Seeing Natalie silently accept it, Ethan Fletcher\u2019s expression grew even colder. He gave the bodyguards a sharp order: \u201cLock her in the family chapel! She\u2019s to sit in solitude and repent. No one lets her out without my permission!\u201d \u201cI\u2019m not going!\u201d Natalie took a hard step back, her eyes steely. \u201cYour lousy ancestral hall is never going to hold me again!\u201d She turned to run. \u201cGrab her!\u201d Ethan Fletcher commanded. The bodyguards rushed forward, blocking her path. Natalie fought them desperately, scrambling in panic for any way out\u2014only to crash headlong into a server pushing a cart loaded with champagne glasses. \u201cCrash!!\u201d A loud, shattering noise echoed as glass exploded everywhere. Natalie lost her balance and fell hard. Instantly, sharp shards of glass dug into her skin. \u201cAaah\u2014!\u201d Pain shot through her, making her scream in agony. Blood instantly gushed from beneath her, dyeing the floor and the sparkling shards a vivid red. She looked at her body, covered in blood and shards of glass, then saw Ethan Fletcher\u2019s face go pale. Her consciousness was gradually swallowed by darkness\u2026 When she woke again, she was in the hospital. Bandages were wrapped around her whole body, and even the smallest movement sent waves of pain slicing through her. Ethan Fletcher\u2019s assistant stood at her bedside, his tone emotionless and official: \u201cMrs. Fletcher, Mr. Fletcher said, given you were also hurt and needed so many stitches, everything between you and Ms. Grant is considered settled. He hopes you can, in the future\u2026\u201d \u201cGet out,\u201d Natalie said, closing her eyes. Her voice was rough and exhausted, cutting him off. The assistant paused, then silently left the room. Natalie lay on her hospital bed, staring at the ceiling. Her heart felt dead and numb. Settled? Her battered, broken body was supposed to \u2018settle\u2019 whatever small injuries Vivian got? How\u2026 fair. She no longer cried or got angry. She simply endured all the pain by herself in silence, waiting for her body to heal, little by little. When she was finally discharged, it was time for the family banquet at the Fletcher estate. At the table, Margaret still showed her no warmth\u2014her words kept coming back to the same thing: putting pressure on Natalie to have a baby. \u201cIt\u2019s been three years. Still no sign of a pregnancy! Why did our family even bring you in?\u201d Margaret shoved an ornate gift box toward Natalie. Inside was a pristine white marble figurine of the Madonna and Child\u2014a centuries-old Fletcher heirloom. \u201cTake it. Place it by your bedside. Perhaps a daily reminder of your duty will finally yield the results we\u2019ve been waiting three years for. Don\u2019t let the family down again.\u201d Natalie looked at the statue, making no move to pick it up. She had no wish to have a child\u2014especially not one for the Fletcher family. After dinner, she took the box, intending to leave it the family chapel, where she wouldn\u2019t have to see it again. Just as she reached the door, Vivian jumped out from the side and blocked her way. \u201cWell, if it isn\u2019t our esteemed Mrs. Fletcher!\u201d Vivian\u2019s voice was full of mockery. \u201cWhat\u2019s this? Finally ready to beg God for a child? Listen to me, I\u2019m not letting you give Mr. Fletcher a kid before I do! The first child in this family is going to be mine!\u201d Natalie didn\u2019t bother responding and tried to walk past her. Vivian grew even more annoyed when she was ignored. She snatched the gift box from Natalie\u2019s hands and smashed it on the ground\u2014hard. A sickening crack echoed through the hall as the delicate marble shattered into headless fragments. Natalie stared at the pieces, her heart calm\u2014if anything, she felt relieved. She hadn\u2019t wanted to keep it anyway. Vivian hadn\u2019t expected such a flat reaction, and it only made her angrier, as if she\u2019d punched into air. A toxic gleam flashed in her eyes. \u201cNatalie, you already know my brother only loves me. Marrying you was just a way to draw fire from me. So tell me\u2014if I burned the family chapel down and said you did it, who do you think my brother would believe? What do you think he\u2019d do to you?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Seeing Natalie silently accept it, Ethan Fletcher\u2019s expression grew even colder. He gave the bodyguards a sharp order: \u201cLock her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-woke-up-and-left-the-cage-of-my-marriage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20174\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}