Chapter 348 Later On, I Got Pregnant
As night fell, only a small lamp on the desk was turned on in the room. The light was very dim, as if it was in response to the atmosphere of this meeting, fading in and out of the distant past.
Fiona put the photo album on the coffee table and pointed to Courtney a black-and-white photo on the first page.
In the photo, a young man and woman were standing side by side. In front of the man was a child that was not even as tall as his knees, and the woman was holding a baby girl in her arms. The baby girl looked as if she had just turned a-month old—she looked almost newly born.
“I was abandoned by my parents as soon as I was born. At that time, Alexander’s grandfather and grandmother coincidentally went up the mountain to pray and ended up rescuing me at the entrance of the mountain. After that day, I became the Second Young Lady of the Duncan family and Jeffrey’s younger sister. That year, Jeffrey had just turned one year old, which means he was one year older than me.”
Scott looked dashing back then—he was also very compatible with his wife. The only regret was that the two never had children, especially since his wife was older than him. Eventually, they finally got a son. The couple was so happy that they went to the mountain to offer a prayer to thank the heavens, but little did they know that they would end up saving a baby on the way there.
They were both precious to the couple; they named them Jeffrey and Fiona Duncan respectively.
“I didn’t know I wasn’t a child of the Duncan family until I was 17, and no one in the family ever told me.”
Looking at the photos of the two growing up page-by-page, Courtney was surprised.
“I’m sure it’s only because they couldn’t tell, Fiona. You and Mr. Duncan looked so much alike.”
When she saw the photo, Fiona’s cold face looked like it had regained some life, and her pale fingertips gently rubbed against the corner of the photo, as if she were trying to touch the past.
No one really knew if it was because they grew up together and were raised in the same family, but though they weren’t brother and sister, Fiona and Jeffrey looked very much alike—so much so that after they had turned five, people would often ask if they were twins since they looked so alike.
Scott and his wife only regarded this as a kind of fate and never explained anything to outsiders. So, until Fiona was almost an adult, she never found out about her history.
At the time, she was like a child who grew up far from any troubles and hardships. Her days were spent with much love and kindness, which was exactly the reason why she wasn’t prepared for the cold harshness of the real world. Subsequently, she fell in love while she was in college, and it was as if the love and kindness that she had always felt was multiplied manyfold; those times were the happiest moments of her life.
She was spoiled by her parents at home; she had her elder brother taking care of her outside; and she had a lover who filled her days with surprises.
“When I was young at that time, I always thought that no one in this world would lie to me. I felt that what I had with him was love, so I gave my everything. He also said that we would get married as soon as we graduated. I really believed him, and I was never afraid that he would go back on his words…”
Speaking of this, Fiona seemed to remember something painful, and her face became even paler.
“Later on, I got pregnant.”
When she heard this sentence, Courtney’s expression froze, and her face was full of astonishment.
“And that child is…”
Fiona looked at her and nodded solemnly.
She had tasted the forbidden fruit for the first time and gotten pregnant unexpectedly. When faced with such an insurmountable mountain of pressure, even if she believed that her man would definitely marry her, she was still anxious and terrified.
So, at that time, Fiona told her brother, Jeffrey, about this.
Jeffrey, who had always treated others like a modest gentleman, actually hit Felipe. The two of them scuffled together, and finally Fiona stopped them by standing in front of Felipe in tears.
Jeffrey immediately dragged her out of the school and told her all about Felipe on the way home. That man was a total liar, and definitely not a graduate student at the school at all. He was just a hooligan who came to hook up with female college students in the name of taking classes.
And the reason why he even chose Fiona in the first place was because he had long known about her identity. In order to be with her, he even broke up with his pregnant fiancée, forcing her to have an abortion.
“Jeffrey had just come back from an exchange abroad at that time. It took some time for him to check Felipe’s background, and when he wanted to tell me, the mistake had already been made.”
On the way home, Jeffrey gave her two solutions to this matter.
The first way was to have an abortion. He would find a way to hide it from his family, get rid of the scumbag, and let her live in the house he rented outside until the whole thing blew over.
“I refused. The silly and naive me still thought Felipe was a good person at that time. I believed that even though he was wrong in the past, he was at least sincere to me. Jeffrey couldn’t do anything about me, so he personally set up a test. If Felipe could pass his test, everything would be fine. He would let everything go, and even plead on our behalf to our parents.”
Jeffrey told Felipe that Fiona was only an adopted daughter of the Duncan family, and she would not be able to get a penny of the family’s fortune in the future, but when they did get married in the future, the family would subsidize their living so that he could treat her well.
As Fiona spoke of this, Courtney saw a self-deprecating smile on her face. It was extremely ironic.
“I thought it was nothing at all at that time, and that he would definitely not mind it. I waited for him with joy. All the while, I waited for him to come home with me to meet my parents. To my dismay, three months later, he had disappeared off the surface of Earth.”
However, three months later, Fiona had received news that Felipe hooked up with the dean’s daughter, and the two went abroad together.
At that time, Fiona was already four months pregnant. Since the pregnancy had stabilized, it was impossible for her to think about an abortion. But she was so heartbroken that she didn’t want to have this child anymore, and she tried her best to get rid of it.
“I went to the hospital, but the hospital said they would not perform the surgery on me if no one would sign the documents for me. Soon after that, I went to a smaller clinic, but Jeffrey broke in and almost tore the entire place down. I told him that my life was over, and that pregnancy out of wedlock was a sin fit to be burned at the cross.”
Fiona lowered her head, her voice dull. “But Jeffrey hugged me and said that he would marry me. Only then did I know that what Jeffrey said to Felipe was not entirely false.”
She was the adopted daughter of the Duncan family and had no blood relationship with Jeffrey.
Jeffrey took her hand and brought her home that night; he kneeled in front of their parents and told them that he was going to marry her.
Their parents were baffled. After all, they had raised this pair of children for nearly 20 years, and now, they said that they wanted to get married—how did any of this make any sense?
“Dad obviously disagreed. He wouldn’t agree no matter what. He lost his temper and was dragged into the bedroom by my mother. I didn’t answer anything when they asked, and did nothing but cry because it was all too embarrassing.”
Fiona’s voice was almost floating in the drowsy room, like a dubbing from an old movie. “Jeffrey said that I was pregnant with his child, and that he had loved me for many years…”
Scott was in the army. He only returned home to inherit the family’s hotel business after changing his career. He still retained the majestic aura from when he was in the military, and he couldn’t accept the words of his son back then. He was so angry that he whipped Jeffrey with a cane the entire night.
Jeffrey was in bed for a month, and a month later, the two got their marriage certificate and hurriedly held the wedding.
“In order to avoid other people’s gossiping, Jeffrey brought me to travel the world for a full year and a half before coming back. We only told the outside world that the child could grow better when I was well-nourished.”
Courtney clenched her fists, unable to imagine the story behind it.
