Chapter 7
tost in thought, Eric lounged with a furrowed brow, pondering the possibility that Alice was indeed Ashley. He wondered what events over the past
e years could have caused such a transformation.
During her university days, Ashley studied medicine, but since marrying me, she’d solely been a homemaker. How could she suddenly become a “Surgical Wizard” now? And with me banning her, how dare she show her face here again? Eric wondered in his heart.
Olivias frustration grew as Eric kept ignoring her. “Eric, are you even listening to me?”
He snapped back to reality and casually remarked. ‘I already had Tristan check that woman’s background.”
Sure enough, Tristan returned and respectfully addressed him at the door, “Mr. Anderson.”
Eric rose and stepped out, his expression unreadable. “What did you find?”
“Following your orders, we checked Dr. Garcia’s background overseas again. She was indeed born and educated abroad and has never returned here before. Tristan replied.
Eric’s brow furrowed deeper, utterly perplexed by the situation. Could Dr. Garcia really not be Ashley? But her hostility toward us looks personal, suggesting more than a case of mistaken identity but rather deep–seated animosity from the start.
“Where’s Ashley now?” he asked Tristan.
Since kicking Ashley out of the house five years ago, he hadn’t bothered to check on her at all. Now she was probably barely scraping by somewhere. Wasn’t it ironic? She was the reason his kid was gone, yet she was still alive, despite everything.
Tristan paused, then dropped the bomb. “Mr. Anderson, we found out she died five years back”
Eric was taken aback as Tristan handed him a pile of papers “While investigating Ashley’s past, we discovered that just before she left the Anderson family five years ago, she visited the hospital for a check–up. Tristan said, hesitating before adding. “It turns out, she was pregnant with twins at the
time:
Eric’s ‘s grip on the files tightened as he read his hands shaking like a leaf. “No way! This couldn’t be true, he thought. He remembered she was on medication at that time; there was no chance she was pregnant Trying to keep it together, he stammered, “Where is.
He was about to ask where Ashley was, but then it hit him: Tristan had said she passed away five years ago. His heart felt like it was being crushed, pounding painfully in his chest. After a prolonged silence, Eric finally managed to choke out, “How did she go?”
Tristan’s words hit him hard. “Because you banned her, no one in Willowmere dared to help her out. She ended up homeless, pregnant, and living under a bridge by the highway. Starving, freezing, pregnant. By the time they found her and got her to the hospital, it was too late.”
Eric wood in the hospital corridor, his silence lingering as
forever. Then, in a rough whisper, he asked, “She was carrying twins?”
11:24 AM
