After ten years of infertility, my husband sent eight children
When I was eighteen, I plunged into a frozen river to save my childhood sweetheart, Declan Thorne, a talented swimmer. I got severe frostbite, damaging my uterus.
The doctors told me I’d been in the ice too long, sustained severe damage that would make having children incredibly difficult.
Declan knelt by my hospital bed, swearing to cherish me forever, even if we never had kids. And just like that, he pampered me, making me the city’s most privileged elite.
This year, at thirty–two, marked our tenth wedding anniversary, a decade we’d built side by side.
But on our anniversary, I received an anonymous envelope. Inside were growth photos of Declan’s eight children.
I stared at my husband, who was meticulously massaging my leg.
My heart felt like it was being squeezed in a vise, making it hard to breathe.
Yet, he looked up and said, “Aria, perhaps we should adopt some children.”
He then shamelessly, brazenly, brought his mistress and their eight children right into our home.
That day, tears blurring my vision, I dialed his best friend’s number.
“Liam, I’m giving you a chance. Come help me put on
a
show!”
1
“Aria, I think we should…”
“We should adopt a few children to look after you when I’m not around.”
He said this while leading a boy and a girl out from a nearby room in the lobby.
Looking at their eerily similar faces, I felt a bitter, cynical twist in my gut
Declan walked over and pulled me into a deep hug.
“They’re just adopted.”
“I’ll still love you most, always!”
“That whole thing was so many years ago…”
“Aria, maybe we both need to move on.”
The memory of almost dying to save him, only for him to betray me, hit hard. The suffocating terror of the river water, the feeling of drowning from all those years ago, flooded me again.
“Get out! All of you, just get out!”
I fiercely pushed away the two children standing In front of me.
Declan’s voice turned sharp, a furious roar.
“Aria Maxwell, don’t be so unreasonable!”
“They’re just kids. Why are you throwing a tantrum at children?”
We’d been childhood sweethearts, and this was the first time he’d ever velled at me.
843 AM
<
We’d been childhood sweethearts, and this was the first time he’d ever yelled at me.
My heart splintered, like shattered glass.
I stormed out of our tenth wedding anniversary dinner.
But he didn’t grab my hand like he usually would.
The other guests had no idea what had just transpired. They only saw me, pushing the kids away like a madwoman, and their whispers and stares followed me.
That evening, Declan came home with the children.
I was packing my bags to leave.
“Aria, if you don’t like them, I can arrange for them to stay on the second floor.”
My packing paused for a beat, then resumed.
“Whatever.”
It wouldn’t concern me anyway, not anymore.
Declan let out a sigh of relief.
When I finished packing and reached the living room, I heard the children’s noisy shouts coming from the far right room on the second floor.
He’d put the children in *my* old room!
I raced upstairs. What greeted me was an utter disaster, the room torn apart.
The letters Declan had written me, the tiny straw cricket he’d woven, the handcrafted ring he’d given me when he proposed…
And all the toys my parents had given me!
Everything was strewn across the floor and the bed, broken.
My throat felt like an invisible hand was choking it, and a metallic taste, sharp and bitter, flooded my mouth.
*Slap!*
I slapped Declan hard across the face.
“Declan, do you have any heart at all?!”
Declan’s head was turned, and in his eyes, I saw no trace of the love he once held for me.
“Aria Maxwell, do you always have to be so demanding?”
Declan glared at me, his eyes blazing, while the boy behind him made a mocking face at me.
Suddenly, all those years of shared history felt like a cruel joke.
turned to leave, but the boy picked up a jade pendant, clearly intending to throw it out the window. My pupils constricted.
“Stop!”
Declan spun around.
“It’s just a pendant!”
8:43 AM
<
“It’s just a pendant!“.
“Aria, what kind do you want? I’ll buy you a new one, okay?”
“Why argue with a child?”
With Declan’s permission, the little boy flung the jade pendant out the window.
That was the last birthday gift my mother gave me before she passed away.
“No!”
The pendant shattered on impact. My eyes burned red with unshed tears.
“Go pick it up for me!”
My hand had just brushed the boy’s shirt when Declan rushed over and shoved me to the ground.
My fingers hit the floor awkwardly and fractured, a searing pain shooting from my hand through my entire body.
Declan pulled the boy into a protective, comforting hug.
“Aria Maxwell, I never realized you were so vicious!”
www.
I remembered how, once, a nanny accidentally broke my hair clip, and he’d lost his temper, making her kneel and apologize to me.
Now, he held the boy, led the girl, and walked away without a
Ward glance, leaving me alone, sabing uncontrollably
I went to the hospital alone. Dr. Reed, while bandaging my hand, sighed.
“What’s gotten into Mrs. Thorne this year?”
“Mr. Thorne used to protect you like the apple of his eye. You rarely visited the hospital. Now, you’ve actually broken your finger.”
The doctor’s words were like a dull knife, twisting slowly in my chest.
I stayed silent, biting back tears.
While I was being bandaged, I received a text from him.
[Aria, I was too hasty earlier. I’ve prepared a surprise for you.]
My heart ached until it felt numb.
No surprise he could offer would compare to the “surprise” of these two children.
I pushed down the pain and dialed Declan’s best friend, Llam Hayes.
“Liam, interested in helping me put on a show?”
