He Ruined Our Family, I Built a New One

Chapter 2

The next morning, Shawn offered to drive Yvonne to school for a change, something he almost never did.

Yvonne was over the moon at this unexpected attention. Her small hand clutched tightly to her schoolbag strap, and she looked up at him with bright, sparkling eyes.

"Okay, Daddy."

But as soon as the car pulled up to the front entrance, Shawn gave his daughter an order.

"Go open the door for Auntie Julia."

Julia was standing right beside them, smiling with a gentle, harmless look.

Yvonne obediently pulled the door open for her. Just as she was about to close it, Julia suddenly wrenched it shut. The heavy car door slammed down, catching Yvonne's slender fingers between it.

"Ahh!" Yvonne screamed in pain.

At the same time, Julia let go of the handle, clutching her stomach, her eyes brimming with tears.

"Shawn, how can this child be so malicious? I hadn't even sat down yet, and she deliberately shut the door on me to scare me. Even my baby is so frightened it's kicking me in the womb…"

Shawn hurried over to check on her, his gaze showing unconcealed worry.

After confirming she was unharmed, he finally turned to look at Yvonne, his eyes suddenly turning ice-cold.

"Yvonne, apologize to Auntie Julia."

Yvonne held up her swollen, bleeding finger, and large tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Daddy, she did it on purpose…"

"Apologize!" Shawn's voice carried not a shred of warmth. "She is pregnant, yet you still scared her. You deserve this punishment."

Hearing Yvonne crying, I rushed out immediately. Yvonne was trembling so hard with fear she didn't even dare cry out in pain anymore, and she clutched my skirt tightly with her small hand.

"Mommy, I didn't hurt Auntie Julia. She shut the door on my hand and hurt me…"

Julia looked at me with a provocative, smug expression, but her voice was soft and weak when she spoke.

"What nonsense are you talking about? Why would I hold a grudge against a little kid like her? I think your mother put these words in her mouth, didn't she?"

My heart breaking for her, I pulled Yvonne close to shield her, then looked at Shawn.

"Shawn, can't you see how badly Yvonne's hand is injured? I'm taking her to the hospital right now!"

"You are not going anywhere until you apologize," Shawn sneered. "Since you're so determined to protect her, then you apologize for her."

I stared at him, stunned he could actually say such a thing.

"You refuse to apologize, do you?" Shawn's eyes turned venomous. "Then you both will stand right here. You can only leave when you finally agree to apologize."

He wrapped his arm around Julia and got in the car.

Julia turned back to me and flashed a victorious smile.

The car sped away.

I held back my tears and hurried to take Yvonne to the hospital, only to be blocked by a group of security guards.

"Madam, Mr. Quinn said we can only let you leave after we record a video of you apologizing on your knees."

Furious, I took Yvonne home and gave her emergency first aid for her wound.

Tears rolled down my face uncontrollably; my chest ached so sharply I could barely breathe.

I thought back to when Shawn was courting me.

He would have moved heaven and earth to win me over. He even waited outside my research institute a whole night just to bring me breakfast.

To give me complete peace of mind, he even drew up a prenuptial agreement—As long as I was unhappy in the marriage, I could get a divorce on my own after five years, half of his property would go to me, and we would both be free to remarry without interfering with each other.

I was so happy and content, but everything changed the moment Yvonne was born.

He slammed what he called "evidence" in front of me, saying that Yvonne's time of birth was three minutes and twenty-one seconds off from the conception date he had calculated.

He said our daughter was a bastard.

From then on, he treated me with cold violence and brought one kept mistress after another home.

All my frantic crying and pleading, he turned a blind eye to every last bit of it.

But even before this, he would never bully Yvonne for another woman, let alone let anyone touch her mother.

Now, Yvonne's hand had been injured this badly by someone, and he still demanded that I kneel and apologize.

It was absolutely absurd, ridiculous!

Fortunately, there were only three more days until I could take my daughter and leave.

That afternoon, Yvonne spiked a high fever.

I pressed my palm to her scorching forehead and called Shawn in a panic.

The phone rang for a long time before he answered, and I could hear Julia's coquettish complaining in the background.

"Shawn, Yvonne has a fever, I have to take her to the hospital right now!"

Shawn cut me off immediately with an order.

"Julia got a fright today. She needs to drink calming pregnancy soup. Make it and we'll come back to eat it."

"Shawn! Our daughter has a fever!"

"Once you've made the soup to Julia's satisfaction, I'll let you take her to the hospital. Don't provoke me anymore, or you'll be the only one who suffers."

I didn't dare defy him anymore and rushed into the kitchen, my hands shaking so badly I could barely hold a knife.

By the time I finished making the soup, they had already gone back to the master bedroom.

I brought the soup in. Julia took just one sip and spat it out.

"It's too salty. That's bad for the baby." She looked at Shawn with a wronged expression. "Did she do this on purpose?"

I made the soup again from scratch.

"It's too greasy!" She shoved the bowl away. "Do you want the baby to get too big and make me have a difficult delivery?"

I dared not utter a single complaint, and made the soup all over again three more times.

When Julia finally took the bowl, she suddenly "accidentally" spilled all the hot soup onto herself.

"Ah! It's so hot…" she cried pitifully. "Jennifer, why are you treating me like this?"