Chapter 3

"I supported your education, supported your whole family. Is this how you repay me?"

William's face darkened, as if I'd touched a nerve.

"Shut up! That was all your wishful thinking, your self-indulgent delusion!"

"If you hadn't desperately clung to me, Juliet and I would have been married long ago!"

"You're just a burden. Besides cooking and washing clothes, what else can you do?"

"Juliet is different. She's George's daughter. She can advance my career."

"Giving her your uterus is the greatest value you'll have in this life."

Just then, the hospital room door was pushed open.

A nurse came in with a medication cart. Seeing the tense atmosphere, she didn't dare speak.

William resumed his sanctimonious appearance.

"Change the dressing for bed 3. Also prepare her for surgery. First case tomorrow morning."

The nurse hesitated: "Dr. William, bed 3 just had a D&C procedure. Her vital signs..."

"Do as I say!" William barked.

The nurse flinched and quickly nodded.

William pulled back my blanket in front of the outsider.

Without any respect, as if examining a piece of pork.

"Recovery looks fine. Won't affect the extraction."

Extraction. Was I a package?

The overwhelming humiliation made me want to scream, but I couldn't make a sound.

Because I saw a wheelchair had stopped at the doorway.

A woman sat in it, smiling at me. That was Juliet.

I'd only seen her photo in the inner fold of William's wallet.

It was an old photo from many years ago. The girl in the photo looked as pure as a white flower.

The current Juliet wore a hospital gown. Though sitting in a wheelchair, her complexion was rosy.

She even looked healthier than me, who had just miscarried.

The moment William saw her, he changed his expression completely, becoming tender enough to melt.

"Juliet, why did you come? There are bacteria here. Don't get infected."

Juliet coyly extended her hand, letting William help her.

"William, I was worried about Lena. Lena just lost her baby. She must be devastated. I wanted to see her."

She had William push the wheelchair to my bedside.

I smelled her expensive perfume—the one William had bought with my card last week.

Juliet grabbed my hand. Tears came instantly.

"Lena, I'm sorry. It's all my fault. My body is useless."

"I just want to give William a child so badly."

"Since you can't have one, just let me borrow your uterus. You don't need it anymore anyway."

Borrow? Could such a thing be borrowed?

I looked at her fake face, nausea churning in my stomach.

"Get out! Don't touch me!"

I used all my strength to shake off her hand.

Juliet fell backward deliberately, collapsing to the floor with a cry.

"Oh! That hurts!"

"Juliet!"

William rushed over to lift her up, then turned and slapped me across the face.

"Smack!" The slap was brutal.

It hit me so hard that my post-surgical abdomen cramped violently. My vision went black.

"Lena! You vicious woman! Juliet came to see you out of kindness, and you pushed her!"

I covered my face, my ears ringing.

"She's faking... William, are you blind? She's not even sick!"

I hadn't used any force in that shake.

And her pulse was strong and powerful, her palm warm. She wasn't someone with congenital disease at all.

I studied medicine. I still had that much judgment.

William didn't listen at all. He carefully lifted Juliet back into the wheelchair.

"If anything happens to Juliet, I'll take your life!"