"Thank you for treating Nathan so well." Yelena lifted her eyes and saw Candace standing in the elevator. An unnatural smile stretched across her face. "Candace, how is Jamie? You don't look so good. Why don't you let Shawn take care of Jamie for the time being?"
"Why should I help with her child?" Shawn asked coldly. "Candace, you're willing to do anything to get me to go home, aren't you? You'd even make your own child fall ill so you can come to the hospital to get in my way.
"I can't believe a mother as heartless as you actually exists in this world."
Candace treated Shawn as nothing more than the air around her. She kept her head lowered as she adjusted Jamie's clothes. She didn't expect her bag strap to snap at that moment, causing Jamie's milk bottle and diapers to scatter all across the floor.
Ignoring the excruciating pain radiating from the incision on her abdomen, she knelt to pick up the fallen items.
Yelena touched Candace's arm and said, "You're hurt, Candace, so you shouldn't move around too much. Let me help you."
"Why are you helping her, Lena?" Shawn grabbed Yelena and pulled her behind him. "Who knows what tricks she may have up her sleeve? You need to stay away from her," he chastised unhappily.
"Shawn, you shouldn't think so badly of Candace. After all, I was roommates with her once upon a time," Yelena said gently. "Although her academics weren't very good, she was a very hardworking student!"
Shawn barked out a laugh. "She was a hardworking student, but still scored the lowest and came in last in her entire year. It's humiliating for my son to have such an academically inept mother," he said.
"It's even more humiliating for my son to have such a heartless father." Candace powered through the pain of her incision as she picked up Jamie's bottle. "Don't tell anyone that you're Jamie's father. You don't deserve that title!"
Shawn stared at Candace in disbelief. He suddenly felt as if she were a stranger to him. She had always been obedient and never talked back to him in the past.
"Stop playing hard to get, Candace," he warned, face darkening. "No matter what you do, I'm not following you back home tonight!"
Candace didn't bother waiting for Shawn to finish his sentence before she took Jamie with her and exited the elevator. However, she was forced to halt her footsteps, her eyes widening to the size of saucers.
For reasons unbeknownst to her, Jamie had extended his tiny hand from the blue blanket he was swaddled in and grabbed Shawn's sleeve. He babbled nonsensically at Shawn. The milk that leaked from the corners of his mouth dripped onto the back of Shawn's hand.
Shawn was stunned for a moment before he batted Jamie's hand away. He stripped out of his blazer and tossed the garment into the trash bin that was nearby. His brow was furrowed as he roared, "What are you doing? That's revolting!"
Jamie was frightened by his harsh tone. He buried his little head against Candace's chest and started wailing in despair.
"Don't cry, Jamie. Mommy's here." Candace felt as if her heart was being stabbed by a knife. She kissed away the tears beading at the corners of Jamie's eyes. She choked out, "Mommy will always be with you, sweetheart. We'll live happily in the future, just the two of us."
Shawn froze in his tracks upon hearing Candace's words. As he gazed at her anguished appearance, an uneasiness he couldn't explain flashed through his heart. He felt as if he was slowly losing control over something.
"Shawn, Nathan has a nosebleed!" Yelena exclaimed, panicked. "Take him to the restroom to clean up!"
Shawn pushed those strange thoughts to the back of his mind as he took Nathan away. Before he left, he halted his footsteps once more and said coldly, "Candace, it'll be the baby's one-month birthday celebration the day after tomorrow.
"I'm warning you. Take good care of him. Don't let him suffer anymore, or I won't let you off the hook!"
Candace only lowered her eyes and scoffed. She didn't respond to his warning. There were only 12 hours left before she would leave with Jamie.
Shawn would be served with a divorce agreement during Jamie's one-month birthday celebration.
The next morning, Candace got in touch with a realtor to arrange tours for potential buyers.
An elderly couple exchanged glances with each other. They wore solemn looks when they asked, "Mrs. Hamilton, you're still recovering from postpartum, so why are you in a rush to sell such a wonderful home? There's nothing wrong with this house, is there? Where will you live once you sell the house?"
