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He Chose His Sisters-in-Law, So I Made Him Beg
Novelix
Completed
"The day I went into labor, Adrian had barely walked me into the maternity ward before Lydia called him for help. ""Lydia's condition just took a turn. I have to go."" I caught his sleeve. ""I'm about to give birth."" His face went cold. ""Are you seriously jealous of Lydia now?"" For three years after our wedding, he kept me on the eighteenth floor of a luxury apartment building. The three women he introduced as his brothers' wives lived on the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first floors. He said his brothers spent most of the year overseas, and having everyone close made it easier to look after one another. But in those three years, whenever Lydia had a migraine, he went upstairs in the middle of the night. When Megan had stomach cramps, he walked out on our anniversary. When Vanessa had a breakdown, he ignored my calls from prenatal appointments. After he left, I started hemorrhaging. The nurse checked my insurance authorization three times. Each time, the system rejected it. I called him through the pain. He sounded irritated. ""I give you three hundred thousand dollars every month. Where did it go?"" But I had never received a cent. The next second, an unknown number sent me two screenshots. The first was Adrian's monthly transfer record to me. Only the recipient accounts belonged to the three so-called family in-laws. The second was their group chat. [Her share gets split the same way as usual.] [Three years, and she actually still believes we're family.] Vanessa wrote: [I'm giving birth today too. Adrian is with me. If the one in her belly doesn't make it, that's one less problem.] So the brothers had only ever been a cover. All three women were Adrian's lovers. Before I could even close the chat, the fetal monitor began to shriek. The baby's heart rate plunged. When I woke again, my child was gone. The nurse told me he had lived for ten minutes. They could not save him. On my phone was a message Adrian had sent half an hour earlier: [Lydia needs help tonight. Stop making trouble. The baby isn't a reason to pressure me.] I wiped my tears and sent every piece of evidence to my attorney. [Draft the divorce agreement. Sue them.] Then I booked a flight to San Diego. My baby was gone. And so was my marriage."
Chapters (3)
第1章
The day I went into labor, Adrian had barely walked me into the maternity ward before Lydia called him for help.
"Lydia's condition just took a turn. I have to go."
I caught his sleeve.
"I'm about to give birth."
His face went cold. "Are you seriously jealous of Lydia now?"
For three years after our wedding, he kept me on the eighteenth floor of a luxury apartment building.
The three women he introduced as his brothers' wives lived on the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first floors.
He said his brothers spent most of the year overseas, and having everyone close made it easier to look after one another.
But in those three years, whenever Lydia had a migraine, he went upstairs in the middle of the night.
When Megan had stomach cramps, he walked out on our anniversary.
When Vanessa had a breakdown, he ignored my calls from prenatal appointments.
After he left, I started hemorrhaging.
The nurse checked my insurance authorization three times. Each time, the system rejected it.
I called him through the pain.
He sounded irritated. "I give you three hundred thousand dollars every month. Where did it go?"
But I had never received a cent.
The next second, an unknown number sent me two screenshots.
The first was Adrian's monthly transfer record to me.
Only the recipient accounts belonged to the three so-called family in-laws.
The second was their group chat.
[Her share gets split the same way as usual.]
[Three years, and she actually still believes we're family.]
Vanessa wrote: [I'm giving birth today too. Adrian is with me. If the one in her belly doesn't make it, that's one less problem.]
So the brothers had only ever been a cover.
All three women were Adrian's lovers.
Before I could even close the chat, the fetal monitor began to shriek.
The baby's heart rate plunged.
When I woke again, my child was gone.
The nurse told me he had lived for ten minutes. They could not save him.
On my phone was a message Adrian had sent half an hour earlier:
[Lydia needs help tonight. Stop making trouble. The baby isn't a reason to pressure me.]
I wiped my tears and sent every piece of evidence to my attorney.
[Draft the divorce agreement. Sue them.]
Then I booked a flight to San Diego.
My baby was gone.
And so was my marriage.
...
The day I was discharged, I went to the airport alone.
The hospital bracelet my baby had left behind was tucked into my carry-on.
I had just checked my luggage when Adrian called.
"You hired a lawyer to sue the three women?"
"Are they family in-laws, or are they your lovers?"
He was silent for a few seconds.
"So you know."
"I know enough to sue them and divorce you."
He paused.
"It was a cruel prank. I'll reimburse you. Let it end here."
I asked, "Can you reimburse me for my baby too?"
The line went quiet.
"There you go again, using the baby to pressure me. Emma, stop doing that."
