"Both babies are doing great."
At the hospital, in the OB-GYN department, Grace Mercer held the registration slip and finally let out the breath she'd been holding when she heard the doctor say that.
She was seven months pregnant now. She'd suffered plenty these past months, so hearing that both babies were healthy made everything suddenly feel worth it.
A little after seven in the evening, she heard the lock turn at the door. She shot to her feet at once. "Honey!"
Vincent Dalton appeared in the doorway. Hearing her voice, he didn't even look up. Maybe it was because he'd been working all day, but he looked drained, like all his energy had been wrung out.
He didn't say a word either. He just kept his head down and changed his shoes.
"I went for my checkup today. The babies are really healthy."
Vincent had a meeting today and hadn't gone with her, so she'd gone by herself.
The hospital wasn't far anyway. It wasn't a big deal.
Grace smiled, her voice bright. "I was just thinking about baby names. What do you think we should call them?"
This was the third year of their marriage. Everyone in the family had been waiting forever for them to have a child.
Especially Vincent's mother. She called every few days asking if Grace was pregnant yet.
Ever since the pregnancy, the whole family had been over the moon. Even though carrying the babies had been exhausting, just thinking about two adorable little lives joining the family made all the hardship seem bearable.
Vincent had already changed his shoes. But there wasn't the slightest hint of a smile on his face.
"Get rid of them."
"W-what?" Grace was still lost in that soft, happy future she'd been imagining. The second she heard his words, her whole mind froze.
She had to have heard wrong, right?
He wanted her to abort the babies?
Grace had married Vincent Dalton when she was twenty-one. They had dated for two years, and Vincent had always treated her well. He had never crossed a line with her.
She was pretty traditional and couldn't really accept sleeping together before marriage.
She had thought they'd talk about that after getting married.
But after they got married, she found out Vincent was sexually dysfunctional. He couldn't have children at all.
Luckily, she wasn't a person with strong physical needs. She had always believed that as long as two people loved each other, even if his body had some flaw, it didn't matter. After all, what she loved was him.
But his family didn't know any of that. They kept pushing them to have a child as soon as possible.
Later, when they saw that friends who'd gotten married around the same time already had kids while they still had none, and with his mother pressing harder and harder, he came up with the idea of artificial insemination and talked Grace into getting pregnant.
For the sake of the two babies in her belly, Grace had been through hell these past few months.
And now...
Now he wanted her to get rid of them?
Grace looked at him, stunned. "Why?"
Vincent said, "I asked a friend at the hospital today. He said there might still be a chance for me to be treated. I want to try again. If these two are born, they're not even my kids. They don't share my blood. I don't want them anymore."
Grace stared at him in disbelief. He was talking about aborting the babies like it was as easy as tossing something in the trash.
She opened her mouth, her voice shaking. "You were the one who wanted them in the first place. You said even if they weren't biologically yours, so what? I was the one carrying them, so they'd still be our children. And they're already seven months along. They'll be here soon..."
Seven months.
Seven whole months of pain, of throwing up, of swollen feet, of sleepless nights, of slowly accepting their existence and then loving them, of starting to picture a future with them in it.
And now he could just say he didn't want them anymore?
Vincent's tone turned impatient. "Once they're born, we have to raise them. Do you think raising two kids is easy? If I spend all our money on them, where are we supposed to get money later when we have our own child?"
"We already have these two. That's enough!" Grace shot back. Her eyes were red, and her voice was trembling. "And children aren't garbage. You can't just say you don't want them and that's it. You were the one who decided to have them."
"So are you doing it or not?" Vincent looked at her, clearly annoyed now.
"No." Grace's answer came out firm. "I'm not as heartless as you. You know better than anyone how hard it was for me to get pregnant with these two."
She already loved them. There was no way, absolutely no way, she was going to abort them.
Especially after what she'd seen at the hospital today, seeing how well the babies were growing, her heart had felt so warm she could barely describe it. Asking her to get rid of them now was just cruel. Too cruel.
Vincent said coldly, "Fine. If you want to give birth, then do it yourself. I'm not helping. And if you insist on having them, then after they're born, you raise them yourself. We'll get divorced."
"What did you say?" She looked at him like she didn't know the man in front of her.
She had always thought Vincent treated her well. That was why, no matter what, she had always accepted him before. But she had never imagined that now... he would actually...
Vincent said, "I'm not joking with you. They're not my children. Why should I raise them?"
After saying that, he pushed open the bedroom door, went inside, and shut himself in.
Grace stood alone in the living room, and the air from the AC felt colder and colder, like it was seeping into her bones.
Later that night, her mother-in-law, Margaret Dalton, called.
"Jiajia."
"Mom." The moment Grace heard her mother-in-law's voice, she realized she'd been crying the whole time. She couldn't even remember how long it had been since she'd last cried like this.
She quickly wiped away her tears, afraid Margaret would hear something off in her voice.
On the phone, Margaret asked, "Xiaofeng just told me he wants you to abort the babies. Why?"
"Ask him. I don't know."
"He even told me to talk you into getting rid of them, or else he'll divorce you. I mean, he usually likes these babies just fine. Did you do something to make him angry?"
"I didn't do anything." Grace bit her lip. "He's the one who doesn't want the children anymore."
"How is that possible?" Margaret's voice sharpened on the other end. "Unless... these babies aren't his at all?"
Other than that, she honestly couldn't think of any reason her son would suddenly refuse the children.
Grace listened to her mother-in-law's words, and for a moment, she didn't even know where to begin.
Strictly speaking, the babies really weren't Vincent's.
But back then, artificial insemination had been his decision too.
She never could've imagined that now, when the babies were already seven months along, he would suddenly flip on her and act like none of this had anything to do with him.
Before Grace could say a word, Margaret took her silence as an admission and instantly started cursing over the phone.
"Wow, Grace, I really didn't see this coming. So you're that kind of woman. Our whole family has treated you so well, and this is what you do? You actually had the nerve to pull something like this?"
After venting on her own, Margaret hung up.
...
When Grace woke up, she found herself in the hospital.
There was noisy arguing outside the door. It was Margaret Dalton's voice, exactly the same shrill, accusing tone as before Grace had passed out.
"Your daughter can even do something this shameless, so hurry up and get them divorced! The Mercer family's upbringing is really something, huh? My son treated her so well, and she still wasn't satisfied. She even dared to find another man outside? What a total slut. Absolutely disgusting."
Grace slowly opened her eyes and saw her father, Victor Mercer, sitting beside the bed.
The second she saw him, tears fell again without warning.
"Dad..."
The grievance in her chest was so heavy she didn't even know where to start.
Victor Mercer looked at her, his face grim, not a trace of softness there. He asked in a low voice, "Whose child is it?"