"I intend to go back to my old home to rest," Candace answered calmly. "There aren't any disputes for this property. If you're serious about buying the house, I can give you a 500,000 dollar discount, but you have to pay the full price upfront."
"That's fine!" The elderly couple agreed easily as they penned their signatures on the contract.
Candace followed them to the Real Estate Bureau to process the transfer procedures. She then requested the realtor to purchase a fully-furnished home that was ready for move-in in Fohzan. After the sale was completed, she canceled all of her cards.
She rushed to the Government Affairs Agency to pick up her new passport before purchasing a flight ticket that would take her out of Bloomingville the next day.
When night fell, Candace dragged her exhausted body back home. She was surprised to see a pair of red high heels that didn't belong to her on the shoe rack. A man's white shirt was thrown haphazardly on the floor while a black bra was discarded a short distance away from it.
Candace felt as if an explosion had been set off in her brain. She stumbled up the staircase and saw a man and woman entangled with each other through the open master bedroom door. Condoms were scattered all over the floor.
Hearing movement from beyond the door, panic flickered across Yelena's face. She was half-kneeling on the floor and tried to push Shawn, who was positioned behind her. "Shawn, stop fooling around. Candace is back! It's inappropriate for us to do this in front of her—"
Shawn scoffed. "This is my home. What can she do to stop me when she's only 'Mrs. Hamilton' in name and nothing else?"
He gripped Yelena's waist with his large hands and continued rocking into her.
Candace covered her mouth with one hand as she bolted for the downstairs bathroom. She kneeled next to the toilet and vomited violently into it. She threw up so hard that she was spitting out bile by the end of it.
Drained of strength, she leaned against the wall and swallowed large gulps of breath, letting the tears stream endlessly down her face.
Shawn was truly a cruel man. It was one thing for him to parade Yelena around the city; it was another thing altogether to have sex with her in Candace's room. It was utterly humiliating!
Candace dug her nails into her palms and forced the tears to stop. She accepted the glass of water that Lisa offered her and said weakly, "Tidy up the guest room on the first floor for me. I'll be staying there with Jamie tonight.
"Remember to move the pot of aloe vera Lucia left for me from the master bedroom to the guest room. It has to grow in a clean environment. It doesn't do well when it's in a filthy place."
"Understood, Mrs. Hamilton." Lisa paused for a moment before speaking again. "Mr. Hamilton said that Ms. Chapman wants to have your lamb stew. He ordered you to deliver a bowl to them after you're done preparing it. He also said that if you don't do as he says, he'll never come back again."
Candace's gaze turned glacial. "It's perfectly fine with me if he never comes back. At least I'll have some peace in my own home!"
She then went to the guest room and crawled into bed. She covered herself with a blanket and fell into a deep sleep. However, the blanket was suddenly ripped off her body.
Shawn roared from above her, "Have you gone deaf? I told you to prepare the stew for Yelena, didn't I?"
"Why should I prepare the stew for her when I'm still in my postpartum recovery period?" Candace countered heatedly. "Just because you brought her back today to disgust me? Just because you hoped that Jamie and I would die during childbirth so she could usurp my position?"
Shawn stared at her in shock. He stayed mute for a few seconds before finally saying, "So you finally grew a spine, did you? You have the nerve to talk back to me now. I'm going to count to three. If you don't prepare the stew, I'll—"
Powering through the pain in her abdomen, Candace grabbed a glass of water and threw it at Shawn. "Get out! Your mother gave this house to me. You have no right to raise your voice at me here!"
Shawn was caught off-guard by Candace's sudden attack, his white shirt becoming thoroughly drenched. His temper exploded as he bellowed, "Bitch! You have some nerve to attack me!
"You almost ruined Yelena's face that day at the shopping mall when you made her fall. Preparing the stew for her is light punishment as is, yet you still want to argue with me? I guess it's true that a person who grows up without a mother's guidance will turn out to be barbaric and unreasonable!"
Candace had assumed that she couldn't be any more disappointed in Shawn. She never imagined that he would use the pain she kept buried in the deepest part of her heart to attack her.
