All Chapters of The Day I Met My Husband's Son: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

Henry went quiet. Then, his phone rang. He glanced at the screen and let it go.A second later, mine rang too. It was a number I didn't recognize.I picked up, and Vera's soft, fragile voice came through the other end, "Ms. Whitaker, it's Vera. I know you're with Henry right now. Could I just say a few words to you?"I put it on speaker and set the phone on the table."Ms. Whitaker, this is all my fault, every last bit of it." Her voice was thick with tears but never grating, the kind of crying designed to make people feel sorry for her."I wasn't capable enough to take care of Aiden on my own, so I swallowed my pride and came back to ask Henry for help. He's a good man. He only did it because he felt sorry for the child. Please don't blame him."She drew a shaky breath. "If you can't accept us being here, I'll take Aiden and leave right now. Even if we die out there, we won't be a burden to either of you."Then, through the speaker, came the sound of a child coughing, followed

Yes, I had carried a child too, even if I never got to bring it into the world. But I couldn't bring myself to feel sorry for Vera. At the end of the day, she was the one who had come in between someone else's marriage."Hazel, Aiden's surgery is scheduled for next week." Henry gritted his teeth. "But the surgery and the follow-up treatment are going to cost a lot of money."I looked up at him. "And?""I want to put your research project on hold for now and redirect the funding toward Aiden's treatment." Henry wouldn't meet my eyes. "This is a matter of life and death."That project was something I had poured three months of late nights into securing. My whole body started to shake."Henry, do you have any idea what shelving that project means? It means months of work and hundreds of thousands of dollars down the drain.""Money can be gained back, but I can't sit here and watch my son die!" Henry shouted."Enough!"My vision went dark. It felt like a boulder was pressing down

Not long after Edmund left, Henry and the others came back into the room. Without warning, Aiden hurled the toy car he'd been hiding in his hand straight at my stomach."You're a bad lady, and the thing in your belly is bad too!"Pain shot through my abdomen, but I didn't make a sound. I just looked at the three of them coldly, and Henry instinctively pulled Aiden behind him again."He's just a kid. He doesn't know any better. Don't hold it against him."I smiled. Like mother, like son.Aiden's breathing suddenly became labored, and his heart condition flared up. Henry and Vera shouted for a doctor in a panic and got him admitted to a room. That same night, he was moved to the ICU, and Henry refused to leave his side.Early the next morning, while Henry was pulled away by Aiden's attending physician, I slipped out of my room alone. I had already booked a procedure at a different private hospital. I didn't want anyone from the Lancaster family having a say over what happened to my

Henry's face was drained of color. "Vera didn't do it on purpose. You can't just do this out of spite! If we get divorced, then what happens to everything under my name?"Vera clung to Henry's side and sobbed even harder, "Ms. Whitaker, I know you hate me. As long as you're willing to forgive Henry and stay married, I'll take Aiden and leave right now. I'll never come back."Looking at the scene playing out in front of me, all I felt was how absurd it was. The woman who had tried to kill my baby was playing the victim, I was being treated like the aggressor, and Henry was trying to hold everything together for the sake of appearances."If we can't settle this here, we'll settle it in court."Edmund came down the staircase, leaning on his cane. His expression was terrifyingly dark, and behind him trailed the house manager, Morris Lincoln, and several bodyguards in black. The entire room fell silent, save for Vera's sniffling."Dad, talk some sense into Hazel. She's insisting on a d