Chapter 6
Stephen was consumed by a tidal wave of belated regret. Clutching the will in his hand, his eyes turned bloodshot.
When he arrived in a frenzy, Joey and her friends trailed behind.
They weren’t there, out of concern for Jessica’s life or death–they only cared about one thing. “Are the six babies really gone?” Joey asked urgently.
Upon hearing about Jessica’s fatal car accident, Joey frowned and
“Ugh, what a waste. All those progesterone
muttered in annoyance ca
injections for nothing. I went through all that pain for this?”
One of her friends glanced at the specimen jars on the ground and shuddered. “Seven–month–old fetuses… just gone like that. What a tragedy.”
Stephen suddenly whipped his head around. His gaze was wild, beast- like. “She’s dead, and all you care about is the babies?!”
Joey sneered. “So what if she’s dead? What does that have to do with me? My “blood bags” are gone now. Even if she were alive, she ought to be on her knees apologizing to me!”
Smack!
Stephen’s hand flew out and slapped her hard across the face. His voice trembled with fury. “She was my wife. Show some damn respect.
Joey clutched her cheek and screamed, “You’re calling her your wife now?! She was just a surrogate, a tool!”
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Their friends rushed over to defuse the situation. “Stephen, we’re just heartbroken over the babies… but how could Jessica suddenly get into a car accident like that?”
Stephen stared at the will in his hand, then abruptly grabbed one of them by the collar. “How did she find out about the embryos? Was it because one of you idiots posted that video in the group chat?!”
He shoved them aside and stormed toward John Clinton, his assistant- who had uploaded that intimate camping video of him and Joey to his social media the night before.
“Talk!” Stephen roared, grabbing John by the throat. “Who told you to post it?!”
John’s face darkened. “It… it was Ms. Cabrina who told me…”
Before he could finish, Stephen’s fist landed squarely on his face. Blood gushed from John’s nose instantly.
Joey screamed and backed away, panicked. “Stephen, are you insane?! He’s just an assistant!”
“We all deserve to die!” Stephen shouted, grabbing another friend by the shirt. “You all treated her like a tool. I treated her like a tool. And now she’s dead. We should all be buried with her!”
His fists rained down like a violent storm. John curled up on the ground, shielding his head as the others scattered in terror.
Joey cowered in a corner, staring at Stephen in horror as he unraveled. She finally shrieked, “Enough! She was just a surrogate! Are you seriously losing your mind over her?!”
Stephen froze. He turned around slowly, his eyes hollow like a dead sea. “What did you just say?”
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“I said she deserved it!” Joey screamed, stomping her foot. “If she hadn’t destroyed the cord blood, I wouldn’t be stuck like this–my illness-”
“Shut up!” Stephen charged at her, grabbing her by the throat. “It was you!” he shouted. “You said surrogacy was foolproof. You said she’d never find out the babies weren’t hers!”
Joey’s face turned ghostly white. She struggled, then pointed at the specimen jars, “And you?! Didn’t you want those six babies to save me? Now that she’s dead, what about my chemotherapy?!”
Stephen let go and staggered backward, breath catching in his throat. His mind suddenly flashed back to three months into Jessica’s pregnancy–she had gently cradled her belly and asked him, “Do you think the baby will like listening to music?”
He’d found her annoying then. Now, he would give anything to hold onto just a sliver of that tenderness.
“And then the worst memory surfaced, It had been his idea all along. He was the one who proposed using her to carry someone else’s child.”
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