When I came home, I found my father's face had darkened with anger. He intended to ask Sven for an explanation, but I stopped him.
Shortly afterwards, I had to come back from America due to my pregnancy.
I was a gentlewoman in everybody's eyes, a real graceful lady from the upper class. Unlike Jane or Angela, who were lively and out-going, I was always quiet and even a bit withdrawn. What's more, Sven was about seven years younger than me. I really couldn't see what it was about me that attracted him.
Some said it was about the money. But I knew deep in my heart that my family's fortune was the last thing he wanted from me.
Although he was only 22 years old at that time, he had already stood out in the medical industry.
Everyone knew that, his own talent plus the support from his father had given him a promising future.
From the way he treated his sister Angela, I could tell that his future wife would definitely be dearly loved.
It turned out that I was right.
He had really been treating me well.
I was a dull and boring person, while he had a great sense of humor. He would amuse me every day, turning my zipped smile into a good laugh.
When I turned 30, our first son was born.
Men around me, younger or elder, including my father, Samuel, Eason, Chuck, Daniel and Jerry… all had one thing in common.
They preferred girls to boys.
Sven was among them, and he had wanted a daughter very much.
It was a pity that our second child was a boy as well. We named him Stan.
However, I had never seen any sort of disappointment or dissatisfaction in Sven's eyes. He was still nice to me, as always.
Knowing how much he wanted to have a daughter saddened me, as I wasn't able to fulfil his wishes. So I suggested to have another baby.
But Sven refused. He said, since I was over 30, it would be harder for me to give birth than when I was younger, thus we would have to consider greater risks if we wanted to go through with it.
He hated the thought of putting me in any danger.
He held me in his arms and comforted me gently, "It doesn't matter that we don't have a girl. You see, Daniel has two daughters, Jerry and our other friends have daughters, too. We can pretend to be their foster parents once in a while, and then we can send them back when we are contented. Isn't it a better idea?"
He matched his actions with his words.
The fact that we didn't have a daughter did no harm to our marriage.
At most he would chew the boys out angrily by saying, "Just my luck to have you two brats!"
My father was once cool and handsome, and my mother was beautiful. But by the time I was nearly 40, many grey hairs started to show themselves on their heads.
Against my mother's wishes, my father took her along to the hair salon, and dyed their hair black. This took years off their faces instantly.
They looked like they were 50 again, while in fact they were nearly 70 years old.
They were even energetic to visit Damascus just last week, and had brought us rose essential oil and skin care products as gifts when they returned from their trip.
For decades, they had been planting roses themselves every year. The essential oil was made exactly from those roses.
It was not long after Angela gave birth to Pauline that I was pregnant again.
Seeing the shock and astonishment all over Sven's face amused me quite a lot. I grinned.
While Angela was still expecting her baby, her ultrasound test showed that it was a girl. Sven was very happy to know that, as if it were our own baby daughter.
So I knew just how badly he wanted a daughter. He had simply put the idea off for my safety.
I went to America before I decided to get myself pregnant again, and had secretly consulted other gynecologists about my fertility chances.
When the test results came out, the doctor told me that, although I had already given birth to two children, my uterus had recovered quite well. And since it was taken good care of afterwards, we wouldn't encounter any major problems if I ever wanted to conceive another child.
The only requirement was that I would have to take good care of myself during the pregnancy, and would have to take antenatal examinations often.
I told her that my husband was a doctor.
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