The assistant downstairs suddenly remembered that he forgot to give Alexander, Isabelle's operation forms, and so he went back up again. Just as he came out of the elevator, he saw someone sitting on his own in the long corridor. Even though they were quite a distance apart, he saw that the man, who had covered his face, sat with his shoulders trembling.

In that instant, the assistant froze on the spot and didn't dare walk forward. He quietly looked for a long time, but didn't disturb the miserable, distressed man. He only silently retreated into the elevator, as though he hadn't been there at all, hadn't seen a thing, and left.

He had been following Alexander for over seven years. In these long seven years, he had already married and had a kid. Yet, Alexander, who was older than him by a year, had been all alone in the world.

He was also curious, of whether Alexander actually had a woman he liked. That was until over half a year ago, when Alexander promised the Williams family to be James's replacement.

At the time, he was strongly against it. After all, it was practically nonsense. But the moment he saw Miss. Davis, that's when he knew Alexander wasn't actually all alone in this world. He already had someone he loved.

The assistant believed that no one in this world understood Alexander more than he did. He always knew that his background wasn't good, and he was an illegitimate child. Though he looked arrogant, cold, a lone wolf, virtuous and condescending, in fact, everyone saw he has a poor attitude...

But who would of thought that although there were two sons of the Williams family, one was a young master with the world around his fingers, and the other had the lowest standing in society. Without relatives or anyone to care for him, he relied on his own hard work to survive his teens. The only reason why he looked like he was heartless was actually because he didn't want anyone to see his pitiful and weak side.

The assistant believed that no one in this world could make Alexander feel warmth inside, besides Miss Davis. Otherwise, when the man wasn't paying attention, he wouldn't have caught him staring at Miss Davis, in a daze. Now that the baby was lost, he must be devastated beyond belief.

~*~

Outside Mrs Williams's bedroom, the steward silently called out to her, "Mrs Williams."

Mrs Williams looked towards the sleeping Mr. Williams, climbing softly off the bed. She took a jacket before leaving the bedroom. With a finger to her lips, she signaled for the stewardess to be quiet while they walked down the stairs.

The stewardess followed behind her closely.

The both of them walked out of the house to the empty garden before the stewardess spoke. "Mrs. Williams, Miss Davis has just been sent to the hospital, her baby having died in her stomach."

The night was late and the stewardess spoke in a low voice, emphasizing the last coupe words. Mrs Williams clenched her jacket, forcing a calm expression on her face as she looked at the lotus flower that had blossomed. After a long while, she nodded. "I understand."

She paused for a bit, then added, "You can leave now, I want to be alone."

"Yes, Madam," the stewardess replied and left respectfully.

A cold breeze blew past. Mrs Williams looked out at the calm waters, taking a deep breath.

To the eyes of others, she seemed to have the perfect family: a blissful marriage , a loving husband, and a filial son, but who knew that under the facade she had suffered so much?

Until James was three years old, she had naively believed that her life was indeed blissful, but that all ended when that women carried a child to her family, that was when she knew that her blissful life was such a big joke!

Her husband had actually left a child outside and that child was born on the same day as her son, the day when she was the proudest had actually become a humiliation.

All these years, every time she celebrated her son's birthday, she would remember the child that her husband had outside.

She hated him, she had also blamed him, and ever since then, her son was her whole world. She pampered him to no end, knowing that her son would never betray her.

She had given all her love to James, hence when she had found out from Sophia that her son was in love with Isabelle, she had gone to Davis family without hesitation to ask for her hand.

Five years ago, the night of Isabelle's birthday, she had been outside her home and had coincidentally bumped into Alexander's assistant. He was preparing to deliver a present for her to the the Davis family's helper. At that time, she had intervened. The moment she saw the card from Alexander, she had helped to break any hope that Alexander had for Isabelle on behalf of her son.

The reason was simple, Isabelle was the woman that her son loved, no one else was allowed to snatch her from him. Besides, Alexander was the person she hated the most, hence she told him straight in the face that Isabelle and James were going to marry, but at that time, the marriage hadn't been set, as they were both still young.

If it wasn't for the accident which robbed her of her choices, she would have never let Alexander interact with Isabelle.

At that time, there wasn't any other choice, the only one in this world who could act as James was Alexander.

She didn't beg Alexander for help, but she was sure that he would definitely help her, for he liked Isabelle.

At that time, the situation was too rushed for her to consider it in depth. Who would have thought that the both of them would end up with a child!

James's feelings aside, Isabelle was still Williams family's daughter-in-law to the public.

If the Williams family's daughter-in-law were to be pregnant, everyone would assume that it belonged to James, so once the child was born, the Williams family would be forced to accept the child.

Previously, she had strongly objected to Alexander entering the Williams family, how could she let his child enter now?

Isabelle wasn't aware that she was pregnant, but as a mother, Mrs Williams knew that she would not bare to abort the child even if it wasn't planned. At that time, if she were to force Isabelle to abort the child, that would cause tension between the two of them, and to protect her child, the two of them might end up on bad ties, which would not be beneficial to her at all.

As long as James was not awake, Alexander and Isabelle were still useful.

Hence, that afternoon, after pondering for a while, she decided that the best way was to... not let the baby have a chance to be born.

