Chapter 21: Absolute Chaos

The sitting room feels like a tomb.

Mother sits on the sofa, spine rigid, hands clenched so tightly in her lap that her knuckles are white. Feifei sits beside her, face buried in her hands, shoulders shaking with quiet sobs. Father stands near the window, the pregnancy test results in his hand, reading them with that same terrible blank expression.

"Kneel," he says without looking up from the paper.

I kneel in the center of the room.

The hardwood floor is cold and unforgiving against my knees, within seconds they start to ache.

Father sets the test results on the side table. "Five weeks," he says flatly. "According to this, you’ve been pregnant for five weeks."

I don’t answer.

He turns to look at me finally. "Five weeks ago, where were you?"

My throat closes.

"Answer the question."

"I... I don’t remember."

"You don’t remember where you were five weeks ago." His voice is perfectly calm, perfectly controlled. "Or you don’t remember who you were with?"

"Both."

"I see."

He turns back to the window.

The silence that follows is suffocating.

I can hear the clock on the wall ticking, each second an eternity.

My ribs hurt with every breath, my face throbs, blood has dried tacky on my chin.

Minutes pass.

Nobody speaks.

Feifei’s crying has gone quiet, just occasional shuddering breaths now.

Mother hasn’t moved, she hasn’t looked at me since we sat down.

Father continues staring out the window like I don’t exist.

My knees are screaming, sharp pain spreading up my thighs, into my hips.

I try to shift my weight slightly and Father’s voice cuts through the silence.

"Stay still."

I freeze.

More minutes crawl by.

Five, ten, I lose count.

My legs start to go numb, the pain intensifies then fades into something duller and worse.

Then Mother speaks, her voice is very quiet at first.

"You’ve always been a disappointment."

I stare at the floor.

"We let you study architecture. That useless degree you begged for, we paid for three years of it." Her voice is rising now. "And you threw it away, you stopped going to classes, started getting into fights, getting arrested. Do you know how humiliating that was? Seeing our son’s face in the tabloids?"

I don’t answer.

"And we thought... we hoped you’d changed. When you finally started staying in your room these past weeks, we thought maybe you were finally growing up."

She laughs, bitter and broken.

"But no. You were just hiding. Hiding this." Her voice cracks on the last word. "You got yourself pregnant by someone you don’t even know. Some stranger. And now... now..."

She stands abruptly.

"Your sister’s wedding is in two months. Two months, Runze. And this is how you repay us?"

She crosses the room toward me.

"Is this how you repay everything we’ve done for you?"

I still don’t answer, what could I possibly say?

"I’m sorry," I finally whisper.

Wrong thing to say.

Her hand comes up and I flinch, raising my arms to protect my face.

The slap catches my hands and goes through anyway, knuckles cracking against my cheekbone.

Pain explodes across my face.

"I told you to stop saying sorry!" Her voice is a scream now. "What the hell are you sorry for?"

She hits me again, I keep my arms up but it doesn’t matter.

"Aaaghh, stop!" Feifei is on her feet, voice breaking. "This is too much, Please, you’re hurting him!"

But Mother is beyond hearing now.

She grabs my hair and yanks my head back.

I cry out before I can stop myself.

"You’ve destroyed yourself!" she screams into my face. "No decent alpha will want you now! Not with another man’s child!"

She shoves my head away and I sprawl forward, catching myself on my hands.

Before I can get back up, her foot connects with my ribs.

The same ribs she hit earlier.

All the air leaves my lungs.

I curl into myself, gasping, and she kicks me again.

"How dare you!" Each word is punctuated with another kick. "How dare you do this!"

Through the pain, through the gasping, a thought cuts clear and sharp:

This isn’t fair.

I didn’t choose this, I didn’t choose any of this. I didn’t choose to die, didn’t choose to wake up in this body, didn’t choose to seduce my sister’s Fiance and get myself pregnant.

Runze made these choices.

...But I’m Runze now.

So I’m the one curled on the floor taking kick after kick while she screams.

"Meifeng, enough!" Father finally moves, yanking her arm.

But she wrenches free, breathing hard, coming at me again.

"Stop it!" Feifei is screaming now. "Mom, please!"

That’s when we hear it.

A knock at the door.

Sharp, insistent.

Mother freezes mid-motion, hand still raised.

Another knock, louder.

Then a voice from outside, muffled but clear.

"Mr Li? Feifei? Is everything alright?"

Grandmother Wuchen.

My blood turns to ice. If she’s here then Bael might be here too...

No.

Please no.

Father’s face goes pale, he looks at Mother, at me on the floor, at Feifei sobbing.

Then he moves quickly toward the entrance hall.

We hear the door open.

