands curled into the sheets as she lowered her gaze to her lap. A beat of silence passed. Then another. The pause stretched so long that, for a moment, he thought she wouldn’t speak at all.

“I don’t know,” she murmured, barely above a whisper. 19

Valerian remained silent, waiting.

Her fingers curled tightly around the blanket, gripping it so hard that her knuckles turned white. She inhaled, a shaky breath that sounded as if it hurt to take in.

“I’m scared,” she admitted. “I’m scared to bring this child into the world… knowing that I am not ready…”

Her voice wavered, but she forced herself to keep going, as if she had held these words in for too long and now couldn’t stop them from spilling out.

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“I’m scored that it 1 keep it, I won’t be able to love it. That I’ll look it and only see him.”

Hey breath hitched on the last word, her throat tightening.

She had spent so many nights thinking about this lying awake, inching her stomach, wondering if the bond that so many mothers felt would ever come to her. If she could find it in herself to see this baby as hers and not as Adrian’s

But she couldn’t

She shut her eyes lightly. “I thought Adrian loved me,” she whispered. “I believed him. Every time he touched me, every time he kissed me, every time he told me I was his future, I thought it was real.”

A bitter langh escaped her lips, short and broken. “I feel like… trash… I feel dirty and used.”

She sucked in a breath, her nails digging into her palm beneath the sheets. “He used me. He let me build my entire world around him, made me believe that he saw me–but the entire time, he was waiting for the woman he truly loved.”

Her chest ached, her ribs squeezing as if something inside her was crumbling.

“I was nothing to him.” she whispered.

Valerian’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t speak.

Noelle’s hands trembled. “And now… I’m supposed to carry his child?” She let out a weak, humorless laugh. “I’m supposed to look at it and pretend that it wasn’t conceived through deception? That it isn’t a reminder of the man who ruined me?”

Her voice broke.

She sucked in a breath as her shoulders shook. “I don’t want to resent this child. I don’t want to look at it and feel nothing but hate.”

Noelle covered her face with her hands, her body trembling from the burden of everything she had been holding inside. “But I will,” she confessed, her voice muffled. “I know I will.”

“I feel sick just knowing it’s inside me,” she whispered. “I feel tainted.”

The room suddenly fell silent but Valerian managed to breathe deeply and spoke.

“I’ll ask one last time,” he said. “Do you want to keep it? Or not?”

Noelle didn’t hesitate with her answer.

She shook her head as she looked him straight in the eyes.

“No,” she whispered.

Valerian gave a gentle pat on her head and answered.

“Then it will be done.”

-End Of Flashback-