Chapter 3

"Honey, are you okay? Why is your face so pale?"

Jackson held me, his brow furrowed with concern.

He touched my forehead, then turned to Susan with a slightly reproachful tone.

"Mom, what's going on? Did you have another fight with Aria?"

Susan immediately put on a pitiful expression and pointed at me, starting to cry.

"How would I dare! It's her, acting like a maniac, insisting on barging into the room to find Mr. Wilson! My old bones are about to fall apart because of her!"

Jackson sighed and pulled me to sit on the couch.

He knelt in front of me, holding my cold hands.

"Aria, I know you're under a lot of pressure because we haven't been able to have a child."

"But you can't take it out on Mom. She's getting old, and finding a companion isn't easy. As the younger generation, we should turn a blind eye."

His voice was gentle yet helpless, as if I had truly become an irrational madwoman due to infertility.

I looked into his sincere eyes, momentarily speechless.

Those sounds I heard, that panting, those filthy words—were they all hallucinations?

"No... it's not like that..." I murmured, "I clearly heard..."

"What did you hear?" Jackson pressed, "Have you been too tired lately and started hearing things?"

Susan chimed in.

"Exactly! I think she's mentally unstable! She can't have children herself, so she can't stand to see me happy!"

The mother and son had formed a united front.

I was defenseless.

That night, I couldn't sleep.

Jackson slept beside me, his breathing steady.

I tried desperately to fall asleep, but every time I closed my eyes, those unbearable sounds from the housekeeper's room echoed in my ears.

I wasn't crazy, and I definitely hadn't misheard.

The next day, I decided to investigate on my own.

Using a walk as an excuse, I started chatting with the neighbors in our building.

"Amy, I heard Susan got together with Mr. Wilson from this building. Do you happen to know him? I want to check him out for Susan."

The neighbors looked at me with sympathy and bewilderment.

"Aria, is Susan pulling your leg? I've lived in this building for decades, and I know pretty much everyone here. There's no single old man in this building."

"Right, and Susan stays home all day. We've tried to get her to go shopping with us, but she won't come out, says she needs to stay home and do housework for you."

I became the laughingstock of the entire neighborhood.

Everyone thought that due to the pressure of infertility, I had started overthinking and even imagining a Mr. Wilson to attack Susan.

I wasn't ready to give up.

When I got home, only the housekeeper Rachel and I were there.

Rachel was on the balcony, holding a bowl and sneakily pouring its contents into a flowerpot.

I pretended nothing was wrong as I walked into the living room and poured myself some water.

When Rachel came back from the balcony and saw me, her eyes clearly shifted nervously.

"Mrs. Thorne, you're back."

I nodded, my gaze falling on her pale face.

"Rachel, are you not feeling well? Why are you taking medicine?"

The housekeeper's face went white.

"No, no, Mrs. Thorne, I just felt a bit dry lately, so I'm brewing some tea."

She explained frantically, then turned to head back to the kitchen.

After she left, I immediately rushed to the balcony and dug through the soil in that flowerpot.

I carefully collected the contents in a plastic bag.

Then I headed straight to the city's most reputable drug testing center.

Soon, I received the test report.

Based on the main components in the residue, it was a pregnancy-preserving supplement.

I held that thin test report, my hands trembling.

All my suspicions weren't unfounded!