The Monster in My Womb

The daughter I sacrificed everything to protect was a born psychopath.

Six months into my twin pregnancy, I heard her sobbing from inside my belly.

[Mommy, my sister is pinching my umbilical cord. It hurts so much.]

I swallowed the lie whole.

I forced down thousands of calories a day, stuffing myself with food and prenatal supplements until bile burned the back of my throat. I even begged my OB-GYN for off-label drugs to stunt the younger twin's growth.

On the day of delivery, the babies were dangerously overgrown. I suffered a massive hemorrhage. Hot blood soaked through the sterile hospital sheets.

Only the older twin, Octavia, made it out alive.

Violet died inside me.

As the heart monitors flatlined into a continuous, deafening beep and my vision faded to black, I caught a glimpse of Octavia. The newborn wasn't crying. She was staring right at me.

Her tiny lips curled up into a grotesque, chilling smirk.

[Stupid bitch,]

Her voice sneered directly into my fading consciousness.

[Your destiny, Violet's life, and Callum I'll gladly take them all.]

A violent gasp tore through my throat. My eyes snapped open, my chest heaving as cold sweat drenched my spine. My nails dug deep into the fabric of the sofa.

My belly was still just six months heavy.

I was back. Back to the exact day I first heard her voice.

Chapter 1

A sharp cramp tore through my abdomen. I snapped awake from the darkness. Unfamiliar ceiling. Familiar chandelier.

This was Callum's and my bedroom. I wasn't dead.

I reached down, pressing my palms flat against my heavily pregnant belly. Warm. Real.

A shrill, piercing voice exploded directly inside my skull.

[Mommy, my sister is pinching my umbilical cord again. It hurts so much.]

[She wants to kill me. She wants to hog all your nutrients.]

My entire body went rigid. That voice. I remembered it. I jolted upright, my eyes darting around the room.

The digital calendar on the wall glowed bright red. August 15th. Exactly six months into my pregnancy.

The very day I first heard my older daughter's inner voice. I was back.

[Mommy, why aren't you saying anything? Hurry up and eat, or my sister is going to suck me dry!]

[Why won't this useless piece of trash just die already?]

I squeezed my eyes shut. Memories of my past life rushed into my mind like a suffocating tide. I had believed her.

My older twin, Octavia. I swallowed every single word she said. I truly believed that my younger twin, Violet, was hurting her.

I started binge-eating like a maniac. Bone broths, heavy protein shakes, endless prenatal supplements. I stuffed myself until I gagged over the toilet. All I wanted was to protect Octavia.

I even went to my OB-GYN to beg for off-label drugs that would stunt the other fetus's growth. The doctor looked at me like I was a psychopath. Callum tried to talk sense into me, reminding me that they were both our children. I shut him out.

On the day of delivery, the babies were dangerously overgrown. I suffered severe complications. Hot blood soaked through the sterile operating table.

The doctors said the situation was extremely critical and strongly advised a hysterectomy to save my life. But I refused to sign the consent forms, using my last ounce of strength to sob and beg them to prioritize the babies.

Callum signed the papers outside. He agreed. I felt my life draining away. As my vision blurred into blackness, I saw the nurses pull Octavia out.

She wasn't crying. She turned her tiny head, staring right at me.

She smiled.

I heard her final words sneered directly into my fading mind.

[Stupid bitch. You believed everything.]

[Your destiny, Violet's life, and Callum I'll gladly take them all.]

She was the born psychopath all along. The child I sacrificed everything to protect was a literal monster. And my quiet daughter, the one who never spoke a single word. My Violet.

She never cried for help, not even as she died in the womb. I died. Drowning in an endless abyss of regret.

[Mommy? Why are you zoning out? Go eat!]

Octavia's impatient voice snapped me back to reality.

[This old hag is so slow. I'm starving to death in here.]

[The second I'm born, the first thing I'll do is steal Callum away and leave you to rot alone.]

