There was a frown on Kevin's face as he stared at Anne and the baby. Anger filled Anne as she couldn't help but feel so frustrated. If Kevin treated the child better, she wouldn't have been angry even if they didn't love each other. Now from the way the baby looked at him, it was as if he was looking at a complete stranger.
"Why are you still here?" Her body tensed as she sneered at him through her teeth. It took all her strength not to push and kick him out right this instant.
Looking at the petite woman's hostility, Kevin was naturally starting to get angry once more. However, his strong feelings for Anne resurfaced in his heart, and all the fury he had subsided.
'Damn it!' Slowly, he withdrew his hand.
A second later, his sense of pride rose in him and he retorted matter-of-factly, "You are so ungrateful."
Every time Anne challenged him like this, he felt utterly helpless. In fact, all the patience that he had in him was all because of her doing.
Still, he wondered when this woman would finally warm up to him.
With a grunt, he strode over to his bedroom, slamming the door behind him with a loud bang. In the other room, Cherry heard the commotion and decided to see what was happening.
As she slowly opened the door, she pretended to rub her eyes, pretending as if she had been awakened by the noise.
"What are you doing here?" Kevin asked coldly.
Even though he had his back to her, he was still as intimidating as ever.
"I thought I heard something just now, so I came to check it out. Are you okay?" Walking over, she placed her soft hands into his.
There was so much resentment in Kevin's heart right now that it was almost unbearable for him to hear her voice ringing in his ears. The moment she held his hand, he shook her off forcibly. It was enough to make Cherry stagger back a little.
It was beyond her anticipation that he would do something like that to her. At once, she pretended to be sad as she looked at him with her tearful eyes.
"Kevin... I just care about you. How can you do this to me?" Her small mouth was turned down into a pitiful pout as tears streamed down her face.
Unfortunately, Kevin was not the type of person who had any affinity towards women he didn't like. Right now, Cherry was no longer the person he loved. No matter what she did or how sad she looked, there wasn't an ounce of pity in his heart for her.
"Get out of my room. Leave me alone," he hissed at her, completely ignoring her tears. The only thing in his mind was Anne, how she was so stubborn, beautiful, and definitely one of a kind. But none of her images in his mind was gentle.
'Damn it! Can't she be gentle for once in her life?!'
Sitting down at the edge of the bed, Kevin ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. This made Cherry think that he was mad at her. With a small sigh, she forced a faint smile.
"Kevin, can't we just go back to the way things were? We were so happy before Anne came back. Is it worth it for a woman who doesn't even love you?" Cherry asked, unwilling to give up.
Unfortunately, these words only made him angrier. He tried his best not to lose his temper. After all, he owed so much to Cherry's mother.
"Don't make me say it again. Get out."
"Kevin--"
"Fuck off!" His voice boomed loudly in the room.
Knowing better than to push his limits, Cherry gritted her teeth and stormed out.
As soon as she closed the door, her tearful face was replaced with a cold look. 'This is all that woman's fault! I won't let her get away with this. She's the reason why I'm like this in the first place. I'll never let that bitch go!'
Meanwhile, in Anne's room, everything was so much more serene and peaceful. The lamp on the bedside table warmly lit up the faces of the mother and child.
Some time that night, however, the baby suddenly began to cry. Immediately, Anne woke up and walked over to him. He wailed and frowned, as if he was feeling incredible pain.
Even tears were starting to stream down his delicate face.
Carefully, she took him in her arms. "Shh, don't cry... Baby, don't cry. Are you hungry? Let me feed you, okay?" Any mother would feel sorry for their crying child. Her heart ached and her face turned pale as she wondered how she could make him feel better.
"What's wrong with the baby?" All of a sudden, Kevin's voice came through. Turning around, there she saw him coming through the door.
Anne was stunned. It was already two o'clock in the morning, and yet he came in as soon as the baby cried.
"I don't know." As she saw the baby crying like this, she thought there was no room to quarrel anymore. Carefully, she pressed her cheek against the baby's soft face to check if he had a fever.
"I'm going to call Sam," Kevin said.
Even though he didn't really like Sam, his priority was making Anne feel better. There was an anxious look on her face that made him feel so helpless. So, without any hesitation, he turned around and went outside to make a phone call.
Despite this, he knew that Anne would be able to handle this situation well. In his eyes, stubborn as she might be, she was also a strong woman.
Before long, Sam arrived at Kevin's house.
"What's wrong with Anne?" It had been a few month since Sam came back here. Knowing that Anne was staying here, he thought that Kevin had called him because something had happened to her.
"It's the baby. He's been crying nonstop. Go and have a look," said Kevin.
With a nod, Sam moved to enter the room when Kevin suddenly put his hand on his shoulder. "Look, I won't pursue the matter that you helped Anne lie to me before. But if anything like that happens again, don't blame me if I no longer treat you as a friend."
Still, he couldn't help but wonder why she was being nice to someone who wasn't him.
'If she had just been a good, obliging woman, things wouldn't have been like this!' he thought, his heart filled with malice.
What made it all the more frustrating was that no matter how much Anne pushed him away, he was still deeply attracted to her. It was as if there was no way he could extricate himself from her.
"Why is Sam here, Kevin?" All of a sudden, Cherry's voice came from behind him. As long as she could find a reason, she would go stay with him as much as possible.
"The baby has a fever. I've asked Sam to go check on him." It wasn't his plan to talk again to Cherry. But seeing that the two other people in the bedroom were talking so happily, he figured that he would be less embarrassed if he had someone to talk to as well.
"Oh my God! The baby's sick?" Cherry exclaimed. Undoubtedly, she was good at feigning emotions as she pretended to feel sorry for the baby.
This made Kevin feel a little less adverse towards her.
But then, a serious look appeared on Cherry's face. "Come here," she said in a low voice as she tugged on his arm. "I have something important to tell you."
Although his instinct was to shake her off, he figured that talking to her was better than spending another second seeing Anne and Sam getting together so well.
However, even though Anne was asking Sam questions and looking over at the baby, she was still paying attention to what Kevin was doing outside.
She had seen how Cherry held Kevin's hand, and couldn't help but sneer.
"Anne?" Sam asked when she suddenly went quiet.
"Yes? Uhhh, right. So are you sure there's really no other problems with the baby's health?" Snapping out of it, she returned her attention back to the baby.
"There's no way to say for sure, but as of now, you have nothing to worry about yet." As much as Sam wanted Anne not to worry, it was practice for doctors not to guarantee their patients that everything was going to be okay. People's bodies change, after all, and there might be complications that a doctor might not be able to see at first glance.
"All right."
"Please untie the baby's clothes for me." Although he knew that a thorough, general checkup could only be done with advanced hospital equipment, there were still some problems that could be discerned with a trained eye. It wouldn't be a problem even if a formal checkup was done a few days later.
With a nod, Anne went over to the thermostat first to raise the room's temperature. She wasn't about to take chances and allow the baby to catch a cold.
Afterward, she gently removed the baby's clothes, not wanting to wake him up from his sleep.
"Did... did the baby always have a birthmark like that?" Anne asked. There was a bruise-colored mark on the edge of the child's butt.
Because of the cold weather, she had always changed the baby's clothes in a hurry, and this was the first time she had seen this mark on her child's skin.
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