My husband Ethan Chase was sent undercover. No lavish wedding for me, no honeymoon either. When I had complications giving birth to our daughter, he was on a mission. Our daughter is seven now, and she's only seen him in photos. "Vivian, I'm sorry. Being with me has made you suffer. Once this mission wraps up, I'll come back and we'll be together." Every time we talked, I'd smile and say it was fine, that his safety mattered more. Until our daughter fell seriously ill, and I ran into him at the hospital with a pregnant woman for her prenatal checkup. "Mommy, look..." My daughter pointed at him excitedly. I immediately covered her mouth in panic. "Don't call out! Your dad's on a mission—it could put his life in danger!" My daughter looked at me with confusion written all over her face. "Mommy, what are you talking about?" "That's my classmate's dad. He picks her up from school every day." "My classmate's about to have a little brother. When are you going to give me a sister?" I forced myself to stay calm and dialed Ethan's number. "Ethan, where are you? Our daughter's sick." Not far away, he glanced at his phone. He bent down to kiss the pregnant woman's face, then frowned and walked to a corner to answer. He deliberately lowered his voice: "Vivian, I'm on a mission abroad. I have to hang up." After ending the call, he stared at his phone, distracted. It took him a while before he took the prenatal test results and went to queue for registration. My eyes stung terribly. As if possessed, I carried my daughter and walked over. Charlotte Lane was sweet-looking, completely non-threatening. She was clearly someone who'd been well-protected all her life. When she learned my daughter was her son's classmate, she brought me to a café next to the hospital. She ordered juice for the two children, then cheerfully pulled me into small talk. When she talked about Ethan, her eyes practically sparkled. "My husband and I have known each other for ten years. I was his first love. When we first got married, there was a misunderstanding, and in a fit of anger I ran off to Europe. He couldn't find me and was depressed for quite a while. But seven years ago, he came to Europe to find me. We reconciled and had our first child." Seven years ago. I turned my face away, afraid she'd see the tears welling in my eyes. That was when Ethan and I first met. I had just graduated high school when my family forced me to get married. After a huge fight with my parents, I ran away from home and met Ethan in an alley. He reeked of alcohol, lying on the ground vomiting blood. When he saw me, he stared for a long time before explaining he'd been injured on a mission. I believed him and took him to the hospital. Later we fell in love, and I followed him to this unfamiliar place. Until he went abroad on a mission, and I discovered I was pregnant. I endured the pregnancy and delivery all alone. Back then I didn't know anything, not even how to properly recover postpartum. The landlord bullied me for being an outsider and threw me and my baby out in the middle of the night. I took a deep breath and forced a smile. "So... have you two always had a good relationship?" Charlotte took a sip of her milk tea and closed her eyes contentedly. "Very good. When I had our first, he was there for the entire delivery. He booked the best postpartum care center." "Most people rest for a month after giving birth, but he insisted I take three full months." "This time my morning sickness has been severe with the second baby, and he's been so worried he's lost a lot of weight too." I gripped my straw so tightly I wanted to stab it into my flesh. Charlotte looked at me curiously. As if she'd discovered something exciting, she couldn't contain herself. "No wonder we hit it off so well—haven't you noticed we look a bit alike?" "Actually, I know that during the three years I was abroad, my husband found a substitute who resembled me." "My husband said that woman was barely educated, completely on a different intellectual level from him." "I'm pretty understanding about it. I just think of it as my husband finding a free prostitute." The tip of the straw pierced under my nail, but I felt no pain. Charlotte didn't notice my reaction and smiled at me smugly. "You have no idea how much my husband dotes on me. When he found out that woman was pregnant, I lost control and had someone run her over with a car. I heard she hemorrhaged badly." "That woman reported it to the police, but my husband didn't blame me at all. He took care of all the trouble for me." "After I had our first baby, I had some postpartum depression. I had people harass that woman, calling her a homewrecker. Watching her carry her child around looking so helpless—it felt so satisfying." "Oh, and my husband was even more ruthless. When the homewrecker was arguing with people, he and I just sat in a car across the street watching the show." Late pregnancy, getting hit by a car, all alone with no one to turn to. I crawled to a nearby hospital by myself to beg for help. The day people called me a homewrecker, Ethan choked up on the phone for the first time, saying he was sorry. How ironic it seems now. My vision kept going black. I almost fainted from my seat. Charlotte finally noticed something was wrong and worriedly supported me. "Are you okay? We've been chatting so long—where's your husband?" I opened my mouth, my throat tight. "He..." Just then, an indulgent yet helpless voice came from behind us. "Drinking milk tea behind my back again. Charlotte, you're being naughty."
