When I found out that Arthur's little mistress was my own biological sister... I didn't go crazy, and I didn't get hysterical like I used to. After all, I'm the top surgeon at City General, and my reputation is incredibly valuable. Those two just aren't worth it. When Chloe sent me a photo of Arthur accompanying her in the delivery room, I merely glanced at it before continuing to enjoy my imported truffle shrimp. I've seen plenty of pregnant women with bulging bellies; her unborn child wasn't worth ruining my good mood over. Walking past the administration desk, the young nurses were full of sweet compliments. They all said I looked radiant lately, blooming more beautifully than an eighteen-year-old. Just as I finished thanking them, Arthur's call came through at the worst possible time: "The baby's paperwork is all sorted out. Stella, it's time for us to get remarried." Hearing him say that, I suddenly remembered—oh right, I actually have an ex-husband. I cleared my throat and spoke very seriously: "Arthur, remarry? You're ancient history to me." ... "I know I did you wrong with this whole thing, but you know how badly I wanted this child..." I waited quietly, counting to three. The man's voice abruptly stopped. It took him a long moment to find his voice again, filled with disbelief: "Stella, what do you mean? You... you don't want to remarry?" I checked off the caviar on my menu with a pen before replying slowly: "Yeah, exactly what you said." "Don't make jokes like that. I don't like it." Arthur's voice grew louder, a bit grating. I raised an eyebrow and scoffed lightly: "Whether you like it or not is your problem. Anyway, I've said my piece." "Chloe has already had the baby, and he's registered on my family's insurance. What are you throwing a tantrum for now? I told you when we got divorced." "I just needed an heir, but the position of Mrs. Sterling will only ever be yours. Give me one more chance, okay?" Arthur rarely showed weakness, putting on a full display of trying to win me back. But I knew this was just another excuse. Just like the first time I caught him and my sister having an affair. With red eyes, he swore he would cut it off with her, begging me for a chance. I gave it to him. When I found out my sister was pregnant, I stormed into the Hayes family home, but he stopped me. He knelt at my feet, saying he would have the baby aborted, begging for one more chance. I gave it to him again. But what happened in the end? That child was delivered safely in the very hospital where I work, in my own department. The whole hospital knows. My wonderful sister gave birth to my nephew, but the father is my husband. My phone chimed right on cue. I didn't even need to look to know the star of the show was Chloe again. "The baby is one month old, our family of five is reunited! Some people are very sensible and know not to come and be an eyesore!" My parents were holding their grandson, smiling from ear to ear. Arthur had his arms around Chloe, his gaze blindingly tender. If this were a year ago, I would have been hysterical. I would have called my parents, demanding to know why they indulged her so much. I would have grabbed Arthur by the collar, demanding to know what gave him the right to treat me like this. But now, I just smiled and commented below: "Birds of a feather flock together. A perfect match!" Our social circle is small; that one comment instantly racked up hundreds of likes. Some of my close friends even left sarcastic comments underneath. Sure enough, Arthur couldn't sit still. He called, using his familiar tone: "Stella, I knew you were just saying you didn't want to remarry out of anger." Without waiting for me to speak, he kept talking to himself, a hint of joy hidden in his voice: "Chloe wasn't intentionally showing off; she was just too happy to see Mom and Dad." "She asked me to accompany her home for a visit before we remarry. I had no choice but to..." Chapter 2 Seeing that I remained silent, he continued laying the groundwork: "She's nursing right now, and everything affects the baby. She can't handle any stress. Stella, could you please just yield to her for now? Don't make a mess on her Facebook..." I picked at my ear, not feeling a shred of disappointment. After all, I was numb to words like this. I gave up my parents, gave up my marriage, gave up my man, stepping back again and again. Now, am I supposed to give up my right to speak, too? Arthur wasn't used to my silence. He sighed and spoke again, the same old tired clichés. "Come home tonight, okay? Chloe has already moved out of the master bedroom. The room is exactly how you left it, and I even bought that emerald necklace you love." "Stella, once the baby is weaned, I will absolutely cut all ties with Chloe. You have my word, I do what I say..." Hearing this, whatever patience I had left for him was