Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Layla
"Miss Ella, what do you think of this design?"
Mrs. Harris's expectant voice pulled me back from wherever my mind had wandered. I blinked, refocusing on the sketches spread before me.
"My apologies." I kept my smile professional. "I think we could soften the lines here. See..."
I picked up a pencil and traced light strokes across the paper. Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the Baltimore sunset bled gold and crimson across the sky, light spilling through the glass onto my worktable and making the jewelry designs seem to glow.
This was my studio. Ella Ross Jewelry Studio.
Awards lined the walls—"Emerging Designer of the Year," "Baltimore Arts Prize," "International Jewelry Design Gold Medal." Photos with celebrities in elegant frames. In the display case sat my most prized piece: Into the Blue.
Everyone said Ella Ross was a genius. A miracle who'd clawed her way up from nothing.
No one knew that seven years ago, she'd jumped off a cliff looking for an escape.
"Perfect!" Mrs. Harris clapped her hands. "Let's go with this! Miss Ella, you're a genius!"
"You're too kind." I smiled, carefully filing the sketches away. "You'll have the finished piece in two weeks."
After Mrs. Harris left, I leaned back in my chair, gazing out at the bustling harbor.
Baltimore. This port city had taken me in. Given me a second life.
Seven years ago, that night, the freezing ocean had swallowed me whole. I'd thought I would die. Thought it would all be over.
But fate had other plans.
Seven years ago.
Cold.
That was the first thing I felt when I came to.
I lay in a soft bed under warm blankets, but my body shook like I'd never be warm again.
"She's awake." Whispers, fragmented, like they were drifting down from heaven.
I forced my eyes open. An unfamiliar ceiling. An unfamiliar room.
"You're very lucky, miss." A gentle male voice. "My yacht happened to pass through that stretch of water. We saw you floating. Another minute and you might've..."
I turned my head. A silver-haired gentleman sat beside the bed, his eyes kind, as though he were looking at a child who needed saving.
"I'm Robert Ross," he said. "Retired jeweler. And you? What's your name?"
I opened my mouth. Nothing came out.
Layla Gray was dead.
Dead in that freezing ocean. Dead in Kayden Blackwood's rejection.
"I... I don't remember." I found my voice, though it came out rough as gravel.
Robert studied me, those wise eyes seeming to see right through the lie. But he didn't call me on it.
"That's alright." His tone remained gentle. "The past doesn't matter. What matters is you're alive now."
He stood and walked to the window.
"I have a proposal. After you're discharged, I'll support you—but just enough to get by. I won't make you comfortable. If you want to truly change your life, you'll need to give it everything you've got."
"What?" This sudden good fortune felt like a trap. "Why would you help a stranger?"
"Why..." Robert turned back, his gaze deep and full of memory, as if seeing someone else through me. After a long silence, he smiled. "Consider it an old man's last act of charity. But I have one condition."
"What condition?"
"Live." His eyes turned serious. "Live well. Live brilliantly. Live with purpose. Don't waste this second chance. And...Your child's life."
"...Child?" I froze, my hand instinctively moving to my stomach.
"You're pregnant. About five weeks along. It's a strong little fighter—the doctor said that even though you're quite weak, the baby seems determined to survive. Miss, you can choose... whether to keep it."
Robert delivered this shattering news gently, then turned and left, closing the door to give me space to think.
I stared at the ceiling, unable to process what I'd just heard, unable to think at all.
So in that moment of falling, Diana's words hadn't been a hallucination.
It had all happened so fast. The engagement I'd thought was happiness. The dream shattering. Being accused of murder. Being rejected by my fated mate. Dragged to the dungeon...
And then?
I'd seen beautiful moonlight. Moonlight... like his eyes. Cold and distant, though I'd fooled myself into thinking they were warm. That I wouldn't be alone anymore.
Lies. All lies.
I'd finally chosen something for myself—recklessly, I'd jumped into the deep sea to wash away my wretched life.
But I didn't know if this was fate's cruelty or its mercy.
I'd survived. Met a kind man who told me I could start over.
Could I finally shed my hybrid identity?
Could I exist in this world for the first time, pure and unmarred?
Tears slid past my temples into my hair. I bit my lip to keep from sobbing, but more tears blurred my vision. I was like a rat fleeing in disgrace—pitying myself, pathetic, just hoping fate wouldn't find me again.
But I couldn't escape. I was pregnant.