I opened my eyes. A freezing numbness settled into my bones. I slowly swung my legs over the edge of the bed.

My heavy, pregnant body protested as I stood up. I walked out into the living room.

Callum's mother was walking out of the kitchen, holding a steaming bowl of greasy chicken broth. "Serena, you're awake? Come on, drink this while it's hot. You need the nutrients for the babies."

In my past life, this exact bowl of soup kicked off my death march of force-feeding. I stared down at the slick layer of yellow fat floating on the surface. Acid churned in my stomach.

[Drink it! This is the good stuff!]

[Drink it down so we can grow big and crush that little piece of trash to death!]

Octavia shrieked with manic excitement in my head.

I took the bowl from my mother-in-law's hands.

Crash. I stared directly into her eyes and smashed the entire bowl of greasy brothbowl and allstraight into the trash can.

"Serena, what the hell are you doing?!" she shrieked, her voice pitching up in pure disbelief.

I ignored her. I walked over to the sink and turned on the faucet, letting the icy water wash the grease off my fingers.

[Are you crazy?! You stupid bitch! You dumped it!]

Octavia roared in my head, throwing a violent tantrum.

[That was mine! Those were my nutrients!]

[Are you trying to starve me? Are you trying to let that little piece of trash win?!]

I dried my hands with a paper towel, my expression deadpan.

"Serena! Have you lost your damn mind? I simmered that organic chicken broth all morning!" She lunged forward, grabbing the edge of the trash can to stare at the shattered porcelain.

Chapter 2

Her eyes bulged. "If you don't want to eat it, don't eat it! Why the hell did you dump it?

A selfish bitch like you doesn't deserve to be my son's wife. You're abusing my granddaughter!"

I shut off the faucet. I turned around and looked straight at her. "Grease," I said.

She froze. "What?"

"I said it's a bowl of liquid fat. The smell makes me want to vomit." I pointed at the yellow sludge coating the sink. "My OB-GYN said I need to manage my weight and stick to a clean diet in the third trimester."

"Bullshit! What kind of doctor says that? You're supposed to eat for two!" she fired back.

"Dr. Evans. The head of maternal-fetal medicine at Cedars-Sinai." I threw out the name of the top specialist. "From now on, I'm handling my own meals."

I stared her down, enunciating every single word. "Keep your hands out of my kitchen."

[This old bitch always ruins everything!]

[Mommy, don't listen to the doctors! They're liars! They want to hurt me!]

Octavia kept screaming. I blocked her out.

My mother-in-law choked on her next insult. Her mouth opened and closed like a dying fish.

My eyes landed on the cardboard box sitting on the coffee table. Inside sat a full dozen Krispy Kreme donuts, heavily glazed and packed with sugar. In my past life, Octavia said she wanted donuts.

I had shoved an entire box down my throat like a maniac. My blood sugar spiked so high it nearly triggered fatal preeclampsia.

[Mommy, I see the donuts. I want them.]

Octavia's tone abruptly flipped. It turned sickeningly sweet. Pleading.

[Mommy is the best. Hurry up and feed me the donuts.]

I walked over. I picked up a donut.

My mother-in-law's face softened a fraction, clearly thinking I was finally giving in.

I took a bite. The sugar exploded on my tongue.

[Yes! That's it! Eat more, Mommy!]

Octavia purred with utter satisfaction.

I chewed twice. I walked over to the trash can. I spat the masticated dough right onto the garbage bag. Then, I grabbed the entire box from the table and tipped it upside down, shaking every last glazed pastry into the trash.

[You!]

Octavia's shriek practically punctured my eardrums.

My mother-in-law stood dumbfounded. She pointed at me, her finger trembling. "You you Serena, what the hell is wrong with you?!"

The front door clicked open. Callum walked in. He was still in his tailored suit, his leather briefcase in hand. His brows pinched together as he took in the standoff in the living room.