completely exhausted. Without waiting for him to finish—click—I hung up. The next day, a persistent Arthur showed up at my clinic. Seeing me seeing patient after patient without a break, he looked heartbroken and tried to comfort me: "Stella, don't punish yourself like this because of me. It hurts me to see... I know you're still angry. As long as you don't hurt yourself, you can hit me or curse at me." He was probably afraid I would take a fruit knife to my wrists like I did a year ago. Even when my parents rushed over, I merely moved the blade from my wrist to my carotid artery. I didn't say a word, just stood up and kicked him out. It wasn't until after lunch that he came to my office again, his voice heavy with exhaustion: "Stella, I've said every nice thing I could possibly say. Why are you still making such a fuss? You won't go home, you won't go to Mom and Dad's, and you won't talk to me? How long are you going to keep this up?" A fuss? Arthur just blindly kept pestering me as if he couldn't understand human speech. But I was annoyed. I was sick of it. I reached back, pulled the divorce certificate out of my drawer, and slammed it into his face. "Arthur, we've had nothing to do with each other for a long time. What right do you have to expect me to talk to you!" Arthur froze for a few seconds before reacting. He lunged forward and grabbed me: "You know I had no choice! You know Chloe and I are only doing this for the baby! Why are you so selfish?" "Fighting for our parents' love at home, getting jealous over nothing outside..." Slap! The rest of his words were scattered by my slap. "Arthur, talking against your conscience will bring you bad karma. We ended up here entirely because of you!" I was raised by my grandmother since I was little. Chloe never liked me. Whatever I had, ate, or used, she wanted to steal it. Toys, pretty dresses, extracurricular classes, competition spots, and finally, our parents' love. Whenever I questioned it, my parents would always say: "She's your younger sister, she's little. What's the harm in letting her have it?" In the end, I slowly became an invisible person in my own home. Until I met Arthur in college. We fell in love and decided to get married early. My biological sister, Chloe, played her old tricks again, constantly harassing Arthur. My biological parents abandoned me, using the guise of being his future in-laws to create opportunities for her. Drugging him, showing up at his door in the middle of the night... Arthur was so annoyed he was forced to call the cops. She didn't give up. Instead, she went so crazy she tried to run me over with a car. In the end, my grandmother pushed me out of the way, taking the hit under the wheels herself. When my parents arrived, they comforted the "startled" Chloe first, then slapped me across the face, cursing me for being a jinx. My grandmother's death left me completely disheartened. But Arthur held a positive pregnancy test and hugged me, saying, "Stella, Grandma must have known you were sad, so she sent this baby to keep you company." Because of the baby in my belly, I slowly began to recover. I managed my pregnancy while looking for postpartum care centers. Until the baby was eight months along, my parents suddenly showed up to apologize. A bowl of soup left me unconscious. When I woke up, I saw Chloe sitting on Arthur's lap, riding him. Then, blood poured from between my legs like a fountain. I miscarried. I could never be a mother again. And Arthur and I got a divorce. Chapter 3 "You have the nerve to say I get jealous over nothing? You have the nerve to mention the baby? The people who killed my baby are you two!" Right after I miscarried, Chloe was diagnosed as pregnant. During the many nights I woke up crying. I thought it was all a dream. But Chloe's increasingly bulging belly proved they had slept together long before. That's why my parents couldn't wait to use a bowl of poisoned soup to kill my baby. Thinking of all that, Arthur's face turned deathly pale. His lips moved, but he couldn't even string a sentence together: "Stella... I'm sorry, I regretted it a long time ago." I regretted it too. I regretted being born into the Hayes family, regretted ever meeting Arthur. I raised my hand to wipe the moisture from the corner of my eye, pointed at the door, and said coldly: "Get out!" Arthur opened his mouth, but couldn't make another sound. He only hunched over and left, looking like a lost soul. In the years we were together, I had seen all sorts of views of Arthur's back. The joyous one when we got our marriage license at City Hall. The spirited one when he rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange. But I had never seen this pathetic and defeated one. I took a deep breath, preparing for my afternoon surgery. Two o'clock. After I changed into my scrubs, I realized the person