Love’s Cunning Ruse

Chapter 139

After Ivan was taken away by Karl, Kieran took Julie back to the hospital room and locked the door.

Julie’s face was pale. Kieran moved closer to help her onto the bed, but Julie backed away, eyeing him warily, “You’ve been using mine and Ivan’s toothbrush… What’s the big idea?”

“Get back into bed first,” Kieran commanded.

All resistance and determination drained from Julie. Under Kieran’s command, she obediently walked to the bed, pulled back the covers, and climbed in.

Kieran sat down next to Julie’s bed and said, “You’ve got acute gastritis because you ate some food that was contaminated with bacteria. You’ve been experiencing stomachache and loss of appetite. You didn’t even touch the breakfast I had Karl prepare for you on the plane today. Whose stomach is it, yours or mine?”

“Was that a paternity test between me and Ivan?” Julie had been hesitant to ask this question from the doorway to the bedside, but eventually she carefully broached the subject.

Kieran glanced at her and replied, “The doctor says you need bed rest. Let’s observe overnight to see if you still have symptoms like diarrhea.”

“Kieran!” Julie was desperate, grabbing Kieran’s collar.

Kieran took hold of Julie’s hand, pulled it away from his collar, and placed it over his heart.

Through the thin fabric of his shirt, Julie could clearly feel Kieran’s heart pounding fiercely. It was a heart full of life.

Kieran suddenly looked up at Julie. His eyes seemed to conceal a deep pool, so mysterious it was irresistible.

He said, “Ivan is my son, and yours. He is our child. He is our biological child.”

His tone was very calm. Julie couldn’t read his well-masked emotions, but her heart was thumping faster than usual, as if it was in sync with Kieran’s heartbeat.

Ivan was her son… How could that be…

She clearly remembered the small, frail child lying in the ice coffin. It was Kieran who personally told her that her child was dead…

He said it himself!

Julie shook her head, then forcefully withdrew her hand from Kieran’s chest, vehemently denying it,” Content rights by NôvelDr//ama.Org.

“Impossible, that’s impossible… He’s dead! You took me to see it yourself. It’s impossible, absolutely impossible…”

Julie lost control of her emotions. She was even more irrational now than when she learned her child died on the operating table years ago. Clearly, she was struggling to control her emotions and trying to convince herself that her child couldn’t still be alive.

Before revealing the truth to Julie, Kieran had anticipated that she might lose control of her emotions. He reached out, cradling her face in his hands, and looked at her with determined eyes, “There’s so much that happened in the past. I can’t explain it all at once, but you need to know that Ivan is our child. He’s still alive.”

“You’re lying to me!” Julie’s eyes were bright as the moon in the deep night. She tried to control her emotions, but her voice still trembled, “I heard… you said to save her outside the operating room. You

said… to save Bertha. I heard it all…”

Kieran’s hand, which was still cradling Julie’s cheek, didn’t let go. He continued to gently stroke her face, trying to comfort her.

He admitted, “I did say ‘save Bertha,’ but…”

Five years ago, on a stormy night.

Julie and Bertha were rushed into the operating room together.

Kieran anxiously waited outside the door.

After two hours, the hospital dean carefully opened the operating room door, walking towards Kieran. He carefully told him, “Mr. Hernandez, the hospital’s blood bank is running low. Ms. Bertha and Mrs. Hernandez have the same blood type. We can only save one of the children first. Who should we save first, Mrs. Hernandez’s child or…”

In the delivery room, Julie had cried herself out. All she heard was Kieran outside the door saying, “Save Bertha.”

Hearing this felt like her heart was being ripped from her chest, a pain too great to bear. By the time the doctors took the child from her body, she had already blacked out and lost consciousness…

What Julie didn’t know was that the moment the dean was about to turn around and go back to the operating room, right before she passed out, the complete conversation between Kieran and the dean was, “Save Bertha. I want her to live, but if Mrs. Hernandez dies, I want the entire hospital to go down with her!!”

Unfortunately, Julie didn’t hear his last words.

