"Dr. Thornton’s really got it rough. She finally got pregnant, and then she lost it again."

"Rough? What’s rough about it? The abortion medicine was prescribed by her own husband at our hospital."

"Isn’t it obvious? He just doesn’t love her. Doesn’t matter how hard she tries, she was never going to keep that baby."

Celeste Thornton stood outside the office door, clutching the miscarriage report in her hand. As she listened to the nurses gossip inside, the color drained from her face.

She was cold all over, shaking so hard she could barely stand, her lips trembling without stop.

Ten years of marriage. Seven miscarriages. Folk remedies, bitter herbal medicine, every kind of treatment people swore by—she had forced it all down until she wanted to throw up. And still, she could never hold on to a child.

But now she was hearing that the reason she kept miscarrying... was that her husband had personally prescribed abortion drugs?

How could that be?

What she drank yesterday was clearly the pregnancy medicine Adrian Shelton had prepared for her with his own hands.

Bang!

She shoved the door open and rushed in. "What did you just say?"

The women chatting inside jumped in fright. Once they saw it was her, they couldn’t even be bothered pretending anymore.

"Dr. Thornton, everyone in this hospital knows the one Vice Director Shelton loved was Isabelle Thornton."

"If she hadn’t died back then, do you really think it would’ve been your turn to marry him?"

"You think he’s been good to you out of real feeling? Let me tell you something—every single time you got pregnant, he came to get abortion medicine."

"..."

Celeste looked at the scorn in their eyes, one face after another, and felt like she’d fallen straight into an ice cellar.

In a daze, she made her way home and dropped onto the sofa, sitting there stiff and blank.

"I’m back!"

That familiar voice rang out.

Adrian Shelton came in carrying a bag of brown sugar. The door opened and a gust of cold wind swept in with him, sharp enough to make her shiver.

Seeing her sitting there pale as paper, he walked over at once and took her hand, his voice full of concern.

"Don’t be upset. If this baby is gone, we can always have another."

"Take care of your health first. I’ll go make you some brown sugar water."

Every time she lost a child before, she would cry till her heart felt torn apart, and he would always comfort her this gently.

Could a man like that really bring himself to kill his own child with his own hands?

Celeste Thornton felt like her heart had dropped into an ice cellar. "The doctor said it. I won’t ever be able to get pregnant again."

Adrian Shelton paused ever so slightly while holding her hand, his voice flat, almost like he had expected this all along.

"If you can’t, then fine. Xiaocheng can be adopted into our family."

"We’ll raise him as our own. I’ll go get the paperwork done tomorrow."

Xiaocheng?

Wasn’t that her cousin Isabelle Thornton’s son?

Adrian Shelton carried the bowl of brown sugar water into the kitchen, then took off his coat and hung it on the rack in the sitting room.

Celeste walked over slowly, opened the inner pocket, and pulled out a folded sheet of paper and a small bottle.

It was an adoption application.

Adrian Shelton’s name was already written on it.

And the date on it was today. So the adoption had been arranged long before now.

Her fingers trembled as she looked at the medicine bottle. Three words were printed on it, plain as day:

Abortion pills.

The moment Celeste Thornton saw them, her legs nearly gave out under her.

For ten years of marriage, they had seemed loving and peaceful on the surface. All this time, she had lived with guilt, thinking she had failed to give her husband a child.

She had always thought it was her body that was the problem.

How could she have guessed Adrian Shelton had never meant to let her keep a baby in the first place?

He had even fed her the abortion medicine himself, just so he could bring Isabelle Thornton’s son into their home.

"What are you looking through?"

Adrian Shelton came out of the kitchen with the brown sugar water ready.

The instant he saw the abortion pills and the adoption form in her hands, his eyes turned cold, hard as ice.

Celeste Thornton clenched the medicine bottle so hard her fingers went white. "Adrian Shelton, you forced that medicine down me to make me lose the baby... just so you could adopt her son?"

"Since you already know, there's no point pretending anymore."

A dark, ugly look spread across his face, full of mockery and cold hatred.