Beg For My Love On Your Knees

"Mrs. Watson, your baby is very healthy. All the indicators look great," Dr. Helena Collins said with a smile, looking at the ultrasound screen.

"Really?" Emily Johnson slowly sat up from the bed, glanced down at her slightly rounded belly, gently placed her fingertips on it, and a worried expression crossed her face.

This was her second child. Her last pregnancy had also shown normal results in all the checkups, but in the end...

"Everything looks stable right now," Helena reassured her. "Don't worry, last time was just an accident. Just be careful this time, and come to the hospital right away if you notice anything unusual."

Thinking about her last child, Emily felt a dull ache in her heart.

It had been a boy.

Both of her children with her husband Joe Watson were conceived through IVF.

When she succeeded the first time, she had joyfully prepared the nursery, bought baby clothes, and even started thinking of names.

But shortly after the baby was born, he died.

The doctors thought it might have been a problem with the baby himself, but couldn't find a more specific cause.

Joe had comforted her, saying it was okay, they could try again.

But she had been immersed in the pain of losing her child for a full six months before she could move on.

Until this time, when she got pregnant again.

"I'll be careful," Emily said softly, getting down from the bed and straightening her dress.

Emily walked out of the examination room, clutching the ultrasound report with the clear outline of a small figure visible on it.

The corners of her mouth unconsciously curved up, but her eyes were somewhat moist.

This time, everything has to be okay.

She walked down the hallway toward the elevator. Just as she turned the corner, her steps suddenly stopped.

About ten paces ahead, an examination room door had just opened, and two familiar figures walked out.

One was Joe, her husband.

And the other was Joe's first love, Olivia Smith.

Emily instinctively hid behind the wall, her hands unconsciously clenching tight, her knuckles turning white.

She remembered that when Joe left that morning, he told her he had an important international conference at work and would be out all day.

But right now, he was tenderly holding his first love's arm.

Olivia was leaning against Joe, her shoulders shaking with sobs, her golden hair falling over her shoulders, making her pale face look even more pitiful.

"It's all my fault for being useless..." Olivia's voice was choked with tears. "After all this treatment, I still can't get pregnant normally. Joe, I'm sorry, I can't give you children..."

Joe lowered his head, resting his chin on top of her hair, his tone gentler than Emily had ever heard: "Don't say that. It's not your fault."

"But I'm still so scared..." Olivia looked up at him with tear-filled eyes. "If Emily finds out that the baby in her belly is actually ours, will she abort it?"

"She won't," Joe raised his hand and gently wiped the tears from her face. "I've kept it well hidden. Emily won't know that I secretly switched out her eggs for yours."

Emily's pupils suddenly contracted, and cold sweat broke out all over her body.

She instinctively looked down at her slightly rounded belly, and an unprecedented fear welled up in her heart.

Could it be... the child in her belly wasn't hers?

It was Olivia and Joe's, and she was just a tool carrying the baby for them?

"I hope this time goes as smoothly as last time," Olivia said, leaning on Joe's shoulder, her tone wistful. "Last time when Emily was making such a scene at the hospital, it really scared me. I was so afraid she'd discover the baby had been switched."

"How could she?" Joe stroked her shoulder, saying softly, "Even if she did find out, she'd deserve it. Who told her to make you lose the ability to be a mother?"

Emily, hiding behind the wall, felt her mind go completely blank.

The last child?

That son she thought had died, the one that made her cry until she fainted in the delivery room, the one that left her depressed for six whole months—he was actually still alive?

He'd been taken away and given to Olivia?

No wonder when she first saw Olivia's child, she felt he looked familiar and had asked Joe who the father was.

Joe had just brushed her off at the time, telling her that Olivia's husband was abroad long-term.

Now it seemed Olivia had never been married at all. She and Emily's husband had been carrying on all along.

"I really need to thank Emily," Olivia's voice carried false guilt. "Without her, I probably would never have been able to be a mother in this lifetime."

Joe lowered his eyes, his voice carrying years of suppressed resentment: "You're just too kind. If she hadn't forced me to marry her back then, you wouldn't have tried to jump off that building, and you wouldn't have damaged your uterus. All of this—she owes you."

Olivia bit her lip without speaking, only burying her face deeper into his chest.

And Emily stood at the corner of the hallway, trembling uncontrollably.

Her hand unconsciously covered her slightly rounded belly, her fingertips ice-cold.

Although her marriage to Joe was a business arrangement, she had fallen deeply in love with him from the first time they met.

To please Joe's parents, she learned to cook and do housework from nine to five, falling from a high-society lady to a housewife.

But in Joe's eyes, all of this was just her scheming to marry him.

After marriage, Joe always said he was busy, always leaving early and coming home late. Even when he was home, he maintained a cold and distant attitude toward her, let alone touching her.

Until one day, Joe said to her: "Let's have an IVF baby. It's more scientific and can ensure the quality of the child."

She thought he wanted a higher-quality child, thought he was just too rational, too focused on efficiency.

She convinced herself it was okay—as long as the child was theirs together, the method didn't matter.

But now she finally understood.

It wasn't that he didn't want children. He didn't want children with her.

He had never seen her as his wife.

She was just a uterus, a tool, a vessel to carry a baby for his first love.

Emily's body began to tremble violently, and a wave of intense nausea surged in her stomach.

She suddenly turned around, covered her mouth, and stumbled toward the restroom at the end of the hallway.

She leaned over the sink, dry heaving several times, but nothing came up.

The mirror reflected a pale face with red-rimmed eyes and purple lips, like a stranger.

She didn't know how long she stood in the restroom until footsteps sounded behind her.

"Ms. Johnson?"

She jerked her head up and saw Helena in the mirror.

"What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?" Helena reached out to support her arm, her tone full of concern. "Didn't you finish your checkup? Why are you still here?"

Emily opened her mouth but found she couldn't make a sound.

Her lips trembled, and tears finally couldn't help but slide down from her eyes.

Helena frowned, helped her to a chair in the hallway, and asked carefully: "Ms. Johnson, is there anything I can help you with?"

Emily kept her head down, silent for a long time, her gaze falling on her slightly rounded belly. She gently placed her right hand on it, her voice hoarse: "Dr. Collins, can I... get an abortion?"