"Mom? Serena? What's going on?"

His mother immediately latched onto him like a lifeline. "Callum, you need to control your wife! She's lost her damn mind today!

I made her chicken broth, and she dumped it! I bought donuts, and she threw them in the trash! She's intentionally trying to starve my granddaughter!"

Callum shifted his gaze to me. A silent question hung in his eyes.

[Daddy's home!]

Octavia's voice instantly morphed into a pitiful, innocent whine.

[Daddy, Mommy is bullying me.]

[She won't let me eat. She wants to starve me to death.]

[Tell her to stop.]

I stared at Callum. I looked at the man I had loved for yearsthe man who, in my past life, had personally signed my death warrant without a second thought. A flat line of cold dead silence echoed in my chest. Not a single ripple of emotion.

"Callum, I booked an ultrasound with Dr. Evans for tomorrow morning," I said. "Take the day off. You're coming with me."

He blinked, visibly caught off guard. He hadn't expected the demand. In my past life, I played the role of the perfect, accommodating wifeI never asked him to take time off work for my appointments. I always went alone or dragged his mother along.

His mother bristled instantly. "Another checkup? Didn't you just go last week?

Callum is exhausted from work! He doesn't have time to play chauffeur to the clinic every five minutes!"

[Don't go to the hospital!]

A thread of genuine panic pierced Octavia's voice.

[I hate the hospital! There are things there that can hurt me!]

[Mommy, don't go. I'm scared.]

Scared? You're just terrified the high-res ultrasound will catch exactly what you're doing in there. I let out a dry, silent laugh in my head.

"I'm experiencing severe abdominal pain." I held Callum's gaze, my tone flat.

Chapter 3

"With twins, we can't be too careful." Callum's gaze dropped to my heavy, swollen belly. A heavy silence stretched between us for a few seconds. Finally, he gave a curt nod. "Fine. I'll take the morning off tomorrow."

He shrugged off his suit jacket and handed it to his mother. "Mom, Serena is my wife, and this is her body. If she says she's not eating, she's not eating. I need you to back off and give her some space right now."

He was setting a hard boundary. In my past life, I would have immediately groveled and apologized to my mother-in-law to keep the peace. But now? I just gave a flat, indifferent hum. I turned on my heel and walked straight back to the bedroom.

Click. I shut the heavy oak door. I locked them both out.

[This useless bitch actually dared to order Daddy around!]

[Just wait until I'm born, I'll make her pay!]

Octavia continued to spew her venom.

[But Daddy is still on my side. He agreed to go to the hospital because he definitely wants to see if that little piece of trash is dead yet.]

[This is great. Tomorrow I get to watch her die with my own eyes.]

Ice coated my veins. How could a fetus possess such pure, concentrated malice?

I walked over to the edge of the mattress and sat down. I gently rested my palm against the right side of my stomach. That was Violet's spot. She was always so quiet. So quiet that I constantly forgot she was even there. In my past life, right up until the second I bled out, I never heard her speak a single word.

[Violet. I'm so sorry. Mommy's back. This time, I swear I'm going to protect you.]

I lay down and squeezed my eyes shut, completely deadening myself to the psychotic shrieks echoing in my skull.

The next morning. Callum kept his word and cleared his schedule. We drove to Cedars-Sinai in thick, suffocating silence.

Halfway there, he tried to break the ice. "Serena, are you under too much stress lately?" He glanced at me while keeping his hands at ten and two. "Mom is getting older, and she lacks a filter. Don't take her words to heart."

I kept my eyes locked on the blurred traffic outside the window. I didn't say a single word.

[Daddy is talking to me. He cares about me.]

[Mommy is such a stupid bitch. Daddy talks to her and she just ignores him. She deserves to be dumped.]

Octavia crowed with absolute smugness.

We arrived at the clinic. Check-in, the waiting room, the sterile white hallways. Every single step played out exactly like my past life.

