The Stand-In Girl He Couldn’t Keep Chapter 02
The wind outside was howling and freezing.
I pulled my coat tighter around myself and walked wearily through the empty midnight streets.
Half an hour later, my phone buzzed with a bank notification alerting me that thirty thousand dollars had been deposited.
Right after, a text from Steven popped up: “Go to the pharmacy and buy some ointment for your face so it doesn’t swell up tomorrow.
“Sophie is still young and immature. Don’t take it personally.”
Every single time Sophia did something malicious, Steven would use her “youth” as a shield to excuse her behavior.
I typed back casually: “As long as Ms. Hardy is happy, that’s all that matters.”
The person on the other end clearly hesitated for a while.
It took a long time before he finally replied, “Ellie, sometimes you could act spoiled, too. You could throw a tantrum with me.”
Throw a tantrum?
How could I ever dare?
The last time I threw a tantrum with him was a year ago. Back then, Sophia, who had been studying in the UK, had come home for the holidays.
Before that, I had never met her.
I only knew that Sophia was the daughter of Steven’s late, close friend.
Steven told me he had raised her for ten years, and she had always looked up to him as an uncle.
Sophia had moved to the UK for high school and rarely returned home.
No matter how packed his schedule was, Steven would make time every month to fly over and visit her.
At the time, I didn’t think much of it, assuming it was just a typical relationship between a guardian and his ward. I had even teased Steven with a smile. “You sure have a wonderful relationship with your baby girl.”
But that day, when Sophia saw me wearing Steven’s white shirt in his bedroom, she exploded in rage and screamed, “How dare you seduce Steve?”
A confrontation broke out between us.
At that moment, I was standing on the spiral staircase, only three steps away from the landing.
During our argument, Sophia violently shoved me down.
I hadn’t even realized I was pregnant at the time.
That single fall cost me the baby.
Inside the VIP hospital room, I clung to Steven, sobbing uncontrollably. “Steve, our baby is gone…
“Call the police and have Sophia arrested right now! She shoved me down the stairs; she killed our baby!”
But Steven refused to take my side. “This whole thing isn’t entirely Sophie’s fault. You laid hands on her, too. You scratched her cheek up pretty badly; this was a mutual fight.
“She’s young and impulsive. You’re five years older than her; why are you being so vindictive? You need to take ninety percent of the blame for losing the baby yourself.”
I froze instantly, staring at him in utter disbelief, my voice cracking and trembling with tears. “She insulted me first, and she put her hands on me first! How can you blindly protect her like that?
“If you won’t call the police, I’ll do it myself!”
I pushed him away, frantically searching for my phone, unlocking the screen, and dialing 911.
In the very next second, Steven violently snatched the phone out of my hand.
He glared down at me, his voice carrying a terrifying coldness I had never heard from him before. “Ellie, your fall was an accident. Sophie didn’t do it on purpose.
“Besides, what you were carrying was just an embryo; it wasn’t even a fully formed life yet.
“Furthermore, even if today’s incident hadn’t happened, I never would have allowed you to keep that child.
“My family would never accept an illegitimate child, and I am never going to marry you. Are we clear now?”