“Nothing…It’s probably because I didn’t take a nap yesterday.”
She sat up in bed.What time is it? Are you going to work now?”
“You overslept so I was worried that you weren’t feeling well.” She shook her head with a smile.
“I’m fine…Go to work!”
“Okay.If you didn’t sleep well, you should go back to sleep.Leave work behind for now.”
He planted a kiss on her forehead.
“I’m going now.”
She hummed in response and watched as he left the room.
After he was gone, she lay back down in bed.Her head felt dizzy from lack of sleep, but she simply could not go back to sleep.She picked up her phone, but she was not sure what to do.She wanted to talk but was not sure who she could talk to because it did not seem appropriate to mention what had happened to anyone.
After all, Elyette had yet to tell her the truth.One thing she was certain of was that Elyette had developed feelings for his daughter in Ylore.
In Sterling Group, Ben barged into Elyette’s office shortly after Elyette’s arrival.
“I went home for a shower after my flight and came straight here once I was done.”
Ben sat down on a chair across from him and tapped his finger on the table.
“Buy me coffee and I’ll show you photos of your daughter.”
“When you were drunk at Ruby’s place, she stole your phone and video called me.”
Ben stared at Elyette in shock.
“You are so defenseless at a stranger’s house that I don’t know whether to call you brave or stupid,” Elyette said, before calling Chad to ask him to buy coffee for them.
Ben massaged his temples.
“Ruby took my phone?! How dare she even chase me out after that?”
“How dare YOU get drunk while drinking with Paul? Do you not know what kind of man he is? I remember telling you about him,” Elyette said sharply.
“I know he’s not a good person, but I have no grudge against him, ” Ben said.
“I just wanted to plant the idea of dating Ruby inside his head so Ruby won’t come looking for you.”
“Ruby has not fallen for Paul through the years they have known each other, so what makes you think that you could change that?”
“Doesn’t matter if it works.I just wanted to speak my mind,” Ben said.
“If Ruby video called you, you must have already met Ivy, then?”
“Yeah.”
“Doesn’t she look a lot like Layla?”
Ben unlocked his phone showed Elyette the video he took of Ivy.
“I really wanted to bring her here. It’s a shame that Ruby won’t let me.”
“Why would you bring her here? Without a plan, it would be like bringing a ticking time bomb back”
“We will just see how it goes from there! Ylore is too far, and it’s too much trouble to see her.”
Seeing how serious Elyette was when he looked at the video, Ben teased, “I thought you would be mad at me for going to see Ivy!”
Elyette ignored his tone.
“How would Averie feel if she sees Ivy?”
“I’m not sure…But I don’t think she would be too mad about it, because she’s the exact replica of Layla,” Ben said.
“I wouldn’t have traveled that far if Ivy looked like Ruby.” Elyette regained his composure immediately and gave Ben the phone.
“I won’t break my promise with Averie.”
“It’s up to you! I can go see her every year for myself.If I were you, I wouldn’t give Averie and your three children up for Ruby and Ivy either.”
In Wesley’s house, Wesley had discussed the risks for Shea to get pregnant with his mother the night before and informed her of the consequences of insisting to give birth should something go wrong.
Sandra was terrified because Wesley stressed that he would not live if Shea died trying to bear his child.
“Shea, this is my fault.I thought that with how advanced the medical industry is lately, you would be like any ordinary person as long as you get treatment.Wesley told me that your body would never be normal.”
Sandra held Shea’s hands and continued, “Listen to Wesley and get an abortion!”
Shea lowered her head at Sandra’s words.
The burden she had been carrying felt slightly lighter.
Wesley was relieved when he noticed that Shea was not as stubborn as she was earlier.
As expected, it was because of his mother that Shea had risked crossing Elyette to bear him a child.
He understood that her obedience to his mother was out of her love for him, or she would not have taken his mother’s wishes as commands.
“I do really want grandchildren, but my son is the most important of all,” Sandra said with regret.
“Had I known that you are more important than life itself to him, I wouldn’t have done something like that.” Shea lifted her gaze to look like Wesley.
“Shea, let’s go and apologize to your brother later.” Wesley held her hands.
“You hurt his feelings yesterday.I need to apologize to him as well.I promised him that I would take good care of you, but I failed to fulfill said promise.”
“No.” Shea shook her head stubbornly.
“I will apologize to Big Brother, but you shouldn’t.” Wesley knew that Shea did not want him to take the blame, so he agreed.
“Alright.” He could always apologize to Elyette in private.
At noon, Averie received a call from Wesley.
“Averie, I’ve managed to convince Shea.Once Elyette is home from work, I will bring Shea over to apologize to him.”
“You don’t need to apologize.How did you manage to convince her?”
“My mom did,” Wesley explained with resignation.
“It was my mom who pressure her into getting pregnant to begin with.”
“As long as she got Shea to give up.”
Averie fell into silence for a few moments, before continuing, “It’s a shame that she has to get rid of the baby, though.”
“She’s in a bad mood right now.She locked herself in the room and refused to come out when I tried calling her out for lunch.”
“I guess apart from being pressured by your mom, she wanted the child herself.” Averie felt sympathetic.
Wesley, there is another way.
“You mean to take the embryo out?”
Wesley had heard about it before, but where were they supposed to implant the embryo after taking it out?
“Yeah.”
Averie had not gone to the office because she had a headache.
Despite the pounding pain in her head, she spared some time to consider Shea’s situation.
“I did some research today found that there are people overseas working on creating an environment that is suitable for the embryo’s growth.It’s called an artificial womb.They have tested it on animals, and there were successful cases, but there were failed ones as well.”
“I’ve heard about that before.It’s still under testing and has yet to be advertised to the market.”
“It’s only not advertised because the method itself is not widely accepted by the general public.Besides, it’s too expensive for normal people to afford it,” Averie said.
‘We might as well try this instead of an abortion.Elyette can pay.”
Wesley was confused by her last sentence.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.