บททั้งหมดของ What the Sea Could Not Keep: บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 10

When Vivienne Mayne saw me, she gave me a helpless smile. There was not the slightest embarrassment of being exposed.She invited me in with the ease of a hostess and told the housekeeper to bring me a cup of warm milk."Nora, you are pregnant. Tap water is not good for you."I looked straight into her eyes and asked calmly, "How long?"Vivienne smiled, then slowly pushed a marriage certificate across the table.The registration date was May 21, eight years ago.My head rang. My scalp went numb.That night, Robert Blackwell booked a whole pack of drones over Harbor City and confessed his love to me in the most public way possible. We kissed beneath fireworks bright enough to shake the whole city.On that very same day, he took Vivienne Mayne to the courthouse and became her legal husband.I stared blankly at that certificate and laughed at myself. A suffocating pain pressed into my chest.Vivienne sighed as if she pitied me."Nora, do not blame me."I have known about you a

A nurse came over and pushed a thick needle into my vein.I watched my blood leave my body, powerless to stop it.Humiliated tears slid silently down my face.Robert came closer and wiped them away with his warm palm.He was careful, almost tender, when he said, "Nora, I know you feel wronged."After this is over, whatever you want, I will make it up to you."When the five hundred milliliters were finally drawn, I collapsed in the chair. Even lifting a finger took effort.Robert took the blood bag and ran straight toward the ICU.The tear tracks on Vivienne's face had already dried.She returned to her usual lofty, dismissive self and said to me, "You can go now."I will have the driver take you back to the hotel to rest."There was not a single thank-you. It was as if everything were only natural.I braced myself against the chair and struggled to stand.Meeting Vivienne's eyes, I said weakly, "The debt I owed you is repaid today."From now on, we owe each other nothing.

The next day, Robert's assistant came to pick me up.All he found was a floor covered in torn-up pieces of the check.When the assistant reported it, Robert listened and sneered with disdain."A penniless woman. Where could she possibly go?"Ignore her. She will come back after making a scene for two days."For an entire week, his assistant searched every hotel and every overseas community, but found nothing.At last, he reported with trembling fear, "Mr. Blackwell, Mrs. Stirling got into an unlicensed Maybach outside the hospital at three in the morning."We cannot trace where it went."Robert's eyes turned dark and vicious. Veins stood out on his forehead as he pointed at the assistant and cursed."A penniless woman. An unlicensed car. Who is helping her?"He completely lost control and smashed everything within reach."What are you people paid for? Find her. Find her at any cost."I do not believe she can fly out of my palm."After I left, Robert often read through our

Before the acquisition talks, I cleared the room in advance.Only Vivienne and I remained.When she saw that I was the person sitting across from her, triumph immediately spread across her face."You? The CEO of Meridian Group?"She looked me up and down, every glance dripping with contempt."Still dreaming of climbing onto a higher branch? Too bad. An ugly duckling stays an ugly duckling. No matter how you dress up, you cannot hide the poverty in your bones."I ignored her and handed over a document."Ms. Mayne, before we discuss the acquisition, I suggest you look at this."Vivienne took it doubtfully. Her face changed at once.It was a paternity test."Robert Blackwell is type A blood, and you are type B."How could your son be type O?"Her face grew paler as I spoke."Counting backward from your son's date of birth, at the time of conception, Robert was in the States with me. He was not with you at all."As soon as I finished, Vivienne screamed hysterically."So what

My heart skipped.I immediately drove toward the location attached to the message.It was a hospice hospital.When I pushed open the door, the smell of death rushed at me.Vivienne lay paralyzed in the hospital bed, reduced to skin and bones.When she saw me arrive in a rush, she squeezed out a mocking smile."You came after all.""Where is the child?"That was all I cared about.She turned her head away and snorted, deliberately keeping me in suspense.I rushed over, grabbed Vivienne's arm, and demanded sharply, "I asked you where the child is.""He is not dead."Those two light words struck my heart with enormous weight.Seeing my tears flow, she finally told the truth with something like pity.Back then overseas, a kind immigrant woman had taken me to the hospital.During the emergency treatment, the doctor called the emergency contact in my phone.The contact was Robert.But Vivienne answered the call.When she heard that a baby boy had been born safely, her uneas