Elisa seemed to see a memory buried deep within.
Hamish said, “Elisa, have my child. If you refuse, I’ll tie you to the bed…”
Hamish, why did you suddenly change your mind when I became pregnant with your baby?
Elisa’s eyes squinted, her pupils somewhat dilated, her eyelashes half-drooping, unable to take in the light, making her eyes seem hazy.
Her nail-less hands lay pitifully curled up, occasionally twitching slightly. She was too weak to even breathe, resembling a fish stranded on the shore, on the brink of death.
Suddenly, her lower abdomen relaxed. In that moment, she felt the child leave her body. She didn’t know where she found the strength, but she managed to hold on until the end. Her parched lips trembled as she asked, “Is it a boy or a girl?”
The doctor responded somewhat stiffly, “It’s a boy.”
It was Jude, her baby, Jude Powell.
“Can I see him?” Just a moment ago, Elisa was lamenting in agony, but now her expression drastically changed, a serene calmness in her eyes, almost shining.
Seeing this, the nurse closest to her felt a glimmer of hope.
Elisa’s current appearance made it hard to discern whether she was grieving. She seemed indifferent, as if the person who had just cried out for help wasn’t her.
As a mother, she had the right to see her own child, even if that child was stillborn. The doctor wrapped the baby in a towel and handed him to her.
Looking at him, a crumpled little bundle, a four-month-old baby so tiny, all red, resembling a little monkey with indistinct features, pitifully curling his little hands as if trying to grasp onto something.
The room fell into a deathly silence, so quiet it made one’s scalp tingle.
Elisa, still bleeding, struggled to reach towards the doctor, wanting to touch her child.
She hadn’t even had a chance to go for prenatal check-ups, to have an ultrasound to see him, and yet here he was.
Elisa’s bloodless lips trembled twice. The child was right beside her, within her reach, yet she dared not.
The scene was too cruel. Even the doctor holding the child turned away, unable to bear witnessing any more.
The nurse’s subdued sobbing sounded jarring. Elisa stared blankly at them, thinking, “You’re the ones who ‘killed’ my baby, why cry now?”
How absurd…
The greatest sorrow in this world is the loss of a blood relative.
She had lost her only family, her support, her reason for living.
Suddenly, Elisa’s lips curled into a manic smile, uglier than any cry.
If only she had known this would be the outcome, she wouldn’t have taken ovulation injections, wouldn’t have conceived the baby, sparing him from such suffering.
Elisa reached out and took the child from the doctor’s hands. Tears rolled down her cheeks, her mouth and nose filled with the smell of blood.
The doctor came over to advise her, “He’s already dead.”
Elisa’s eyelashes quivered. “I know he’s dead. He had just started moving, hadn’t even had the chance to feel a mother’s love, and he’s dead.”
“Why isn’t it me who’s dead?” Elisa muttered to herself. Death had taken away her child and the lifeline she was holding onto.
Elisa felt suffocated, coughing up another mouthful of blood. She was in a daze, as if in a dream.
“Baby, I’m sorry… I’m the one who caused this to you…” Elisa’s vision darkened, and she closed her eyes after taking one last look at the child by her side.
Elisa was hemorrhaging, her blood oxygen saturation plummeting rapidly. The operating room’s light shone on her face, already pale, now nearly transparent.
The doctor seemed to have anticipated this and began preparing for a blood transfusion. Her blood type was rare, and if this had happened earlier, it might have been dangerous. Thankfully, Hamish had arranged for a volunteer blood donor.
It was Lila.
Upon hearing about Elisa’s hemorrhage, Lila knew her chance had come. Hamish had arranged for her to be waiting at the hospital early on to prevent such a situation.
Hamish signed a stack of consent forms and called Lila over to draw blood.
Lila stood firm in front of him. “Hamish, this is the second time I’ve saved her. I can donate blood to her for free, but you must agree to one condition.”
Hamish’s facade of composure cracked upon hearing Lila’s words in this critical moment.
He struggled to control his emotions. “What request? After you’ve finished donating blood, I canpromise you whatever you want.”
Lila shook her head. “This time, I don’t trust you. Only I can save Elisa. After all, there are only her and I with the same blood type in this world. If I can help her once, I can help her many times. You know my significance.”
Hamish’s face turned ashen. Although he had anticipated that Lila would make a request, he hadn’t expected her to do so at this critical moment.
“Speak,” he said.
Lila smirked. “Agree to get engaged to me after saving Elisa!”