The Girl We Sponsored Said She Was Pregnant by My Husband,But He Was Infertile

1: 1

On the day of our tenth wedding anniversary, my husband's sponsored student knelt in front of me with a newborn baby in her arms, sobbing until her whole face was wet, begging me to adopt the child.

I pitied the baby, and I thought of how my husband would have no one to carry on after him, so I agreed to adopt Rose Fox's child.

I poured everything I had into that boy, raised him like my own son, and pushed him up until he sat in the CEO's chair.

But on the second day after he took over my company, he locked me in the basement and tortured me every way he could.

I watched them take over my stocks, my funds, my villas and luxury cars. I watched Rose Fox play the doting couple with Phil Floyd in front of me every single day. I watched them come and go from the finest galas.

And I was chained to a pillar in that basement, fed scraps a dog wouldn't touch, left there for them to mock and humiliate.

In the end, in pure despair, I threw myself headfirst into the pillar. Blood poured out, and Rose Fox just looked at me, sneering.

"Sister, no matter how capable you were, in the end you only sewed the wedding gown for me."

"Be smarter in your next life. Don't play my stepping stone like a fool again. Watching how stupid you are, even I can't quite bear it."

And my husband, more lofty than ever, looked down at me, cold.

"Christina Gilbert, if it weren't for your filthy money, would I have made Leslie call you 'Mom' for twenty years? Would I have kept Rose and her son apart for twenty years? Some debts have to be paid with a life."

When I opened my eyes again, Phil Floyd was fawning over me, massaging my calf.

"Christina, look, we've been married almost ten years now. If we still have no child, everything we've built our whole lives will have no one to inherit it. Why don't we adopt one?"

I pressed down the throbbing pain of the impact, and slowly the corner of my mouth curved into a faint smile.

"All right. The Floyd Group does need an heir."

This life, I would never again go running all over for famous doctors. I would never again secretly cook him medicinal broths to fix his body.

Let me see just how this congenitally sterile man plans to produce an illegitimate son.

Phil Floyd froze for a moment. He hadn't expected me to agree so readily this time.

"Christina, you're saying yes? You're really willing to adopt someone else's child?"

I looked at him with a sneer. "Phil, I said I need an heir. That doesn't mean I'm willing to adopt some wild child. I won't hand the Gilbert Group into the hands of someone with base blood."

Phil's face turned ugly. He shot up to his feet and stared at me hard, and after a long moment his tone softened as he began his coaxing.

"Christina, I'm doing this for our future too. When we're old, we'll need someone to lean on, someone to care for us at our bedside. Do you really want the empire we spent our whole lives building to be carved up and eyed by outsiders?"

"Think about it. With a child, our life would be livelier too. You can't just keep thinking about making money"

I fought down the fury in my eyes, fixed a cold gaze on him, and let out a short, scornful laugh.

"Is that so? If outsiders carve it up, at least I'd die knowing why. What I'm afraid of is adopting a wolf cub and dying without ever knowing how it happened."

Phil Floyd, you still want to scheme against me the way you did last life, make me build the empire for you. Give it up.

This life, your bastard is fit only to hide in the dark, and worthless scum like you belong in hell.

Phil Floyd stood rooted to the spot, studying me in shock.

"Christina, you... what are you saying? We'd raise him as our own son. How could a child turn out that heartless?"

"If the parents who adopt the child are heartless, shameless, and low, what good blood could that child possibly have?"

"The Gilbert Group is my life's work. I poured every asset of the Gilbert family into it. There's no way I'll rashly hand it to an adopted child."

I held back the fury churning inside me and watched Phil Floyd with cold eyes.

Impatience and irritation flickered across his face.

"Christina, you can't be this selfish. You know how many times Mom and my uncle have pushed me about this."

"And those old holdouts at the company, every one of them eyeing the CEO's chair. With no heir, do you know how much pressure I'm under?"

"If a single child is all it takes for you to buckle under their pressure, then step down as CEO."

Phil flew into a rage, shamed and furious. "I tolerate you because I love you. Can't you consider me for once"

I couldn't be bothered to waste another word on an animal. I stood and walked toward the bedroom, and as the door clicked shut behind me I sank down onto the floor, clutching my chest, breathing hard.

I was back. I had truly been reborn.

No revolting spoiled leftovers, no heavy chains, no rows of festering scars up my arms. My skin was clean and smooth again.

My hair wasn't white, my body not withered to a husk.

After a long while, I steadied myself, slowly pulled myself up against the door, took out my phone, and made a call.

"Detective Lambert. I need you to lock onto someone. I want to know everything about her."

"Ms. Gilbert, don't worry. We'll keep her under close surveillance. Not the smallest detail will slip through."

2: 2

The next morning Phil kissed my cheek as tenderly as ever, as if the night before had never happened.

