- 3.
“Madness? Is that what it is? You cherish
20
Sarah and her baby so much!”
I clung to the table, gasping. How fiercely
he’d defended Sarah!
“Mark, you’re despicable! Even adoption
would be better than this!”
His ears flushed. “Sarah!”
“Let’s go home and talk!”
He tried to take my hand; I pulled away.
“Home? Do we even have a home? How many
nights have you been home this month?”
Tears poured down my face. “You promised,
even if I couldn’t bear children, you wouldn’t
leave me. Have you forgotten?”
He hung his head.
I contacted my lawyer.
I was searching for blueprints in the study
when I found Sarah’s medical records. And
records of Mark and Sarah checking into
hotels on the days of my IVF failures. Mark
meticulously tracked expenses, his assistant
neatly printing them out.
I felt like a dying fish. Seeing this, I couldn’t
even cry. Just a desperate need to escape.
“Honey, guess what?” My friend, Jessica
હ
called. “I contacted doctors abroad. Your
condition isn’t serious, you can still have a
baby!”
“Jessica, I’m booking a flight… I’m leaving
Mark.”
I hung up, the phone still displaying a photo
of Mark and Sarah at a temple, Sarah wearing
the jade pendant my grandmother had given
me!
The financial news broke first. I was the last
to know.
Mark opened the bedroom door. I was
drafting the divorce papers.
“Sarah, guess what I brought you?”
I didn’t look up. “Give me back the jade
pendant.”
Hе stopped. YOU KNOW. I shouian t nige it
any longer. Mom said Sarah’s baby is a Zhou
grandchild, so she brought her to the temple.
But after the baby’s born, you’ll still be first.”
I repeated, “The pendant. Give it back.
Grandma said it was for the Zhou family’s
daughter–in–law, not for the uterus.”
He frowned. “Sarah, you don’t have to be so
harsh. It’s a Zhou grandchild!”
“If you could bear children, there wouldn’t be
a Sarah.”
He’d cheated, and I was the villain?
“Mark, is it my fault? Remember how your
father forced me to have an abortion?
Hypocrites!”
He softened. “Sarah, I didn’t mean to blame you. I’m trying to balance things. I’ll never
stop loving you.”
He placed an appointment slip on the dresser. “The day after tomorrow is our sixth IVF
6”
く
attempt. Let’s try again?”
“If it works, I promise, Sarah and her child
won’t bother you again. We’ll be a family of
three. Okay?”
The doctor said I couldn’t do another IVF
cycle so soon; my body couldn’t take it. But
Mark pushed me, in the name of love.
Pathetic.
On the day of the procedure, Mark’s parents
and Sarah were there.
“Is the patient’s family here? The surgery is about to start, but the patient isn’t here yet?” Mark pulled out his phone. “I’ll call her.”
He’d called twenty times that morning. I
ignored them all.
I didn’t go. I wouldn’t risk my health. This
relationship was rotten. What was left to
salvage?
“I bet Sarah’s too chicken to come! She
knows she’s a hen that can’t lay eggs,
“”
L
Mark’s mother scoffed.
“Mark, just divorce her and marry Sarah! My
grandson needs to be registered!”
My assistant, Wendy, arrived, out of breath.
Mark rushed over. “Where’s Sarah? I told you
to bring her!”
Wendy was sweating. “No one’s home.’
“Where is she?!”
“”
Mark’s parents and Sarah crowded around.
“Where could she be? She’s probably hiding
because she’s afraid you’ll divorce her!”
Wendy gave Mark a document.
“Jessica said Sarah took a flight this
morning. She left a divorce agreement…for
you to sign.”
Mark exploded. “Who authorized her to do
that?!”
