Simon stayed beside me until late into the night. I eventually drifted off to sleep from sheer exhaustion.
However, sometime in the middle of the night, I woke up thirsty. As I got up to drink some water, I accidentally overheard a conversation between Simon and Kelly on the hallway.
“Baby, none of it’s real. I’m only pretending to be nice so she’ll keep the baby. I don’t actually care about her at all. You have to believe me—after all, you’re the real lady of the Payton Family.”
Quietly, I finished drinking my water without making a sound and slipped back into bed.
Simon’s voice remained gentle as he kept coaxing Kelly. “As soon as she gives birth, I promise she’ll disappear from your life forever. Don’t be mad, okay?”
Kelly’s voice came through sweet and coy. “I knew you loved me the most. That cheap woman could never take you away from me.”
I lay back down on the hospital bed before Simon returned, my eyes wide open.
I did not sleep a wink the rest of the night.
Early the next morning, I got up and quietly completed my hospital discharge paperwork. Not long after, my phone buzzed. It was a call from the embassy—my visa had been approved.
Without wasting another second, I confirmed my departure plans with Chris.
Another call came through just minutes later and this one came from the hospital.
Tears of overwhelming joy blurred my vision. I rushed outside, flagged down a taxi and headed straight to the hospital.
However, when I pushed open the door to my mother’s room, my steps faltered. There, standing by her bedside, was someone I never expected to see.
Kelly.
She stood there like a viper, “Hello, Auntie. Remember me? I used to work with your precious daughter. Do you know what Jane’s been up to while you were lying here helpless?”
Her voice oozed false pity and cruelty. “She stole my fiancé. She even shamelessly got herself pregnant just to claw her way into the Payton Family. She’s nothing but a cheap, disgusting woman.”
My mother, weak and fragile, struggled to breathe as her face flushed an angry red. Yet even with her muscles stiff and atrophied from months of immobility, she forced her trembling hand to grab the water cup on the table … and hurled it straight at Kelly.
The cup struck her squarely and splashed water all over Kelly’s expensive clothes.
She glared at my mother and hissed, “Like mother, like daughter. You’re both equally disgusting.”