The familiar voice exploded above my head. I mechanically turned around. The moment our eyes met, Ethan froze. I'd thought about going crazy, demanding to know why. But I had to consider my daughter's feelings. "I'm sorry, I have to go." I stood up, lowered my head, grabbed my daughter, and fled. That dark gaze followed me like a shadow, accompanied by Charlotte's coquettish voice. "Come on, forgive me just this once." "She's our son's classmate's mom. Pretty pitiful—her daughter's sick and her husband doesn't even care." When I got home, I locked myself in my room and cried for a long time. The doorbell rang in the evening. It was Ethan. "Mister, why are you here?" My daughter was curious. He frowned, seeming uncomfortable. I forced back my heartache and sent my daughter to her room to do homework. Once only the two of us remained in the living room, I finally had a chance to really look at him. He'd gotten thinner. He'd changed too. He didn't drink the hawthorn tea I brought him, even though he used to love it. I couldn't hold back anymore. I beat his chest with my fists, crying my heart out. "Why did you lie to me? You made our daughter into an illegitimate child!" "Do you have any idea how landlords kept kicking us out, how much contempt I endured with our daughter?" Back then I'd look for work during the day and sleep at the bank at night. On my first day of work, my finger got pierced by a machine. I didn't cry. I just gently pulled my finger out and sat there in a daze. I kept telling myself to be strong, that everything would be fine when he came back. Now he was back, but as someone else's husband. Ethan let me vent without saying a word. He just kept glancing at his phone. When I was too tired to hit him anymore, he helped me sit down, then quickly stepped back several paces. With a complicated expression, he pulled out a bank card. "Vivian, I'm sorry. From now on I'll deposit child support in this card regularly." "Just one condition—please don't hurt Charlotte. She's innocent." I threw the bank card at his face like a madwoman. "She's innocent—so I'm not? Our daughter's not?" "I treated you as my husband. What did you treat me as? What did you treat our daughter as? Take your dirty money and get out!" His eyes turned red. Words came to his lips but he swallowed them back. After taking a phone call, he turned and left. He left in such a hurry that he trampled the flowers I'd planted in the yard. Those were flowers he and I had planted together seven years ago. "Come back! Explain yourself!" I wiped away my tears and chased after him. My daughter suddenly came out of her room, her face deathly pale, gasping for breath. Panicked, I picked up my daughter and screamed at his retreating back. "Ethan Chase! Our daughter's having an asthma attack! Come back!" He acted like he hadn't heard. Without any hesitation, he got in his car and left. I had no more tears left. No voice left to cry. I held my daughter and rushed to the roadside, flagging down a taxi to the hospital. "There are no beds available? Doctor, please, my daughter really can't wait." My daughter couldn't breathe. She was starting to lose consciousness. Just like the past seven years, I numbly knelt and begged. But this time my daughter's condition was extremely critical. The doctor told me expressionlessly to try another hospital. Just then, Charlotte appeared. "Vivian Adams?" She happened to be at this hospital waiting to give birth. After learning the situation, she immediately had Ethan help arrange for my daughter to be admitted. I felt a complicated mix of emotions. "Thank you..." "Don't mention it. Your husband's not around, so it's only right we help you. Right, honey?" She kindly pulled me close and wiped the tears from my face. Ethan uncomfortably turned his head and pulled their son away. "Charlotte, I'll take our son home first and bring back some toiletries for you." The boy refused to leave. "Dad, I don't want to go. I want to stay and wait for my classmate." Ethan instinctively glanced in my direction and warned the boy in a low voice. "Don't play with trashy people. They'll be a bad influence on you!" He dragged the child away against his will. I trembled with rage. I wanted so badly to ask him why he said that about my daughter. They were both his children—why treat them so differently? But thinking of Charlotte's kindness, I hesitated.
