Chapter 4

4: 4

Gerard and I were still arguing when Eileen suddenly dropped to her knees, her voice thick with tears.

"Yvonne, I'll get the divorce, okay? I'll go take care of the baby right now, I'll leave the country and never come back."

"Both of you, stop fighting."

Gerard hauled her up off the floor, his face full of tenderness. "Why are you kneeling to her? She's the one who owes you. You've already given up enough."

"Yvonne, are you satisfied now? She's a pregnant woman, she's exhausted, and she still has to put up with your moods on top of it. You're not a child anymore."

I let out a cold laugh. "The two of you slept around behind my back, and now you flip it on me and act like I'm the one in the wrong. It's disgusting."

"Gerard, you don't have to marry me. Take her and get out."

His eyes went wide, and he stared at me in disbelief. "That's impossible. All our relatives are sitting right out there. If you call it off now, how are they supposed to look at us?"

The shouting drew my parents in from outside. My mother looked at me, her face grave. "Yvonne, is the wedding still going ahead? If you don't want it, your father and I will go out right now and announce it's canceled."

I shook my head. My voice was steady. "It goes ahead."

Once my parents left, Gerard smiled. "Yvonne, still as stubborn as ever. You say you won't marry me, but in the end you're going through with the wedding anyway."

He looked down at Eileen, weeping in his arms, and something like tenderness crept into his eyes. "The child Eileen is carrying deserves a name. After the wedding, I'll go abroad with her for the delivery."

"When we come back, you can be the child's godmother. Everything can go on just like before."

I stared at the man in front of me and felt like I was looking at a stranger.

Right after I lost the baby, he'd run up and down all day cooking nourishing meals to help me recover.

He'd never cooked before, and every day his hands had fresh marks on them, burns from the pan or splashes of hot oil.

But now all that was left in his eyes was careful calculation and self-interest. He was nothing like the man he'd been.

The heavy air pressed down until I could barely breathe. Just then Eileen clutched her stomach and cried out, "Gerard, my stomach hurts so much!"

"I think I'm losing the baby."

Gerard's face went white with panic. He shoved me aside and scooped Eileen up. "Yvonne, we'll push the wedding back. I'll be back in an hour, on time, I promise. Eileen's stomach comes first."

Then he strode out with her in his arms and left without looking back.

As they left, I caught the apology and guilt in Eileen's eyes. Her lips moved, and she mouthed the words without a sound.

"I'm sorry, Yvonne. My baby needs a father."

It's fine. My wedding doesn't need Gerard.

I opened the other back door and said to the person there, "The suit's hanging over there."

Bryce Farley looked at me, his expression serious. "You won't regret marrying me?"

"No regrets."

Ten minutes later, I walked into the hall on Bryce's arm. No one asked why the groom had changed. No one asked whether I'd hired an actor.

Under a sky full of falling petals, I heard the officiant reading the vows, and looking at the man before me, I finally said the words.

"I do."

On the other side of the city, in the hospital, Gerard's phone buzzed with a trending headline.

【The Hensons and the Farleys, a Happy Union — Two Giants Join Forces】

And something in his chest turned uneasy.