The day she found out she had caught a sexually transmitted disease was also Beatrice Fairleigh’s birthday.
The doctor explained, “This condition is only spread through inappropriate relations between men and women. In your situation, it has already developed into cancer.”
She hurriedly searched on her phone, wishing that among the huge amount of online information she could find just one proof, one would be enough, saying this was not a sexually transmitted disease.
But the vast internet gave her only one answer: the doctor was right.
However, from the first time she broke that boundary until now, Jaxon Carter had been the only one.
She walked home like a walking corpse, about to remind Jaxon to go for a check as well. After all, they were husband and wife; if she was infected, he might already be too.
Yet before she reached the doorway, she heard her daughter, Millicent Carter, calling out excitedly inside the house.
“Wow! Aunt Sienna is really great, and managed to get a personally signed comic. Unlike my mom, who has no abilities at all. It would be nice if Aunt Sienna were my mom.”
Beatrice tensely pushed the door open, only to see Millicent happily embracing Sienna Holland’s waist, while Sienna rested her head against hers, intimately close.
Jaxon watched quietly from the side, and they looked like a real family.
He noticed the motion at the door and saw that Beatrice had come home. He frowned as he spoke, “Why are you only coming back now?”
Millicent shouted, “Mom, why are you so slow at everything? You didn’t even cook food. Aunt Sienna is about to go hungry.”
They acted as though they hadn’t seen Beatrice’s drained face and as if they had fully forgotten today was her birthday.
Beatrice walked numbly, completely ignoring their stares, and when she lifted her eyes, she noticed that a two-tier cake had actually been placed on the coffee table.
Her already numb heart felt as if it had begun beating again. She looked toward Jaxon and Millicent with pleased surprise.
So they still remembered her birthday.
But Jaxon looked away from Beatrice as though ignoring her, picked up the cake, and said to Sienna, “Sienna, we didn’t take good care of you today. Let’s go eat out together.”
“Hooray! We’re going out to eat! No need to eat Mom’s cooking anymore. I want to eat ice cream!” Millicent excitedly shouted.
“Okay, I will buy you a super-large cone,” Sienna said as she touched Millicent’s head.
Beatrice quickly cut in. “In weather this cold, eating ice cream will make you sick. Millicent cannot eat it.”
“Hmm, mean mom. I hate you! Why must I obey you?” Millicent pulled a face and refused to look at Beatrice.
“Beatrice, you really spoil the mood, whatever you do. The kid is so happy, and you still insist on saying upsetting things.” Jaxon spoke as he walked out the door.
Millicent hooked her arms around Jaxon and Sienna and hopped toward the outside.
Beatrice quickly slipped on her shoes and anxiously tried to follow them, but just when she reached the underground garage, Jaxon’s car brushed past the tip of her nose and sped off.
Until midnight, they still had not come back home.
Beatrice sat in the dark living room, tensely gripping her phone. Jaxon, who normally never posts on Facebook, posted one today.
It said, [Congratulations to Sienna on her promotion. Today is truly a good day.]
In the picture, Sienna had cake spread across her face, Millicent was planting a kiss on her cheek, and Jaxon was watching her fondly, affection almost spilling off the screen.
The light from the phone display lit up Beatrice’s face, cool and pale.
So nobody remembered her birthday; that cake didn't belong to her either.
From what time had things turned into this? The Jaxon from earlier days would even celebrate the day they first met.
The Millicent from the past, the first thing she did each morning after waking was to kiss Beatrice’s cheek.
So could love disappear? The love that grew from campus to wedding dress, the family warmth that grew from crying infancy to strong growth, what Beatrice once believed would never shift, had all become unfamiliar.
Sienna, this woman who, since university, had called herself Jaxon’s “brother”, broke into Beatrice’s life like heavy rain, taking away her happiness.
Her lower body suddenly pulsed with waves of hurt, and the doctor’s words sounded again inside her ears.
“There are currently clinical trial treatments overseas for this type of disease, but it remains in the human experiment phase. After treatment, how well it works is still uncertain. If you want to try, we can assist you in making contact. Think carefully, and you can contact us.”
The doctor told Beatrice that after the application got approved, she would leave in one month.
Because of the confidential nature of the experiment, once she reached overseas, she would cut off contact with everything in the country.
Beatrice found the business card the doctor had given and sent a message. [I am signing up to participate in the human experiment.]
