Chapter 291: Leaving with Nothing

Chapter 291: Chapter 291: Leaving with Nothing

Seeing the situation, the maid panicked and shouted, "Oh no! Miss Shepherd is bleeding! She’s going into labor!"

The color drained from Frederick Forrester’s face. Forgetting the argument in an instant, he rushed forward to steady Clara Shepherd, who was curled up in pain. His eyes were wide with panic and anxiety.

"Don’t be afraid, I’m taking you to the hospital!"

He immediately ordered the maid to get the maternity bag, then bent down, scooped Clara into his arms, and hurried toward the door.

But Carla had already had the main entrance blocked. She stood firm in the center of the doorway, refusing to budge an inch.

Frederick stopped in his tracks, his eyes flashing with impatience and confusion.

"Carla! Clara’s about to give birth! Childbirth is a life-and-death struggle for a woman! This is an emergency! Whatever you want to say, we can talk after the baby is born safely!"

Carla stood perfectly still, watching the panic in his eyes as a sardonic smile touched her lips.

"You care about her that much?"

"This isn’t about whether I care or not! This is a matter of life and death! Must you really pick a fight with me right now?"

’So in his eyes, I’m just being unreasonable and making a scene.’

’They’re the ones who did something wrong, but now they’re trying to make it seem like it’s my fault.’

Her gaze wavered for a moment before she composed herself. Her voice turned cold and final.

"Until this is settled, no one is going anywhere."

With that, she turned and calmly sat down on the sofa. Her posture was serene, her aura frigid, an image of absolute intransigence.

Frederick’s eyes blazed with fury as he glared at her.

"What the hell do you think you’re doing?!"

His once gentle and indulgent wife was now cold and merciless. He had never seen a Carla so obstinate and cruel.

She had always doted on Clara, yet now, as her sister writhed in agony, she remained utterly unmoved, her heart as cold as stone.

Clara was trembling from the pain, her clothes soaked through with cold sweat as she pleaded, her voice choked with sobs.

"Sister... I can’t take it anymore... I’m going into labor... Please, let us go to the hospital..."

But no matter how she pleaded, Carla remained impassive.

The eyes that had once been so gentle and tender, so full of warmth and acceptance, now held nothing but a bone-deep chill. They stared at Clara with calm indifference, as if looking at a complete stranger—or even someone on the brink of death—without a hint of pity, without a flicker of emotion.

"You had an affair during our marriage, you deceived me, you betrayed me, and you secretly conceived a child. You expect me to stand by and watch this bastard be born? Impossible!"

Carla began to speak, her voice calm, yet laced with the finality of someone ready to take everyone down with her.

"It’s not that I won’t back down, but I have one condition. Frederick Forrester, I want you to walk away from this marriage with nothing. Agree, and I’ll let you go right now. If you don’t, then no one is taking a single step out of this house today."

Frederick’s eyes flew wide, his chest heaving with a surge of fury.

"You’re insane!"

’How dare she make such an outrageous demand? Even if I was in the wrong, I could never agree to walk away with nothing.’

"I’ve never been more clear-headed."

Carla’s lips twisted into a cold, determined smile, her eyes showing the fierce resolve of someone with nothing left to lose.

"You know my temperament. Either you walk away with nothing and pay the price for your betrayal, or I call the media this instant and expose this whole filthy scandal—the affair, the illegitimate child about to be born—to the entire world!"

"Let’s see how you two manage to show your faces in Northolme after that!"

She lifted her head, her gaze piercing and cold. "If my life is ruined, then I’ll just tear everything down. I’ll drag all three of you down with me!"

Clara’s pupils constricted in disbelief. Fighting through a wave of pain, she demanded sharply, "Carla, have you lost your mind? If anything happens to me, Mom and Dad will never let you get away with it!"

The elderly couple of the Shepherd family had Clara late in life, and as a result, they spoiled her rotten, taking her side in every single thing.

For years, Carla had simply stood by and watched, never making an issue of it. She couldn’t care less about the Shepherd family’s modest fortune. Besides, Clara was the little sister she had doted on since they were children; she had willingly accepted their parents’ favoritism. Whenever Clara was short on money, Carla would always give her what she needed, ensuring her sister never had to go without.

The person she had protected and pampered for over a decade had not only trampled all over her marriage and betrayed her trust but was now, in this critical moment, trying to use their biased parents to control her.

’How utterly laughable.’

A frigid smile touched Carla’s lips, so cold it was chilling to the bone.

"Clara Shepherd, I must have spoiled you far too much. Is that why you thought I’d always be a pushover you could walk all over?"

"And what if Mom and Dad find out? If they dare show you the slightest bit of favoritism today, I will cut all ties with the Shepherd family right then and there!"

A cold sweat broke out over Clara’s body as a searing pain tore through her, feeling as if her organs were being ripped apart. She didn’t believe Carla’s threat for a second. In her mind, Carla had always been the dutiful daughter; she would never actually break ties with their parents.

As a wave of excruciating pain washed over her, she grit her teeth and fumbled for the phone in her bag, desperate to call for help.

But the moment her fingertips brushed against it, the phone was snatched from her grasp by Carla.

SMASH—

A sharp crack echoed as the phone hit the cold floor, its screen instantly spiderwebbing with cracks, completely destroyed.

"Choose," Carla said, her voice flat yet radiating an undeniable, imperious aura. "I have all day to wait this out with you."

’They’re the ones in agonizing pain, the ones whose lives are on the line. Not me.’

"Carla, must you really force things to this point?" Frederick looked as though his eyes might split from fury, a tidal wave of rage surging through him. He never would have believed Carla could be this heartless, completely ignoring the life of the child in Clara’s womb to force him into this corner.

Carla looked up, her cool gaze sweeping over him. Her eyes were coated in a layer of permafrost, sharp and glacial.

"Or what?" Every word she spoke was dipped in ice, landing with irrefutable force. "Did you expect me to pretend I didn’t know? To just accept your betrayal, let her have the baby, and spend the rest of my life raising your bastard child and playing the fool for you both?"

"Frederick Forrester, ask yourself honestly. Is that even possible?"

She leaned forward slightly, her gaze boring into him, each word designed to strike a mortal blow.

"When you did this disgusting thing, did you ever stop to think about Nolan? If he were to find out that the father he respects so much was sleeping with his own aunt behind his back and got her pregnant... how do you think he’d look at you then?"

The words struck Frederick like a physical blow. The color drained from his face, turning it a ghastly shade of gray. A lump formed in his throat, and for a long time, he couldn’t speak.

After a long, dead silence, Frederick’s fists clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white. He finally relented, his voice hoarse and heavy as he grit out the words.

"Fine. I’ll sign. Just don’t tell him!"

"No! You can’t sign it!" Clara suddenly shot out a hand, gripping his arm with white-knuckled force as she frantically shook her head.

’She couldn’t accept Frederick walking away with nothing!’

’She coveted Frederick’s mature, stable presence, but she coveted the incredibly luxurious life he provided even more. If he walked away with nothing, she and her unborn child would be left destitute!’

"If I don’t sign, neither you nor our child will leave this place safely today." Frederick looked down at the trembling woman, his voice cold and resigned. "Are you really willing to gamble with your life?"