Finally, a nurse called my name. I lay back on the examination table. Dr. Evans handled the probe herself. A heavy glob of freezing gel hit my bare stomach. The muscles in my legs involuntarily locked.

Two tiny, grayscale figures materialized on the glowing monitor. They were pressed tightly together.

Dr. Evans glided the wand across my skin. "Hmm? This is the older twin, right?" She tapped a manicured nail against the slightly larger figure on the screen. "Look at her hand. It looks like"

My heart rammed against my ribs.

"Her hand looks like it's resting right on her sister's umbilical cord."

Dr. Evans's clinical observation dropped like a concrete block into the quiet room. Callum leaned over the rolling cart to get a better look. The blood instantly drained from his face.

[Mommy, look! My sister is dying!]

Octavia's psychotic thrill vibrated through my brain tissue.

[The doctor and Daddy both saw it! They're going to scrape this little piece of trash right out!]

[Mommy, hurry up and beg the doctor! Save me!]

I stared unblinkingly at the monitor. The ultrasound was grainy. But I could see it. Octavia's tiny, skeletal hand was indeed resting directly on Violet's lifeline. Exactly like my past life. This was the visual proof she used to frame Violet.

Callum's hand suddenly clamped down on mine, his grip white-knuckled. A visible tremor shook his voice. "Dr. Evans, what what exactly are we looking at here? Is the older twin strangling her sister?"

Dr. Evans frowned, her eyes narrowing at the pixels. "Don't jump to conclusions. Ultrasounds can have visual distortions depending on the angle." She adjusted the pressure on my stomach. "Let me get a cross-section."

She twisted the wand. The grayscale image on the monitor warped, then snapped into a terrifyingly clear new perspective.

I saw it.

Octavia's hand wasn't just resting on the cord.

Her tiny fingers were curled tight.

Squeezing.

Crushing it in a death grip.

Callum let out a sharp, ragged breath, the raw terror bleeding into his voice. He believed it. Just like I had in my past life. The sheer visual horror of the screen convicted Violet in a split second.

[Daddy saw it too! This is so perfect!]

[He's going to absolutely hate that little piece of trash now!]

Octavia's sinister cheering echoed like a victory parade inside my skull.

Chapter 4

[Mommy, cry! Play the victim!]

[Tell the doctor and Daddy that your stomach hurts because my sister is pinching you!]

[Hurry up, you stupid bitch!]

Her shrieks drilled directly into my temples. I blocked her out. My gaze rested coldly and objectively on Dr. Evans.

"Dr. Evans," I spoke, my voice entirely too flat for a concerned mother. "In a twin pregnancy, is it normal for one fetus's hand to be crushing the other's umbilical cord like that?"

I deliberately used the word crushing. Not resting.

Callums head snapped toward me. The muscles in his jaw tightened.

Dr. Evans shot me a surprised look. She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and leaned closer to the monitor. "Hmm it is indeed gripping it," she murmured. "This kind of behavior is exceedingly rare. Generally speaking, uterine space is limited, so occasional limb contact between fetuses is completely normal. But a sustained, forceful grip like this it could severely compromise the blood flow and nutrient supply to the trapped fetus."

Her clinical assessment hit the room like a bomb. All the color drained from Callum's face, leaving him a sickly, ashen gray.

"Compromise the nutrient supply? Then is the younger twin in danger?" The panic in his voice spiked.

[Danger? She's better off dead!]

[Daddy is worried about me! Yes, he must be terrified that this piece of trash is going to drag me down with her!]

Octavia's malicious logic buzzed like a hornet in my brain.

Dr. Evans didn't answer immediately. She tapped the keyboard, and streams of data cascaded across the screen. "Currently, the older twin's metrics are excellent. In fact, she's over-indexing. The younger twin is skimming the absolute bottom percentile. This indicates a severe imbalance in nutrient absorption."

