At that moment, Damian didn’t care about Jessica or Winnie on the table. He stepped forward, pried open Adeline’s jaw and tried to dig the pill out of her throat.
"Contraception? Who allowed you to take this?"
Adeline bit his hand and shouted hoarsely, "I told you, I won’t have children with you again! Not now, not ever. I-"
"How dare you!" Damian cut her off, enraged.
After that, he turned to the bodyguards.
"Tie her up. Send her for gastric lavage!"
"Why are you doing this?"
"Why? Because I’m your husband!"
Adeline froze. Damian had never allowed her to call him that since they got married. Hearing it now, from his own mouth, showed just how furious he was. In fact, he was so furious that he had begun spouting nonsense.
With irritation in his eyes, he barked again, "What are you standing around for? Take her away!"
Adeline was dragged off. Soon after, the head of the hospital arrived and Winnie was rushed into the operating room. Damian waited outside with Jessica until the doctor returned.
"I’m sorry. It’s too late. If the puppy had been brought in sooner, there might’ve been hope."
Jessica collapsed, wailing at Damian, "It’s all Adeline! She took that pill in front of you on purpose to waste time! She killed Winnie!"
Damian held Jessica gently and whispered, "It’s okay. We’ll get another one. But first, I’ll make her pay for what she’s done."
He then led Jessica to the gastric lavage room and told the doctor casually, "Give her three rounds."
The doctor looked at him, stunned.
"She only just swallowed it. Her body hasn’t even absorbed it yet. There’s no need-"
Damian shot him a cold glare, cutting the doctor off, "She’s grown wings and thinks she can act on her own. She needs a reality check, so she will know her place."
The doctor sighed and gave in.
Yet, Jessica burned with jealousy. Was Damian doing this for Winnie or because he couldn’t stand the thought of Adeline leaving him? And what did he mean when he called himself her husband?
After the procedure, Adeline was pushed into the ward. When she woke, her stomach felt like it was on fire. She was about to call the nurse when the last person she wanted to see walked in.
"You must feel proud," Jessica sneered, then signaled the bodyguards to pin Adeline down and pour a glass of ice water down her throat.
Agony twisted Adeline’s stomach. She writhed on the bed, clutching her abdomen. Jessica leaned close, her voice cold and sharp like a blade.
"Do you think Damian wants a child with you because he loves you? Dream on. Why would a proud man like him want kids with a woman who’s had three stillbirths?"
The room fell silent.
After a long pause, Adeline asked with her slightly raspy voice, "What do you mean?"
She was no longer focused on the pain. She held her breath, waiting for the answer she was beginning to fear.
Jessica traced a cruel line down Adleine’s belly with her nails as she answered, "Because those babies weren’t stillborn. Damian suffocated them right after the umbilical cord blood was collected."
Adeline’s eyes widened in horror. The truth hit like an icy knife to the chest. She felt faint.
Jessica didn’t stop. She opened a freezer and dumped three vials of cord blood into the trash in front of her.
"He did it all for me. I told him I had leukemia and needed cord blood. That’s why he married you. That’s why he made you pregnant."
She smiled, victorious. "He’s always loved me."
Adeline’s ears rang. A sharp, unbearable pain tore through her body. Far worse than anything she'd felt before.
She cried out, a sound of anguish and disbelief.
Now, it all made sense. Why had Damian agreed to marry her so suddenly? Why did he never use protection? It turned out that he never loved her. He sacrificed everything. Her body, her trust and their children … for Jessica.
Her love, her pregnancies, her persistence ... all a cruel joke.
Three innocent lives were lost because she was too stubborn to see the truth.
Adeloine regretted it so deeply that it felt like even her bones hurt. How could she have fallen in love with someone so heartless?
