On Halloween, My Mother-in-Law Demanded a Second Grandchild—My Husband’s Assistant Offered to Have It for Me

On Halloween night, while my mother-in-law was pressuring me to have a second child, my husband’s young assistant showed up uninvited with a baby in her arms. “Nancy saved my life, Mrs. Carter. I’ve already given birth to a son for her. Could you please stop pressuring her now?” “Nancy, isn’t it better that I offered myself to him than let him cheat with some filthy woman? I did it so you wouldn’t have to suffer through childbirth again!” Everyone’s awkward gaze landed on me. For a moment, it felt as if someone had slapped me across the face. But she took my silence as an accusation, and her tears fell even faster. “Your husband had his way with me everywhere, from the office to his bed, all so you could have a happy marriage. And you still blame me?” My husband pulled the crying girl into his arms to comfort her. When he looked at me, his eyes were ice-cold. “Chloe did this to repay your kindness. She’s even willing to be separated from her own child!” “Are you really so heartless that you can’t even thank her?” The sheer absurdity of it washed over me. As I looked at him, my heart slowly went cold. He seemed to have forgotten something. Everything he had today came from me! Perhaps my expression was too rigid, because Ethan Carter paused and softened his tone. “Nancy, you’re the one who sponsored Chloe and brought her out of that impoverished mountain town. You’re practically sisters. What difference does it make whether you give birth or she does?” He took my hand, his voice so gentle it was cruel. “It’s Halloween. Don’t make an ugly scene. Look at our daughter. You’re scaring her to tears.” I looked at my daughter beside me. Her little face was flushed, her eyes full of tears as she called for me, confused and worried. Only then did the dull, aching pain crash into my chest. Fighting back the emotions threatening to break me, I yanked my hand out of Ethan’s. “Don’t touch me!” The atmosphere around the table froze. His expression hardened. “Nancy, since you can’t calm down, I’ll have the driver take you back.” “I’m spending tonight with my family. I won’t be going with you.” His family? I almost laughed through my tears as I stared at every face around that table. “None of you have anything to say? Don’t forget—you wouldn’t have any of this without me, Nancy Bennett!” Ethan had been a penniless nobody. I had insisted on being with him, no matter the cost. I had poured the Bennett family’s influence and resources into building the Carters into the rising business dynasty they were today! Just moments earlier, before pressuring me for a second child, my in-laws had been smiling and praising me for everything I had done for the family. They had even promised Sophie a big Halloween gift! But now their expressions changed. Holding their precious grandson, they scolded me. “Nancy, that’s not fair! Everything the Carters have today is because of Ethan’s talent. What does it have to do with you?” “We have an empire now. How can we settle for one little girl?” “If you ask me, you should thank Chloe. She gave us a healthy baby boy. The Carter family finally has an heir!” They even took it further and teased my daughter. “Sophie, look at your baby brother. You’d better behave from now on, or Grandma and Grandpa will only love him. We won’t want you anymore!” My daughter was only five, still so sensitive and vulnerable. Her little mouth trembled before she finally threw herself into my arms. “Mommy… I don’t want a baby brother. Please don’t stop loving me…” My heart shattered. I immediately gathered her small body against me and fixed my eyes on Ethan. “Ethan Carter, you’d better not regret this!” Then I turned and left without another moment’s hesitation. On that bitterly cold Halloween night, my husband of six years threw me out. Only after I had soothed my sobbing daughter to sleep did I finally let my tears fall. I buried myself beneath the covers and broke down, sobbing so hard my chest hurt without making a sound. Six years. Six whole years. From a rundown slum to the mansion he lived in now. Just yesterday, Ethan had been inside me, kissing me as he whispered that I was the only woman he would ever love. So why? How could sincerity be faked? How could his love change so easily? My heart hurt so badly I could barely breathe. Then my phone rang. The moment I answered, I heard Chloe’s soft, tearful voice. “Ethan… What are you doing? I’m trying to call Nancy to apologize…” Wet sounds and muffled moans followed. My body went rigid as Ethan let out a breathless laugh. “Apologize? She loves me too much to leave me. Give her a couple of days, and she’ll come crawling back in tears. Be good, Chloe. Spread your legs…” His voice dropped as he said each word. “Besides, who else would want a woman without a uterus? Does she even count as a woman anymore?” The blood in my veins turned to ice.It felt as if someone had struck me over the head. I ended the call with trembling fingers, only then realizing my face was soaked in tears. The person closest to me had betrayed and humiliated me. He had said it himself. I didn’t count as a woman. But when I was eight months pregnant and we were in that car crash, he had risked his life to shield me beneath