He smiled and blew on my breakfast to cool it, talking about the formal merger of the Gilbert and Floyd Groups.

As if last night had only been a small interruption, and because he loved me and respected my decision, that interruption would never come up again.

I had no interest in fighting him over a child anymore either.

I had plenty of things to do. I had to win back my Gilbert clients, find Phil's weak spot, and drive him out of Gilbert Group.

Watching me run myself ragged day after day, Phil held me close, aching with concern.

"Sweetheart, your husband's got all of it handled. Just focus on getting your health back. Don't work yourself so hard."

I only smiled coldly and saved the video stills Detective Lambert had sent into a cloud file.

What a pair of star-crossed lovers. Sneaking off out of town to meet, sneaking a rendezvous once every two weeks.

Phil even had to rack his brain for excuses not to come home.

The two of them clung together like they couldn't bear to part, Rose practically melting into him in the footage.

To think I'd once drowned in Phil's sweet talk, convinced he was the best husband a woman could have.

In the blink of an eye it was our tenth wedding anniversary. That day, half the wealthy families in New York gathered at Summit Ridge Estate.

Glasses clinking, silk and perfume everywhere.

In a custom gown, my arm through Phil's, I moved through the crowd, listening to their congratulations.

"Ms. Gilbert, Mr. Floyd, what a perfect match. Made for each other."

"Exactly. With Gilbert and Floyd joined, no one in New York can touch you now. Ms. Gilbert, you'll have to leave the rest of us a little something."

I smiled graciously, and I watched Phil hold his own smile in place while his eyes kept drifting to the entrance.

One second, two, three.

The instant his phone chimed, the doors burst open. A thin figure rushed into the hall clutching a baby, and Rose dropped to her knees in front of me with a thud.

"Christina, I really have nowhere left to turn."

"The baby's father abandoned me. I'm just a poor student with no one to lean on. I can't keep this little life alive."

She stroked the baby in her arms, her eyes rimmed red as she looked up at me, pleading.

"Christina, all these years you and Phil kept me in school. You're the greatest benefactors I have, and I can never repay you. If the two of you would be willing to adopt this child, I'd be grateful for the rest of my life."

And with that, still holding the baby, she actually started kowtowing to me, forehead thudding against the floor.

In my past life, seeing her so pitiful, and with Phil pressing me, I'd adopted the child on the spot.

Every eye in the room turned to me, and the whispering started, all of it the same. I'd gone childless for years. This baby suited me nicely.

I stumbled back at once, feigning shock and fury, glaring at her, then swung my hand and slapped her hard across the face.

"Rose Fox, what did you just say? You had a baby back in your junior year?"

"I raised you like a little sister. I wanted you to make something of yourself. How did you end up with some bastard child? You've disappointed me beyond words."

Then I let my eyes redden with grief and lifted a hand to point at her.

"Rose Fox, you swore up and down you'd study hard, that you'd repay me. Is this the kind of hard work you were doing in bed?"

Rose went white and froze where she knelt.

Five years I'd sponsored her, and out of respect for a young girl's face and pride I'd never once spoken a harsh word. I'd comforted her, encouraged her, coddled her. I never imagined my soft heart had been raising a viper.

And since she was a viper, of course I'd pin her by the throat and strike.

I turned to Phil then, hurt and furious.

"Phil, we poured everything into putting her through school, and instead of bettering herself she goes and produces an illegitimate child. Tell me, are these the kind of genes we should be adopting?"

The clients and friends around us looked at Rose with open contempt.

"Shameless, truly. Barely old enough to feed herself and she's already off having a love affair, and a baby out of it. Ms. Gilbert supported her, and now she wants Ms. Gilbert to raise her child too? The gall of her."

"Right, and picking Ms. Gilbert's wedding anniversary, a day of celebration, to pull this in front of all these people. Is that gratitude, or is she just here to sour the occasion?"

"Ms. Gilbert supports her and it's still not enough. Now she wants her to raise the kid. She's clearly decided Ms. Gilbert's an easy mark."

Rose flushed crimson, tears brimming as she looked to Phil.

Phil's face shifted through a tangle of expressions. The hand he'd started to reach out drew back, and he strained to smooth it over.

"Christina, the child is innocent. Things have already come to this. Rose is young, she doesn't know any better."

He nudged me toward the baby, his voice rising with feeling. "Just look at him first. See how clever he is, his little eyes darting all around."

"We've been childless all these years, and the moment we talked about adopting, Rose happens to have this baby. That's fate. Take him in. Think of it as a good deed."

3: 3

I looked down at the baby in its wrappings, and a chill crawled through me.

In my last life, this boy had dragged me by the hair and shoved my face into a dog bowl to lick up spoiled leftovers. To win favor with his real mother, he'd taken a whip to me until I was crawling across the floor.

