---- Chapter 11 The silence from Sarah's room was a palpable thing, an accusation that grated on Ethan's nerves. He pushed Olivia harder, demanding a louder response, trying to shatter the quiet with a performance of passion he didn't feel. "Ethan, you're hurting me," Olivia gasped, her voice tight with fear, not pleasure. Her fear was an annoyance, a distraction. But then she cried out in genuine pain, clutching her stomach. A dark stain was spreading on the white silk sheets. Panic, cold and sharp, cut through Ethan's anger. He scooped her up and rushed her to the hospital, the same one where he had taken Sarah. The doctor's face was grim. "She's had a miscarriage, Mr. Vance. The fetus was already non-viable, but the... activity. certainly precipitated this event." The doctor's unspoken judgment hung in the air. "Save the baby," Ethan commanded, his voice raw. "There is no baby to save," the doctor said flatly. Ethan stared at him, the words not quite computing. The heir he had been planning, the final piece of his perfect new life, ---- was gone. He went to Olivia's bedside. She was pale and weeping. He felt a flicker of pity, but it was quickly replaced by a cold, calculating anger. She had failed him. "It was a boy," she sobbed, trying to clutch his hand. "We were going to have a son, Ethan." She was already using the ghost of their child as a bargaining chip. Ethan thought of Sarah. He imagined her reaction to this news. He could use this, this new tragedy. He could paint himself as the grieving father, and maybe, just maybe, it would be enough to break through her cold exterior. "Ethan," Olivia said, her voice regaining some of its strength. "Now... now we can get married. | want to meet your family. | want to be your wife." He looked at her, at her grasping, desperate ambition. "You are not my wife," he said, his voice devoid of all warmth. "You were a convenience. A placeholder." "But the baby..." "There is no baby," he said, his voice like ice. "You are no longer useful to me." "l can accept you having other women," she pleaded, her desperation pathetic. "| don't care! | just want to be Mrs. Vance! ---- Her willingness, her easy compliance, was suddenly repulsive. The very quality that had drawn him to her now seemed cheap and unappealing. He had wanted a puppet, but he found he had no respect for a woman who would so easily offer up her own strings. He pushed her hand away. "The arrangement is over, Olivia. My driver will take you wherever you want to go." "No!" she screamed, her face contorting with rage. "You can't do this! I'll tell everyone what you did! I'll ruin you!" She made one last, desperate threat. "I'll get rid of the baby!" "You already have," he said coldly. He turned and walked out of the room, leaving her shrieking behind him. He felt nothing. No regret, no sadness. Only a strange, hollow emptiness. As he walked down the hospital corridor, his phone buzzed. It was Daniel Chen. "Sir," Daniel's voice was professionally calm. "Mrs. Vance has requested a meeting. She said she has something to tell you." Aslow smile spread across Ethan's face. It was working. The silence, the starvation, the psychological warfare-it had broken her. She was finally ready to surrender. He had won.