Bought For A Baby, Kept For A Lifetime-Chapter 310: I’ll Take Your Place From Here

Hours ago, Grayson hospital.

The painful contractions were too unbearable, the hospital room was a cocoon of soft lights and frantic voices and movements.

But for Anne, the whole world seemed to have faded away narrowing down to the unbearable pain that rolled through her body. It was an agonizing tightening and releasing that happened in sessions.

It felt like her very bones were humming, a magnetic force drawing everything out of her, energy, breath, and panic. Her breathing kept huffing in soft clouds and even as she looked around she couldn’t see anyone familiar around her.

From the moment she had been wheeled into this room, she had lost sight of Jasmine at some point who had been with her constantly.

The doctors and nurses surrounded her, giving guided instructions.

"You’re doing great Ma’am, this baby is in a hurry. On the next big one, I want you to push right here okay? Give it everything."

The next painful contraction made Anne feel like the whole world was tearing through her body.

Quietly, she whispered Andrew’s name, her eyes burning with painful tears. She continued to chant his name as if it was the only thing that would give her strength in this very moment, before bravely pushing through.

There was a burning stretch when Anne pushed according to the doctor’s instructions, it felt like the universe was splitting open until she felt a sudden slippery release, then a feeling of emptiness before she heard a sharp furious cry.

A sharp wail from an infant filled the room instantly and in that moment, Anne felt like she could finally take in the breath she had been holding.

"It’s a girl." The doctor announced to Anne with a smile.

Anne’s vision was very blurry at the moment, hazed up by tears of relief that spilled down her face.

A warm, squirming bundle was gently placed on Anne’s chest, skin to skin. The tiny little face was adorably blotchy, a rosebud mouth seemingly searching for something.

Anne’s warm tears fell on the infants little head.

"Hello, my love." Anne whispered, unable to exactly describe how she felt holding the infant she had carried in her for months. Every cell in her body was over flooding with a dizzying, intense amount of love as she watched her child.

She wished Andrew was here right now to see the little daughter that already had most of his features.

"Your Daddy kept insisting he wants a daughter, I guess his wish came true." Anne whispered to the little infant who now relaxed against her chest.

The nurses hurried back and forth, cleaning up while giving Anne polite smiles and praises for how well she had handled birthing her child. It was luckily a swift birth with no complications at all.

A while later, a nurse Anne hadn’t seen around her after the birth arrived after the others had left. Quietly she took the baby saying something about cleaning her up, before she administered an injection into Anne’s vein.

Anne hadn’t found it strange since she was in a hospital and she had no idea what the procedures about childbirth looked like.

She had no idea that outside, there was a doctor delaying anyone who wanted to come in and see her with the claims that she was still resting.

She had no idea that a conspiracy was going on underneath the facade of calmness.

"This will help with the after pains and it’ll let you rest well. Just lie down and relax." The nurse had said after giving Anne the injections.

A heaviness instantly began to seep into her. It was a kind of heavy feeling that lured every muscle in her body to relax, giving her a calm and peaceful feeling that everything began to blur away.

Anne looked longingly towards the small bundle of her baby kept in a crib at the side, wanting to reach out to touch her but her body felt too weak she couldn’t even lift a finger.

Anne frowned suspiciously.

"Why do I feel...so sleepy?" She mumbled, her tongue itself feeling too heavy to move.

"That’s normal, just rest now." The nurse’s voice came again but it was different now.

When she looked up, the nurse wore a dark frightening smile, she stepped back and behind a curtain a familiar face stepped out.

A very familiar face.

Anne’s eyes widened but she didn’t have it in her to make any other reaction.

How was this possible?

The face of the woman who stepped out of a hidden corner, looked exactly like hers.

It was a striking resemblance, no, it was unbelievably identical to herself.

The woman wore the same hospital gown, and looked exactly like Anne.

Anne’s heart began to pound rapidly as dread washed into her. She looked to the bundle of her child but she couldn’t do anything or say any other words.

"Get her somewhere hidden, if you do it perfectly you’ll get every penny I promised you tonight." The woman who looked like Anne said to the nurse who nodded decisively.

Anne wanted to scream and yell for help, but she couldn’t move her lips, couldn’t say a single word.

Why was there someone with her exact face here? 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Why did she look just like her?

The world suddenly began to tunnel around Anne, every sound fading away, including her baby’s sudden piercing cries.

The woman with her face moved closer to her, a sly smile, the kind that would never be seen on Anne’s face showed on hers.

Each word the woman said was like a whisper into Anne’s consciousness,

"Goodbye Anne, sleep now, I’ll take your place from here."

A smile, thin and cruel was the last thing Anne saw before the darkness rushed up, swallowing the light completely.

Just before Anne lost consciousness, a nagging feeling in her heart said the name,

Clara?

****

Anne didn’t know how long she had been unconscious for, but she slowly felt a sharp pain in her head, slowly felt her body reviving and she moved only to hiss in pain.

She was in a dark place, a very dark place. When she looked around she could only hear voices but couldn’t see a single soul.

"We weren’t told to kill her, we just have to find a way to get her out of this hospital when all those security guards leave the premises."

"Whose guards are those anyway? They’ve surrounded the hospital for hours, at this rate we won’t be able to get her out of here."

"They are the Sterling family’s men. They’re here to protect the Sterling family mistress."

"So the woman we were asked to take away is the..."

"No she’s not, at least not anymore. The real Sterling mistress is now with the Sterling Family. The woman in there is just damage control."

"So miss Hastings is now..."

"Will you shut it, James? From now on, the name Clara Hastings no longer exists."

As Anne heard that part, her eyes widened in realization.

So the woman she saw earlier, the one who looked just like her was indeed Clara.

It seemed Clara was indeed relentless.

How had she done it? Transformed herself to look just like Anne?

Anne couldn’t believe it, but she knew she needed to find a way to get out of here, otherwise Clara would truly take her place, if that happened, she might never get to see Andrew again, might never get to see her own daughter again...

But immediately Anne tried to move, pain engulfed her whole body and something seemed to pierce through her veins, slowly she was weakened again and slowly, she was pulled into unconsciousness again.