"Drop the lawsuit. I'll send someone to bring you home."
I laughed coldly and hung up.
My attorney messaged me with newly found records.
On the day my delivery went wrong, the last three hundred thousand dollars those women intercepted had all gone to the private medical center upstairs.
A private delivery suite, postpartum care, and newborn services.
The patient was Vanessa.
Adrian had signed as her emergency contact.
The payment time was 3:17 p.m.
By then, my contractions had already started, but my insurance authorization and guarantor account had both been rejected, leaving me alone while the hospital verified my admission paperwork.
She, meanwhile, was using our marital assets to stay in a private delivery suite upstairs.
The file included a birth video.
When I opened it, Adrian appeared on screen.
Vanessa lay in bed with a newborn boy in her arms.
Adrian sat beside her, smiling down at the baby.
The others gathered around the bed.
Lydia's face was bright and healthy as she chatted with everyone. She looked nothing like a woman having a cardiac episode.
So Adrian had abandoned his wife during a birth emergency to be with his lover.
In the video, his assistant opened the door.
"Adrian, Emma's baby's heart rate keeps dropping. The doctors are trying to stabilize her."
Adrian did not stand up.
"She has doctors and midwives with her. She'll be fine."
Lydia asked, "Should we tell her you're upstairs?"
"Not yet. She'll only use the baby to pressure me again."
He bent and kissed Vanessa's forehead.
The baby in his arms started crying.
Adrian immediately softened his voice and soothed him with patient care.
Vanessa smiled. "We're both safe. What about her?"
"She's tough. She'll live."
The video ended there.
At that same moment, my baby died in a recovery room downstairs.
The boarding announcement sounded.
Adrian sent another message:
[I've booked your return flight.]
[Bring the baby home. I can let the past go.]
I mailed the baby's bracelet and the signed divorce papers back to the Whitmore residence.
Then I boarded the plane.
Neither my baby nor I would ever go back.
第2章
The plane landed in San Diego. As soon as I turned my phone on, the postpartum recovery center called.
"Emma, your husband just told us not to cancel the suite. Another patient will be using it. Since the deposit came from your side, we need your confirmation."
The staff sent over the change form.
The new guest was Vanessa and her baby.
That twelve-thousand-dollar deposit had come from money I had saved bit by bit after getting pregnant.
"I don't agree. Refund it to my account."
Not long after I hung up, Adrian called.
"Why won't you let Vanessa stay there? She likes the place."
"You're giving your wife's suite to your lover for postpartum care. Adrian, I am not that generous."
"I gave them four hundred fifty thousand dollars to arrange another center for you."
"I never received it."
He went quiet for a moment.
"I'll look into the money."
"But that center is fully booked until next month. Vanessa can only move in now if you approve the name change."
"I'll reimburse the deposit. Let her have the room."
When I was dying in delivery, he blamed me for spending the three hundred thousand dollars he supposedly sent each month.
For Vanessa, he did not even ask the price.
"No."
"I've already asked someone at the hospital to confirm the baby didn't make it."
"It was an accident. Don't use it against her."
He said it so lightly, as if the child who died had not been his.
"I'll bring them to San Diego the day after tomorrow. We'll talk face-to-face."
I hung up and told the center to issue the refund directly.
That afternoon, the hotel front desk delivered a jewelry box.
Inside was a diamond tennis bracelet.
Adrian texted:
[Compensation.]
[I told them to choose something within a nine-hundred-thousand-dollar budget.]
I had once paused to look at that bracelet in a luxury department store while pregnant.
He had remembered.
But the receipt in the box said sixty thousand dollars.
Then Lydia posted an Instagram Story.
In the photo, all three women wore diamond tennis bracelets.
The bill on the table showed three bracelets totaling eight hundred ninety-one thousand dollars.
Lydia captioned it:
[The nine-hundred-thousand-dollar budget meant for his wife was just enough for one bracelet each. She can have the free gift.]
Vanessa replied while holding the baby:
[We deserve a handling fee.]
For three years, Adrian believed he had been giving me three hundred thousand dollars a month.
Now he believed he had given me a nine-hundred-thousand-dollar bracelet.
What reached me was always whatever they left behind.
I asked the front desk to return the bracelet.
In the corner of the photo was a San Diego itinerary.
Adrian, the three so-called family in-laws, Vanessa, and her baby would arrive the day after tomorrow.
The beach, hand-and-footprint keepsakes, a first lock of hair, and a family portrait by the ocean.
Nothing had been changed.