As soon as he left, Charlotte's eyes suddenly reddened. "Vivian, he went to see that woman last night." My heart skipped a beat. For some reason I felt guilty. She gave a bitter smile, her voice muffled. "Actually, after I got pregnant with the second baby, I was worried he couldn't handle it, so I gave him permission to temporarily see that woman for relief." "You know what he said?" Her nose turned red, looking pitiful. "He refused. He said women outside were dirty, that the time he didn't use protection with that woman was because he was drunk." "He wanted her to abort the child, but it was a life after all. I couldn't bear it, so I told him to bring the child back to raise." "He disagreed. He said he only recognized children I gave birth to. The homewrecker's child had no right to appear before me." I bit my lip hard until I tasted iron, forcing the tears back. So my daughter wasn't someone he wanted. That's why he could bear not coming back to see us even once in seven years. "Ouch, my stomach." Charlotte suddenly clutched her belly and cried out in pain. I realized she was about to give birth and instinctively reached out to support her. Just as I was about to touch her, a strong force shoved me to the ground. Ethan had returned. He shielded her behind him. Then turned to face me, furious to the point of losing control. "Vivian Adams, did you ignore everything I said? If anything happens to Charlotte, I'll kill you!" The back of my hand scraped against the concrete, the skin torn off. It burned with pain. I didn't want to cry, but tears fell uncontrollably. "Is this what you think of me?" His gaze landed on my bleeding hand. His Adam's apple bobbed. He seemed about to say something but stopped. Charlotte looked between us in confusion. "You two know each other?" He panicked. As if terrified I might say something to Charlotte. Before I could speak, he dragged me outside. "I'm worried about people with unclear backgrounds like her approaching you with ulterior motives." I gave up resisting and laughed through my tears. "Right, someone from my social class doesn't deserve to know you." I must have been blind before. But then my daughter rushed out of the emergency room, crying and hitting him. "Bad man, let go of my mom!" "Let go!" Ethan winced in pain and instinctively pushed her away. Due to the momentum, my daughter screamed and tumbled down the stairwell. Ethan's face changed. He quickly reached out to grab her but missed. "My child!" Everything happened too suddenly. I had no time to save her. Instead, Charlotte reacted in time and pulled my daughter back up. But the next second, her features contorted in pain. "Help! My water broke!" "What happened to you? All because you saved my daughter." I panicked, feeling both grateful and guilty toward her. Despite her dazed consciousness from the pain, she still comforted me. "Vivian, don't worry. We hit it off so well—saving your daughter was the right thing to do." Ethan looked horrified and frantically carried her to the emergency room. The fetal position was abnormal. The situation was serious. This tough man actually knelt down. "Doctor, please save my wife. I'll pay any amount." The operating room doors closed. He remained kneeling in despair, praying. "Please God, let my wife deliver safely. I'll trade my life if necessary."
Passing medical staff couldn't help but admire his devotion. My daughter and I felt like intruders, completely out of place. For a moment, everything felt so unreal. Was that Ethan who once only had eyes for me really just using me to pass the time? "Mommy, I feel awful!" My daughter's painful cry woke me up. Her condition hadn't stabilized. Her eyes rolled back and she started convulsing. Terrified and incoherent, I knelt before Ethan holding her. "The doctor said she needs surgery right away, but all of today's surgeries are fully booked." "Please save our daughter. I promise I'll never appear in front of you again." Charlotte had mentioned he was one of the hospital's shareholders. He must have a way. My daughter was barely conscious in my arms, delirious with discomfort. "Mommy, Daddy, I feel awful..." Ethan softened. His hand moved toward her uncontrollably. Just then, the operating room doors opened. The doctor tiredly removed his mask and smiled: "Congratulations, mother and child are both safe." He abruptly pulled his hand back and rushed over, pressing delicate kisses on her forehead. "Charlotte, you worked so hard. Two children are enough. We won't have any more." Charlotte weakly opened her eyes and couldn't help complaining softly. "Isn't it three? That woman gave you one too." Ethan hesitated, then chuckled softly. "Only the ones you give birth to deserve my last name!" All color drained from my face. I could barely stand holding my daughter. He looked up at me, his expression gradually becoming complicated. After escorting Charlotte back to her room, he came after me. "Vivian, I'm sorry. I misunderstood you earlier." He moved his gaze from my bleeding hand to my daughter. As if making a huge decision, he finally agreed to hold our daughter. "You've had it hard these years. I'll arrange the surgery right now." Tears blurred my vision. I couldn't see his expression clearly, but I heard the tremor in his voice. Watching my daughter enter the operating room, I mechanically signed the consent form. When I looked up, I saw Ethan pushing Charlotte over. My nose stung. I couldn't help wiping away tears. "Charlotte, why aren't you resting? Why did you come here?" She completely dropped her previous gentleness, her smile dripping with mockery. "Vivian Adams, playing with you all this time has actually made me feel a bit sorry for you." "My younger son was born with a severe blood disease. He needs a complete blood transfusion." "Your daughter happens to be a match. All we needed was your signature on this surgery consent form!" She waved the form I'd just signed. I felt like I'd fallen into an ice cellar. I suddenly understood everything. I grabbed Ethan and screamed hysterically: "She's your daughter too! How can you bear to do this?" He didn't dare look me in the eye. "I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you later." Charlotte leisurely enjoyed watching my agony. "Do you understand now? You were never his weakness!" I was consumed with hatred. I looked at them and laughed coldly with meaning. "Someone as uneducated as me—did you think I'd be easy to manipulate?" "Why don't you go inside and see who exactly was sent into the operating room?"
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