I turned my head and said, "It's nothing, I just went on a trip to relax."
After hanging up the phone, he gave Liam a perfunctory reply.
Liam: "Are you going to visit your cousin? It'll be good for you to relax."
I looked at the sky outside the window, a warm feeling welled up in my heart, and casually hummed in agreement.
Gregory is my neighbor's older brother, and he's always protected me since I was little.
When the Shen family fell on hard times, he was the only one willing to help me.
When I was wronged by the Foster family, he was the only one who would listen to my complaints.
He was the only light in my dark life.
Liam was momentarily dazed.
That was a smile he hadn't seen in a long time—not a fawning one, not one of resentment, but a genuine sense of ease.
He inexplicably felt a tightness in his chest, as if something was blocking it.
But he had just promised Vanessa that he would go back and massage her lower abdomen, so he didn't have time to ask. He just picked up the documents and said without turning his head, "Clara, I have something to do at the company. I'll come back tomorrow."
But he didn't come tomorrow. He didn't come the day after tomorrow either. And he still didn't come the day after that.
I kept receiving videos of him and Vanessa from mutual friends. In the videos, he took Vanessa to parties and peeled shrimp for her by hand, something he had never done for me; he took Vanessa to the beach and took beach wedding photos for her, forgetting that I had always been looking forward to a beach wedding; he even posted a nine-grid photo collage on his WeChat Moments, all of which were photos of Vanessa, with the caption "My girl," forgetting that he had once said it was childish and boring.
The day I was discharged from the hospital, Liam posted another message on WeChat Moments.
In the photo, under the dazzling aurora, he holds Vanessa's face and kisses her passionately, looking incredibly sweet.
I looked at the photo and laughed until tears streamed down my face. My finger hovered over the screen for a long time before I posted a comment: "Wishing you both a baby soon and a long and happy life together."
Ten minutes later, Liam called. I looked at the name flashing on the screen and rejected the call without hesitation.
Half an hour later, after I finished the discharge procedures by myself and walked out of the hospital, I saw Liam and Vanessa at the entrance of the obstetrics and gynecology department.
Vanessa nestled in Liam's arms, a shy smile on her face. A nurse nearby said to Vanessa with envy, "Mrs. Xie, your husband really dotes on you. He comes to stay with you every night while you're in the hospital. Last time you said you wanted to eat the porridge from that old-established restaurant in the west of the city, he actually drove across half the city in the pouring rain to buy it for you. He's so considerate!"
Hearing this, the other patients around Vanessa all looked at her with envy in their eyes.
I instinctively touched my stomach, which ached slightly from prolonged irregular eating habits. I remembered that rainy night when I had a persistent high fever and was lying in bed too weak to even get up. I struggled to pull out my phone and made a video call to Liam in a hoarse voice, just wanting him to bring me a bowl of hot porridge when he came home.
The moment the call connected, I didn't see Liam, but Vanessa, who was leisurely sipping her porridge. She held Liam's phone, pointed the camera at the takeout bag from my favorite porridge shop on the table, and said with a hint of pride, "Mrs. Xie, are you looking for Liam? He's running my bathwater. Oh, this porridge? Liam specially bought it for me as a late-night snack. Isn't that a coincidence? It's from the very place you wanted to drink it."
A spasm-like pain shot through my stomach, my burning forehead pressed against the cold bedside table, and I couldn't utter a word.
Less than a minute later, Liam called back. He appeared on the screen with a displeased expression, the background filled with the steam of the bathroom. His first words were a scolding: "Clara, what kind of self-inflicted pain are you playing now? If you have a fever, take your medicine and stop bothering me and Vanessa! Want some porridge? Don't you have legs of your own?"
He added, "You're such a useless piece of trash who can't even take care of yourself. Besides playing the victim to gain sympathy, what else can you do? Seeing your sickly appearance makes me want to vomit!"
Those words, like knives, are still stuck in my heart.
I snapped out of my thoughts and turned to leave, but Liam called out to me, "What are you standing there for? Hurry up and get in the car and go home!"
I frowned instinctively.
"Wait." Liam frowned and walked over quickly. Vanessa watched his back, a hint of jealousy flashing in her eyes. She tightened her grip on Liam's arm and said in a sweet voice, "Brother Liam, don't be so mean to Clara. She didn't mean it."
Then, she looked at me with a fake smile: "Clara, I'm so grateful to you for giving me a blood transfusion last time. If it weren't for you, I'd still be dizzy right now. Brother Liam, why don't we let Clara come home with us?"
Liam affectionately pinched Vanessa's little nose: "My baby is so kind, whatever you say goes."
I didn't refuse; I did need to go back to get my passport and other documents, which were the only proof that I could leave this place.