Dr. Evans's tone hardened. "Serena, has your diet been excessively greasy recently?"

I gave a curt nod. "Yes. My mother-in-law force-feeds me heavy, fat-laden broths every single day. I told her it was too much grease, but she refuses to listen." I let out a perfectly timed, helpless sigh.

Callums lips parted, but no sound came out. A muscle ticked furiously in his cheek. He knew exactly what his mother was doing.

"Absurd!" Dr. Evans snapped, pure medical authority radiating from her posture. "Who told you to eat for three? A twin pregnancy requires strict scientific dietary management and rigid weight control! Oversized fetuses only multiply the risk of fatal delivery complications. It benefits absolutely no one!"

"Starting today, cut out all high-fat processed garbage! You are transitioning to a strict gluten-free, organic high-protein diet, and a certified nutritionist must take full control of your meal plans immediately!"

Every single syllable from Dr. Evans was a slap to the face. A slap to my mother-in-law, and a brutal slap to the utterly pathetic, brainwashed version of myself from my past life.

[No! We can't stop!]

Octavia unleashed a desperate, feral roar inside my skull.

[This damn old hag! She's trying to starve me!]

[Mommy, talk back to her! Tell her I want meat! I want my soup!]

I wasn't going to say a damn word in her defense. I held Dr. Evans's gaze and gave a solid, deliberate nod. "Understood, Dr. Evans. I'll follow it to the letter. Now about the older twin crushing her sister's umbilical cord. How do we fix this?"

I dragged the crosshairs right back to the target. This was the only thing that actually mattered today.

Dr. Evans let out a heavy sigh. "We cannot physically intervene with fetal behavior in the womb. Our only option is aggressive monitoring. You need to be in here for an ultrasound every single week to monitor the younger twin's umbilical blood flow. The second we detect anomalous metrics, you will be admitted for inpatient observation, and we may have to perform an emergency C-section. Of course, try not to panic. The older twin might release her grip in a few minutes. It comes down to luck."

The appointment ended. I sat up slowly from the examination table. Callum immediately reached out to support my weight. His palms were slick with cold sweat against my bare skin.

"Thank you, Doctor," I said.

We walked out of the ultrasound room into the harsh fluorescent light of the hallway. Callum was dead silent. A deep furrow carved between his brows, his jaw clenched tight as his brain scrambled to process the morning's revelations.

Chapter 5

He no longer believed this was just a simple case of one baby blindly hurting the other. Dr. Evans's clinical assessment had forced him to face the grim reality. One fetus over-indexing, physically crushing the other's umbilical cord. The other hovering at the bottom percentile, its nutrient supply choked off. No matter how you looked at it, this wasn't a victim fighting back. This was an apex predator exerting absolute dominance.

A seed of doubt had finally been planted in my husband's mind.

The second we stepped through the front door, my mother-in-law ambushed us. "Well? What did the doctor say?" Her face was stretched tight with eager anticipation. She fully expected the doctor to validate her twisted theorythat the younger twin was a parasite and the older one needed to be force-fed.

Callum shot me a glance, said absolutely nothing, and walked straight to the kitchen to pour himself a glass of water. He checked out of the conversation.

That was exactly what I wanted. I needed to personally shatter every single one of her delusions.

"The doctor said I'm over-nourished," I stated, my voice dead calm. "Both babies are measuring large. The older twin is already two weeks ahead of schedule. Starting today, I am on a strict diet. Every single drop of that greasy broth is cut off."

The eager smile curdled on her face. "Impossible! The doctor must have made a mistake! Bigger is better! Bigger means healthy! Callum was nearly nine pounds when he was born, and look how strong he is!" She was still clinging to her outdated, backwoods logic.

[Exactly! That doctor is a total quack!]

[Mommy, don't listen to her! Keep drinking the soup!]

Octavia continued to fan the flames inside my head.

