Audrey Kevin NovelThe Messages Left Behind

The day I found out Kevin, the head of our crime syndicate, had cheated for the first time, I filed for divorce.

But he locked me in our bedroom for five days and four nights, going through two boxes of condoms.

Afterward, he wore a look of utter helplessness as he explained:

Our rivals set me up, drugged me, and forced me into a one-night stand with Serena. You have to forgive me.

The second time, I saw him with Serena at her prenatal appointment. Again, I brought up divorce.

He pushed me against the wall, his voice laced with menace:

"Audrey, you want a divorce? Over my dead body. You need to trust me. Serena is a plant from our enemies. I have to keep her close, it's a deep cover operation. Once she has the baby, I'll get rid of her immediately."

But then Serena had a miscarriage, and everyone suspected I was behind it.

Serena lunged at me, her hands clamped around my throat like a madwoman:

"Hate me all you want! Why would you hurt my baby?!"

Even Kevin looked at me, his eyes filled with disappointment:

"I told you to wait, why would you touch *my* child?"

With that, he ordered me to be locked in the basement.

"You'll stay down here until you've truly reflected on what you've done."

Curled in the corner, I sent a message on my phone:

Erase all records of my child's birth. Once the paperwork is complete, arrange for me and my child to leave.




The blood-soaked basement door finally opened just as I was losing consciousness.

Kevin scooped me up, pulling me into a tender embrace, his voice filled with concern:

"You almost ruined our syndicate's counter-scheme, I had to punish you like this to give the crew a proper explanation."

"You know I love you the most. Once my plan involving Serena succeeds, we can go back to how things were."

And his "plan involving Serena" meant getting her pregnant with his child again.

He claimed it was the only way to keep Serena controlled and our enemies in the dark.

I watched him put on his act of deep affection, my heart a barren wasteland.

But Kevin, we could never go back to how things were. There would be no future for us.

And he would never know that he already had a child, a child with me.

The day he became the syndicate boss, he witnessed a subordinate's child being held hostage by their rivals.

The subordinate's wife, in a surge of maternal instinct, died tragically in a hail of gunfire, protecting her child.

From that day on, he would often tell me, haunted by the memory:

"Let's not have children. I don't want a child to become your weakness, and I can't bear the thought of losing you."

I agreed.

But as I saw his eyes light up with joy, time and again, looking at other people's children, I secretly wanted to give him a surprise.

That year, Kevin went to Mexico for a mission and told me to stay away for a year.

It was during that time I found out I was pregnant with his child.

Afraid he'd worry, I kept it from him until the baby was born.

Later, because of a premature birth, the baby was weak and had to stay in the hospital.