Chapter 186: Pay the Price

Chapter 186: Pay the Price

Andrew's POV

I was out taking care of some things when a servant called to tell me Jane had left the hospital.

It was still raining outside—light, but steady. Jane had just been injured and suffered a miscarriage; being drenched in it would only hurt her already weakened body.

So the moment I got that call, I rushed out to find her.

I spotted Jane on a bridge. She was in her hospital gown, her thin frame like a leaf in the wind, standing in the pouring rain on her.

In that moment, my heart ached.

When I first married Jane on impulse, it was partly to get rid of Clara and partly out of selfish desires. But now, my feelings for her had completely changed.

I loved her.

No other reason needed.

I just wanted to love her the way a husband loves his wife.

I rushed out of the car to bring Jane home, but she fought back hard. In the wind and rain, the hatred in her eyes was too much for me to face.

She asked me if I had slept with Nancy.

She asked me if she meant less to me than one of Olivia's old belongings.

I didn't know how to answer. Then she told me she wanted a divorce.

I wanted to explain myself, but she was too worked up to believe a single word I said.

Worried that standing in the rain would make her sick, I stopped replying to her questions. As she turned to leave, I caught her from behind, pulled her into my arms, and forced her gently toward the car.

She called me a piece of trash.

I just smiled it off.

I wanted to say—I'm not.

The reason I rushed to The Gonzalez Villa after Nancy's call wasn't just about Olivia's belongings. I wanted to get my hands on all the evidence of the Gonzalez family's crimes over the years.

My relationship with Jane had already enraged the entire Gonzalez family. They had come after her more than once. I couldn't keep taking that risk.

The only way to make sure they could never touch Jane again was to get that evidence and take the Gonzalez family down for good.

And in doing so, I'd finally get justice for Olivia and her parents.

That day, I pretended to fall for the Gonzalez family's trap. Thomas and Nancy half-pushed, half-guided me into Nancy's room. Nancy planned to secretly film us having sex so she could blackmail me into pouring money into the Gonzalez Group.

Meanwhile, I was working out how to keep the Gonzalez family busy with me while giving Ryan the chance to get into the safe at The Gonzalez Villa and pull out that evidence.

Nancy kept trying to seduce me. To avoid raising her suspicion, I played along and acted like the drug was working on me.

Right when she was about to take things further, I knocked her out cold with one slap and left her on the bed.

I'm a particular man. Not just any woman gets to sleep with me.

Especially not someone like Nancy. I wasn't about to let a woman like her anywhere near me.

Thomas and Thea had assumed that once I was in Nancy's room, things would go exactly as planned. When they saw me walk out of her bedroom with my head held high and a look of pure contempt on my face, they couldn't believe their eyes.

Right then and there, I warned Thomas. I said, "The Gonzalez family is going to pay for this."

I walked out of The Gonzalez Villa, got in my car, and called Ryan.

Ryan told me he had already gathered all the evidence of Thea's crimes. All he needed was my word, and we could put that blood-soaked murderer behind bars.

Nancy would also have to answer for her stupidity.

After getting the evidence, Ryan and I went straight to the Lopez Group and called a senior meeting to figure out how to bring the Gonzalez family to their knees.

What I hadn't expected was that while Ryan and I were making our plans, Jamie and Jane had already walked into a whole different kind of danger.

Jane had been kidnapped.

I only found out the full story later when Ryan reported back after his investigation. Apparently, Thora had found out what happened to Jane and gone straight to The Gonzalez Villa, where she told Thomas—right to his face—that Jane was his biological daughter.

Based on what Ryan uncovered, the Gonzalez family had originally planned to use the situation as a chance to kill Jane. But maybe blood really does run deeper than hate—because Thomas still had one last shred of conscience left in him.

At the critical moment, he stepped in and saved her.

Even so, I couldn't forgive him.

The moment I heard Jane was in trouble, I rushed to the hospital. By the time I got there, she was already in the emergency room.

Henry told me with regret that Jane had lost the baby.

I was devastated—not just because we had lost the child, but because my carelessness had given the Gonzalez family and that woman Katherine the chance to hurt Jane in the first place.

I told Henry that no matter what it took, keeping Jane safe was the only thing that mattered.

After hours of emergency care, Jane finally pulled through. When I saw her lying there in the hospital bed, so weak and pale, the guilt hit me harder than ever.

Clara tore into me, said I had failed to protect Jane. She was right, and I took it.

Jane curled up in my arms and cried over losing the baby. Her pain was my pain.

It was my fault. I had failed to protect Jane and our child. I owned that.

But divorce? That was something I could never agree to.

Even if I had made mistakes, didn't I at least deserve a chance to make things right?

I carried Jane in from the rain and brought her back to The Lopez Mansion. Even as she struggled against me with everything she had, I didn't let go. I held her close and carried her straight up to the bedroom.

Maybe she didn't want Clara to worry—because Jane didn't say a single word before we went in. She just looked at my face with those calm, unreadable eyes.

We walked into the bedroom. The moment the door closed behind us, I pulled Jane into my arms and held her tight, letting the warmth of my body chase away the cold from hers.

"Honey."

I pressed my lips close to her ear and softly called her that. Jane's body gave a small shiver.

"Honey, let me explain. Nothing happened between me and Nancy. I never touched her."

"And about Olivia—I've been wanting to tell you for a long time. I never thought you mattered less than she did. I never even made that comparison."

"She was her own person, and you are yours. She died without justice, and I owed it to her to set that right."

"But you—you're the woman I want most in this life. Even after losing our baby, I still want to spend my life with you."