Chapter 1
On our seventh wedding anniversary, the gift my husband Gary Perez sent after standing me up was a newborn still slick with amniotic fluid.
I ignored the wails outside and dumped a table of cold dishes.
Gary called, “Got the kid? Stop targeting Kathleen Davis now. She even gave you her child–what more do you want?”
“Be reasonable. If you could bear children, would I have sought another woman?”
“The Perez bloodline’s hung by a thread for seven generations. Raise mine and Kathleen’s child well while I accompany her abroad. I’ll make it up with a wedding when we return.”
I answered calmly, “Fine.”
Then contacted a slum couple in Africa: “Heard you want to adopt?”
Just then, a message flashed: “Elizabeth Harris, marry me or I’ll die.”
My cold gaze swept the empty house as I replied, “I will.”
The other party called excitedly, “I’ll pick you up!”
Three years later, due to company expansion, I returned to San Francisco with my child.
Yet at the airport, I unexpectedly ran into Gary and Kathleen, who had just arrived from abroad.
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Gary shoved his suitcase toward me as if it were natural. “At least you’ve got some sense. How’d you know Kathleen and I were returning today?”
Before I could respond, he frowned impatiently. “Why have your messages been so incomplete these years? But asking for living expenses? Always straight to the point!”
I raised an eyebrow. When I left back then, I’d casually tossed my phone to a homeless person on the street. Who knew who’d been replying to him?
I couldn’t be bothered to engage and threw his suitcase back.
“You’ve got the wrong person.”
I turned to leave, but then Kathleen saw the child sleeping in the stroller and rushed over in tears.
“Son, Mommy’s back. It’s all my fault that I met your dad too late, so I couldn’t be by your side legitimately.”
Then, she ignored my attempts to stop her and forcibly picked up the child.
The child, who inherited his biological father’s grumpiness upon waking, immediately burst into loud wails.
Struggling wildly, his little feet kicked Kathleen in the face.
Crying and calling out “Mommy” to me, Kathleen’s eyes flashed with panic and jealousy.
I hurried over to take the child back and was about to explain, “He’s not your chi…”
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But Kathleen took a step back, crying like a rain–drenched blossom, “Elizabeth, you clearly promised me that you would take good care of my child. Why is he so thin and small at three years old?”
She then said to the child in her arms, “It’s all mommy’s fault. I haven’t been with you for three years, never knew you suffered so much!”
I was so exasperated I nearly rolled my eyes. Just as I opened my mouth to say, “You’ve misunderstood, he’s only two-”
A stinging slap landed across my face. I stared at Gary in disbelief.
His face twisted with rage. “Elizabeth, I never imagined you’d be this vicious! You promised back then, yet for three years you’ve abused my child with Kathleen!”
“I’ve sent you nearly a million in living expenses over three years, and you couldn’t even spare proper food for him?”
“Look how thin and dark he’s become under your cruelty! This is the sole heir of the Perez family!”
A crowd had gathered around us unnoticed, all rolling their eyes and whispering behind their hands.
Even people held up their phones live–streaming, shouting, “Come quick, everyone! An evil nanny got caught red–handed abusing a rich family’s child!”
Frowning, I watched the still–crying child, my heart aching as I snatched him back from Kathleen.
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