This was Kayden's and my child. Diana had been right.
My hand pressed against my stomach, as if I could feel the tiny life growing there. Greater despair threatened to crush me. This should have been the blessed fruit of fated mates—
"I, Kayden Blackwood, reject Layla Gray as my mate."
Diana let out a weak whimper at the painful memory. It was the final straw.
I couldn't keep this baby. I couldn't.
I couldn't hold back anymore. I buried my face in my hands and wept.
Layla, he already rejected you. So brutally. So coldly. How can you bring this child into the world for a man who never loved you?
But what if the baby looks like him? What if he has those silver eyes too? What if he's as brave, as resilient, as clever as his father?
Stop it! This is just your selfish desire! You'd bring him into a world with no love at all?!
But what if he wants to live?
"It's a strong little fighter—the doctor said that even though you're quite weak, the baby seems determined to survive."
Robert's words circled my mind endlessly, long after my tears had run dry and the hospital lights burned my eyes. I wrapped the blanket tighter around myself, curling into a ball, as if that could ward off the cold inside me.
Then I made my decision.
"I will love you. I promise I'll love you." I stroked my stomach gently, as if there were already a beating heart inside.
I would bring him into this world.
The nine months of pregnancy were the hardest of my life.
The physical changes brought new miseries every day. Morning sickness, swelling, back pain... every pregnancy symptom found me.
But worse was the mental torture.
Every time I felt him move, I wondered: who would this child look like? Would he have Kayden's silver eyes? My chestnut hair?
After he was born, how would I explain why he had no father?
How could I tell him his mother was just an abandoned mate?
I don't remember much about the pain in the delivery room. I only remember when the nurse placed a tiny, wrinkled baby in my arms—I cried.
He opened hazy silver eyes and looked at me, his little hand gripping my finger tight.
"He's healthy," the nurse smiled. "A beautiful boy."
I looked at this tiny life in my arms and suddenly understood what Robert had meant.
I had to live well.
Being a new mother was harder than I'd ever imagined.
During Kai's first month, I barely slept a full night. He cried constantly. I fumbled through diaper changes, feedings, soothing—often so exhausted I could barely keep my eyes open.
Once, making formula at midnight, I was so tired I grabbed the thermometer instead of the measuring spoon. I didn't realize until Kai's crying jolted me awake, and I found a thermometer floating in the bottle.
I couldn't tell if he was hungry or tired, cold or hot. Every time he cried, I panicked.
"Please stop crying..." I'd hold him and cry too. "I really don't know what you need..."
Robert couldn't bear it. He even offered to break our agreement and hire help—by then I'd learned his late daughter and I bore some resemblance.
But I insisted on caring for Kai myself. He was my child. I'd chosen to bring him into this world. I had to take responsibility.
Slowly, I learned to decipher his different cries. Learned how to support his head during baths. Learned the best positions for getting him to sleep.
I watched him grow day by day—from a crying infant to a baby who could smile, roll over, crawl, walk, and talk.
Every milestone made me cry with joy.
This child became my entire reason for living. And caring for him made me reconsider my own life.
I couldn't live in the shadow of the past forever.
I had to get stronger. Succeed. Give Kai the best life possible.
I wanted him to say proudly, "That's my mom."
Robert saw my determination and started teaching me jewelry design.
"You have talent," he said, studying my sketches. "And your experiences give you a unique perspective. Pain can be transformed into creative power."
So I threw myself into learning, working. Caring for Kai during the day, then sketching designs after he fell asleep at night. Sometimes I'd pass out at the table and wake up to find drool stains on my drawings.
But I had to do it. Had to truly restart my life.
Outside the kindergarten, parents clustered in small groups waiting for their children. I stood at the edge, removing my sunglasses to search for Kai.
The bell rang. Children poured out like birds taking flight.
"Mommy!"
That familiar voice. I turned to see Kai with his little dinosaur backpack, waving frantically.
He ran so fast he nearly tripped over his shoelaces.
"Slow down!" I rushed over to steady him. "You klutz!"
"I'm okay!" Kai grinned, showing off a gap where a tooth used to be. "Mommy, look! My tooth came out!"
He opened his mouth wide, proud as anything.
"Wow, it really did!" I played along with appropriate amazement. "The tooth fairy will come tonight!"
"Really?!" Kai's eyes lit up. "Will she give me money?"
"She will, if you put the tooth under your pillow."