While I Was in Labor, He Cheated

Chapter 5

What Ivy was holding was the cat-paw urn.

Evelyn's pupils shrank as she screamed and lunged forward. "Give it back to me!"

Daniel grabbed her arm, his voice cold and hard.

"Why did you cremate Ella without waiting for me? And why did you divide his ashes and put them in some distant temple? What were you thinking?"

Evelyn trembled all over. "He was my child. Don't I have the right to handle his funeral arrangements?"

Daniel raised his voice. "Your child? You married into the Vaughn family to continue our bloodline. That child carried the Vaughn surname."

"You were nothing more than the one who gave birth to him. Of course you don't have the right to decide his funeral on your own."

Evelyn felt as if she had been struck by lightning. She could not believe such cold words had come from him.

She remembered how, after the baby first began to move, he would always speak softly to the little life in her belly.

"Baby, your name will be Ella. Daddy loves Mommy, and your name carries both our surnames. You're the proof of our love."

Back then, the tenderness and anticipation in his eyes had almost melted her.

Yet now he was saying she was nothing but a childbearing vessel.

She forced herself out of the memory and lunged for the urn again.

"Promise you won't appeal again, and I'll give it back," Daniel said, gripping her tightly.

"I will appeal. I'll make sure he rots in prison forever," Evelyn said through clenched teeth.

Impatience appeared between Daniel's brows. He glanced at Ivy.

Receiving the signal, Ivy curled her lips into a cold smile. She opened the urn and pinched the tiny gold lock between her fingers with obvious disgust.

Grayish ash clung to the surface. Her hand shook slightly, and the ashes began drifting down.

"No… don't!" Evelyn cried as she rushed forward, but the pain from the wound on her abdomen made her unable to move.

Daniel held her firmly in place.

"Stop the appeal," he said calmly. "Richard promised me he won't bother you again. Just treat the past like being bitten by a dog and forget it."

"Forget it?" Evelyn almost exploded with anger. Those faces that had tormented her day and night, how could she simply forget them?

Through gritted teeth she roared, "You're working together with them? Daniel, do you even have a heart? I will never agree!"

"Then don't blame me, Evelyn," Ivy said lightly.

With a smile, she hung the small gold lock onto the collar of her newly adopted pet dog.

The gold charm swayed on the dog's neck, the words "Ella" painfully visible.

Daniel had once chosen that longevity lock with her carefully. Now it was casually hanging around a dog's neck.

It was humiliation, not only toward Ella, but toward her.

Yet Daniel, the child's father, watched everything with cold eyes, without the slightest reaction.

To protect himself and protect Ivy's father, he could even use the child's last belonging as a bargaining chip.

An overwhelming sense of powerlessness flooded her. Suddenly everything seemed meaningless.

Evelyn stopped struggling. She wiped away her tears and spoke hoarsely.

"Fine. I'll give up. Give my child back to me."

Seeing her so utterly hopeless for the first time, Daniel's heart trembled. A trace of guilt flickered in his eyes.

He said quietly to Ivy, "Give it back."

Ivy walked over with the urn. But just as Evelyn was about to catch it, she loosened her grip.

The urn shattered.

Those four grams of weightless ashes floated into the air like a wisp of smoke.

They settled on the ground like the most ordinary dust.

Evelyn screamed and rushed forward, trying to gather the ashes in her hands.

But Ivy's dog suddenly darted over and eagerly began licking the ashes on the floor.

In an instant, nothing was left.

"Ella!" Evelyn screamed in agony.

Pain finally flashed across Daniel's eyes as he stepped forward, intending to help her up.

But Evelyn suddenly stood and walked toward Ivy step by step.

"What are you doing?" Daniel withdrew his hand and protectively pulled Ivy behind him. "She didn't do it on purpose. If you're angry, take it out on me. Don't hurt her."

Evelyn stopped and looked at him with a bitter smile.

"Do you know how much Ella weighed when he was born?"

Daniel shook his head in confusion.

"Three thousand five hundred grams."

Then she asked again, "Do you know how much was left after cremation?"

Daniel clenched his fists. Pain crept across his face.

Evelyn murmured softly, "Four grams."

"There were no other ashes. That was all of Ella."

Daniel froze completely.

He staggered toward the dog and tried to pull something out of its mouth, but there was nothing left.

Evelyn forced a smile that looked worse than crying. Her eyes were utterly lifeless.

"What anger could I possibly have?"

Her voice was soft, but it carried a bone-deep chill.

"I only want her to be buried with my child."

She pulled a dagger from her pocket and stabbed toward Ivy.