Chapter 17 - Older Sister

Zhao JingShi leaned over to collect his sleeping son.

The little guy spent the whole time crying on Li Xia - a frightened and alarmed Li Xia. She spent the whole time hugging and patting him on the back. Zhao JingShi just remained quiet and ignored Li Xia's panicked eyes in the interest of letting mother and son bond.

He stepped back with the boy in his arms.

"Why did you let him cry all over me? Why let him call me 'Mom'."

He gestured with his chin to the table in front of her.

She picked up the business card, barely glancing at it. She was focused on the little guy like a magnet.

"That's my contact. If you want answers—" Li Xia had always been a smart and curious woman "—call me. It's my personal number, not the business number."

"How can you—" She was wide eyed, a small sense horror blooming. "Mr. Zhao, I am a stranger. I don't know you."

Zhao JingShi got ready to leave. "If you like, we can do a DNA test. When you're ready, call me," were his final words.

It was a shitty situation, but he won't allow her to hide from him and their son. All he could give her was space. A little — very minute — amount of space.

When he placed his son in the car, the boy's lashes fluttered over his swollen eyes. "Shh," he patted the guy's little cheek. The amount of guilt he felt towards his child crippled him sometimes. If it weren't for his own stubbornness that year, YuShi would have grown up knowing his mother. Li Xia would not have lived apart from them for so long. He, Zhao JingShi would have had a wife.

It was night.

Li Xia sat alone in the living room of the small apartment she and Su YiWei shared. Su YiWei was still at work. Li Xia, as a part timer doing a favor for her friend, could leave the café whenever she wanted.

In the evening, her head was full of the father and son. She could think of nothing else.

The little boy cried all over her for a long time, breaking her heart and his father's. When he fell asleep and his father took him home, Li Xia left the cafe. She'd been sitting here ever since. Thinking. The man's card with his personal contact information remained in her hand the entire time.

Li Xia ran her thumb across "Zhao JingShi".

She remembered the look on his face when he saw her for the first time.

She remembered the Little Guy's naughtiness. And his tears.

"If you like, we can do a DNA test."

What could be more certain than those words?

But it couldn't be.

She couldn't be that baby boy's mother. Something like that only happened in movies.

She'd never been pregnant. Even if she couldn't remember a pregnancy, her body would have traces. It didn't.

Did it?

She unbuttoned the middle section of her dress.

The faint line there was thin, almost non-existent. Her skin was smooth and moisturized, without any blemishes. If that line wasn't a shade paler than the rest of her skin, she'd never even notice it.

This was a scar from a car accident, not a pregnancy.

Her mother said it was an accident. Her mother wouldn't lie to her about a child. It was too fantastical. Too... improbable. Too cruel.

Still, a niggling doubt about that boy... She should ask her mother. But how to ask? "Mom did you lie to me? I was pregnant but you never told me?"

She didn't know for certain that Little Dumpling was hers. She couldn't call her mom over something like this.

Zhao JingShi... how to talk to him? He was a mostly a stranger — even if he kept implying she'd given birth to his adorable child.

That cute baby was hers?

She had the urge to hug the Little Dumpling. Right now. If he was hers then what happened? Why wasn't he with her when she woke up from a coma years ago? Why didn't she know about him?

She touched her scar, feeling nothing different from the rest of her skin. Why was she told it was from an accident and not a baby?

And why, when she woke up, wasn't her baby with her.

Li Xia reached over and opened the drawer to get her overseas phone.

She looked through the contacts until she found one : 'Li Meng (Home)'.

She pressed the call button, put the phone to her ear. Her heart jumped.

The phone rang only for half a tone on the other side. As soon as it connected: "Where are you? Do you know how much trouble and worry you caused our family? Are you insane! Your mother and father are out of their minds and your brother-in-law is scouring the country for you. Where are you? Do you know how much money—" Her older sister's fierce scolding blistered her ear.

Li Xia blushed slightly. When she left without telling anyone, she thought it would only be a few days before her powerful brother-in-law found out her whereabouts so her parents won't worry for long. She didn't run off to do anything illegal. She just needed to think for a while about her future.

A future that looked nothing like what she'd imagined only this morning.

"Do I have a child?" she asked directly when her sister paused for breath.

Li Meng suddenly had nothing to say.

Li Xia pressed, her suspicions growing. "Did I have a baby when I was in the hospital?" And why didn't she remember it? "Did you steal my baby and give him away?"