"Mom." I locked eyes with her, projecting zero tolerance. "I am the one giving birth. I am the one taking the physical risk. If oversized fetuses cause a massive hemorrhage, I am the one who bleeds out on the operating table. So, starting right now, I control my own meals. If it breaks your heart to see your chicken broth go to waste, drink it yourself, or force it down Callum's throat. Do not ever put it in front of my face again."

Her face mottled an ugly purplish-red. She had never expected her traditionally submissive daughter-in-law to fire back with such venom. Her lips trembled with rage. She whipped around toward the kitchen, demanding backup. "Callum! Are you hearing this? Are you listening to the way she speaks to me?!"

Callum leaned against the doorway, a glass of water in his hand. He pinched the bridge of his nose, thoroughly exhausted. "Mom, just do what Serena says. We have to listen to the medical professionals."

He wasn't backing me out of loyalty. He was just defaulting to clinical authority.

But to my mother-in-law, his neutrality was an unforgivable betrayal. She couldn't fathom that her golden boy would actually side against her. She stomped her foot, spun on her heel, and stormed into the kitchen. The aggressive slamming of pots and pans echoed through the walls.

[Useless! What a useless piece of trash!]

[He can't even control his own mother!]

Octavia seethed with pure rage in my mind.

[Fine! If you won't feed me, I'll figure it out myself!]

[I'll suck that little piece of trash dry if it's the last thing I do!]

I completely ignored her. I walked straight into the home office and locked the door behind me. I booted up my laptop and began running aggressive searches on "twin umbilical cord compression" and "Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome."

In my past life, I knew nothing about the medical realities of my pregnancy. I just blindly listened to Octavia and stupidly force-fed myself to death. This time, I was arming myself with hard science. I needed Callum to look at me and see a rational, highly educated mother fighting for her childrennot a hysterical, paranoid lunatic.

I spent the entire afternoon tearing through peer-reviewed medical journals and clinical case studies. The more I read, the heavier the dread settled in my chest. Octavia's behavior had entirely crossed the line of random fetal movement. It was a targeted, calculated assault.

Night fell. Callum pushed open the office door.

Chapter 6

He stared at the dense medical jargon on my laptop screen, freezing in his tracks. "Serena, you're reading this?"

"Yeah." I pointed a finger at a clinical case study on the screen. "Look at this one. It's exactly like our situation. Twins. One baby grabbed the other's lifeline. The final outcome was that both babies"

I let the sentence hang.

Callum understood. The lines around his mouth tightened into a grim slash.

"Stop reading." He reached over and snapped the laptop shut. "Don't scare yourself. Didn't Dr. Evans say we just need to monitor it?"

"Callum." I tilted my head up, locking my eyes dead onto his. "I don't believe in luck. I only believe in myself. If monitoring doesn't solve the problem, I will find a doctor who can. I'll search the entire country, the entire world if I have to."

I didn't blink. I let him see the absolute, terrifying resolve burning in my pupils.

Callum stared back at me. A heavy silence stretched between us. His Adam's apple bobbed slightly as he processed the unyielding, reckless determination of a mother completely cornered.

[Stop faking it, you stupid bitch!]

[You're just trying to get rid of me!]

[Just wait, I'll make you pay for this!]

A sudden stab of pain ripped through my lower abdomen. It felt like a jagged ice pick driving straight into my uterus. A ragged gasp tore from my throat. I doubled over as a thick sheet of cold sweat instantly coated my forehead.

Callum lunged forward, catching my shoulders. "What's wrong?"

"My stomach" I grabbed his hand and slammed it directly against the right side of my belly. Violet's side. "Right here it feels like the older twin is kicking her" I kept my voice weak, leaving the horrifying implication hanging in the air.

Callum's palm pressed flat against my tight skin. Underneath his hand, the left side of my stomachOctavia's sidebegan to heave. A vicious, rhythmic thumping slammed toward the right side. It wasn't normal fetal movement. It was a targeted, brutal assault