Ficorpio
Chapter 1
After I got pregnant, Ethan Sterling seemed like a different man.
He cut off all contact with Victoria Hayes.
He quit smoking, started making appointments with doctors, and prepared nutritious meals.
Ethan, who had never liked children, even signed up for a parenting class. He filled an entire notebook with notes.
It was as if time had turned back to the days before Victoria appeared, when we had still been happy together.
My mother finally let out a relieved breath.
“Men are like that. Once they become fathers, they settle down and learn to be responsible.”
“I can tell he truly wants to stay by your side and spend the rest of his life with you and the baby.”
I murmured my agreement twice.
The next day, I went to the hospital alone and terminated the pregnancy.
Two days later, Ethan came home from his business trip.
He waved a Blue Baby Onesie in front of him like a prized treasure.
“I passed a baby store today and picked this up. Cute, right?”
“The little one will look so sweet in it. I bet they’ll be an especially good baby!”
His smile froze the moment he saw my flat, empty stomach.
I hadn’t expected Ethan to come home so soon.
If he had returned a week later, I would already have moved into my new place, leaving behind nothing but a Divorce Agreement.
The moment Ethan stepped through the door, he lifted the tiny outfit and turned it this way and that, as if he were showing off some remarkable prize.
Every evening after work, he used to press his ear against my stomach first thing.
The little one had been incredibly restless. Even in the early stages of the pregnancy, the baby had left me dizzy and vomiting.
Ethan would soothe us in a soft voice.
“Be good, little one. Don’t bully Mommy.”
“We both have to love her properly.”
Today, Ethan instinctively looked toward my stomach again.
The tiny outfit hung limply from his hand. The curve that had once been there was gone.
He froze.
Then his gaze shifted to my unnaturally pale face.
The baby clothes slipped from his fingers and fell to the floor.
His fingertips trembled as he bent to pick them up. A strained smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.
“I was gone for only two days. How did you lose so much weight?”
“I guess I really do need to stay here and take care of you. I won’t travel for work anymore. I’m not going anywhere.”
“You must be hungry, right? I’ll make you something to eat.”
He turned away in a panic.
“Ethan.”
I spoke calmly.
“The baby is gone. We…”
“That’s all right!”
Ethan spun around and cut me off.
“We can still have children in the future!”
He seemed to sense what I was about to say and refused to give me the chance.
“I’ll be a good father. I took so many notes. I really learned everything!”
Chapter 2
“You love children so much. Whenever we pass someone else’s child on the street, you always stop to look. You wouldn’t have done this on purpose.”
“It’s my fault for going away. I should have protected you and the baby.”
His words tumbled over one another, his eyes reddening.
He called my name again and again, like a drowning man clinging to a piece of driftwood.
“Claire Bennett.”
“That was our baby. Why didn’t you want them?”
“Victoria and I have nothing to do with each other anymore.”
Since I became pregnant, this was the first time Ethan had mentioned Victoria Hayes.
She was a forbidden subject in our life, a nightmare neither of us was allowed to name.
In the beginning, Victoria had been nothing more than the impoverished intern Ethan occasionally mentioned.
She couldn’t afford rent, so she secretly lived at the Corporate Office. She stuffed her Bedding into the supply closet beside the restroom, then spread it out on the conference-room floor after everyone had gone home. Before work each morning, she put everything back exactly as she’d found it.
Then someone discovered her secret and posted it in the company’s group chat.
Under the weight of everyone’s strange looks, she began making mistake after mistake at work. Her chances of earning a permanent position were hanging by a thread.
Ethan told me the story as if it were a joke.
I felt sorry for the young woman I’d never even met and asked him to help her.
His tone was indifferent.
“What she did was foolish. She’s not worth investing in. Why waste your time?”
I kissed him with practiced ease.
“Red Roses are my favorite, and her name has rose in it. Maybe that’s fate. Besides, it’s hardly any trouble.”
The tips of Ethan’s ears turned faintly red.
“Give me another kiss, and I’ll do it.”
With another kiss from me, he agreed to give Victoria Ten Thousand Yuan in Cash.
I made sure to remind him to put it in an Envelope and leave it quietly at her Workstation without signing his name.
Back then, I never imagined that this small act of kindness would water a carnivorous flower.
It was two years before I heard Victoria Hayes’s name again.
Ethan was in a car accident while traveling for work, but his injuries were minor.
Victoria, who had been traveling with him, was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit.
That was the first time I saw her.
She had large, bright eyes and was so thin that her cheekbones stood out sharply.
Chapter 3
At the moment when life and death hung in the balance, she had thrown herself in front of Ethan. The wound across her back ran from her shoulder blade to her side, requiring thirty-seven stitches and leaving behind a grotesque scar.
She refused money. She refused anything at all. She only stared wide-eyed and said, “Consider the debt for that ten thousand yuan repaid.”
The doctor sighed. “All young women care about their looks. What a shame. She’ll never be able to wear backless clothes again.”
I caught a glimpse of the winding scar disappearing beneath her collar. The sight left me deeply unsettled, so I called in favors and found the best doctor I could to treat it.
The scar faded somewhat, but it remained impossible to miss.
Then inspiration struck. I designed a rose tattoo.
Blue roses bloomed down along her spine, bold yet quiet.
At a glance, there was no sign of the terrifying car accident that had left its mark on her.
“It’s beautiful,” I said sincerely.
Victoria stood before the mirror and traced the petals with one hand behind her back. A flicker passed through her eyes.
“Thank you,” she said. “I think so too.”
Ethan told me Victoria was an exceptionally hard worker. Within two years, she earned two promotions.
After that, she became his most capable employee and was transferred south to manage the Shenzhen branch.
One day, I borrowed Ethan’s phone to check the weather.
That was when I noticed he had two frequently viewed cities.
The second was Shenzhen—the city where Victoria lived.
My heart seemed to stop for a beat before hammering violently against my ribs.
In an instant, all the tiny things that had felt vaguely wrong began clicking into place.
Ethan had always listened to news and podcasts during his commute. Recently, he had started playing soft, soothing music instead.
He had bought a new lighter, while the S.T. Dupont lighter he had once treasured sat forgotten in the corner of a drawer.
And though he brought me red roses every day, once, without warning, he had come home carrying blue ones.
I began watching Ethan without letting him notice.
But he gave nothing away.
Just as I started wondering whether I was imagining things, I saw a photo from a rock-climbing trip he had taken with a group of friends. Something around his wrist caught my eye.
A Temple Blessing Bracelet from Jiming Temple—one meant for people praying to find lasting love.
My mind went blank with a deafening buzz.
Ethan was the very definition of a rational, scientifically minded man. He had always scoffed at things like blessings and lucky charms.
Even the bracelet I had once given him was locked inside our safe, gathering dust.
So who was he wearing this one for?
At Jiming Temple, I found my answer.
Among the wall of wish plaques, one bore the unmistakable image of a blue rose.
“This life, a scar brought me close to you. In the next, I want to stand openly by your side.”