Chapter 5

[David’ POV]

The black Maybach’s windshield wipers swished over the windshield, brushing away the rain that drizzled from the dark sky. I leaned back in my seat, my fingertips caressing the medical document.

On the folder, the St. Mary’s Hospital wax seal stood out prominently.

“Embryo transplant successful.”

I let out a long sigh of relief. The huge stone that had been weighing on my chest for five years was finally released.

It was time to tell Alice the truth, a truth that I’d been hiding from her for five years.

During the fire five years ago, Alice believed that I rescued her by mistake. That wasn’t the truth though. I’d rushed back into the fire not because I recognized the wrong person, but because I liked Alice.

I fell in love with Alice the first time I saw her. Ten years ago, at summer camp, one afternoon under a huge sycamore tree. I was just nineteen years old when I first saw her shy, timid smile. Her smile struck a chord in my heart that had never been struck before. Alice was gentle and sweet, a girl who would feed stray cats and nurse a wounded insect back to life. She wore her heart on her sleeve, and I knew, the first time I looked into her warm, kind eyes that she was unlike any other girl I’d ever met.

Alice was so unlike her sister, Sylvia, who was as dazzling as the blazing the sun. All eyes always fell on Sylvia; she was charismatic and the natural center of attention. But in my peripheral, there was only ever Alice, hiding under the shade of a tree, trying not to be noticed, shying away in the shadow of her sister.

The problem was, I couldn’t show it though. Our families had already made an arrangement. It was an exchange of interests, a political investment. I would marry Sylvia. It was the right thing for both our families.

So I never said anything because, at the end of the day, I didn’t think it mattered who I married.

Marriage to me, at the time, was just a piece of paper. I could admire Alice from a afar and marry her sister. What did it really matter?

That is…until the fire.  

It was the most heart-stopping moment of my life.

The thick smoke obscured my vision, and the flames licked every inch of space like venomous snakes. The air was stifling, and I covered my mouth with my forearm, my eyes frantically trying to see through the thick, black smoke. Rushing into the fire, I called Sylvia’s name because that was my responsibility.

But in that life-or-death moment, a beam fell and pinned me to the floor. I thought I was going to die, until I saw a pair of thin, weak hands lift the burning wood.

“David, go quickly...” Alice’s small voice could barely be heard over the roar of the flames.

She was so afraid of pain, but she didn’t even dodge when sparks splashed on her skin.

“GO!” she hollered, her eyes wild, her skin singeing from fallen sparks. She coughed violently, then she pushed me away, trying to save me.  As she pushed me away though, another pillar fell and hit her hard in the abdomen.  

At that moment, I heard the sound of bones shattering, but I also heard the sound of the high wall called “reason” in my heart collapsing with a bang. 

I rushed out of the sea of fire with Alice in my arms. I intended to go back for Sylvia, but it was too late by then.  Sylvia was already gone, eaten by the high flames inside the burning building.

Everyone, including Alice’s entire family, thought I had saved the wrong person. They blamed me and took their anger out on her. And Alice herself, during that half-year-long recovery period, due to the huge psychological trauma, actually blurred the real memory of what had happened. She subconsciously thought that I had saved her by mistake, believing in the moment that  I was actually saving her sister.

Alice felt like aa thief who had stolen her sister’s life. And in order to protect her last bit of dignity, I could only play along with this lie.

What made me most desperate though was the doctor’s private diagnostic report.

I could still hear the doctor’s words on that fateful day.

“Mr. David, I’m afraid that Alice’s uterus was extremely severely damaged during the fire, and that the organ damage caused by internal bleeding is irreversible. There is almost no possibility of natural conception.”

Those words became a huge stone, weighing on my heart for five years.

So I chose to lie. I took all the responsibility on myself, and acted like an indifferent workaholic. I even deliberately acted uninterested when talking about the children—because I couldn’t let her know that, because of my mistake, she had lost her chance to be a mother. She already bore too much guilt for her sister because of the “survivor remorse.”  I couldn’t put anymore guilt on her so I led her to believe that I was perfectly fine with having no children.

As for Emry, she was just a part of my elaborate plan.

I paid heavily to hire her for surrogacy, to surprise Alice with a child. I even opened a flower shop for Alice called “Sylvia.”

The name wasn’t because I was nostalgic for her sister. Alice had loved her sister and I wanted to honor that love so that was my intention with the name of the shop. The shop itself though was all for Alice. Alice was allergic to pollen, but I knew that she desperately wanted those pure white tulips her sister had loved when she was alive. So, I invested in a biological laboratory. We’d spent the past three years cultivating a white tulip with no pollen.

I wanted to hide a new life in that bouquet of flowers, wanted to tell her:

“See, your sister didn’t take away hope. She’s still there, watching over you. She sent this child back to you.”

“Mr. David,, Emry just replied that the flowers have been delivered.”

 My assistant’s voice interrupted my thoughts, but his tone revealed a hint of unease.

“Is something wrong with the flowers?” I asked. The bouquet was my surprise for Alice; a bouquet of genetically engineered tulips that she could hold and smell without activating her allergies. “I’m afraid there’s been some sort of misunderstanding,” my assistant replied. “Your wife didn’t accept the bouquet.”

I loosened my tie, frowning slightly.

That was strange. Why didn’t she accept the flowers?  Perhaps it was because I’d been spending a lot of time at the hospital to confirm the details of the surgery, causing me to be a bit distant lately? Perhaps she was overly sensitive to my distance behaviour? If that was the case, I couldn’t blame her. I knew I wasn’t being the most attentive husband. But it was only because I was trying so hard to give her everything she ever wanted. .

It was also why I’d given her the gold card and told her she could  buy Sotheby’s and a Hermes purse. I wanted to give her an extra sense of security before revealing the surprise.

Later that night, when I finally got home after the doctor’s appointment with Emry, I pushed open the bedroom door, careful not to wake Alice.  Only a dim wall lamp was lit in the room. Alice was curled up between the sheets, her frail appearance making my heart clench violently.

I sat down on the edge of the bed and gently touched her slightly cool cheek with my fingertips.

She was still not sleeping soundly, and her eyelashes were fluttering restlessly.

Suddenly, she opened her eyes. I recognized the panicked look on her face.

“Another nightmare?” I tried to keep my voice soft, hiding the fatigue that was almost overflowing from the bottom of my eyes.

“I’m sorry, David,”she whispered.

I lied about a business trip, saying there was a breach in the contract, because I had just returned from the hospital. I had to protect this “surprise” until the most secure moment, before I could personally hand it to her.

“David, do you... want a child?” She suddenly opened her eyes, and in those bloodshot pupils, there was a sense of shattering that I couldn’t see through.

My breath caught for a moment.

I wanted a child that belonged to us more than anyone in the world, at any time. But I held her hand and only restrained myself by kissing her fingertips.

“Alice, I can’t force you to have a baby,” I said in my usual calm voice. “Your health has never been good. You heard what the doctor said. Your body is damaged. A pregnancy is too risky. Besides, what we have now is…quite…good.”

Little did she know, the surprise was already under way. And soon, I’d be able to tell her.

I was giving Alice her heart’s dream.

I was giving her a baby.