Chapter 582: Epilogue (9)

Chapter 582: Chapter 571: Epilogue (9)

“Be honest, Boss Ellsworth, did you do anything in college that you find embarrassing now?”

Ethan Ellsworth answered honestly, “Of course. For instance, there’s one thing I did in middle school, high school, and college.”

“What was it?”

“I’d go into the women’s restroom before class ended. Then, when the female students came in after the bell rang, I’d swagger right out, scaring the daylights out of them.”

“…” Chloe Marshall rolled her eyes. “Anything else?”

“Yes…” Ethan Ellsworth admitted, his voice losing some confidence. “In the communal bathroom of the women’s dorm… I dressed up as a ghost…”

“Always hanging around bathrooms. Didn’t it stink?”

Speaking of which, Ethan Ellsworth felt the need to defend himself. “The time in the women’s dorm—that wasn’t my idea.”

“Oh?”

“I lost a card game to Young Master Grant and Young Master Hawthorne, so they made me dress up as the ghost.”

“Did you scare the girls who were going to the bathroom again?”

“More than just scared… a girl with a heart condition was so frightened she had a heart attack… After that incident, I never did anything so horrible again… Actually, it was because of things like that that Jean really disapproved of me back then…”

“It’s a good thing she disapproved. If she hadn’t, I wouldn’t be standing here with you now, reminiscing about the past…”

“That’s true…”

“The truth is, once you graduate, it’s hard to ever go back to those green and carefree years.”

“Good memories are priceless. You have to cherish them.”

For the next several months, life was smooth sailing.

In the blink of an eye, it was October. The sweltering weather gave way to a creeping chill, heralding the coming of winter.

In the middle of the night, Zoe Ellsworth, more than nine months pregnant, was struck by a sharp pain in her abdomen.

Breaking out in a cold sweat, she shoved Herman Hawthorne, who was sleeping beside her. “Herman, I’m going into labor.”

Herman Hawthorne scrambled to turn on the lamp. Still in his pajamas, he threw on his shoes, scooped her up, and rushed downstairs and out the door.

The driver drove while she sat in the back, the pain gradually falling into a rhythm.

The pain became unbearable for Zoe Ellsworth, and she began to moan.

“Zoe, deep breaths.”

Seething with pain, Zoe Ellsworth grabbed his hair. “Like deep breaths are going to stop the pain! This is all your fault for getting me pregnant, Herman Hawthorne! You’re the one to blame!”

She gripped Herman Hawthorne’s hair so tightly that his scalp throbbed in pain.

“AHHH, honey, go easy on me!”

Her other hand grabbed the hair on the other side of his head. “It hurts like hell!”

“Honey, we’re almost at the hospital, don’t panic,” he said, pulling out his phone to call Ethan Ellsworth.

By the time the car pulled up to the hospital entrance, Ethan Ellsworth, Mr. Ellsworth, and Mrs. Ellsworth were already waiting.

Ethan Ellsworth and Mrs. Ellsworth helped Zoe Ellsworth out of the car, while Herman Hawthorne ran straight into the hospital lobby, shouting, “Hello? Is anyone here?”

Wailing continuously, Zoe Ellsworth followed right behind Herman Hawthorne, supported by Mrs. Ellsworth and Ethan Ellsworth.

It was the middle of the night, and the hospital was pitch-black. They took the elevator up to the third floor.

Herman Hawthorne was still shouting. Ethan Ellsworth lost his patience and yelled, “For god’s sake, can’t you turn on the hallway lights first? We’re fumbling around in the dark!”

Herman Hawthorne used his phone as a flashlight and fumbled for the light switch. Just then, a nurse on duty came out. Seeing the situation, she immediately asked, “How long have the pains been?”

Gasping for breath, Zoe Ellsworth answered, “For a while. It hurts so much. The pains are coming every five minutes.”

“Quick, get her into a delivery room. I’ll call the obstetrician.”

Zoe Ellsworth was wheeled into the maternity ward. Ethan Ellsworth stood by the door, while Mrs. Ellsworth went in to accompany her.

After a little while, the doctor rushed over. Seeing it was the Ellsworth family, he didn’t dare to dally and immediately entered the delivery room.

Mrs. Ellsworth came out shortly after, looked at Herman Hawthorne, and said, “Go on in. Zoe wants you to be with her during the delivery.”

Herman Hawthorne nodded and immediately ran inside.

The rest of the group waited outside the door.

Herman Hawthorne put on the blue scrubs and cap a doctor handed him and entered the delivery room.

Zoe Ellsworth’s forehead was beaded with dense sweat. Seeing her condition, Herman Hawthorne went forward and took her hand. “Honey, don’t be afraid. I’m right here.”

Zoe Ellsworth freed her other hand and smacked him on the head. “Afraid? I’m not afraid, it just hurts like hell!”

“What am I supposed to do? I can’t feel the pain for you…” It was Herman Hawthorne’s first time facing a situation like this, and the man, well over six feet tall, was completely flustered.

The doctor spoke up, “Miss Ellsworth, you’re only one centimeter dilated. You’ll have to be fully dilated before you can have a natural birth.”

“So, I have to wait?”

“Yes. I recommend we run another prenatal check, Miss Ellsworth. Since your previous exams weren’t done at our hospital, we don’t know the baby’s current status.”

Zoe Ellsworth agreed without hesitation. “Okay.”

A nurse led her to the ultrasound room.

After she lay down on the examination table, the doctor switched on the ultrasound machine and began the exam.

After the exam, the doctor told her directly, “Miss Ellsworth, the amniotic fluid on your left side is gone, the umbilical cord is wrapped around the baby’s neck three times, and he’s not small—at least eight pounds. It’s a boy. I recommend you don’t wait for a natural delivery and have a C-section instead.”

Zoe Ellsworth nodded. “A C-section it is, then.”

And so, Zoe Ellsworth was wheeled into an operating room, but this time, Herman Hawthorne wasn’t allowed to follow.

Zoe Ellsworth hadn’t expected the anesthetic injection to be so agonizingly painful. She curled into a ball until the shot was administered. A short while later, she was numb from the neck down.

She was completely paralyzed.

Since she had eaten dinner that evening, the surgery brought on a wave of nausea, and she started to vomit.

The female doctor asked, “You ate dinner tonight?”

She nodded.

“You’re not supposed to eat before a C-section; it makes the surgery very unpleasant.” The doctor had barely finished her sentence when Zoe Ellsworth vomited again.

A doctor placed newspaper under her neck to catch it. After she threw up, she felt much better.

Once she was completely numb, a doctor pinched her skin with a pair of forceps and asked, “Can you feel this?”

“I don’t feel a thing.”

Only then did they adjust the operating table, placing a drape across her chest to block her view. The surgery began.

She truly couldn’t feel anything, just a jostling sensation in her abdomen. A few minutes later, a baby’s cry echoed through the operating room.

The male doctor announced, “Time of birth, 11:10. Prepare to suture.”

Zoe Ellsworth lay there with an IV drip in her right arm. As she listened to the sound of her child’s cries, she had a sudden thought. ‘Even if it meant dying right now, I’d be willing. This must be what people mean when they talk about the greatest love of all: a mother’s love.’

But at that moment, Zoe Ellsworth felt a suffocating tightness in her chest. She began to gasp, struggling to breathe, feeling as if she were about to die.

“Doctor… I… I think I’m dying. It’s so hard to breathe…”

Seeing her distress, the female doctor immediately snapped open a small glass vial, drew the liquid into a syringe, and injected it into the medicine in Zoe Ellsworth’s IV line.