Not a shred of memory left in him of the way I'd loved him, of twenty years raising him like my own.

I gave a cold laugh and knocked Phil's arm off my waist.

"Smart? Show me a baby whose eyes don't move. The ones that don't are dead."

"Phil, I'm not adopting him. I won't raise the child of a cheap, loose woman."

Two plain sentences, and Rose Fox froze on the spot, the tears stalling in her eyes.

The tender smile on Phil's face went stiff too.

He'd been so sure of it. I was always the soft one, always giving in to him on everything. They'd put on such a convincing show today, and instead I'd cut them off flat.

After a moment of shock.

The tears started rolling down Rose's cheeks again, and the performance began.

"Sister, I wasn't seeing anyone. I was forced. I was just too scared of upsetting you to tell you."

Then, weeping harder, she turned her eyes to the baby in her arms.

"I meant to end it. But the doctor said my uterine wall was too thin, that forcing an abortion would leave me unable to have children ever again, and could even cost me my life. I really had no other choice."

She wept, frail and pitiful, and for the sake of dumping the child on me she'd thrown herself into the part, tears as cheap and endless as tap water.

In my last life, this was exactly how she'd worn me down, how her crying had softened my heart until I agreed to take the child and walked straight into their trap. My mother-in-law couldn't hold back any longer. She rushed over, snatched the baby up, and patted him with an aching tenderness.

"Oh, my precious grandson. You poor little thing."

"Christina, what gives you the right to be so willful? Your own belly's the one that failed. Who else is there to blame? Rose is grateful enough to give you her own child as a son, and here you are, never satisfied."

"What's so wrong with adopting a child? It's a good deed, a blessing earned. Maybe once you do, you'll finally carry your own flesh and blood. Don't go cutting off your own good fortune."

The uncle-in-law stepped forward too, his face dark.

"A person ought to do some good in this world. Your Gilbert line runs thin on heirs. You'd do well to ask yourself why."

"One little child, how much can it cost? Raise him and call it charity. Why be so hard, so cornering? Rose has always been such a sweet, obedient girl. Maybe she really was forced."

Every head in the room swung toward Rose Fox in her worn cotton dress, the picture of misery.

The Floyd relatives read the look on my mother-in-law's face, rose from their seats, and fell in one after another.

"Yes, poor girl. It was kindness that made her keep a little life."

"Christina, your second uncle's only saying this for your good. A person has to have a kind heart, or the good fortune won't stay. Raising a child is always a happy thing. It'll bring some warmth and life into the house."

Every last relative was accusing me of being cold, of being cursed with no luck, all of them dead set on forcing me to adopt Rose Fox's child.

No one asked whether I was willing.

Phil stood among them, watching me get squeezed under the weight of it all, letting every accusation land without a word, waiting for me to bow my head and give in.

He was certain that, like last time, I couldn't hold out against all the coaxing and the pressure, that in the end I'd fall in line and take the child.

My mother-in-law patted the baby, her face still furious, waiting for me to soften and cave.

Seeing that I wouldn't budge, she turned and announced it loudly.

"I've decided. I'll adopt this child for Phil myself, and there's nothing anyone can say about it."

Then she cut me a sidelong glance.

Everyone crowded around to congratulate her, praising how bright and lovely the baby was.

Phil rushed to help Rose Fox up, and the two of them met each other's eyes, both brimming with delight.

Calmly I picked up my water, listening to those familiar words, and took a slow sip to press down the fury churning inside me.

This life, if they thought they could bring an illegitimate child to my face and force me to take him, they'd have to lose a layer of skin first.

I stepped forward too, ran my finger lightly across the baby's soft cheek, and gave my gentlest smile.

"Mom, Uncle, you're right. Since you all say it's a good deed, a blessing earned"

"Then I'll adopt this child!"

The whole room went silent in an instant.

Rose Fox's head snapped up, the wild joy beneath her wet lashes almost impossible to hide.

The tension drained from Phil's face too, a smug little smile settling in his eyes.

My mother-in-law's anger flipped to delight in a heartbeat, gloating as though she'd won some great war.

"Christina, now you're being sensible. Since you can't have your own, another person's child raised as your own is just the same."

I nodded and went on, calm as ever.

"Since it's my Floyd family taking in a child, we can't do it in some careless fashion."

"We'll choose a good day and throw a grand one-month celebration. I'll invite every relative, every friend, every distinguished guest from our business circles. And there, I'll formally name him the sole heir of the Gilbert Group."

The room broke into a roar of praise, the whole hall bright with celebration.

My mother-in-law was already calling for the butler, telling him to set up the nursery at once, ordering the housekeeper to find a postpartum nurse

The living room dissolved into happy chaos, and no one could see it the strange little smile lingering deep in my eyes.