lying on the operating table was Chloe. The young nurse stammered an explanation: "Dr. Hayes, she was scheduled by the Hospital President..." Chloe curled her lips, leaned close to my ear, and provoked me: "Even if I ran over your grandmother and killed your son, even if you hate it, you still have to play the dutiful servant and perform my surgery yourself." I shot her a cold glare and turned to leave. But someone forcefully intercepted me at the door. My biological mother clutched a white ceramic urn, looking at me coldly: "Either perform the surgery for Chloe, or your son's ashes hit the floor. Choose!" The blood in my veins turned to ice. I sluggishly looked at Arthur standing behind her. The location where my baby was buried... only he knew... no one else did. Arthur turned his head away, not daring to look at me. The taste of blood filled my mouth. I looked at them, my voice hoarse: "He's your grandson, he's your son. How could you..." Arthur quickly cut me off, making a guarantee: "Chloe has acute mastitis and can't breastfeed. As long as you do the surgery, the baby's ashes will definitely be returned to you!" My mother took the opportunity to raise her hand, urging me impatiently. "What are you standing there for! Hurry up! A piece of trash like you is only good for this much!" I didn't care about her cruelty. But I cared about my son's ashes. He was so small, so soft. He hadn't even seen the world yet; he shouldn't be left without a resting place. Taking a deep breath, I swallowed the blood in my throat and turned around stiffly. Under Chloe's disdainful gaze, I put my gloves back on and picked up the scalpel. Minutes ticked by. When the last suture was snipped. I desperately rushed out of the operating room. Only to see the baby's ash urn falling from mid-air. "No!" Arthur rushed over from a distance, but he was still a step too late. Smash! The grayish-white powder scattered everywhere, splashing all over. My mother's shrill voice exploded in my ear: "The psychic said this little bastard has resentment and brings bad luck to my grandson. He had to be destroyed!" As soon as the words left her mouth, I grabbed a nearby thermos of hot water and hurled it at her with all my might. "Ah—" Chapter 4 With a scream, my mother collapsed limply to the floor. I didn't even look at her. I just dropped to my knees with a thud, desperately trying to gather the baby's ashes from all around. I didn't dare cry, didn't dare shed a tear. I was terrified that the moisture would dissolve my baby's ashes. But the hallway floor wasn't entirely dry. The pathetically small amount of my baby's ashes were blown by the wind and dissolved by the water. I poked my fingers until they bled, and by the end, I only had a fist-sized clump of ash left. "Baby, Mommy is useless. I couldn't protect you..." I murmured to myself, voice hoarse, fighting back tears. My whole body convulsed with pain. "Stella... don't be like this, you're scaring me." Arthur lunged forward, wanting to touch my blood-stained hands, his voice trembling non-stop. I stared at him with bloodshot eyes and spat out a single word: "Scram!" "Stella, it's all my fault. You can hit me or curse me..." Arthur looked at me, his choking voice full of guilt. I shoved him aside, cradled the baby's ashes, and stumbled out. When I handled everything and returned to the hospital, it was nearing sunset. As soon as I got out of my car, several bodyguards dragged and hauled me up to the third floor. The door to the VIP intensive care unit opened, revealing Chloe's venomous face. She rushed forward, slapped me fiercely, and screamed abuse at me: "You bitch! What did you leave inside my breast? Why does it hurt even more?" Arthur was about to intervene, but she shoved him away. Chloe snatched the fruit knife from the table, held it against her own son's head, and glared viciously: "Arthur! This bitch intentionally harmed me. I want you to punish her properly for me, otherwise, I'll kill this child!" Arthur looked at me, then at the nearly demonic Chloe. He showed a look of exhaustion and pleaded: "Chloe, he's your son too. Can you really bear to..." Chloe sneered and didn't speak. She just plunged the blade down hard, instantly staining the white swaddle red with blood. The infant's screams of pain echoed through the hospital room. A profound agony flashed through Arthur's eyes. After giving me a look full of guilt, he gritted his teeth and asked: "How do you want to punish her?" Chloe curled her lips, her smile utterly malicious. "An eye for an eye. Cut open her breast and put some 'seasoning' in there. That'll be compensation enough for me!" I turned my head to look at Arthur, hoping he still had a shred of rationality left. "Mastitis is a minor surgery. I've done it over ten thousand times and never failed. You can't just listen to one side of the