3: 3

My phone started buzzing like mad.

I found I'd been dragged into a group chat with people I didn't know.

The group was called “Xav's Crew.”

I scrolled up through the messages. The earliest one was from Nellie.

A selfie of her lying in the top suite at the postpartum recovery center, an expensive mask on her face, a delicate bowl of bird's nest soup on the nightstand.

She flashed a peace sign at the camera, beaming.

The caption read “Thanks for coming to see me, boys, and thanks on Xav's behalf to his wife for being so generous. Love you all~”

Below the photo, Xavier's buddies piled on with jokes and flattery.

“Look at our Xav, husband of the year in the making! Other men's wives can step aside!”

“Exactly. What wife? Is any wife as important as our Nell?”

“Just some washed-out housewife who can pop out kids.”

“Xav the man!”

The chat was one long chorus of laughter and agreement, and the filth in it was more than I could stand to look at.

I handed my phone to Melvin and asked quietly.

“Melvin, could this count as evidence that he's putting me through emotional abuse?”

When we left the firm, Melvin insisted on driving me home, but I turned him down.

Some roads you have to walk alone.

Back home, the babies were crying to be fed, so I pushed through the pain and boiled water, sterilized the bottles, mixed the formula.

I fed one until he was full, then went to soothe the other.

By the time everything had settled, it was already afternoon.

The doorbell rang.

It was the temporary night nurse Xavier had found for me.

The moment she came in and saw two babies in the apartment, her face filled with distaste.

“It's just you? Two babies? That's not easy to handle.”

My heart sank.

“Xavier didn't tell you?”

“He only said to come look after a new mother. He never said one nurse, two babies! Let's get this straight. I'll only lend a hand during the day. Nights are not my problem, and no amount of extra pay will change that.”

I was too worn out to argue. Given the situation, I told myself an extra pair of hands was better than nothing, so I let it go for the moment.

But I soon found out I was wrong.

This night nurse did everything in the laziest way possible.

She changed the babies' diapers without even wiping them clean.

She mixed the formula either too hot or too cold.

Most of the time she just sat there on her phone, scrolling short videos, howling with laughter loud enough to wake a baby who'd just fallen asleep, and then complaining about how hard the babies were.

That night, I went to feed the babies. I opened the fridge, and everything in me froze.

The colostrum I'd pumped and stored in milk bags was all gone!

The fridge was empty.

“Where's the breast milk I stored?” I rushed out to confront her.

She was cracking sunflower seeds and watching TV, and didn't so much as lift her eyelids.

“Oh, that stuff? I poured it out.”

“What?” I couldn't believe my ears.

She didn't miss a beat.

“That yellowish gunk? One look and you can tell it's gone off, full of bacteria! Feed it to the babies and they'll get sick. I did you a favor.”

“You……” I was shaking all over with rage. I pointed at the door. “Get out, now! You're not staying here!”

My face startled her for a second, then she threw a fit.

“What gives you the right to throw me out? Mr. Simmons hired me!”

“Besides, I'm Nellie Fox's distant aunt. She just lost her baby, and here you are bullying her family. Mr. Simmons won't let you get away with it!”

Only then did it hit me. She was actually Nellie's relative!

Xavier! Well done!

Just then, both babies broke into wailing from the bedroom.

My stomach lurched. I stopped bothering with her and rushed into the bedroom.

I unwrapped the swaddles and my heart clenched.

Huge patches of red rash had broken out over both babies' skin, and it was spreading fast, alarming to see.

Their faces were flushed dark red, their little bodies twisting and struggling against the itch and the pain.

An acute allergic reaction!

I scooped up the babies and demanded loudly “What did you do to my children?”

4: 4

Only after I pressed her did she stammer out the truth.

That evening, when she bathed the babies, she hadn't used the baby wash I'd bought. She'd used a homemade herbal body wash.

"This… Nellie made a point of telling me. She said all those chemical things from the city are bad."

"So I figured something from back home would be gentler on their skin, and clear out the newborn heat too!"

Nellie Fox. Again, Nellie Fox.

I didn't have time for anything else. I bundled both babies up in the middle of the night and rushed straight to the ER.

The running and jolting tore my C-section incision open, blood seeping through, but I couldn't feel any of it.

Nothing could match the pain in my heart right then.

Xavier didn't show up.

He only came at me over the phone.

"Alice, can't you give me one moment's peace?"

"The night nurse called and said you threw her out for no reason, and now you've gone and made the babies sick?"

My heart was in knots, but my voice stayed calm.

"Xavier, the new night nurse you hired. She's Nellie's aunt?"

The other end went silent in an instant.

So he had known.

Then his voice came back through the receiver, sharp with wounded temper.

"That's because you're always suspicious of Nellie! She was only trying to help!"

"Trying to help?" I let out a cold laugh. "Then why didn't Nellie want her own aunt looking after them? Why did she have to push out the woman I chose from over thirty candidates?"

I hung up on him.

I spent the whole night going through it at the hospital, exams for the babies, prescriptions, then sitting in the observation room until dawn.

I didn't sleep a minute.

A nurse cleaned up my torn incision as best she could, and asked, gently, where my family was.

I shook my head. "I don't have any family."

When I got home holding the babies and opened the door, a stranger's perfume hit me in the face.

The living room was a wreck, the couch buried under snack wrappers and boba cups.

My wedding photo with Xavier had been taken down from the wall and tossed into a corner.

The nursery I'd set up with my own hands stood open, everything inside in disarray.

The learning toys I'd ordered from overseas had been ripped apart, the wreckage scattered across the floor.

From the master bedroom came Nellie's coy laughter.

I pushed the door open.

Nellie was lying on the bed in my robe, on a video call with that pack of Xavier's buddies.

When she saw me, a flicker of smugness and challenge crossed her eyes, and she drawled out,

"Oh, you're back?"

Xavier came out of the guest room. He saw how pale I was and looked a little guilty, but his tone was full of righteousness.

"Weren't you the one making a fuss about wanting to stay at the postpartum center?"

"Nellie felt so awful about it she moved out of the center in the middle of the night to make room for you."

"I figured the place was sitting empty anyway, so I let her stay a few days to recover. I'll drive you over to the center in a bit."

I looked at him with no desire to say a single word.

When I stayed silent, he must have felt he'd gone too far, because his tone softened.

"Nia, I know it's been hard on you. Raising the babies isn't easy."

"But Nellie… she's just been through so much. Let's cut her some slack, all right?"

"Just do it for me."

I looked at this man I'd loved for six years, and suddenly he felt like a complete stranger.

"No need, Xavier. We're done."

Then I turned, holding the babies, and walked out without another glance at him.

"Nia! Alice Henson! Stop right there!"

He started to come after me, but Nellie grabbed him and held on.

"Xav, my stomach hurts…"

I heard the two of them tangled up behind me, and I didn't look back.

Once I was past the front gate of the complex, I pulled out my phone and sent Melvin a message.

【Activate Plan B. Freeze every liquid asset under his company and his name.】

Melvin replied instantly: Got it.

Less than ten minutes later, Xavier called, beside himself.

"Alice, have you lost your mind? What did you do to my accounts?"

"The company's signing a thirty-million contract this afternoon. Now I can't even pay the deposit. Are you trying to ruin me?"