4: 4

I set the date for June eighth, the day I had handed the company over to Leslie Floyd in my past life.

On this day, I would let the whole city witness their "moment of glory and triumph" all over again.

On this day, the entire city buzzed, because Phil Floyd had booked twenty-eight helicopters just to rain flower petals from the sky.

Banners of congratulations and blessings hung all over the hotel.

Business associates and neighbors, relatives and elders, even our mutual friends and old classmates, all of them showed up.

Everyone praised my mother-in-law's kindness for taking in the orphan of a poor girl, and praised my good fortune, saying I'd have an heir to carry on the line.

Inside the banquet hall the flattery never stopped, and every face was flushed with joy.

My mother-in-law wore a dark red qipao, cradling her precious grandson as she drifted among the guests, showing him off without pause.

"Look, this is the eldest grandson of my Floyd family. Isn't he handsome? The spitting image of Phil when he was little."

The guests chimed in with their compliments.

"Absolutely. This child has a full brow and rounded ears, truly the image of Mr. Floyd. When he grows up he'll be a dragon among men, just like his father."

"Mrs. Floyd, you're truly blessed. This child will bring honor to your ancestors and make the Floyd family even greater."

Phil Floyd went further still, openly leading Rose Fox through the crowd, introducing her to everyone and accepting their congratulations.

They thought they had me completely under control now, so they'd stopped bothering to hide anything, acknowledging the child's identity out in the open.

Rose Fox had taken care to dress up today too, her makeup delicate, her clothes tasteful, and around her neck hung a hundred-thousand-dollar new-model Burberry diamond necklace.

She looked every inch a lady of means now, with none of the pitiful misery she'd worn just days ago.

Everyone praised her too, congratulating her on her good luck, on meeting a benefactor.

She only lowered her eyes meekly, gazing tenderly at Phil Floyd.

"It's all thanks to Phil's kind heart. I kept the child to repay his kindness, and now he has an heir to carry on his name too."

And once again everyone praised her for repaying kindness, having completely forgotten how she'd slept around and given birth to an illegitimate child in her junior year.

I only watched, calm, this lavish feast just before its collapse.

Soon the auspicious hour arrived, and the emcee's voice swelled to work up the room.

"May I now invite Mrs. Floyd to the stage, to recognize the child before all present and announce the family's new heir."

To thunderous applause, I walked up in a long gown, unhurried, and took the microphone from the emcee's hand.

"Since Mr. Floyd and I have agreed to formally accept Rose Fox's child, we'll raise him as our own, and the paperwork is naturally a necessary step."

As I spoke I picked up the adoption agreement and the company asset transfer agreement in my hands.

"Once the adoption is formal, I've decided to transfer thirty percent of the company's shares to this child, so that he becomes the rightful heir of the Gilbert Group."

Applause rose again. The light in Rose Fox's eyes blazed, wild joy she couldn't suppress, and Phil Floyd was so worked up his face went crimson, his tightly clenched fists giving away his elation.

I let out a soft, mocking laugh, paused for a moment, then turned the words another way.

"As the heir to the Gilbert Group's ten-billion-dollar fortune, he must of course be protected. To prevent any messy disputes down the road, I now invite Rose Fox to sign an abandonment agreement."

Rose Fox looked at me with hesitation, but the moment her eyes fell on the share transfer agreement, she lifted her head and strode gracefully onto the stage, composed.

There was nothing left of her old humility and timidity now. She was certain she had won.

It was only an abandonment agreement. Once the child took over the Gilbert Group and got hold of my assets, he'd naturally acknowledge her as his birth mother.

She stood at center stage and gave a slight bow, her tone generous and at ease.

"Thank you, Mr. Floyd, for supporting me all these years. Christina is magnanimous and loving. With the child in her hands, I trust she'll treat him as her own and raise him into an outstanding heir."

And with that she crisply picked up the pen and signed the three characters of her name across the agreement.

I gave a light laugh, watching Rose Fox at center stage, still not forgetting to guilt-trip me even now.

When her stirring little speech was done, I stepped forward again, took up the microphone, and spoke slowly.

"Since we're adopting an heir and removing the child from his original family, the child's biological father has to sign an abandonment agreement too."

"Now, may I invite the child's biological father to the stage."

One sentence, and thunder split the clear sky.

Every gaze followed mine to the door, and whispers broke out.

"Didn't they say the child's father forced himself on her? How does he dare show up?"

Rose Fox went rigid all over, the smile on her face cracking apart inch by inch.

A thin young man walked toward the ceremony platform, step by step, and then Rose Fox burst out in a scream of terror.

"Wyatt James, who told you to come? Get out, now."

I walked forward, unmoved, leaned close to her ear, and spoke with a cold laugh.

"I did, of course. He is the child's biological father, after all. This abandonment paperwork does need his signature."