story..." Arthur didn't say a word, just slowly walked up to me. He lowered his voice: "Stella, this is the last time. Once this is over, I'll completely settle the score with the Hayes family." With that, he turned his back and waved his hand. Like a dog, I was dragged onto the surgical table. Riiiip. My clothes were torn open and thrown to the floor. Cold air roamed over my body like needles. The person operating on me wasn't even a doctor, just a nurse with trembling hands. "Wait!" Chloe side-eyed me: "She's so good at enduring pain, let's skip the anesthesia." She spoke to me, but her eyes were fixed on Arthur a few feet away. The air went still for a moment. After a long time, the man nodded. The cold blade slithered over my chest like a venomous snake. Cold sweat, mixed with blood, poured out like water. I thought of my grandmother's wrinkled, smiling face. I thought of my baby's cold, stiff body. Figures blurred before my eyes. Through the haze, Chloe's malicious voice sounded above me. "You bitch, for the sake of us being sisters, I'll personally send you to hell!" The cold steel approached. I trembled all over, entirely powerless to fight back. Crash! The door was kicked open, and the black muzzle of a gun was pressed against the back of Chloe's head. The intruder let out a chilling sneer: "Dare to touch her, and if Stella bleeds a single drop, I'll make you pay with your lives!" Chapter 5 Chloe was scared stupid by the gun barrel and froze on the spot. Even her voice began to tremble: "Who... who are you? How dare you meddle in my business? How many lives do you have to lose?" Saying that, she strained her throat and started screaming. "Dad! Mom! Arthur!" But no matter how much she yelled, the area outside the operating room was dead quiet; there was no one around. The man knocked her out with the butt of his gun, then gently called out to me: "Stella, how are you? It's Liam." Liam... Hearing that name, my heart inexplicably relaxed, and unable to hold on any longer, I completely passed out. Meanwhile, Arthur was staring blankly at the DNA report. He scrutinized the single sheet of paper back and forth for over ten minutes. It took him a very long time to find his voice. He looked at the nurse with terror in his eyes and spoke incoherently: "Are you sure there isn't a mistake? My son is so young, how could he have HIV?" The nurse looked at him with pity and explained patiently: "Mr. Sterling, the child is too young to be infected independently." "This virus most likely came from genetic transmission from his parents..." "That's even more impossible... I'm perfectly healthy, I've never been involved in any of that shady business..." Before he could finish his sentence, his mouth was stopped by another report the nurse handed him. The nurse pointed to the conclusion section of the report. "Chloe Hayes is his mother, right? We detected that her index is positive." As she spoke, she glanced at Arthur's deathly pale face and kindly suggested: "Mr. Sterling, it's best if you get an HIV antibody test right now as well. We suspect there is a very high probability that you..." She didn't finish the sentence. But Arthur understood perfectly. He had probably been infected a long time ago. It was an hour later when Arthur returned to the VIP intensive care unit like a lost soul. He felt dizzy, barely able to stand steady. "How is this... possible?" When Chloe got with him, she was clearly still a virgin. How could she get HIV? Could she have faked it? The child was born with HIV, so he... What was the point of all the compromises and concessions he had made recently? Arthur instinctively pulled out his phone and called Stella. But the line rang a few times and was disconnected. He called again, and it was hung up immediately. After trying a few times, the phone was turned off altogether. Nearing a mental breakdown, Arthur slumped to the floor, clutching his head and murmuring in defeat. "Stella, where are you? This isn't real, is it?" He desperately wanted someone to give him an answer, to tell him that everything he experienced this afternoon was fake. Just like every time the company faced a crisis in the past, Stella was always the first to comfort him. The difficulties will pass. She will stay by his side forever. But this time, Stella was gone. He stumbled around, searching the entire operating wing, asking every nurse he bumped into: "Have you seen Stella? Where is Stella?" But they all shook their heads, and some even shoved him away, cursing: "What Stella? You're crazy!" He ran through the entire inpatient building but couldn't find a trace of Stella. Even Chloe and her mother, along with those bodyguards, seemed to have suddenly vanished. By the time he dragged his stiff legs back to the company, the entire office had exploded.
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