8 Chapter 8
I knelt, slipping the watch off my wrist and giving it to him. 1
Victoria froze for a few seconds, her eyes darting between me and Ethan, clearly weighing her options.
“If you can convince Ethan to divorce me, I’ll give them five million dollars for living expenses, and I’ll return all of your compensation as well.”
Victoria knelt before me, pleading and saying every nice thing she could think of.
But in this critical moment, he still called me Mommy, which proved he truly saw me as
his family.
As soon as she picked up, she began to grovel, “Sophia, have you had a change of heart? I don’t want the money anymore, I don’t want anything, just please, drop the lawsuit!”
“Alex was born through a surrogate Ethan hired. It has nothing to do with me!”
“I’m on my knees begging you! Drop the lawsuit. Please don’t let me go to jail, I can’t bring shame to my family!”
I had truly loved Alex for years. He was only six years old; what could he possibly
understand?
“Will your tears bring my parents back to life? Will all the love I’ve wasted on you these years suddenly become real?”
“Ethan is a complete and utter bastard. I must have been crazy to work with him. If you
just let me go, I promise I’ll make it up to you!”
I coolly tossed the divorce papers in front of him.
He pounded on the door, weeping and wailing:
I got home, and Ethan followed right behind me, but I had already changed the locks.
Then, I called Victoria.
“Come to City Hospital, room 603.”
The noise woke Alex. He ran from his bedroom, terrified, and knelt to beg me to open the
door for his dad.
Alex tugged on me from behind. “Mommy, don’t you want me anymore? You can’t leave
me!”
My heart softened for a moment, and I opened the door. “Sign the divorce papers,” I said coldly, “and I guarantee I’ll give Alex millions for his living expenses.”
“Alex, you’ve always had a mommy and a daddy. From now on, your real mommy and
your daddy will live with you. That’s how a family should be.”
I called an ambulance to take him to the hospital, and brought Alex with me.
“You want far too much. Sooner or later, it will be your undoing.”
“I was wrong, forgive me!”
The rage and shock were too much for Ethan, and he passed out.
“When you were deceiving me, harming my parents, and making me raise Alex, where was all this guilt? Now that everything is out in the open, who are you putting on this show for?”
It was just that in this situation, I truly couldn’t bring myself to keep treating him as my
own son.
Finally, she nodded in agreement. “You won’t go back on your word, will you? You can’t! Don’t worry, I’ll make him divorce you!”
I hung up.
He knelt before me, his cries gut-wrenching, and pulled Alex down to beg with him.
“Enough!”
“You can’t leave me, you really can’t. Let me in, I’m begging you!”
A pang of pain shot through my heart.
I stared at Ethan. “Right now, I’m handling this like a business transaction. I’m not out to completely destroy you, so why are you pushing your luck?”
14:54
“Who is the one who was schemed against here?!”
“Sweetheart! I’m your husband! We’ve weathered so many storms together, don’t throw
me away!”
I pointed at the unconscious Ethan. “He’s unconscious now, and I brought him to the hospital out of basic human decency. But taking care of him is your responsibility.”
Appealing to her self-interest with the divorce was my last resort.
“No! I won’t get a divorce! Please, I don’t want a divorce!”
“I’m begging you, it was all that bastard Ethan’s doing. I was just an accomplice. I don’t want to go to jail.”
Half an hour later, Victoria rushed in. She pushed open the door, spared not a single glance for the unconscious Ethan, and dropped to her knees in front of me.
“The child is innocent! He’s called you ‘Mom’ for all these years, you can’t be this heartless!”
Once I had her definitive answer, I turned to leave.
