Mrs. Linderman recollected herself and forced a smile, “She is all right. It’s my husband, Mr. Linderman. He fell down the stairs by accident and is now in the hospital. The doctor said that if he survived tonight, he would recover. But if he didn’t, there would be nothing the doctor could do about it. So I thought…you might want to see him and talk to him. If he heard your voice, he might be able to wake up sooner.”
The middle-aged beautiful woman Samantha was relieved to hear that her baby was fine, but the news of Mr. Linderman’s hospitalization made her frown again. She asked anxiously, “How did my cousin fall down the stairs?”
Yes, Samantha was Mr. Linderman’s younger cousin and they had grown up together. However, after she had married into a wealthy family, she had rarely come back to visit her relatives in the countryside.
Mrs. Linderman felt guilty, but she quickly made up a lie, “People will inevitably get on in years. You know, he’s in his fifties now. Older people always have bad eyesight and bad knees…”
Samantha didn't suspect anything. She frowned, a little embarrassed, “My cousin had an accident and I really should go to see him. But…but my husband will come home soon. If he couldn’t find me at home, he would certainly ask about my whereabouts. I’m afraid he will get to the bottom of it, so I can’t go!”
Mrs. Linderman almost lost it when Samantha turned her down. But she soon came up with an idea. She took a step forward and whispered, “You gave up the baby for adoption on the very day you gave birth to her, and you haven’t come home to see her for some reason all these years. I’ve raised her like my own and now she has grown up to be a beautiful young woman. More importantly, she looks very much like you. She’s looking after my husband at the hospital right now. If you went there, you would certainly see her with your own eyes. It has been twenty-two years. Don’t you want to see your own daughter?”
As she had expected, Samantha hesitated. She bit her lips and finally made up her mind after quite a while, “All right. I’m going to the hospital with you. But please don’t tell her who I am. I…couldn’t tell her the truth now. Besides, you must never come here to see me again unless there was something wrong with my baby in the future.”
It wasn’t that Samantha had married up and become a snob who was unwilling to visit her poor relatives in the countryside. To be honest…she had a skeleton in the closet, and she couldn't afford to tell her husband about it. To hide her secret, she had no choice but to remain an ungrateful “bad woman”. “All right, I will keep it in mind.”
Mrs. Linderman nodded. She looked respectful, but deep down inside she hated Samantha very much. She’d rather that Samantha and her husband never met each other again. After all, there had been much going on among them.
Samantha grabbed her coat, got on the car, and drove to Chance’s clinic with Mrs. Linderman.
Mrs. Linderman was jealous of Samantha’s fancy car and her excellent driving skills, but she didn’t dare to show it.
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