"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.
He was worse than that.
The guilty man remained silent. Matthew also kept silent. He just watched Sheffield as he tried to process everything, lost in his memories.
After a long while, Sheffield scratched his short hair and said in a low voice, "I knew your sister was in the hospital then. I bumped into her, but I had a surgery scheduled, so I gave her my number hoping 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 didn't tell Matthew that he had tried to look for Evelyn the old fashioned way, going from one room to another. He was going to bring it up, and decided against it.
"We registered her under a 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.' Sheffield understood immediately.
He looked at the ceiling and took a deep breath to suppress the pain in his heart. "It's my fault." He felt sorry for hurting Evelyn like that.
He finally understood why Carlos hated him so much, and why he'd done everything to keep Sheffield and Evelyn apart. Carlos was afraid he would hurt his daughter again.
Leaning 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 her...
The guilt and pain Sheffield felt were obvious. He felt bad, and it showed. The younger man still kept an expressionless face. "So leave Evelyn alone. You don't deserve her at all. Just go away."
"No. That's impossible. I love her." Sheffield had never thought of giving up on her before, but now he was even more committed to being with her.
"Dude! She'll be engaged. To Calvert! You want to ruin that? You want to have an affair with her? You wanna be the other man? Know what that will do to her rep?"
"I won't let anyone say anything bad about her!"
"So what? People won't say anything in front of you, but there's always social media. And even behind your back."
After a short pause, Sheffield sat up straight and looked at Matthew. "So how do I fix this? How do I get the Huo family to accept me?"
"Go back in time and do things differently. That's about all you can do. And since that's impossible..." Matthew said coldly. Sheffield didn't know how to respond.
Matthew stood up with his hands in his pockets. "We don't even know who you really are. A background check turns up nothing. If you really love my sister, you'll tell her. Just ask yourself this: how much have you hidden from her?"
Although he didn't know much about Sheffield's background, Matthew had a vague feeling there was more than meets the eye when it came to this guy. He was too mysterious.
Matthew 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. He personally sent Sidell to jail.
Although Sheffield told the press that he'd figured this out by accident, Matthew didn't think it was so simple.
But he didn't care about Ingrid's case, so he didn't do any digging.
"I can explain that." Sheffield felt gloomy. On one hand, he had gotten used to hiding who he was; on the other hand, Evelyn never asked him about it. She just took who he was at face value, which was what he wanted.
"Your explanation doesn't mean shit to me. Just think about it. That'll be enough." Matthew began to walk to the door.
Sheffield called out to stop him."Matthew, I'm not giving up on Evelyn. There's no way. Man, in another life, we could have been friends. So what about it? Can we have a truce? l'll teach you to hack the security system."
His last sentence successful drew Matthew's attention. He turned around and asked, "You're a hacker?"
"More or less, I know a few tricks..." Even he himself wasn't sure if he was a hacker or a honker.
"Do you know Star Anise?"
"Of course! What? He your idol?" It seemed like Sheffield mood has lighten up a bit. The playful smile returned to his face.
"My idol? He doesn't deserve my respect!" Matthew snorted arrogantly.
Sheffield was speechless. Indeed, like father, like son.
"Break into ZL Group's security system before you talk to me again." Matthew said before opening the door and left.
Sheffield extended his hand and tried to call him back. He wanted to tell him that he could do that now. Could they be friends now? But the arrogant man had already left.
And Sheffield was once again alone in the private room. As he stared at the cup of coffee that had gone stone cold, his smile once again disappeared. Thinking of what Matthew told him just now, he felt his heart ache so much he almost suffocated.
He took out his phone and called Evelyn.