He had forgotten all about how he had taken her hand in the past and said, "Don't cry, Candy. My mother will be your mother too in the future! I'll ask her to make whatever you want to eat, and I won't let you suffer any hardships! I won't forgive anyone who dares to bully you because you don't have a mother!"
Candace could still recall his promise to her as if he had made it just yesterday. How could he bear to hurt her so deeply just because he wanted to protect Yelena?
The immeasurable pain that she felt traveled from her feet to the top of her head. Tears poured from her eyes as if a dam had been broken. Her burning rage set her entire body aflame, making her feel as if she were a bomb that was about to explode at any second.
Candace no longer wanted to be a doormat that Shawn could trample on whenever he pleased. She yelled, "If you think that I'm so useless, go ahead and look for Yelena. Why did you even come back? I never begged you to come back to humiliate me!"
"Candace, I only came back with Shawn because he wanted to pack some of his clothes. We had no intention to humiliate you." Yelena clutched her red nightdress tightly. Her voice was small when she murmured, "It's just that he suddenly got in the mood and couldn't control himself, so I also…"
She groveled at Candace's feet. "I'm sorry, Candace. It's all my fault that the two of you are arguing like this. I've already asked Lisa to change the bedsheets in your room, so you can use the bed as usual—"
"Drop the innocent act!" Candace glared daggers at Yelena. "I'm going to count to three. If you don't get out of my sight, I'll have Lucia drop by and personally teach you the rules of this household!"
Shawn's face twisted upon hearing Candace's words. Lucia had always doted on Candace. If she found out about what was happening, he would have a difficult time handling her.
Incensed, Shawn wrapped an arm around Yelena to take her away. "Just you wait. This isn't over yet!"
The door shut with a resounding click as Candace closed it in their faces. Shawn seemed rather troubled as he guided Yelena back to his car, looking extremely upset.
A short distance away, the maids pointed at them as they whispered amongst themselves, wearing matching expressions of surprise.
"Mrs. Hamilton finally stood up for herself. I feel relieved, though I'm just an onlooker. Good on her!"
"Mr. Hamilton was way out of line this time. How could he ask a woman who's recovering from her postpartum to prepare food for his lover? If I were in her shoes, I would have wanted to kill him. That son of a bitch got what was coming for him."
"You're right. Even the most timid person has a temper, let alone Mrs. Hamilton. No matter how much she loves Mr. Hamilton, no one should have to endure such torment!"
"Mr. Hamilton only has the guts to act this way because he knows Mrs. Hamilton loves him. Her love for him is going to wither away sooner or later. He'll regret treating her this way when the time comes!"
Shawn scoffed. His biggest regret in life was conceding to Lucia's wish for him to marry Candace.
Candace's malice ran deep. When he had awoken from his coma all those years ago, Yelena had been the one who stayed by his side and cared for him. Candace had been beside herself with jealousy, to the point that she got the same tattoo as Yelena on her chest.
She even claimed that the person he saved from the fire was her. What was even more ridiculous was how Candace had shown him a box of love letters and insisted that he was the one who wrote them.
Shawn wasn't blind. There was no way he wouldn't recognize his own handwriting. He had written those love letters for Yelena!
Yelena studied Shawn's cloudy expression from the corner of her eye. She could almost feel the rage rolling off his body in endless waves. She pretended to stand up for Candace. "Shawn, Candace loves you a lot, so she probably couldn't immediately accept what we were doing in her room earlier…
"She's still in her postpartum recovery period, so she's not supposed to be stressed. You should be the bigger person and let it slide this time."
"You're too kind, Lena. Candace tormented you so much today, but you're still willing to speak up for her."
Shawn's heart squeezed as he drew Yelena into his arms. He exclaimed angrily, "I'll make sure she understands the consequences of angering me! I'll have someone prepare a divorce agreement right now. I'm going to evict Candace from the house by force!"
Yelena leaned against Shawn's chest, her eyes flickering with animosity. Candace would be so disappointed in Shawn for serving her divorce papers when she was still in her postpartum recovery period, so she would most likely agree without putting up a fight.
Once Candace was out of the picture, the position of "Mrs. Hamilton" was as good as hers!
