“Hiss…” Eloise pressed a hand over her aching heart as she sucked in a painful breath. “So that’s why… Now I understand…” she muttered to herself as the rush of her tears grew while her lips trembled to speak a name.
“Niamh…”
Niamh smiled bitterly at the words. She found her eyes becoming wet.
What a shame that it was all too late.
Eloise fainted after she uttered out her daughter’s name.
Niamh sent Eloise to the hospital after she passed Jackson over to one of the kindergarten teachers. Sean rushed over not too long after.
Not knowing why Eloise had fainted, the man was anxious in fear that she had gotten sick.
Niamh signed Eloise’s discharge papers before she returned to the room. Seeing Sean pace nervously outside, she immediately suppressed her upset feelings and walked over to the man with a smile.
“You’re here, Mr. Montgomery. Don’t worry, your wife is alright.”
Sean thanked her as she handed him Eloise’s examination report.
Sean’s worry grew when he read the reason behind Eloise’s unconsciousness—extreme distress.
“Distress? Why would Ellie be distressed out of the blue?”
Sean looked at Niamh in confusion.
“Why did you send my wife to the hospital, Miss Quinn?”
“That’s because…”
Niamh was just about to explain herself when sobs suddenly rang out from inside the room.
Sean’s expression changed and he immediately turned around to enter.
Taking a deep breath, Niamh entered the room as well like nothing was wrong.
Eloise had indeed woken and she was currently crying her eyes out.
Sean approached her worriedly. “What’s wrong, Ellie? What’s got you so sad?”
Only then did Eloise seem to realize Sean’s presence. She looked up at him with eyes reddened from all the crying. There was irreparable and incurable pain in her sad gaze.
“Why must the Heavens punish us like this, Sean? Why…”
Her voice trembled as tears fell like pearls from her eyes.
Confused, Sean felt his heart grow frantic.
“What are you saying, Ellie? Don’t cry. Shh, relax. Talk to me.”
Eloise gave a self-deprecating chuckle amidst her tears and looked up to meet Sean’s concerned gaze with her ashen complexion. Then, she took out the gold pendant from her pocket.
“I’ve found our daughter, Sean.”
“What? That’s great! Did you really find her?” The worry on Sean’s expression was replaced with excitement. “Where is she? Ellie, where’s our daughter?”
Sean pressed impatiently while Eloise closed her eyes in agony.
“She died.”
“Wh-What? Died?” Sean was stricken.
“We played a part in killing her…” Eloise looked up remorsefully. “Niamh Delgado was our daughter…”
“What… What did you say?”
Sean was shell-shocked when he heard Eloise’s words.
The joy he had felt moments prior shattered that very moment, its shards stabbing into his heart and grinding the muscle within.
Niamh’s heart seized painfully as she stared at the pain-stricken expressions Eloise and Sean wore from the sidelines.
“Ni-Niamh Delgado was our daughter?” Sean’s eyes widened in pain as he remembered how he had once slapped her across her face.
He had also kicked her onto the ground just to protect the fake that was Nevaeh.
He remembered how Niamh even seemed to be in too much pain to climb back up.
Her pitiful situation back then inexplicably surfaced in his mind.
Why did his heart hurt so much?
Sean’s legs were close to giving out.
“I finally understood why Nevaeh would have this gold pendant! I even watched it drop from Niamh’s clothes! So why did I believe Nevaeh’s words that Niamh had stolen it?
“Now I know why Rose said our daughter died three years ago. That was when Niamh left us, wasn’t it…”
Eloise began to choke on her tears as regret overwhelmed her.
“Oh, how I’ve prayed to find our daughter these 20-over years, only to scold, hit, and harm my own child to protect a wretched woman. What kind of mother am I?”
Eloise raised her trembling hands in front of her. She had never hated them as much as she did now.
She could not even remember how many slaps her hands had given Niamh for Nevaeh’s sake.
