A Graduation Gift

After reaching the hospital, Lionel rushed into the emergency room with Cassandra in his arms.
"Hospitalize her!" he ordered, gave a wad of money and hurried away.
As quickly as he had come, his footsteps receded into the night, leaving the doctor bewildered at his abrupt manner.
Cassandra willed her eyes to open and looked at the doctor on duty, with a bitter smile on her lips.
"Doctor, I think I have a fever," said Cassandra weakly.
Then she lost consciousness and fell backwards.
Luckily, a pair of powerful arms caught her.
'Well, the doctor is quick in movement. He's really a nice and thoughtful man, '
thought Cassandra the second she fell into a coma.
The doctor stared at the second man who suddenly appeared in the emergency room. He suspected this second man must have
come here in hot pursuit of the unruly character who had just left. By their manner of handling the unconscious lady, it was
obvious there was bad blood between the two.
Rufus's face darkened with anger. Urgently, he ordered the third guy who accompanied him and was standing by his side,
"Victor, keep a close watch on him. Find out what he's up to."
Quietly, Victor nodded and left, pensively touching his nose with a finger. By the hasty way in which Rufus followed Lionel, he
knew Rufus really cared about Cassandra.
Rufus was right. Lionel didn't intend to take Cassandra to the doctor. It was just his excuse.
From the parking lot Lionel stepped on the gas and drove like a maniac straight to Ivy's home, burning with anxiety.
A puffy eyed Ivy came to open the door. When she saw Lionel, she threw herself directly into his arms.
"Here you are at last," she greeted, her anxiety echoing on every syllable.
A beautiful, strong woman most of the time, Ivy was now clumsy and irritable. She wore little make-up and was terribly upset. It
distressed Lionel.

Helping her to sit on the sofa and wiping away her tears, Lionel held Ivy in his arms and comforted, "Take it easy. I'm here with
you."
But in the warmth of his arms, Ivy sobbed all the more, her shoulders twitching and her voice choking.
"Lionel, what should I do? I want to keep this baby," she wept.
But Lionel flatly refused without a second thought, "No, you can't keep this baby. I'm not ready for a baby now!"
For a moment a menacing look flashed across Ivy's face. But soon, realizing how futile it was trying to argue with him, she
dropped her demand. 'It would be better to play along, ' she mused.
"It's not like I'm forcing my way, Lionel. I have a good reason for my desire, and maybe, you'll understand," she began, in a
solemn tone now. "You see, after the last car accident, the doctor said my uterus sustained pretty bad injuries. It would be
virtually impossible to conceive. But look, here I am, pregnant, beyond a shadow of a doubt. That to me is a miracle which gives
me joy that words cannot express. I'm more than willing to take a risk and carry the pregnancy to term," she paused and wiped a
tear from her eyes. "Please, let me keep the baby. It's the best support you could ever give to a woman in my position, honey."
Speaking of the car accident, Lionel was brought back to reality. His usually impertinent face clouded with regret and pain.
Memories of Ivy falling in front of the car, the words she said to him in the ward and the way she reassured him in tears were
unforgettable.
But now he was at a critical moment in his wrangles with Rufus. He needed to put things in order.
Reading his emotions like a shot, Ivy realized her words aroused him to deep-seated feelings. Using that to her advantage, she
once again burst into tears, and bitterly pleaded in a low voice, "Lionel, I'm not asking for much. All that I want is for you to let me
have this baby, and nothing more!"
They had known each other for seven years, and all along, she turned a blind eye to his wild, compulsive behavior. She knew all
about his philandering and had learned not to give a hoot about his other women. Even if he couldn't wise up and stop wasting
time and money on every skirt he saw, Ivy wouldn't care. And for her patience putting up with his womanizing, he had come to
love her more.
She knew that for a fact and it gave her boldness to take him on.
Lionel used condoms all the time, but she had secretly poked holes in the condoms.

