The IVF Secret That Shook a Dynasty novel Chapter 295

But even setting that aside, Vivica was still terrified. “You may not care about social standing, but what about your reputation? I’m divorced, and the Bairds are a true high-society family…”

Having lacked love for most of her life, Vivica found it hard to believe her fate could take such a dramatic, positive turn. She needed constant reassurance, constant confirmation.

Melanie understood her anxiety. She turned to face her, her expression kind and comforting. “Of course we care about our reputation. That’s precisely why we support you and Joseph being together, so you can have a child legitimately and see if it can save Chaim. If we didn’t care about our reputation and only wanted to save him, we could have just given you a sum of money and had you go through IVF again, regardless of how much you suffered. As for your divorce, we’ve known from the beginning it was your ex-husband’s fault. How could that possibly be held against you?”

“And think about it this way: if he hadn't lost his mind and demanded a divorce, things would be much more complicated now. Your divorce is what gave Joseph this chance, what gave Chaim this chance.”

Vivica was stunned. She had never considered that Melanie would view their “reputation” from such a different angle. They weren’t worried about society gossiping that the Bairds had taken in a divorcée; they were concerned with upholding their own principles of decency and ensuring a woman wasn't taken advantage of. The integrity of the Baird family was truly remarkable.

And Melanie was right. If Fletcher hadn't cheated and initiated the divorce, she never would have met Joseph, and she certainly wouldn’t have discovered the truth about Chaim's parentage. Every seemingly unrelated event had perfectly set the stage for the next. What had been a tragedy at the time now seemed like a fortunate twist of fate.

“I never realized you and Sheridan were so open-minded,” Vivica said, her voice thick with emotion.

Melanie smiled and shook her head. “We’re open-minded in some ways, and not so much in others.”

Vivica looked at her, curious.

“We value you and don’t care that you’ve been married before because we’ve seen your character for ourselves,” Melanie explained. “We believe you’re a sincere, down-to-earth person. In that, we’re open-minded.”

“But where we aren’t so open-minded,” she continued, “is that Sheridan and I desperately want Joseph to get married and start a family. We can’t fully respect his freedom on that matter. We weren’t as anxious before because we still had Lennon; we figured as long as one of the brothers settled down, it would be enough. But who could have known Lennon would be taken from us…”

And she wouldn't just be good to Joseph. She would genuinely cherish Sheridan and Melanie, treating them like the parents she never had.

Melanie smiled. “Then we’re asking a lot of you, because Joseph’s personality can be quite infuriating at times. But once he truly sees how wonderful you are, once he falls in love with you, I know he’ll treat you well.”

On that, she had faith in her son.

Vivica blushed and looked down. “He’s actually very good to me already. He’s helped me so much. As for love… at my age, I don’t really care about that anymore. Like you said, a stable life is what truly matters.”

“I’m glad you feel that way,” Melanie said, patting her hand reassuringly. “Now, eat more. You need to get your body healthy.”