Six weeks later
Tiang Li's apartment was small but cozy, tucked away in one of Shanghai's older neighborhoods where the rent was affordable and nobody asked too many questions. Athena had been living on the couch for six weeks, watching her savings dwindle and her future collapse into an ever-narrowing tunnel.
She'd tried to enroll at Shanghai Medical University with her acceptance letter, only to discover that her father had called ahead. The dean had been apologetic but firm: given the "scandal" and the family's withdrawal of financial support, the university felt it was best if she deferred her enrollment indefinitely.
Translation: Don't come back.
She'd applied to twelve jobs. Not one callback.
She'd tried to access her mother's inheritance. The lawyers had smiled sympathetically and shown her paperwork signed by her father as executor of the estate, locking everything away until her twenty-fifth birthday "pending demonstration of mature character and judgment."
Seven more years. Seven years of being punished for a crime she didn't commit.
Athena stared at the bathroom tile, her knees pressed against the cold porcelain of Tiang Li's toilet, and tried not to vomit for the third morning in a row.
"Athena?" Tiang Li knocked softly. "Babe, you okay in there?"
"Fine," Athena lied, wiping her mouth with shaking hands. "Just... stomach bug."
"That's what you said yesterday. And the day before." The door creaked open. Tiang Li stood in the doorway, her expression a mixture of concern and something else. Something knowing. "Athena... when was your last period?"
The question hung in the air like a guillotine blade.
Athena's mind went blank, then raced backward through the weeks. Her cycle had always been irregular, messed up by the weight gain pills Victoria had been secretly feeding her for years. But now that she thought about it...
"I don't know," she whispered. "I can't remember."
Tiang Li's face softened. She disappeared and returned a moment later with a small plastic bag from the pharmacy. Three pregnancy tests tumbled onto the bathroom counter.
"No," Athena said immediately, backing away. "No, no, no. I can't be..."
"You need to know." Tiang Li's voice was gentle but unyielding. "One way or another, you need to know."
Athena's hands trembled as she picked up the first test. This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be real. Her life was already destroyed....this would be the final nail in a coffin that was already sealed.
Ten minutes later, she stared at three positive tests lined up on the counter like an accusation.
Pregnant.
She was pregnant with a stranger's child. A man whose face she couldn't remember, whose name she didn't know, who'd left her a note saying "this never happened" as if she was something shameful to forget.
The sob that tore from her throat was raw and animal. Tiang Li caught her as she collapsed, holding her while she shattered completely.
"What am I going to do?" Athena gasped between sobs. "I have no money, no family, no future. I can't....I can't have a baby. I can't..."
"Shh," Tiang Li soothed, rocking her. "We'll figure it out. You have options."
Options. The word felt heavy, loaded with implications Athena couldn't process.
"I need to think," she whispered. "I need... I need air."
She pulled on a jacket and stumbled out into Shanghai's grey morning, walking without destination through streets that had once felt like home and now felt like a prison. Every corner held a memory of her old life....the café where she'd studied, the park where her mother used to take her, the hospital where she'd volunteered, dreaming of becoming a doctor.
All of it was gone now. And she was carrying a constant reminder of the worst night of her life.
Athena found herself at the riverfront, staring at the Huangpu River's murky water, and for one terrifying moment, she understood why people jumped.
"Don't even think about it."
The voice made her spin. A man stood a few feet away, hands in the pockets of an expensive coat, his expression serious but kind. He was handsome in an approachable way, probably late twenties, with warm eyes that reminded her painfully of everything she'd lost.
"I'm not...." Athena started, but her voice broke.
"Good," he said simply. "Because whatever you're going through, it's not worth that."
"You don't know what I'm going through."
"You're right. I don't." He stepped closer, carefully, like approaching a wounded animal. "But I'm a doctor. I've seen a lot of people at their lowest points. And I've learned that the darkest moment is usually right before things start to change."
"That's a nice thought," Athena said bitterly. "But some things don't change. Some things just get worse."
"Maybe." He tilted his head, studying her. "Or maybe you're stronger than you think. I'm Marcus, by the way. Marcus Wei."
"Athena," she replied automatically, then froze. Her name....her scandal-tainted name....would he recognize it?
But Marcus just smiled. "It's nice to meet you, Athena. Are you okay? You look pale."
"I'm pregnant," she blurted out, then immediately wanted to take it back. Why had she told a complete stranger? What was wrong with her?
But Marcus didn't look shocked or judgmental. He just nodded slowly. "Does the father know?"
"I don't know who the father is." The admission felt like swallowing glass. "I was drugged at a party. I woke up in a hotel room. And now I'm pregnant and homeless and my entire life is ruined."
The words tumbled out in a rush, six weeks of bottled pain and fear and rage finally finding release. Marcus listened without interrupting, his expression growing darker with each revelation.
"That's not a ruined life," he said when she finally fell silent. "That's a crime. And you're a survivor."
"I don't feel like a survivor. I feel like a victim."
"You can be both." Marcus pulled out a business card, pressing it into her hand. "I run a medical clinic in the Hongkou district. We help people who fall through the cracks....immigrants, refugees, people without insurance. If you need medical care, or just someone to talk to, come find me."
Athena stared at the card. Dr. Marcus Wei, General Surgery. A phone number. An address.
"Why are you helping me?" she whispered. "You don't even know me."
"Because someone helped me once, when I needed it most," Marcus said simply. "And because I have a sister your age. If she was in trouble, I'd hope someone would help her too."
He left her standing by the river, his card clutched in her hand like a lifeline.
Athena didn't go back to Tiang Li's apartment immediately. She walked for hours, Marcus's words echoing in her head. Survivor. Stronger than you think.
By the time she returned, it was evening. Tiang Li looked up from her laptop, relief flooding her face.
"Thank god. I was about to call the police. Where have you been?"
"Thinking," Athena said. She sank onto the couch, exhaustion pulling at every muscle. "I met someone. A doctor. He said... he said I'm a survivor."
"Damn right you are," Tiang Li said fiercely.
"I'm going to keep the baby."
The words hung in the air. Tiang Li's eyes widened, then softened. "Are you sure?"
"No," Athena admitted. "But I'm sure that I can't....I can't end a life because mine got destroyed. This baby didn't ask for any of this. And neither did I. Maybe... maybe we can figure it out together."
"You know your father will never accept this," Tiang Li said quietly. "If he finds out you're pregnant, especially if you refuse to tell him who the father is..."
"I know." Athena touched her still-flat stomach. "That's why I need to leave Shanghai. I need to disappear before I start showing. Before Victoria and Stephanie can use this against me too."
"Leave? Athena, where would you even go?"
Athena pulled out Marcus's card. "I'm going to find this doctor tomorrow. Ask him if he knows anywhere I could go. Somewhere far from here. Somewhere I can start over."
"You're serious."
"I'm desperate," Athena corrected. "And desperate people do crazy things."
That night, Athena lay awake on Tiang Li's couch, one hand resting on her stomach, and made a series of promises to the tiny life growing inside her.
I promise I'll protect you. I promise I'll be stronger. I promise I'll never let anyone make you feel worthless the way they made me feel. I promise that someday, somehow, I'll make them all pay for what they did to us.
But first, we have to survive.