Chapter 3

I left the bathroom 10 minutes later and had dinner with the Ingletons without betraying anything.

After doing the dishes, I handed over my checkup report to my in-laws. I stammered bashfully, "Dad, Mom, I have something to discuss with you. I know it is your wish to have a grandchild, but I miscarried too many times before this. The doctor said I would struggle to get pregnant again…"

I teared up while speaking. Jack and his parents frowned at me as they waited for me to continue. I kept up with the act and innocently stated, "But the family lineage cannot stop here. I have an idea. Since modern technology is advanced, Jack and I could go abroad and get some IVF treatments. Dad, Mom, what do you think?"

It took Jean a while to wrap her head around my suggestion. She was the first to slam her fist on the table. "I object! How can you compare the babies from these treatments to babies who are conceived naturally?"

Then, she glared at me. "Jack married you to pass on our family bloodline. What's the point of your marriage if you refuse to bear children?"

I scoffed silently. What a shitty excuse! I knew they must be reluctant to spend any money on me now that Rhea was pregnant with Jack's child.

Despite being secretly disgruntled, I kept up the act. Tears streamed down my face. "Mom, what do we do, then? You shoved me and made me miscarry the last time. Are we really gonna watch as the Ingleton bloodline ends here?"

At the mention of the miscarriage, Jean immediately shut up. After all, her violence had directly caused my miscarriage and my infertility. Feeling bad, she stopped snapping at me.

They, I grabbed Jack's hand. "Darling, I can't hold your family back. I don't want to be the reason for your family's misfortune! Maybe… maybe we should just get a divorce!"

"D-Divorce?" Jack stammered, utterly blindsided by my sudden suggestion. He turned to his parents with a look of confusion.

Sensing the tension, Jack's father quickly stepped in to smooth things over. "Divorce? No, no, it would be so scandalous for you if people heard about it."

He pulled a napkin from the box and handed it to me. "How about this? Why don't you two keep trying for a couple more years? If it still doesn't work, I'll help you adopt a child from a good family. What do you think?"

Killing me must have been too risky, and Bill immediately offered a sneaky solution when I brought up the issue of their bloodline.

His words made me snicker in silence. That "good family" was undoubtedly Rhea, and the "adopted child" would no doubt be their illegitimate child.

I wiped my tears, pretending to consider his suggestion, and then replied, "Dad, I know your idea comes from a good place, but adopting a child isn't without risks.

"If the child grows up and finds out they are adopted, they might want to find their birth parents. What would we do then? Stop them? But if we let them go, doesn't that mean we would've raised someone else's child for nothing for over a decade?"

I spoke with such determination that Bill couldn't refute me. Everyone fell into an awkward silence.

At this moment, Jean's eyes glimmered with an idea. She blurted out, "How about getting a surrogate?"

Even though I had seen this coming, hearing it straight out of her mouth still made me feel disgusted at the Ingletons' shamelessness.

I feigned shock, widening my eyes. Before I could say anything, Jack had lost his temper.

"Mom! What are you saying?" he grumbled, his tone laced with reproach. He glanced at me, as if worried I would feel offended.

However, he failed to fool me with that poor acting—I caught a fleeting hint of excitement in his eyes.

Jack wrapped his arms around me, his expression full of what appeared to be tenderness. "Shannon is the only woman for me!"

Jean glared at him and barked, "Let her speak!"

Jack immediately fell silent.

All three of them turned to me, waiting for my response.

I was eager to nod in agreement, but I made a show of hesitating. Eventually, after a lot of persuasion and coaxing from Jack's parents, I "reluctantly" agreed to the surrogate plan.

Seeing me give in, they were visibly pleased. They grinned smugly as if they had succeeded in fooling me.

Jack comforted me tenderly, and the atmosphere around the table shifted to one of harmony and joy.

The three of them believed they were setting a trap for me, but little did they know, they had already walked straight into mine.