Chapter 1The "Prized" Son

On Thanksgiving Day, I got a call from a fertility clinic. They were congratulating my wife.

“Sir, the surrogacy for your and your wife’s second son was a complete success. Our advanced medical technology ensured your wife experienced none of the pain of childbirth.”

I froze. We didn’t even have a first child. Where did a second son come from?

I called my wife, Isabella, a renowned pediatrician, and demanded an explanation. She just laughed it off, suggesting some adoring patient’s parent must have listed her number as an emergency contact.

I looked at the Thanksgiving feast I had painstakingly prepared for her, a table groaning with food. In a single, furious motion, I swept it all onto the floor.

Then, I dialed my sister at the DOJ.

“Fiona, Isabella has a secret child. And not just one.”

“Get the divorce papers ready. I want her out of my hospital.”

…

What a Thanksgiving. Isabella had certainly given me one hell of a surprise.

I grabbed my car keys and sped to the hospital.

“Get Isabella Felton out here. I need to see her.”

The receptionist barely glanced up. “Dr. Felton is with a patient. She’s not available.”

“I’m her husband. It’s an emergency.”

The young nurse looked at me like I was insane. “Sir, please don’t joke around. Dr. Felton’ husband is upstairs with their newborn. You should probably leave.”

For the sake of Isabella’s pathetic pride, I had never publicly revealed my connection to the hospital. The entire staff knew Dr. Felton as a brilliant young physician, a rising star favored by the director. No one knew that I was the one who actually owned the place.

And now, in my own hospital, she was celebrating a new baby with another man.

Advanced medical technology? Bullshit. It was surrogacy, plain and simple.

Just as the nurse finished speaking, a man emerged from the maternity ward, cradling a newborn. A swarm of nurses immediately surrounded him.

“Jim, you’re up already! Taking the baby for his shots? You should have just called one of us.”

“You’re so lucky. First, you and Dr. Felton are always so disgustingly sweet, and now you have a beautiful baby boy.”

I pushed through the small crowd, my feet heavy as I walked toward them. It was only then, when I was standing right in front of him, that I saw the man’s face.

It was my cousin, Jim. The one I’d brought here from some backwater town.

His parents had begged me, said he couldn’t find a job after graduation and wanted to try his luck in the city. My heart softened. I not only let him live in the house I shared with Isabella, but I also gave him a job at the hospital, figuring with my wife looking out for him, he might actually make something of himself.

I never imagined he’d be the one sleeping with my wife. That they’d have children together. Two of them!

No wonder he’d insisted on moving out after a few months, claiming he didn’t want to be in our way. It wasn’t about giving us space; it was about making it easier to carry on their affair!

How dare they?

The moment Jim saw me, the color drained from his face. The hands holding the baby began to tremble.

“Ethan… what are you doing here?”