True Love Waits

"I know..." Sheffield smiled bitterly. But then, as if just waking up, he suddenly thought of something. It was another important question. With a serious expression, he sat upright and asked nervously, "You said Evelyn was pregnant after getting back from her trip. So where's the kid?"

Matthew's voice became colder. "Gone."

"You can't mean " In an instant, Sheffield's mind went blank. He felt a hollow in his chest where his heart used to be. The young doctor held his breath and stared at him. Now it was his turn to observe the tiniest change of expression on Matthew's face. Was he lying? He had to know.

"Thanks to you, yes. She almost died from the ectopic pregnancy. But you didn't know, did you? How can you claim to care about her and not know something like that? Is this how you show you love my sister?"

'Ectopic pregnancy? Almost died?' With trembling heart, Sheffield shook his head and cast a burning glance at the younger man. "This isn't real, right? Your dad's just trying to trick me. He wants to make me feel bad about Evelyn so I'll dump her. Did you think it would work? C'mon, Matthew, just between you and me," he said.

Furrowing his eyebrows, Matthew retorted, "Do you think you're worth that much? Think, man. The Huo family wouldn't make up a story like that. It wouldn't make Evelyn look very good, would it?" Sheffield felt awkward. He knew the father and son of the Huo family wouldn't do a thing like that. At least, he realized it when he gave it some thought. He asked, "How soon did Evelyn know about the pregnancy? Was it when she got back? Or sooner than that?"

If it was true... Sheffield decided to shut that line of thinking down. He felt like his heart had been pierced by a knife. How much pain did Evelyn go through because of him?

"About three months after she came home. No one knew she was pregnant, not even her. She started hemorrhaging in the meeting room, and by the time she got to your hospital, she'd already gone into shock." Matthew stressed the words "your hospital," implying Sheffield could look into it himself if he didn't believe it.

"Wait..." 'Three months...' Sheffield suddenly remembered that the first time he saw Evelyn after he got back from D City was in the hospital. Evelyn was in a standard patient's gown and looked very weak back then. 'So maybe that's why she was there, ' he mused.

'An ectopic pregnancy...' He ransacked his memories, searching for the answer. He vaguely remembered a few nurses talking about something like that. The eldest daughter of a rich family...He hadn't made the connection then, but it must be Evelyn!

He also remembered he cursed the woman's husband. What bad luck! What was he thinking? 'A jerk? That's right, I called the man a jerk. Well, not out loud. But I thought it.'

It turned out the woman was none other than Evelyn, the eldest daughter of the Huo family. And the jerk was undoubtedly him. And he felt like one, now.

His guilt towards Evelyn was beyond belief. The word "jerk" was not an apt descriptor.

worse than

He just watched Sheffield

that she'd call or text or something. But she didn't. Then she took off and didn't tell me. I tried to pull her medical records, but couldn't find them." He

fake name. Dad didn't want any news of her pregnancy getting out." That was why Sheffield couldn't find Evelyn, no matter how hard he tried. 'Makes sense.'

to suppress the pain in his heart. "It's my fault." He felt sorry for hurting

so much, and why he'd done everything to keep Sheffield and Evelyn apart. Carlos was

against the back of the sofa with his eyes closed, he held back the tears in his eyes. He really wanted to see Evelyn right now. He wanted to hold

man still

thought of giving up on

to have an affair with her? You wanna be the other man? Know what that will do

won't let anyone say anything

in front of you, but there's

looked at Matthew. "So how do I fix this? How do

That's about all you can do. And since

didn't know how to

his hands in his pockets. "We don't even know who you really are. A background check turns up nothing. If

there was more than meets

had good reasons to be suspicious of Sheffield's background. The man was remarkably efficient. He'd cleared his name in a wrongful death suit by figuring out the actual cause of death. He also reintroduced a case more than a decade old and reversed the verdict.

the press that he'd figured this out by accident, Matthew didn't think it was so

case, so he didn't do

hiding who he was; on the other hand, Evelyn never asked him about it. She just took who he was at face value,

it. That'll be enough." Matthew began