4: 4
Only after I pressed her did she stammer out the truth.
That evening, when she bathed the babies, she hadn't used the baby wash I'd bought. She'd used a homemade herbal body wash.
"This… Nellie made a point of telling me. She said all those chemical things from the city are bad."
"So I figured something from back home would be gentler on their skin, and clear out the newborn heat too!"
Nellie Fox. Again, Nellie Fox.
I didn't have time for anything else. I bundled both babies up in the middle of the night and rushed straight to the ER.
The running and jolting tore my C-section incision open, blood seeping through, but I couldn't feel any of it.
Nothing could match the pain in my heart right then.
Xavier didn't show up.
He only came at me over the phone.
"Alice, can't you give me one moment's peace?"
"The night nurse called and said you threw her out for no reason, and now you've gone and made the babies sick?"
My heart was in knots, but my voice stayed calm.
"Xavier, the new night nurse you hired. She's Nellie's aunt?"
The other end went silent in an instant.
So he had known.
Then his voice came back through the receiver, sharp with wounded temper.
"That's because you're always suspicious of Nellie! She was only trying to help!"
"Trying to help?" I let out a cold laugh. "Then why didn't Nellie want her own aunt looking after them? Why did she have to push out the woman I chose from over thirty candidates?"
I hung up on him.
I spent the whole night going through it at the hospital, exams for the babies, prescriptions, then sitting in the observation room until dawn.
I didn't sleep a minute.
A nurse cleaned up my torn incision as best she could, and asked, gently, where my family was.
I shook my head. "I don't have any family."
When I got home holding the babies and opened the door, a stranger's perfume hit me in the face.
The living room was a wreck, the couch buried under snack wrappers and boba cups.
My wedding photo with Xavier had been taken down from the wall and tossed into a corner.
The nursery I'd set up with my own hands stood open, everything inside in disarray.
The learning toys I'd ordered from overseas had been ripped apart, the wreckage scattered across the floor.
From the master bedroom came Nellie's coy laughter.
I pushed the door open.
Nellie was lying on the bed in my robe, on a video call with that pack of Xavier's buddies.
When she saw me, a flicker of smugness and challenge crossed her eyes, and she drawled out,
"Oh, you're back?"
Xavier came out of the guest room. He saw how pale I was and looked a little guilty, but his tone was full of righteousness.
"Weren't you the one making a fuss about wanting to stay at the postpartum center?"
"Nellie felt so awful about it she moved out of the center in the middle of the night to make room for you."
"I figured the place was sitting empty anyway, so I let her stay a few days to recover. I'll drive you over to the center in a bit."
I looked at him with no desire to say a single word.
When I stayed silent, he must have felt he'd gone too far, because his tone softened.
"Nia, I know it's been hard on you. Raising the babies isn't easy."
"But Nellie… she's just been through so much. Let's cut her some slack, all right?"
"Just do it for me."
I looked at this man I'd loved for six years, and suddenly he felt like a complete stranger.
"No need, Xavier. We're done."
Then I turned, holding the babies, and walked out without another glance at him.
"Nia! Alice Henson! Stop right there!"
He started to come after me, but Nellie grabbed him and held on.
"Xav, my stomach hurts…"
I heard the two of them tangled up behind me, and I didn't look back.
Once I was past the front gate of the complex, I pulled out my phone and sent Melvin a message.
【Activate Plan B. Freeze every liquid asset under his company and his name.】
Melvin replied instantly: Got it.
Less than ten minutes later, Xavier called, beside himself.
"Alice, have you lost your mind? What did you do to my accounts?"
"The company's signing a thirty-million contract this afternoon. Now I can't even pay the deposit. Are you trying to ruin me?"