his body. Coughing blood, he had urged me on. “Nancy, hold on a little longer… We’re both going to be okay.” His blood and tears had fallen hot against my face. “Nancy, this is our first baby. You don’t want to lose her either, right? The ambulance will be here soon. Any minute now…” I had held on. I had barely survived giving birth to our daughter, but the accident had taken away any chance of ever having another child. Back then, he had sworn to me, kissing and comforting me over and over, that our daughter would be the only child he would ever have. Yet just five years later, he had fathered another child with another woman. I wiped away my tears, pulled off my wedding ring, and hurled it into the trash. Staring at the red-eyed woman in the mirror, I laughed and cried. I couldn’t help asking myself a question. Nancy Bennett, what were you doing all this for? You turned yourself from a wealthy heiress into a mother and wife who sacrificed everything for her family. And in the end, all your sacrifices had benefited someone else! At last, I called my family. I took a deep breath, but I still couldn’t keep the tears out of my voice. “Dad… I want to come home.” With holiday travel disrupted, it would take Dad two days to reach me by car. But in the middle of the night, my daughter developed a sudden high fever. I had no choice but to call Ethan. “Ethan! Sophie has a fever! The driver—” “Nancy Bennett, is this your way of backing down? You’re actually lying about our daughter being sick! Do you have any idea how guilty Chloe feels because you left? She’s been crying half the night!” Crying half the night? Whether it had been from guilt or what they were doing in bed, they knew perfectly well! “You’ll get your privileges as Mrs. Carter back when you apologize to Chloe and she forgives you!” He hung up. Gritting my teeth, I carried my burning-hot daughter through the empty streets before dawn. I had cried until there were no tears left by the time I finally found a cab to take us to the hospital. The next day, I came back from buying food and found Chloe and Ethan standing beside my daughter’s bed. I rushed over in a panic and shoved them away. “Don’t touch my daughter!” A second later, a vicious slap landed across my face. Ethan caught Chloe, who had nearly fallen, and looked at me in disappointment. “Nancy, Chloe was the one who persuaded me to come when she found out Sophie had a fever. It’s bad enough that you’re ungrateful. Did you have to shove her?” Chloe shook her head desperately, her brows drawn together and tears shining in her eyes. “Don’t, Ethan. It’s all my fault…” My swollen cheek stung. I fought back my tears as the last trace of love I had for him disappeared. I had begged him for so long, and even our daughter’s high fever hadn’t moved him. But one word from Chloe, and he had come. I had thought that even if he was tired of me, he was still a good father. I had been wrong. My daughter and I together meant less to him than Chloe. I closed my eyes, then pointed at the door. “Get out. Both of you. You’re not welcome here!” Chloe looked heartbroken. “Nancy, why can’t you forgive me? I know I was wrong. Back when you were pregnant—” “Chloe! Enough.” Ethan cut her off sharply. Panic flashed through his eyes before he turned back to me with a cold snort. “Nancy, if you insist on being so ungrateful, I’ll transfer the shares set aside for Sophie to Noah when I get back! You—” He broke off as if he had spotted something. His pupils contracted, and he seized my wrist. “Where’s your wedding ring? Nancy Bennett, how dare you take off our wedding ring!”I stared coldly into his eyes and answered one word at a time. “I threw it away.” Those rings came from the time when Ethan had loved me most. He had nearly died rescuing me from kidnappers, suffering a broken rib and a stab wound. Yet he had still taken a piece of bone removed during surgery and used it to make us a pair of rings himself. He had said I was his missing rib. Only with me was his life complete. How ridiculous. His grip on my wrist tightened until he practically ground the words out through his teeth. “You threw it away? Well done, Nancy. Well done!” His expression turned murderous. He made a call without taking his eyes off me. “Freeze all of Mrs. Carter’s assets. No one is to give her a cent! And…” His lips twisted into a cold smile as he spoke clearly in front of me. “Take Sophie’s trust fund and transfer it into Noah’s name!” I stared at him in disbelief. “Ethan! Don’t you dare!” He flung my hand away and pulled Chloe against him, sneering. “Watch me! Nancy, this is what happens when you defy me. Did you think throwing a tantrum would make me give in?” “Since you refuse to register Noah as your second child, Sophie’s trust fund will serve as compensation!” I was shaking with rage. Behind me, my daughter was still asleep, exhausted by her fever. Not only had I failed to protect her shares, but now he was taking her trust fund too! Chloe furrowed her brows and pretended to reason with him. “Ethan, that money was left by Nancy’s mother…” He stroked her face tenderly. Every word stabbed into my heart. “You’re right. Money from a dead person would be a bad omen for Noah’s first birthday. Let’s donate it to… Fairview Hospital.” I hadn’t known I could scream like that. Bodyguards