Kieran’s cousin, Payne, took less than two minutes to pull up the entire hospital staff’s blood type records and find donors that matched

Julie and Bertha’s blood types. Julie didn’t know that the first donor was sent to her operating room…

Kieran revealed the truth to Julie. Julie instinctively shook her head in denial, “I don’t believe it! I don’t believe… Bertha’s child is Lucian’s. Ivan is Lucian’s child! He is Lucian’s child!!”

“There’s too much to explain. I can’t say it all at once. I’m not lying to you. I want you to know that Ivan is our son,” Kieran said.

“Impossible!” Julie looked at Kieran and questioned, “Then what about Bertha’s child? Whose child is it? Then why… why did you lie to

me?”

“Lucian is still alive. Bertha didn’t commit suicide,” Kieran didn’t elaborate further, but told Julie the two most important points.

This story was becoming more and more absurd…

Julie’s gaze became unfocused, “Lucian is, dead, he died in a plane crash. That was seven years ago. Face the facts! He’s dead!!”

Whether she was venting at herself or at Kieran with those words, she didn’t know. Julie’s voice was hoarse, sounding overly excited.

There’s something about Kieran that screamed stability and seriousness. It’s hard to ignore. He told her, “He’s still alive.”

“Then where is he? If he’s alive, why hasn’t he come back?”

Kieran fell silent. His hands, which were holding Julie’s face, let go. Maybe because she got used to his warmth, Julie suddenly felt a

chill on her face….

After a long silence, he finally answered, “He might not be able to come back…”

Julie’s no fool, but she didn’t get what Kieran meant by that.

If he’s alive, why couldn’t he come back?

It’s rare to see Kieran with such an expression. His eyes were deep and cold, as if his whole soul was drowning in loneliness.

She remembered when they first heard about Lucian’s plane crash, Kieran had the same look. He used the smoke from his cigarette to isolate himself from the world…

Julie didn’t ask again.

She quietly stood up and said, “You lied to me. You’ve been lying to me from the start… Everything you’ve done, you’ve lied to me.

“I once told you I loved you. Joyce, that was true,” he said, sitting on the edge of the bed, grabbing Julie’s hand.

Julie shuddered violently.

He stood up and hugged her from behind.

“From the beginning, this was Bertha’s trap,” Kieran started explaining what happened that year.

That year, after Julie got pregnant, she was overwhelmed with joy, until Bertha knelt before her, saying she was carrying Kieran’s child, and that she truly loved Kieran. She begged Julie to let her have the baby, promising not to mess with Julie’s marriage to Kieran.

Julie went up to the study to demand an explanation from Kieran.

Kieran told her to wait for him at home, so she waited like a fool for a full day and night. But in the end, she didn’t get an explanation, instead, he acknowledged the child in Bertha’s womb.

Julie still vividly remembers how she felt back then.

He asked Julie, “Do you remember what I said then?”

Although it was a long time ago, Julie would never forget. She answered Kieran, “You said the child in Bertha’s womb was of the Hernandez bloodline, so you couldn’t abandon him. You said you couldn’t harm the child in Bertha’s womb. All I could think of then was that Lucian had been dead for two years, and you were the only Hernandez left. If you said the child was of the Hernandez bloodline, then who else could be the father but you?”

Kieran said, “Bertha showed me the documents related to her artificial insemination. I had Karl investigate those documents that night, and indeed,

We

found no flaws. Bertha provided many photos of her and Lucian together two years ago, and destroyed the remaining frozen sperm of Lucian. She did all this to make me sign the cooperation agreement, the one you saw in Oakhurst.”

Lucian was like a caretaker to Kieran since he was a child. After Kieran believed Lucian died in the plane crash, he thought the child in Bertha’s womb was Lucian’s only descendant. To protect this only

descendant, Kieran had no choice but to accept Bertha’s agreement. Julie could understand this.

If she were Kieran, she might make the same choice.

But that doesn’t mean she would forgive everything Kieran did and all his lies.

However…

“Why would Bertha do this? What good does it do her?” Julie looked at Kieran, starting to think, “Lucian is already dead. Why would she go through artificial insemination to carry Lucian’s child?”

What Julie really wanted to ask was: If there were indeed evidence that Bertha was carrying Lucian’s child, even if she didn’t force Kieran to sign the agreement, Kieran and she would still take good care of her and let her have the baby in peace. Why would she propose that

contract full of lies?