~*~

Alexander sat in a daze for a long while before standing to wash his face in the washroom. He then sat for another thirty minutes before Isabelle was pushed out into her ward.

Her face was pale as she slept in silence, oblivious to whatever had happened.

Abortion wasn't a major operation, but there were many things to take note of: she couldn't afford to get cold, and needed plenty of rest, sex was also prohibited. The doctor listed everything out once, and Alexander memorized everything in detail.

In the end, the doctor seemed to have recalled something, asking Alexander, "Has your wife always had trouble sleeping?"

Alexander frowned slightly, he hadn't slept with her much, so he wasn't sure of her sleep quality. He turned to ask, "What's wrong?"

"When I checked her blood, I realized there was a large trace of sleeping pills in her blood stream, which is why I was wondering if she has sleeping problems."

Alexander frowned more, he had never known that she was reliant of sleeping pills. His heart clenched slightly, and he pressed his lips together not saying anything.

"Too many sleeping pills would cause a dependency, you should advice her to stop taking it. It's extremely bad for health and she might have not known that she was pregnant, which is why she didn't stop her intake. The large amount of sleeping pills won't affect her much, but it is different for a baby, causing the miscarriage."

The doctor paused for a while before adding, " The main reason for the miscarriage were the sleeping pills."

Alexander froze, his face paling.

"Besides, the kind of sleeping pills that she is taking has a component that would cause the user to become unconscious, causing her to still be asleep now.

"During the operation, I gave your wife an anesthesia shot. That shot along with the her sleeping pills would let her sleep for a long while more. If she's fine after she wakes up, she can go home, but she may still be a little weak, so do make sure she has plenty of rest. After the surgery, she'll bleed for about a week. If the bleeding doesn't stop, you must come back for a check up."

The doctor had said a lot and had tried to concise his words, but once he saw Alexander's expression, he hesitated and tried to comfort him.

"Mr. Smith, I hope you won't blame yourself even though you are upset. The fact that the child is here means that you have made an effort with the mutual consent to not use any preventive measures. You might be upset to have lost a child, but your wife will definitely feel even worse, since it's a mother's nature.

"Besides, if she were to know that she had caused the death of her child, she would feel guilty. That's why I decided to inform you about it beforehand, so that she won't be in shock when she finds out after she wakes up."

Alexander couldn't explain the negativity in his heart. He felt in pain and lost, but his eyes stared calmly at the doctor. Mustering up a lot of energy, he murmured, "Yea, I understand." After a bit, he added, "Thank you."

The doctor nodded formally then retreated with the others from the ward, leaving him alone and in silence.

The lights in the ward were dim and yellow, blurring his vision. He stood at the same spot for a long time before turning to look at Isabelle, who was lying on the bed. She had just been through a surgery. Her face was pale but peaceful, unaware of the tragedy that had just happened.

If she were to find out that she had lost a child in her dreams and that the child died because of the sleeping pills that she had taken, what would she do?

Be upset? Regret it? Break down? Or would she be devastated?

In that instance, Alexander's mind was filled with the image of Isabelle crying sadly. His heart clenched, and the the nurse's and doctor's words echoed in his head.

"Let's not talk about the damage done to a body after a miscarriage... As a mother, if she knew that her own child had silently passed away, she'd probably be heartbroken to death!"

"You might be upset to have lost a child, but your wife will definitely feel even worse, since it's a mother's nature."

Feel even worse... When he found out that his child had died, he felt as though every cell in his body had exploded; he had never felt such pain in his life.

She would feel even worse, how bad would that be?

Just the thought of it made him shudder, making him blame himself more.

They were right, it was indeed his mistake. He had loved her for so many years, and every single time they did it, it seemed like a dream. He never remembered to take contraceptive measures and she had also forgotten, causing the tragedy today.

When they were still in school, boys from his dorm had also had an active sexual life, but none of them had ended up killing a life.

He remembered in one physical education lesson, a girl was not aware of her pregnancy and had participated in a marathon. In the last round, she started bleeding heavily. Afterwards, she realized that she had miscarried.

That was back in high school, and the incident had severely damaged the reputation of their school. In the end, the girl was forced to leave. When she left with her belongings, her eyes were red and swollen, but the guy had found another girlfriend soon after. Every time the incident was brought up, the girl would be blamed for her indecency.

There was another time in college, the guy that was living below his bunk bed, who had a relatively good background, had managed to get together with the most popular girl. She had aborted three times because of him, but he had never cared, even showing off to the others when he got drunk. After he had graduated, he had dumped her, but by then, she wasn't able to get pregnant anymore.

At that time, he didn't pay attention to any of those gossips, but today, after Isabelle had a miscarriage and had to have an abortion, the memories seemed to come flooding into his mind.

Back then, he didn't care, he just felt that the guys were jerks and the girls were pitiful. He had even sworn that if he managed to get together with Isabelle, he would never let her endure such darkness, he would give her the best that he could.

And yet he still allowed her to endure such a tragedy...

If he hadn't touched her, if he had been able to control himself, if he had thought to take contraceptive measures... If he had thought about pregnancy nausea few days ago when he had touched her... if...

Alexander's hands clenched into fists, his throat tight and choked up.

Such a tragedy could have been prevented in so many ways, but he hadn't taken any.

He had let her down.

He had failed to give her the perfect life that he had promised.