The Cold Surgeon's Contract Bride novel Chapter 21

It was nine at night when I dragged my exhausted body back to my apartment building, only to run straight into Lucille in the lobby.

Her makeup was smudged, and she looked completely defeated, huddled in the corner like a wounded bird.

The moment she saw me, she practically leaped to her feet. Closing the distance between us in three quick strides, she fumed, "Selena Hayes, you've really outdone yourself this time. Stabbing your own mother in the back, are you?"

I sighed, feeling a headache coming on. "Let's just go upstairs first."

"Do I even have the face to go upstairs?" Lucille glared at me, her mascara-stained eyes wide with indignation. "It's a disaster. Vivian is dead set on the idea that you're prioritizing your career over starting a family. She thinks you have absolutely no respect for the Sterlings. What are you going to do about it?"

It felt like I had swallowed a mouthful of ash, bitter and suffocating, yet I couldn't say a word.

"I've thought about it, and you need to come to the Sterling estate with me right now." Seeing my silence, Lucille smoothed out her disheveled hair and forced a burst of determined energy. "You are going to apologize to Vivian. Tell her that taking this job was just a momentary lapse in judgment."

I stared at her in sheer disbelief. "And then what?"

"Then you focus on getting pregnant," Lucille said, her logic frighteningly crisp. "Once you successfully carry a Sterling heir, Vivian won't have a single thing to complain about."

Watching her throw this tantrum, I almost laughed out of sheer frustration. After a long, tense moment, I spoke softly. "Lucille, do you seriously not get it yet? As long as we depend on the Sterlings, we'll spend the rest of our lives bowing our heads to them."

Lucille choked on her words, shooting me a deeply resentful glare. "What other choice do we have?" she yelled defensively. "Do you think I want to rely on them? But your father is still lying in the Greenwood Care Center, and Sabrina has two years left of her studies in Paris! How else are we supposed to pay for all of that?"

I froze, staring at her in utter confusion. When our eyes locked, she panicked, clapping a hand over her mouth as she guiltily averted her gaze.

"The care center... the tuition..." I took a deep, shaky breath, a heavy sense of dread settling in my chest. "What does any of that have to do with the Sterlings?"

Lucille remained stubbornly silent, though her fiery demeanor had noticeably deflated.

A horrifying realization struck me, and I pressed her. "Lucille, tell me I'm wrong."

Seeing my dead-serious expression, she stole a quick glance at me before raising her voice again. "Do you think I wanted this? After your father went into the care center, the company went under! I have a whole family to feed. What was I supposed to do, Selena? A helpless woman like me? Do you have no conscience?"

By the end of her tirade, her eyes had welled up with genuine tears.

It turned out that for the past three years, ever since my dad was admitted to the care center, the Sterling family had been footing his medical bills, along with Sabrina's tuition.

Running the numbers in my head, it easily amounted to millions of dollars a year.

The revelation crushed me. I felt utterly defeated, stripped of whatever remaining energy I had left.

And Lucille had kept this from me the entire time.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify