A Life Left Behind

As expected, the day they got home, their secret son met with misfortune.

In the dead of night, a child's cries woke me. I opened my eyes to find Derick absent from our bedroom.

I called for the maid to bring my child, and seeing him sleeping peacefully, I headed to Jasmine's room.

It was a scene straight from the hospital.

In Jasmine's room, a lone baby wailed.

The infant's intermittent cries were feeble and strained, his flushed face a clear sign of a fever brought on by the cold.

Frowning, I left the room to search for Derick and Jasmine.

At last, near the dimly lit tool room on the ground floor, I heard their excited, heavy breaths.

I sneered to myself and went back to my bedroom.

10 minutes later, feigning surprise at being woken by the cries, I encountered them as they returned to the third-floor bedroom.

They jumped at the sight of me.

Derick glanced at me, his eyes betraying his guilt. "Darling, you're awake? I was just about to mix the formula for our son. I bumped into Jasmine in the kitchen; she was making formula for her son, too."

'What a liar,' I thought, suppressing a smirk.

"Hold off on the baby formula for a second, Jasmine. Your kid's wailing like something's seriously wrong. Shouldn't we get him checked out at the hospital?"

Jasmine, clearly annoyed, rolled her eyes. "He's fine, just a little cold and feverish. No big deal. No hospital needed."

I raised an eyebrow. "'Just a little cold'? He's crying so hard he can barely breathe."

"It's such a pain to go to the hospital in the dead of night! Imagine the noise, waking up Nathaniel–Ayden, then what?"

Derick chimed in, nodding. "Yeah, honey. Don't fret. Take care of our little one. I'll take Jasmine's boy to the hospital first thing in the morning."

I could not help but snort with a mix of laughter and frustration.

Just then, the maid came running over, clutching my child. "Ms. White, Ayden seems to have caught a cold."

My heart skipped a beat. He must have gotten chilled in Jasmine's room before I had the chance to switch them.

Jasmine was just as panicked.

She lunged to grab my child, but I smacked her hand away hard.

Cradling my child close, I could feel the heat radiating from his small body.

Jasmine pulled back her stinging hand, too worried to dwell on the pain, and yelled at me, "Lily! What are you waiting for? Get him to the hospital, now!"

Derick's concern grew as he steadied me by the shoulder. "Come on! I'll drive you to the best hospital!"

"Don't you dare touch my child or me!"

My sharp words made him flinch, but he quickly brushed off my resistance as just a case of postpartum stress and offered a conciliatory grin.

"Right. The White family has its own private hospital for families only. It's got the top medical care in town. Ayden will be just fine! Let's go, I'll take you both."

"No, we'll manage on our own."

I could not possibly hand over my child's second chance at life to the man standing before me, a man I could not trust.

"Have my guys drive me. You take Jasmine's kid," I told him.

With that, I was off to our family's private hospital.

A little bit of care was all it took, and my kid was over the fever without a hitch.

Jasmine's kid, though, was not so lucky.

Because she was not paying attention, by the time her baby got to the public hospital, he was already in respiratory failure and rushed into the NICU.

I figured Derick and Jasmine would be glued to his side.

Nope. There they were, waiting anxiously as I stepped out with my child in my arms.

"I heard Ayden's got a heart problem! Is he okay?" Jasmine was on the verge of tears.

"Yeah, Lily! How's Ayden? Any lasting damage? You've got to make sure he gets better!"

I frowned. Could not help it.

"Jasmine, isn't your baby in the ICU? How could you just leave him all alone in the hospital?"

She looked guilty but defensive altogether.

"He'll be fine. The hospital's full of doctors and nurses. What good would I do there?

"And besides, I care about Ayden almost as much as my own son. I'm worried about him, too."

I could not help but scoff at that. Right on cue, Derick's phone rang. It was the hospital.

Jasmine's baby had a sudden respiratory crisis, and with no one there to sign off on emergency surgery, he did not make it.

I was taken aback.

Even though in a previous life he turned out to be a thankless wretch, the news of his death still hit me with a wave of mixed emotions.

Jasmine heard the devastating news without so much as a flinch of shock or a trace of sorrow.

"Quick! Let me make sure baby Ayden is really okay!"

She seized the moment I was caught off guard and snatched my child from me.

I reacted with a jolt and wrestled my baby back into my arms.

In the tussle, the baby's pants slipped down, revealing his chubby, bare legs.

Jasmine's face drained of color, and she let out a piercing scream.

Derick, who had just ended a call, looked at her with a furrowed brow, puzzled.

"What happened?"

Jasmine's gaze was locked onto the baby, then snugly rewrapped in my arms, her voice shaking. "Why doesn't Ayden have a birthmark on his legs?"