And who did Li Xia have that baby with? That man— "Do you know a Zhao JingShi?"

He had to have been Li Xia's boyfriend before the accident. Because she didn't remember him and her memory only stopped at 18 when she entered university. It began again at 21 when she woke up in the hospital. Despite the gap between her entrance at NYU and her accident, she'd felt so safe when she woke up. Safe and loved because her entire family was there to take care of her.

What if!

What if behind that care was something as ugly as stealing her child. Her suspicion was almost a certainty now.

She grew up with her sister, so even through the phone, she could understand everything by her sister's sharp exhale when 'Zhao JingShi' was dropped.

"I made a little boy, didn't I?" Saying those words ... heartbreak and joy both fell over her.

She had a cute little baby. A huggable dumpling willing to call her his mother. He didn't reject her for her absence in his life! Her little boy! Her tears, held in because she had been unsure until now, watered her cheeks. "I have a baby?"

"Where are you?" Her sister was no longer scolding, no longer harsh. She just sounded worried.

"Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"I-"

"You're pregnant!" Li Xia was suddenly so angry and her sister was the only one she could yell at. Before she left America, her sister was 4 months pregnant. "You're going to be a mother. How could you do something like this to me. How could you rob me of my child- "

Her scolding was too loud and attracted people standing nearby.

Her sister's husband was one of those protective types who didn't like people yelling at their wives. Even if the party yelling was his wife's sister and was entirely justified.

His voice cut Li Xia off. "That's enough." He had taken the phone from Li Meng.

"Tell me the truth," Li Xia demanded.

Because Marcus Chang was not a man who lied or who kept things from you if you asked directly. "What do you want to know?"

In the background, her sister said, "No! Don't tell her."

Li Xia ignored her sister, her own certainty becoming solid. "Was I pregnant? Did I have birth while in a coma?"

"Yes."

Li Xia slammed a fist into her mouth to stop her sobs.

"We did much to protect you."

"From who?" Zhao JingShi?

"Ask your mother. Your sister's only part in this was protecting you."

"From the father of my child?"

"Yes and no."

Li Xia laughed, more frustrated than when she'd started the phone call. "Well what can you tell me?"

"You've met Zhao JingShi?"

"Yes. Was I his girlfriend?"

"Briefly -"

"Marcus, shut up!" her sister shouted in the background.

"Darling, she deserves to know. She's right.You're going to be a mother. When this baby is born, you will feel guilty we played a part in keeping your sister's child from her."

"So he's really my baby!" Finally Li Xia got the confession and confirmation she wanted. She felt light headed, saw black spots... felt indescribable anger.

"WHY?!" She bellowed and sobbed. "Why would you do that to me?"

Marcus hesitated to answer.

"At the time it seemed like a good idea," her sister muttered.

"MengMeng don't make it worse."

But sisters listened to no one when fighting. Li Meng: "I had your best interest at heart so don't make me out to be the bad guy here!"

"You stole my child!"

"You were pregnant, brain dead, and twenty!"

"You bitch!"

"Alright!" Marcus interjected. "Both of you, enough!"

"Other bitch," her sister muttered. Marcus had to have sent her 'the look' because Li Meng muttered "Sorry," silkily like — she didn't mean it! — right after.

"XiaXia, where are you? We can come to you and explain everything," Marcus said.

But Li Xia was angry and petty. "Aren't you a powerhouse or something? You can find me yourself. Piss off!" She ruthlessly pressed the end call button. Several times.

On the other side, half a world away, Li Meng looked up at her husband. Her little anger at her sister was only a big ball of worry. "What are we going to do? We have to find her. What if she never speaks to me again?"

Marcus did not roll his eyes at her dramatic thought of her sister never speaking to her again. In the years he'd known them, the two loved fiercely and fought fiercely but never stopped talking.

But keeping her son from XiaXia?

And that was only a small part of what went down that year.

"Don't worry," he took his wife into his arms. "If Zhao JingShi is near, she's safe."

"That man!" His wife scorned. "We have to find her. What if she calls Mom with this?"

Despite what his wife thought, Zhao Jingshi was a good man and a good businessman. "Where Zhao JingShi is, Li Xia won't be far." He eyed her pregnant belly. She was four months along. "Are you up for a plane ride?"

"Yes, of course!" she tottered on her bare heels, excited. "As soon as possible! But what about your business?"

Marcus liked his sister in law. He didn't mind dropping everything to ensure her safety. "Don't worry about that. I'll make the arrangements."