I had made that plan when I was five months pregnant.
I booked the photographer, prepared the keepsake clay, and bought a box for the baby's first lock of hair.
When I showed it to Adrian, he had only said, "The baby won't understand any of this. There's no need for so much ceremony."
So I put the plan away.
Then the anonymous account sent another screenshot from the group chat.
Vanessa asked:
[Her baby is gone. Can I use the one-month milestone plan for mine?]
Adrian replied:
[Use her schedule. She's always thorough with these things.]
Below the screenshot was the photographer's confirmation form.
The date was the thirtieth day after the baby was born.
It was also the day my baby should have reached his one-month milestone.
The form read:
[Father: Adrian.]
[Mother: Vanessa.]
[Theme: Baby's first family portrait.]
The plan I had made for my own child had been copied almost exactly for Vanessa and her son.
I saved the bills and chat logs and sent them all to my attorney.
Then I checked out of the hotel and found another place in San Diego.
Two days later, they would come here following the plan I had written.
But Adrian would not find me.
第3章
On the day of Vanessa's baby's one-month milestone, I went to the hospital for a follow-up appointment and ran into Adrian outside the exam room.
He did not look surprised to see me.
"You changed cities, changed hotels, hid all this time, and still ended up here."
I tried to walk around him, but he blocked me.
"It's the baby's one-month milestone today. Don't tell me you didn't know we'd be here."
He gave a faint laugh.
"You went through all this just to wait for me to come get you, didn't you?"
Vanessa smiled. "Emma's already here. Let her join the celebration."
Adrian refused without hesitation.
"The milestone photos are for the three of us."
"If she stands beside you, what will people think?"
In three years of marriage, he had never once acknowledged me publicly because he hated people gossiping about his private life.
But now he was afraid his wife would appear and make Vanessa look bad.
The nurse called my name.
Just as I was about to go in, Vanessa pressed a hand to her abdomen.
"The dress is tight. It's pulling on my incision."
Adrian turned to me at once.
"Give her your appointment."
I said coldly, "If she feels unwell, she can go to urgent care. Don't block me."
"She still has to nurse the baby and take photos. She can't wait all day."
His voice carried impatience.
"A few hours won't matter for you."
"First the recovery suite, now my appointment?"
I handed my intake form to the nurse.
Adrian's face changed. Before he could speak, Vanessa pulled him back.
"Forget it. Don't fight with Emma because of me."
I looked at her.
"I don't have sisters, and I don't make nice with my husband's lover."
Vanessa's eyes immediately reddened.
Adrian's face darkened.
"You were never this unreasonable before."
I ignored him and walked straight into the exam room.
After the examination, the doctor asked me to wait outside for the results.
Adrian had not left.
He sent a flight ticket to my phone.
"Come home with me tomorrow."
"Adrian, I already mailed you the divorce papers."
"I didn't sign."
He frowned and, before leaving, said, "I'm giving you a way back. Don't be stubborn."
I deleted the ticket.
"I'm not going back."
The hospital faced the water. Down in the garden, the photographer had already set up the camera.
Vanessa stood beside Adrian with the baby in her arms.
The photographer looked at the schedule and asked, "Keepsake prints or the family portrait first?"
Adrian saw me and waved the schedule.
"You wrote the plan. You arrange it."
I almost laughed.
"That plan was for my child. A child born from your affair has no right to it."
His face sank.
"It's just a few lines. What difference does it make who uses them?"
"Stop dragging the baby into everything."
The photographer asked, "What's the baby's name?"
Adrian looked down at the baby and smiled.
"Noah."
I froze.
When I was six months pregnant, I had written down three names.
Adrian had circled Noah himself.
He said he hoped our child would live a peaceful life.
Now my child was gone.
And that name had been given to another woman's baby.
The photographer smiled. "Dad, move closer to Mom."
Adrian slipped an arm around Vanessa.
I felt sick and went upstairs to the second floor.
After the shoot, Adrian escorted Vanessa upstairs.
Dr. Warren was waiting outside an exam room.
Vanessa walked up with the baby, smiling.
"Thank you so much for that day. And now you've come all the way to San Diego for us."
"If Adrian hadn't called you upstairs at the last minute, my delivery wouldn't have gone so smoothly."
Adrian's face shifted. He turned toward me.
At that moment, the doctor who had examined me came out with my report.
"Emma, your results are back."
"There was a delay in your emergency care during delivery. Your uterus suffered severe damage."
"You won't be able to carry another pregnancy."
