Steve took a deep breath, his cold, calculating gaze fixed on Thomas. His voice was devoid of emotion as he asked, "Why are you here?"
Thomas smirked, adjusting his black suit with practiced ease. "Even after you convinced me with your plan, I wanted to see it through to the end. A masterpiece deserves an audience, don't you think?"
Scene Shift
Steve leaned back in his chair, fingers tracing the rim of his whiskey glass. His voice, measured and emotionless, carried the weight of a well-rehearsed script. "She said yes to my marriage proposal. Six months later, she told me she was pregnant."
Thomas leaned forward, eyes gleaming with intrigue. "And how do you plan to execute her? We're short on contacts and money to cover up a murder."
Steve's lips curled into a shadow of a smile—humorless, empty. "She is going to commit suicide."
Thomas let out a sharp laugh, shaking his head. "What? And why would she do that?"
Steve's eyes darkened, his voice steady, devoid of hesitation. "It's a two-phase operation. The first part is simple—intensify her stress until it breaks her. I forged an emotional connection between Olivia and the unborn child using classical conditioning. Repeatedly, I reminded her of how we never received our parents' love, how we suffered, how the world was unkind to us. I made her believe that her child would experience the happiness that we have never enjoyed and received. I reinforced the attachment using anthropomorphism—naming the fetus 'Olivia Jr.,' making it more real to her, more personal. Then, I surrounded her with baby accessories—a cradle, tiny clothes, a lullaby playing in the background every night. Her mind clung to it, weaving a future she would never have."
He paused, eyes unblinking. "Meanwhile, your men buried her under a mountain of work—fake design projects, fabricated clients, impossible deadlines, fire break through at one of her construction site. Olivia is ambitious—she never rejects an opportunity. She took every task head-on, unaware that each one was meant to crush her."
Thomas smirked. "What if she figured out the projects were fake?"
Steve's expression remained blank. "She won't. By the time she would have suspected anything, she would be too exhausted, too mentally frayed to fight back. She will be dead before it even crosses her mind."
The room fell into silence, thick with unspoken understanding. But then, Alex—silent until now—finally snapped. "Why? Why are we doing all this? Stress alone won't be enough to break her."
Steve turned to alex with an amused smirk. "To make her miscarry, of course."
A stunned silence followed.
Alex's face twisted in horror. "What?!"
Thomas chuckled, shaking his head. "For a moment, I thought you had grown a conscience, Steve. That you had actually decided to start a family with her."
Alex clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white. "This is inhuman. You're a total monster."
Steve finally met Alex's gaze, his eyes empty, devoid of warmth. "Yes, I am. Is that enough, or should I continue?"
Alex turned away, disgusted.
Steve exhaled slowly, adjusting his cuffs before continuing in his eerily measured tone. "Stress alone wouldn't be enough to trigger a miscarriage. That's where the second phase of the plan came in. Olivia has a dependency or habit of chocolate and coffee. Normally, she consumes 150ml, but during work, it spikes to 300-400ml. I replaced her usual chocolates with dark chocolates containing high caffeine concentrations, increasing the risk of miscarriage fivefold. The rest was handled by the Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug (NSAID) painkillers I provided her in higher doses in case of body pain. The process was subtle—undetectable. Her body fought, but in the end, it succumbed to the perfect storm we created."
He leaned forward slightly, voice eerily calm. "With her miscarriage, Part One of my plan was complete."
The room was heavy with silence, thick with the weight of their crime. Steve studied their reactions—Thomas's approval, Alex's revulsion. It didn't matter. None of it mattered.
His fingers curled around the empty whiskey glass. "She never even saw it coming."
A slow, empty smile crossed his face, but there was no joy in it—only the reflection of a man who had long since abandoned his humanity.