She hated to see what she had been planning for all those years go up in smoke, so she had to make a bait.
As she listened to Lionel comforting her so tenderly, she enjoyed to see her plot pan out well. It cut his heart that she stubbornly
insisted on having the baby.
At long last he exploded, "Ivy, don't push me! I've shown due respect for your feelings. In any case, you can't give birth to this
baby. I'll take you to the hospital for an abortion tomorrow. That's the best I can do for you."
Suddenly, the air between them got dense. When she recovered from the initial shock, she said with a bitter smile, "Lionel, I
finally know you have been lying to me with all these fake promises. In the end, you are giving up your baby. I should have
known that you are such a heartless person."
Ivy wiped her tears and stood up, her hands resting gently on her tummy, her voice calm.
"This is my baby and I don't care whatever evil thoughts you have for your way of life. I'm not terminating the pregnancy, come
what may. I'll have to go all out!"
The clock in the living room of their love nest struck timely, loud and clear.
Ignoring the interruption, Ivy suddenly smiled at him. A charming, innocent smile.
"Let me make it clear for you, Lionel. If ever you try to hurt my baby, that will be the end of you and me!"
As he pondered over her words, Lionel's mind ran through all the time they had been together. He remembered his first meeting
with Ivy. The girl had a unique apple aroma.
At first sight, he was taken by her beauty and the simple way she carried herself. She was unpretentious, and charming in her
own special way. And as they began dating, she became the sun that would always brighten up his world.
Before he knew it, he had fallen head over heels in love with her. Among his many mistresses, Lionel knew she was the best
ever.
But he failed to fulfill his promise to marry her. Under the arrangement of his family, he married Cassandra, and broke Ivy's heart.
The stunned look on Ivy's face after he told her that he was going to marry Cassandra was still etched on his memory. In anger
she had wriggled free from his arms and ran out of the door, into the busy traffic, absentmindedly ramming into a car. She had
almost lost her life.

After she was snatched out of the jaws of death, she had never been the same again. She turned into a completely different
person, shrewd and scheming.
Feeling guilty, Lionel had decided to buy her the villa. However, material satisfaction could not fill the gap between them. Lionel's
marriage remained a barrier.
The wound in her heart became his wound. Lionel went even further than that. Quietly, he snubbed Cassandra and never
touched her. But as long as they didn't dissolve the marriage, Ivy still couldn't get rid of her hang-up.
"Ivy, you know I love you. I always thought you knew me well."
Realizing that he couldn't confront Ivy, he pleaded, treading carefully. The final decision on the pregnancy was a ball in her court.
He couldn't force her to have an abortion unless she agreed to.
"I know your feelings for me, so I have waited for all these years. But what do I get in return?"
Ivy was overwhelmed with indignation.
"You said that you and Cassandra were a couple in name only, and I believed it. You told me that you'd soon divorce her
because of disagreement, and I believed it. You promised that you would marry me eventually, and I also believed it. But now
you want me to kill my baby!"
While she counted his mistakes, Lionel's heart palpitated at the thought of Cassandra.
The sudden image of her stubborn, guarded look in his mind brought him a inexplicable feeling.
'She is having a fever. How is she now?' he thought.
'I have left her at the hospital alone. They will take care of her, right? She should be alright.'
When Ivy saw that Lionel was obviously distracted, she spoke out directly what she had held back for a long time, "Lionel, if you
insist, I will leave you. I will completely disappear with your baby!"
That jolted Lionel back to the present.
"How dare you!" he roared.

But Ivy, not worried anymore, snorted back, "I would do anything for the baby! All these years, you've only been fabricating a
future for me to keep me by your side. On my part, I've been good to you. Look how you want to reward my loyalty? Yeah, you
want me to kill our baby in return! I'm bitterly disappointed!"
When Lionel listened to her, his pangs of guilty came in huge, threatening waves.
At his dumbness, Ivy continued, "I thought the idea of me carry your baby who is also the eldest grandson in Tang family would
mean something to you. By the fact that your marriage to Cassandra had gone south, you made me believe I'd be appreciated in
the family! You took advantage of my innocence!
Lionel came to a sudden realization at Ivy's shout.
He had never slept with Cassandra, but Horace didn't know that. If the family realized that Cassandra couldn't bear a child for
Lionel, they'd allow him to divorce her. Once Cassandra was gone, the family would gladly accept his remarriage to Ivy.
Seeing how close he was to his dreams, Lionel gathered Ivy to him. He had gotten an idea.
"Take good care of yourself, Ivy. I will do what I have promised you. I'm ready to have a baby with you," he promised.
Resting her head on Lionel's shoulder, a smile of triumph lit up her face.
'What a foolish man!' she thought.
What Lionel didn't know was that Ivy had hatched that plot. She knew he had no reason to divorce Cassandra. That left her with
only one plan. She'd have to take the risk and get pregnant. With the baby, she could easily blackmail Lionel.
The shrewd Tang family should know which was more important between their own eldest grandson and Cassandra - the
daughter of the declining Qin family.