Chapter 10: You Can Have Children With Anyone

Victoria Lane paced anxiously outside the emergency room.

"What exactly happened to Stella? She's been sickly since she was little, but she's never collapsed like this before!"

Julian Whitmore pulled Victoria into his arms, but his gaze settled on Damien Blackwood, who stood with his back to the light.

Julian had trained as a doctor once, and he could tell at a glance that something about Stella's collapse was very wrong.

"Don't worry. Stella has never been healthy, not since she was a child. Didn't she have to be revived for low blood sugar once?"

Damien's eyes flickered as he listened to Julian comfort Victoria.

He said nothing.

The cruelest thing about osteoma was how suddenly it could turn. Until the doctor came out, he couldn't say whether things were bad.

The silence stretched tight until, an hour later, the doctor stepped out of the emergency room.

He looked at Damien, hesitating. "The patient is stable now..."

Damien glanced at Julian. Julian understood at once and had Victoria help the nurse wheel Stella to her ward.

Once Victoria was out of sight, Julian asked quickly, "What happened to Stella? This hospital stay isn't just a routine checkup, is it?"

Damien was silent for a moment. "Osteoma. Late stage."

"She hasn't told anyone because she didn't want you to worry."

Julian's breath caught.

After a long pause, he finally said, "She's still so kind."

How could she keep this illness from her own family?

If he had known how serious her condition was, he would have come home long ago!

Julian's voice trembled slightly. "How long have you known?"

"Only a few days."

"So you've been searching for Dawn to cure Stella."

Damien nodded. "There are only two ways to save her."

As someone in the medical field, Julian couldn't help but know, and he said right away, "The other is umbilical cord blood."

"But who would give birth to it? Victoria's health collapsed a few years ago..."

He stopped, then looked up. "Could we ask Evelyn..."

Backlit as he was, Julian couldn't see Damien's expression, only hear his cold voice. "Evelyn and Stella share a blood type. She's the perfect match."

At the name Evelyn, Julian clenched his fist, then slowly released it a moment later.

He turned his back and stopped looking at Damien.

An image of Evelyn lying beneath another man rose unbidden in his mind.

Julian let out a heavy sigh.

When Stella woke, she specifically asked to see Damien.

Damien glanced at his watch, but went in anyway.

In the long corridor, only Julian and Victoria remained for a moment.

Victoria said sullenly, "If only you had found Stella sooner."

"Her birth family preferred boys over girls. They wouldn't even let her have an extra bite at dinner, and they made her do chores every single day."

Her voice grew softer as she spoke.

She didn't know Stella had late-stage osteoma, but ever since they'd met, Stella had been sick.

"Do you remember when Stella and I were in high school? It was your birthday, and Stella had a high fever, but she still wanted to celebrate with you."

"You didn't come back that day. Stella waited and waited. I tried to talk her into going to the hospital, but she refused. In the end she had a seizure from the fever."

Victoria burst into tears. "Stella has suffered so much, and it's all Evelyn's fault!"

"Why does Stella always have to give way to Evelyn?"

"Even on your birthday, you went to spend it with Evelyn first!"

"If you'd come back earlier that day, Stella might have had one less hospital stay!"

"Jules, where are you going?"

"For a smoke. Don't follow me, the smoke will bother you. Stella will be fine. I'll save her."

Julian walked to the smoking area and lit a cigarette.

He rarely smoked. Only when he was truly troubled.

The hand holding the cigarette trembled slightly, too slightly for anyone to notice unless they looked closely.

But even that slight tremor meant he could never hold a scalpel again.

He exhaled a stream of smoke and stubbed out the half-burnt cigarette.

The nerves in his hand had been severed when he protected Evelyn.

If that hadn't happened, he could still hold a scalpel. Perhaps he could even have taken part in the surgery to repair Victoria's body. Perhaps he might even have become a genius like Dawn.

Perhaps there was still a chance to save Stella...

Osteoma. Stella.

He thought back to when Stella first returned to the Hart family: severely malnourished, speaking timidly, nothing like the bright, cheerful Evelyn.

He hadn't liked her back then.

Even though Stella had tried her best to please him, he'd remained indifferent.

She had cried and told him that no one in the family liked her except him.

A huge lump rose in Julian's throat, almost choking him.

Looking out the window, he suddenly spotted a familiar figure.

Evelyn had just finished her discharge paperwork and was about to drive away when someone blocked her path.

She looked up and saw Julian.

She was startled. "What are you doing here?"

Julian looked her over. It was the first time he had truly studied how she had changed since he'd come home.

The girl who used to follow him around calling him "Little Uncle" now looked like a walking corpse.

Evelyn felt uneasy under his focused gaze.

When they were together, he used to look at her like this, then smile and say, "The more I look at you, Evie, the more I like you."

What was the point of dredging up the past?

She turned to leave, but Julian suddenly caught her hand from behind.

"Have a child to save Stella."

"Name your price. I won't haggle."

Pain stabbed through Evelyn's heart. Seven years ago, she never could have dreamed that Julian would one day force her to have a child!

She yanked her hand away. "Julian, what do you take me for?!"

A walking womb? A tool to be used anytime, anywhere?

Julian didn't flinch. "I don't care who you are, or who the child's father is. As long as you give birth to this child, I'll give you whatever money you want..."

Before he could finish, Evelyn suddenly raised her hand.