---- Chapter 31 Michael was unceremoniously dumped outside the gates of the Hayes estate, back in the rain and the mud His public humiliation was complete. His desperate pleas had been met with cold, hard rejection. & Elizabeth Hayes herself had come to the gate, her face a mask of icy contempt. "If you ever come near my daughter or this property again, Michael Thorne," she had said, her voice low and dangerous, "| will personally ensure you spend the rest of your miserable life in a jail cell so deep you'll forget what sunlight looks like. Do | make myself clear?" He had nodded, dumbly, the fight gone out of him. He was broken, pathetic. He stumbled away, the word "abortion" echoing in his mind, a torturous refrain. Liv had aborted their child. His child. The finality of it, the sheer, brutal cruelty of her supposed act, was a wound far deeper than any financial loss or public disgrace. He had driven her to it. His lies, his betrayal, his weakness. He was a monster. He wandered aimlessly through the pristine streets of Kennebunkport, a ghost haunting a paradise he had ---- irrevocably lost. The realization of her permanent absence, her complete and utter rejection, was a crushing weight. He had nothing left. No career, no money, no love, and now, no child. A tiny, insane part of him still clung to a sliver of hope - that she was lying, that it was a cruel trick to punish him. But her coldness, her absolute conviction, had been terrifyingly real. He deserved this. He deserved all of it. His departure from her life was not just final. It was a descent into his own personal hell. He felt a strange sense of pity for himself, quickly followed by a wave of self-loathing.