CHAPTER THREE: SEVENTY-TWO HOURS
872 Words
Waiting is its own kind of torture.
The first day crawled like years. Meetings. Phone calls. Smiling at strangers. But my mind stayed frozen in that kindergarten, replaying every moment with Xingxing and Xiaobei.
I checked my phone constantly. No news yet.
By the second day, I was losing my mind.
I couldn't eat. Sleep came in fragments filled with nightmares. I dreamed of babies crying in the dark, reaching for me.
I woke up screaming their names.
Yebai stayed close. He made me drink water. Forced me to eat crackers when my stomach rejected everything else.
"You're going to make yourself sick," he said.
"I've been sick for five years. I just didn't know why."
On the third day, my phone rang.
I lunged for it so fast I knocked over a glass of water.
"Miss Chen? This is Dr. Wu from the lab. Your results are ready."
My heart stopped.
"Email them. Now."
The call ended. I stared at my phone. The email arrived.
I couldn't open it.
"Do you want me to look first?" Yebai asked gently.
I nodded.
He opened the email. His eyes scanned the document. Then he looked at me with tears in his eyes.
Yebai never cried.
"Wanwan," he said softly. "They're yours."
The world tilted.
He turned the phone toward me.
*Maternal DNA Match: 99.99%*
*Conclusion: Biological mother-child relationship confirmed.*
I read it three times.
My babies were alive.
Someone told me they were dead and stole them. I spent five years grieving children who were breathing and growing and asking for their mummy.
A sound escaped me. Something primal and broken.
Yebai held me while I sobbed. Five years of grief pouring out.
"They're alive," I gasped. "They're alive, they're alive—"
When the tears finally dried, something else emerged.
Rage.
Cold. Quiet. Absolute.
Someone stole my children.
Someone was going to pay.
"I need to know everything," I said. "Who was in that hospital. Who touched my babies. Who gave the orders."
Yebai nodded. "I'll hire investigators. The best."
"Start with the doctor. Dr. Han. He told me they died."
Within forty-eight hours, results came in.
The hospital records had been altered. Original files showed I delivered two healthy babies. The altered files showed stillborns.
Someone changed those records. Someone with money.
The paper trail led to one name.
Shen Yiran.
I searched my memory. The daughter of the Shen family. Close with the Lu family. I met her once or twice at events.
She looked at Jingchen like he was hers.
She looked at me like I was temporary.
Yebai pulled everything on her.
I am twenty-eight years old. Unmarried. Photographed with Jingchen at numerous events. Articles speculated about engagement.
"She paid the doctor to take your babies," Yebai summarized grimly. "Placed them in an orphanage. Then made sure Jingchen would find and adopt them."
"The cheating photos. She was behind those too?"
"Almost certainly."
My hands shook with rage.
This woman drugged me. Framed me. Stole my babies. Told me they were dead. Destroyed my marriage.
For a man who still hadn't married her after five years.
"Where is she now?"
"Here. In City A. She's been spending time at the Lu mansion. Acting like she already lives there."
Of course she did. Playing the long game. Remove the wife. Position herself as stepmother.
But she didn't count on me coming back.
"What about the doctor?"
"Disappeared four years ago. Living in a small countryside town. Working at a rural clinic."
"Guilt," I said. "He couldn't live with what he did."
"Guilty people talk."
"Then I need to talk to him."
Yebai arranged everything.
The next morning, I drove four hours to a forgotten town.
Dr. Han Guowei answered his shabby apartment door looking nothing like the man I remembered. Thin. Hollow-cheeked. Trembling hands. He smelled like cheap alcohol.
"You're her," he said. "The mother."
"You remember me."
"I remember you every single day."
"Good."
I pushed past him. The apartment was sad. Empty bottles everywhere.
"Tell me everything. Who paid you? What happened to my babies?"
He sank into a chair.
"I had gambling debts. Dangerous people threatened my family. She came with a solution."
"Shen Yiran."
He nodded.
"She said it would be simple. Tell you the babies died. Hand them over. Everyone wins."
"Everyone wins?" My voice was ice. "I almost killed myself from grief."
He flinched.
"Who else was involved? Did Lu Meifeng know?"
"I only dealt with Shen Yiran. But..." He hesitated. "The night your babies were born, someone else was watching. Behind the glass."
My blood ran cold. "Who?"
"Lu Meifeng. She saw everything. She watched those babies being taken and didn't blink."
Rage exploded through me.
She knew. Jingchen's mother watched my newborns being stolen.
"Will you testify? In court?"
Fear crossed his face. "She'll kill me."
"She'll kill you anyway once she knows I'm investigating. Testify. Help me put her away. And I'll protect you."
He stared at me for a long moment.
Then slowly, he walked to a locked cabinet and pulled out a thick folder.
"I kept everything. Insurance."
Inside were records, bank statements, audio recordings.
"I recorded our conversations. She didn't know."
I smiled grimly.
"This changes everything."
- Writer