Suddenly, Eloise’s expression shifted. Throwing off the covers, she dashed to the balcony.
Sean ran after her in fear. “Ellie! Ellie, what are you doing?”
“Death would hurt less, Sean! When I think back to everything I’ve done to our daughter, I… Why couldn’t I have died in her place?”
Then, Eloise turned around to jump.
Niamh spun to the side and was met with Eloise who already had a leg halfway out the railings. “No! Mom, don’t!”
In a split second, Eloise and Sean heard Niamh’s shouts.
Although she had been determined to follow her daughter to where she was just a moment earlier, Eloise turned around in shock and climbed back inside upon hearing Niamh’s words. Tears streamed freely down her cheeks as she stared at Niamh who stood not too far away. She was in a daze.
Through her glistening tears, she realized that the woman had the same appearance as the one buried deep and painfully in her mind.
“Your Eveline’s still alive, Mom. You don’t need to die for me,” Niamh said with a soft smile.
“Come down. Dad’s getting worried, hmm?”
“Eveline…” Eloise walked away from the border of danger as she stared at Niamh in a trance.
Sean blinked blankly at Niamh for a while before snapping back to pull Eloise into the safety of the hospital room. Then, he bolted the door to the balcony.
“Are… Are you Niamh? Are you really Niamh?” Eloise ran up to Niamh eagerly and gripped her hand.
She immediately tried to warm Niamh’s hands only to realize that it was her own that was freezing.
With both Eloise and Sean looking at her expectantly, Niamh replied with a calm smile, “I’m glad you’re alright, Mrs. Montgomery. Impulsiveness is a devil, so don’t succumb to it anymore. Your life is important.”
“…” Eloise and Sean were startled, finally understanding that Vera had only said those words to save Eloise.
Their hopes crashed again, from heaven to hell.
Both Eloise and Sean knew that Niamh had lost her life to an incurable sickness.
Still, perhaps Niamh would not have left as quickly if not for them picking on her again and again.
Thinking back, they remembered the harsh words they had spat out when Niamh arrived at Kendrick and Nevaeh’s engagement event.
Oh, how this mother had even proclaimed that she was acting and the blood dripping from Niamh’s mouth was fake as she fell to the ground.
Niamh had left for good after ‘acting’, leaving their hearts with unrestrainable pain ever since…
Eloise had run out of tears to cry by the time Niamh left the hospital.
Niamh understood the grief of loss Eloise was going through.
She did not want to live anymore when her child was murdered.
Such pain was reminiscent of the sky falling apart and everything turning gray before her eyes.
Although now color had returned to her world.
…
Kendrick finally woke with the realization that this was the best and most well-rested sleep he had gotten in three years.
Reaching out, he found that the other side of the bed was no longer warm and immediately called Niamh.
The call connected, and Kendrick’s heart calmed as the speaker echoed with Niamh’s clear, sweet voice.
Kendrick had planned to bring Niamh on a honeymoon, but she rejected him due to her pregnancy.
Monday noon, Waldburg Corporations.
Kendrick had just wrapped up an important chairman meeting when he found Niamh sitting elegantly in the waiting area outside the meeting room.
Seeing him walk out, Niamh approached him with a thermos in tow.
“I made some dishes, Kendrick. I was hoping we could have lunch together?”
Watching the scene before them, Ken and everyone else involved in the meeting made an understanding move to leave.
Niamh held Kendrick’s arm sweetly and entered his office with him.
This was the first time Niamh stepped foot in Kendrick’s office.
‘So this is the environment he works in.’
When you looked out from one side of the transparent floor-to-ceiling windows, you would see a thick riverbank. The other side allowed those in the office to oversee every inch of the city below. It was a great place for an office, and most certainly not somewhere any Tom, Dick, or Harry could own should they wish.
She had once been stripped away of the right to visit this place.
He was her husband, and while she was never allowed into his office, he would let another woman come and go as she wished.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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