Dorothy touched her face and firmly stood her ground. She supported her body and her damaged pride as she focused her clear, sharp eyes on Ysabelle. There was an eerie calmness to her voice when she spoke, “Even if you hit me, you still won’t change your terrible past! Besides, I am not the only one who knows this. Credence knows as well. Even Juelz does.”
After catching her breath, Dorothy stared at Ysabelle, her eyes filled with irony. “You can’t hide the truth forever. How long do you think you can keep it from Dad?”
Ysabelle trembled. A trace of panic flashed across her eyes, but she quickly calmed herself down. She clenched her fists, raised her eyebrows and smiled. “Dorothy, I don’t know what you’re talking about. You are my daughter, and I am your mother. Why do you smear my reputation like this? My relationship with Sheldon wasn’t as bad as you claim it to be.”
“It’s true before I married Yezoo, I did fancy Sheldon. However, those feelings disappeared after I learned that he was married and had a child.”
“Then, I took the then six-year-old Jeremy with me and married Yezoo. A year after that, I gave birth to you. However, half a month later, Leilani’s daughter, who was born on the same day as you, died. She was jealous of me for having such a good life, so she secretly swapped you with the dead baby. After that, she abandoned you in a welfare home. Even though we were sisters, she was quite heartless.”
“Dorothy, I have been thinking about you all these years. I’ve always imagined how good our life would have been if you hadn’t died at such a young age.”
“I would have bought you the most beautiful dresses, the best shoes, and hired the best teachers for you. I would have let you learn the piano, chess, ballet, art, and would have raised you as a proper noble lady, rather than the clumsy and dirty woman that you are now. You don’t have the mannerisms of a lady at all.”
Ysabelle’s voice grew softer as she spoke. Her face looked kindly and amiable. She sighed and said, “I’m sorry, this is all my fault. Yezoo and I found out when it was too late. That is why you were abandoned at the welfare home and suffered so much from the Fisher family.”
Her words were sincere and quite moving, but they couldn’t move Dorothy’s heart, which had turned hard and cold.
She was her so-called biological mother. She played with people’s emotions to avoid her responsibilities. She would never admit to performing such dirty acts.
Dorothy narrowed her eyes and gave her a cold stare. She knew that she wouldn’t get the truth from Ysabelle, so there was no need for her to continue.
She smiled and said coldly, “It doesn’t matter if you won’t admit to it. Credence’s father will wake up in another two days. By then, all I need to do is ask him. Even if he won’t tell me what happened, he’ll definitely tell his son.”
“Didn’t Sheldon fall from the balcony and ended up in a coma ten years ago?”
Ysabelle cried out in surprise. After her outburst, she was dazed for a moment. Then, she realized something and immediately shut her mouth. She looked furious but kept quiet.
The more she said, the more blunders she’d make. This daughter that she had just reconciled with wasn’t kind to her at all. She wanted to expose all of her secrets. How could she?
She couldn’t let this happen.
“Sheldon, oh, Sheldon. You could’ve woken up at any time, but why now? Why didn’t you just die when you fell ten years ago?”
After Dorothy walked away, Ysabelle hung her head and took out her phone from her handbag. She dialed a foreign phone number, lowered her voice and said a few words. After that, she smiled smugly.
With the help of the person she just called, she’d find out where Sheldon was being hidden away in no time.
Then, she’d pay Sheldon a visit herself, and when she gets the chance to…
She had been waiting for such a long time; she had kept all the hate in her heart for so long. Finally, she was going to end things.
…
Dorothy had no clue about Ysabelle’s plans. After their talk, she went straight to the elevator to see Credence.
Jonathan and Yezoo were there, one on the left and one on the right. They were waiting on both sides of the door, with anxious looks on their faces.
Seeing Dorothy walk over, Jonathan quickly stepped forward and helped her. He brought her to the chair next to him to sit down. Depressed and worried, he spoke comforting words to her. “Dorothy, don’t worry. Credence has always been as strong as a rhino, he’ll be fine. What about you? Take good care of your body and the child in your womb. That will be the best thing to do for him.”
“Thank you, Mr. Stanton, I’m fine,” Dorothy spoke briefly. She touched her left cheek, Ysabelle really slapped her hard there, then looked up at Yezoo. She said, “Dad, I heard from Juelz that your heart isn’t in great shape. Remember to take care of yourself.”
“Don’t listen to his nonsense. Your mother has always taken good care of me. I am in great shape.”
Hearing Dorothy’s concern for him, Yezoo was on cloud nine. There was no better feeling than this right now. He looked at Dorothy’s clear eyes and asked kindly, “How was the talk with your mother? Why didn’t she come up with you? Dorothy, your mother is very talented. She just has a bad temper and doesn’t know when to call it quits. If she said something mean to you, don’t take it to heart.”
“Dad, don’t worry. I know what to do.” Dorothy clenched her fists but didn’t say anything else.
This was going to be a long and tiring day.
After spending nearly fifty hours in the emergency room, Credence’s brain pressure finally started to recede to normal levels.
There was no time to waste. The brain surgeon, who had been standing by for days, immediately carried out a craniotomy. He carefully examined every small nerve and blood vessel, cleaned up the blood clots, and started with the operation.
At eight o’clock in the evening, the red indicator lights on the door of the operation room finally switched off.
Just as the lights went out, Dorothy and the others held their breaths. Their hearts seemed to have stopped as well, each of them looking expectantly at the doors!
The specialists dressed in white gowns walked out one by one with very tired faces. Everyone waited, but the man they wanted to see never came out.
She called out, “Credence, Credence…”
At that moment, Dorothy’s heart gave way as fell onto the chair. Her breathing was erratic, and her eyes were wide open. She wasn’t able to do anything else!