Hamish cast a cold glance, silencing the other instantly. Even with a shattered screen, the phone was still functional. Suppressing his emotions, Hamish walked over, picked up the phone from the ground, removed the SIM card, and then tossed the phone into the trash.
Lila, having her blood drawn, was soon escorted out. She glanced lightly at Hamish, understanding his foul mood, and wisely chose not to engage in conversation.
Having drawn 700 milliliters of blood, Lila’s complexion turned somewhat pale, but she didn’t faint. It was the first time she had ever given so much blood. She pondered how Elisa had endured all those years of blood drawings. Lila felt no sympathy for her rival; the more Elisa suffered, the happier Lila felt. After all, it was fitting payment for Elisa’s years of wrongfully possessing things that didn’t belong to her. Reaping what one sows, it’s just deserts.
Over those four years, she had bribed her attending physician. Blood coagulation disorders and severe anemia were all fabricated. At a mere mention of discomfort, Hamish would promptly bring Elisa to give her blood.
This mobile blood bank was quite convenient. The hospital’s potted plants bloomed more beautifully one after another.
Elisa typically came to have blood drawn every two to three months-sometimes 400 milliliters, sometimes 600 milliliters. There were times when her body hadn’t fully recovered from the last drawing before facing another.
…
Hamish’s gaze hadn’t once fallen on Lila. He sat on a bench in the corridor, staring blankly, as if he had lost his soul.
Elisa’s surgery lasted a long time. It wasn’t until Tobias arrived that the lights in the operating room were finally switched off.
“Give me your phone,” Tobias hesitated for a moment, then quickly took out his phone and handed it to Hamish. Hamish, in turn, tossed the SIM card from his palm to Tobias. “Go downstairs and get a new phone and transfer the SIM card.”
Taking the SIM card, Tobias suddenly understood that Hamish had thrown and broken his phone in a fit of anger.
Full of questions but hesitant to ask, Tobias hurried downstairs with the SIM card.
Glancing at the time, Hamish realized it was already one in the afternoon.
Elisa was brought out, and Hamish quickly went over to inquire about her condition.
A uterine removal wasn’t a minor surgery, and with the induced labor, it had taken nearly four hours. The surgery was successful; now they would have to wait for Elisa to wake up.
The doctor discussed the postoperative precautions with Hamish, who listened attentively, almost as if he wanted to jot everything down.
Elisa had been hospitalized several times. The postoperative precautions were mostly the same. However, a woman who had lost her uterus needed to recuperate well; otherwise, there would be pain in the future.
Elisa was taken to the observation room, where medical staff would keep watch around the clock.
“Mr. Burns… there’s something else,” the doctor hesitated, looking somewhat grim. Hamish’s heart tightened instinctively, thinking Elisa was experiencing more complications.
“What is it?” he asked with a tense expression.
The doctor said, “Mr. Burns, do you want to see the child?” He wanted to ask about the stillborn, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it.
Hamish’s expression grew even stiffer. He clenched his fists. “Take me to see.”
The deceased child was still in the operating room, wrapped in gauze. Its once-red body had now turned deathly pale, the features blurred, a faint hint of a smile on its lips.
Hamish had once seen preserved specimens soaked in formalin. Back then, he was young, and while others found it terrifying, he felt nothing at all. Yet today, looking at the lifeless child, fear gripped his entire body.
Finally, Hamish approached and carefully lifted the child, trembling as he lightly touched the baby’s eyes with his trembling index finger.
At four months, the baby’s features were faintly discernible. Judging from the orbital bones, it was clear the child would have had beautiful eyes. They say daughters resemble their fathers, and sons, their mothers. If this boy had been born, he would have looked a lot like Elisa, wouldn’t he?
His heart constricted sharply. Hamish felt his eye sockets grow hot, and his eyes couldn’t hold back the tears that fell on the child’s face. He reached out to wipe them away.
“I’m sorry. Dad loves you very much, but loves your mom even more. In your next life, find a better family to be born into.”
“Baby, your mom loves you very much. You wouldn’t want your mom to be in danger becauseof you, would you?
Suddenly, Hamish held the stillborn child close, his breath choked, his voice trembling incessantly. It felt as though his heart had been wrenched out of his chest, leaving a hollow ache, as if something within him had suddenly died.
Just as Elisa had said before, his heart was too small, small enough to contain only one person. Right now, it held only Elisa.
In order for Elisa to recover, he could become the executioner of his own biological son.
In the hospital room, Elisa was being attentively cared for by medical staff. Hamish personally took the child to the crematorium. After the four-month-old fetus was sent into the crematory, only a small amount of ashes remained.
Hamish prepared a beautiful blue-and-white porcelain vessel to carefully house the child’s ashes.
“Your mother is the most beautiful woman in the world. Naturally, the baby she gave birth to would have been the most adorable in the world.”
And so, he chose the most beautiful blue-and-white porcelain to hold the ashes.
Tobias had been following Hamish all this time, watching him talk to himself while holding the porcelain vessel. His emotions were complex, seeing this typically strong man on the brink of losing his composure.
It wouldn’t be long before Elisa woke up. Seeing the porcelain vessel containing the child’s ashes would surely be unbearable for her. Hamish handed the vessel to Tobias and asked him to take it back to the villa.
Meanwhile, Hamish hailed a cab on the roadside and returned to the hospital.
In the hospital room, Elisa lay in bed, her complexion as pale as paper. Hamish sat by her side, keeping watch. She had a small clip on her finger monitoring her blood pressure, the results of which were alarming.
After the surgery, she had teetered on the brink of death.
Elisa woke up in the evening. She opened her heavy eyelids and stared at the ceiling blankly for a while. A tear slid from the corner of her eye, vanishing into her hair.
She raised her heavy hand and gently placed it on her abdomen. The child was truly gone…
Seeing Elisa awake and calm, Hamish chose not to disturb her. She had always been strong; he believed she would get through this.
The room was eerily quiet, and then suddenly Elisa turned her head, as if gazing at Hamish but also as if she had missed seeing something behind him.
“Where’s the baby?” Her voice was barely audible, like a drop of water falling into sand, transient and fleeting.
“I asked Tobias to take him back to the villa.”
Elisa fell silent. She appeared outwardly calm, but only Hamish knew she had changed. She seemed indifferent, neither happy nor sad, quiet like a puppet, moving only when prompted. Losing the child and her uterus, her abdomen felt like it was being stirred with a knife.
Elisa’s pained voice trembled, “I’ve lost my only child, and I’ve lost the right to be a mother. Hamish, why couldn’t it have been you who died?”