held me down. My eyes burned, and I nearly bit through the inside of my cheek as I cried out. “Ethan! You can’t… You can’t do this! You know Fairview Hospital killed my mother!” I had spent countless days and nights drowning in the pain of losing her, even after making those responsible pay a terrible price. Even as Fairview Hospital struggled to survive under the Bennett family’s relentless retaliation, I still hated it! Ethan knew all of that. Yet he could still do this! I sobbed so hard my body convulsed, my throat closing until I couldn’t breathe. Through my tears, I thought I saw a flicker of hesitation in his eyes. But then Chloe spoke, her voice sweet and delighted. “Really, Ethan? You’re so good to me. You remembered that’s where we first met.” With that single sentence, every ounce of love and hatred inside me shattered. I heard Ethan hesitate for two seconds before comforting her with a smile. “Of course. That’s where we fell in love. I’ll make sure Fairview stays standing forever, just like our love.” My daughter woke behind me. Frightened by the scene in front of her, she quickly began to cry. Ethan had already left with Chloe without a shred of mercy. His final words were: “Let’s see how long you can hold out, Nancy!” It felt as if my heart had been crushed. He was forcing me to acknowledge that filthy product of his affair. Forcing me to swallow the humiliation of being betrayed by two people I had trusted! As my daughter’s small, soft body fell into my arms, I received a call from the private investigator Dad had hired. “Ms. Bennett, our investigation has uncovered something. The car crash you were in five years ago, during your pregnancy, wasn’t an accident. It was deliberate!”It was like a thunderbolt striking my head. My body swayed. Sheer willpower was the only thing keeping me upright. “Who… did it?” That crash had cost me my uterus and almost taken my only daughter. I had believed it was proof of Ethan’s love. He had been resuscitated over and over in intensive care, hanging by a thread after sacrificing himself to save me. “Our findings indicate that Mr. Carter personally arranged the accident.” I almost laughed. My numb heart felt as if it had been ripped open. The nightmare that had imprisoned me for five years had been created by the man sleeping beside me. What had he been thinking through all my bouts of depression and suicide attempts, every time I had struggled to stay alive by clinging to his love? I closed my eyes, grief stealing my voice. Dad had already gathered all the evidence for me. He had also found enough weaknesses in Carter Group to bankrupt it. He told me to wait. He would come for me soon. But I didn’t want to wait anymore. I called Chloe. “Do you really want to give up your son and let him call me his mother?” “Of course, Nancy. I—” I cut her off coldly. “I’ve couriered the divorce agreement to you. Whether you can get him to sign it is up to you.” “And stop acting like we’re close. It makes me sick.” That same evening, I received the divorce agreement with Ethan’s signature. Chloe dropped the act. She sounded smug on the phone. “What can I say, Nancy? Ethan fell in love with me the moment you brought me here.” “He took my virginity in his office while you were pregnant. He said I gave him more excitement and pleasure than he could count.” My stomach cramped. I fought back my nausea. “If he loves you so much, why has he still refused to make you Mrs. Carter, even after you had a miscarriage and then his child?” “I guess your great love isn’t worth much after all.” I hung up without waiting for her screams to end, then picked up my daughter. “Sophie, how about Mommy takes you to Grandpa’s house?” She obediently tightened her arms around my neck and nodded hard. But I never got the chance to leave. After packing our bags, I received a call from the hospital. “Hello, is this Ms. Nancy Bennett? Sophie Carter’s follow-up test results indicate that her fever was an early symptom of leukemia…” I could hardly believe my ears. I hurried to the hospital with my daughter, only for a group of bodyguards to rush out and snatch Sophie away! They pinned me to the floor. I watched helplessly as my crying daughter was carried off. “Nancy, I’m sorry, but Noah is only a year old. He’s still so little. Please save him!” Chloe nestled against Ethan’s chest, sobbing as if her heart were breaking. Ethan avoided my demanding gaze and said only: “There’s a problem with Noah’s kidneys. Sophie is the only match. Don’t worry. I’ve found the best surgeon…” I went limp on the floor, staring at him in disbelief. “So you’re going to make five-year-old Sophie give him a kidney? Ethan! She’s your own daughter!” He frowned impatiently. “I know! But Noah is my son too! It’s just one kidney. She won’t die!” I watched them inject my daughter with an anesthetic. No matter how much I begged on my knees, apologized, or screamed curses at them, nothing worked! I broke down and tried to block the gurney. Even when its wheels rolled over my fingers, I couldn’t stop it. Then another group of bodyguards burst in. One kicked the corrupt doctor aside, while another stomped on Ethan’s wrist hard enough to break it! Over Ethan’s terrified cry of pain, a commanding voice roared: “Let’s see who dares lay a hand on my daughter or granddaughter!”