"Mrs Wuchen, we didn’t know you were coming..." Father’s voice is strained.

"I apologize for the unannounced visit. Bael and I were in the neighborhood discussing wedding details and thought we’d stop by to confirm a few things with Feifei... but what’s going on? We could hear the noise from the outside."

"Mrs Wuchen." Father’s voice is careful. "I apologize for the disturbance, we’re having a... family discussion."

"That sounded like more than a discussion." Her voice is sharp with concern. "Is someone hurt?"

"No, everything is fine, we just..."

"May I come in?"

"This really isn’t a good time..."

But her footsteps are already moving past him, getting closer.

Mother looks at me with panicked eyes, there’s no time to hide me, no time to clean the blood off my face.

Grandmother Wuchen appears in the doorway and stops.

Her sharp eyes sweep the room.

Me on the floor, fresh tears streaming down my face, old blood dried on my chin.

Mother standing over me, breathing hard, knuckles split and bleeding.

Feifei on the sofa beside us sobbing.

Father behind them, face carved from stone.

Bael appears in the doorway behind his grandmother.

Our eyes meet across the room.

For a split second, everything else disappears. The pain, the blood, Mother standing over me, Feifei’s crying...all of it fades into background noise.

It’s just him and me.

His eyes widen slightly, surprise flashing across his face as he takes in the scene. Me on the floor with tears streaming down my face.

Then his gaze sweeps over the rest...Mother with blood on her knuckles, Feifei sobbing, Father’s stone expression.

I watch his face shift, locking down into something carefully controlled, carefully neutral.

But his eyes stay on mine.

And I realize with sinking horror: this wasn’t supposed to happen.

He wasn’t supposed to find out like this.

He wasn’t supposed to find out at all.

I’d had no plan beyond hiding it, denying it, making it through somehow without anyone knowing.

And now he’s here.

Seeing everything.

About to hear everything.

My heart is pounding so hard I think my ribs might crack.

"What’s happened here?" Grandmother Wuchen’s voice is quieter now but no less sharp.

Nobody answers.

Father’s mouth opens and closes.

Mother slowly lowers her hand.

"Mr Li." Grandmother Wuchen’s voice is gentler but firm. "Please. What’s going on?"

Father’s jaw works, then, voice flat: "There’s been a family situation."

"I can see that." Her eyes haven’t left me. "What kind of situation?"

The silence stretches.

"Li Chen," she says with a stern voice.

Father’s hands clench at his sides. "Our son is five weeks pregnant."

The words drop like stones.

Grandmother Wuchen pauses, shock blanking her face.

But I’m not looking at her.

I’m looking at Bael.

His entire body goes rigid, the careful neutrality shatters, his eyes widen, lips parting slightly. For one unguarded moment, I see pure shock written across his face.

Pregnant.

The word hangs between us like a physical thing.

His eyes lock onto mine and I watch the realization crash through him.

Pregnant.

Five weeks.

I can see him doing the math, see the exact moment it clicks, the hotel room, his knot locked inside me.

His face drains of color.

Then, just as quickly, he locks it down. Expression going carefully, deliberately blank.

But his eyes stay on mine, wide, intense, searching.

"Pregnant?" Grandmother Wuchen’s voice cuts through, she sounds steadier now, processing. "And the father is...?"

"He doesn’t even remember," Mother says, voice raw and broken. "He says it was some stranger, a one night stand."

I watch Bael’s face, watch the moment those words register.

*I didn’t tell them.*

I’m on the floor bleeding, beaten, and I didn’t say his name.

Something flashes in his eyes, too quick to identify. Relief? Fear? Calculation?

His jaw tightens almost imperceptibly.

Grandmother Wuchen turns to me, and I see the shock in her eyes...not shock at the pregnancy itself, but disgust and horror at the circumstances.

"You don’t remember who got you pregnant?" Her voice is sharp with disapproval.

"No," I force out.

"I see..." She says it slowly, like she’s trying to comprehend how anyone could be so reckless.

She takes a breath, composing herself, her eyes sweep over the scene again. Me on the floor, Mother standing beside me, Feifei crying.

"This is truly a family matter," she says carefully. "We should leave you to handle it."

She turns toward the door.

"Wait."

Bael’s voice.

Everyone turns to look at him.

He hasn’t moved, his eyes are still locked on mine.

"Bael?" Grandmother Wuchen sounds surprised.

"We’re not leaving," he says quietly.

Grandmother Wuchen frowns. "Bael, this isn’t our..."

"We’re not leaving." His voice is firmer now.

His eyes bore into mine, dark, unreadable, terrifying.

My heart stops.

What is he doing? What is he going to say?

He wouldn’t tell them.

He can’t.

Surely he’s not going to say it’s his.

That would destroy everything!