Chapter 14

“Don’t question anymore, Mrs. Duval. I just happened to fall.”

How hard must one fall in order to be injured to this extent?

She should have expected this to happen. Madam Duval and Sophia loathed her, so it was only natural that they would discriminate against Wanda for saving her.

Perhaps Wanda was tormented so frequently by these people in the past two years when she was hospitalized that Wanda did not have the courage to talk about them.

Hesper was furious. “You're in your current state because of me, so I’m going to uphold justice for you.”

“Don’t, Mrs. Duval!” Wanda pulled at Hesper strenuously with tears streaming down her face. “Madam Duval and Ms. Duval have always been domineering. If you uphold justice for me, it will only give them a reason to punish you even more. The baby is still young; think about him, and take care of yourself.”

Hesper, however, could not make peace with the fact that she involved the aging Wanda in her matter after she had endured so many hardships. There was a determined expression on Hesper's face.

“You should leave this matter be. It’s my idea. Keep a distance from me so they won’t have a reason to seek revenge on you from now on.”

As she was speaking, she took the liberty to walk to Sophia’s room.

In the pink room, Sophia was humming to herself as she put on makeup. She was going to dress herself up for a date that night with a good-looking man at the bar.

Without any hesitation, Hesper gave her a slap.

A clap was heard, loud and clear.

Sophia was dumbfounded by the slap. She only came to realize the situation after a few seconds. She covered her face and shrieked loudly, “Are you sick in the head or something? How dare you hit me!”

Hesper did not waste time making small talk either. Sophia had never seen Hesper’s expression look so cold.

“Was it you who caused the injury on Wanda’s face?”

How would the ever-obstinate Sophia put up with Hesper standing up for a lowly servant?

“So what if I hit her? You actually slapped me for a lowly servant. Trust me when I say I’ll kill you!”

Her expression distorted from anger, and she tried to beat up Hesper.

Hesper stood further away and grabbed Sophia with her arms so that Sophia could not budge anymore. Hesper said with a cold expression, “You set my mind at ease for admitting it.”

Upon saying that, she delivered two more slaps.

She struck Sophia so hard that it felt as if she was venting all her past resentment on Sohphia. Sophia’s face immediately swelled up, and she squalled in anger.

“I’m going to kill you, Hesper. I’m going to make my brother kill you!”

“Oh, is that so?”

Hesper chuckled in a mocking tone. “Wanda saved my life, yet you punished her. Was that not because you bear grudges against her? Or was it because I was supposed to die after giving birth to your family’s eldest grandchild?”

As she spoke, she clutched Sophia’s lower jaw gently and said in ridiculement, “Aren’t you going to tell Rickard about this? Go ahead, quickly. I would like to know if he is willing to let the child’s biological mother die and if your family can withstand the bad reputation that results from this!”

“Mad, you’re mad.”

Sophia was furious and her expression continued to distort from anger. After Hesper left, she immediately called up Juniper and spoke in a crying, nasal voice.

“Juni, come quickly. I can’t stand it for a minute longer…”

Hesper was aware of Juniper’s visit to the Duvals’ residence. She was carrying her child when she saw Juniper’s car through the window.

It was a red limited edition Porsche, a car worthy of her heiress status.

When she was walking to the door, their eyes met across the air momentarily.

Hesper quickly looked away, her lips seeming to curl into a smirk.

Juniper furrowed her eyebrows and felt an ineffable feeling. However, she did not put much thought into it and met Sophia soon. She asked, “What’s going on, Soph? What happened to you?”

“It’s all that b*tch Hesper’s fault!” Madam Duval said.

She found out about the sequence of events that took place after Sophia lost her temper in the house. They wanted to punish Hesper, but they were afraid that Hesper would risk her life and fight with them.

They called up Rickard but all he replied was ‘noted’ so they could only wait for Juniper’s arrival with their pent up anger.

Sophia acted as if she found her mainstay when Juniper showed up. She cried and said, “Juni, you’re my brother’s childhood best friend, so you know him best. What do you think is on his mind? He loathes the b*tch so much, yet he chooses to put up with her over and over again. Is he going to let Hesper lord over us and abuse her power?”

“No, of course not.” Juniper would never allow something like that to happen. An idea came to her. “I believe that Rickard is being more lenient with Hesper since she's just given birth to the family’s eldest grandchild. After all, Hesper risked her life during the delivery process. If the family members were to make things difficult for her right after her delivery and rumor of this incident were to spread, outsiders would think that the Duvals are mean.”

“B*llsh*t!” Madam Duval was the first to reject the remark. “There are plenty of women willing to bear children for the Duvals. It's so misfortunate that she had to be the one who did it! Does she think that she's some hot sh*t because of her child?”

Sophia sobbed to the side. “Juni, please reconcile your relationship with my brother soon. Get rid of this b*tch as soon as possible. You’re the only sister-in-law I recognize!”

Juniper was delighted but pretended to be troubled. “I would like that too. However, Hesper is a benefactor of your family now, as I’ve mentioned earlier. Rickard will always give her special treatment as long as the child is here…”

“It’s always the child! I’d like to see if she can still be so rampant without her child!”

Sophia’s eyes glistened with a sinister glow as a plan quickly took form in her head.

Hesper was still unaware of the impending crisis. She stayed by her son’s side all day long, touching his soft little hands and playing with him occasionally. The mother and son spent a peaceful, loving night together.

However, news of the baby becoming sick traveled from the nursery the next morning.

“How could this happen? He was completely fine yesterday!”

Hesper ran to the room in such a rush without even putting on her shoes, but she was stopped from entering the nursery when Madam Duval arrived.

“What are you doing here? Your child is sick today because you stayed with him all day yesterday. Hesper, you’re a jinx!”

“Let me in, I want to see my baby!”

Hesper tried to squeeze her way into the room with all her might but was pushed out of the room again and again.

Rickard had watched on coldly the whole time, but he could no longer bear it. He said in a cold voice, “I agreed to your requests, Hesper, but you don’t seem to know how to be a good mother. It'll be fine if the baby is okay, but if anything bad happens to him, you'll have to bear the consequences yourself.”

“But I didn’t do anything wrong. He was fine when we were together yesterday. Let me in, Rickard!”

Next to her, Sophia heard the conversation and said in a sarcastic tone, “What do you mean, Hesper? Could it be that you think we caused the child’s illness? You held the child all day long yesterday. All the servants in the family could attest to that. What reason could it be other than you being a jinx?”

“That's not what I’m implying.” Hesper’s gaze turned cold. She refused to believe in the superstitious belief of jinx, but she had no evidence to refute. She just wanted to see her baby quickly.