Chapter 1058:

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“She needs you right now,” Cathryn said, biting her lip. Her heart was breaking as she forced the man she loved away from her, but she had no choice — not if she wanted Kyla to carry the child safely to term.

Andrew glared at the shut door and let out a short, frigid laugh. “Fine. Then I’ll go spend the night with Kyla.”

On the other side of the door, Cathryn’s eyes trembled. She pressed her hands into fists at her sides, and at last understood the kind of agony that carved itself into a person’s very soul.

The hallway outside fell silent.

Cathryn pulled up the door’s security feed and caught a glimpse of Andrew’s cold, rigid silhouette as he walked away. She pressed a hand over her mouth, a sob breaking free before she could stop it.

Margaret watched Cathryn’s crumbling composure with a heavy heart. “Since both your husband and your grandmother-in-law are against keeping that baby, why are you still putting yourself through this?”

Cathryn looked up. “Do you believe a child is necessary for a marriage to last?”

Margaret parted her lips and then closed them, at a loss for words. But her silence said everything.

Cathryn gave a hollow laugh. “Even without an answer, I understand. Everyone says a couple can be happy without children, but I know better. Love may not require a child — but a family isn’t complete without one. A child is what sustains a marriage.”

And a child was the one thing she simply couldn’t give.

𝖱𝖾𝘢𝗱 𝘧𝘳𝘦e nov𝖾𝘭𝘀 о𝘯 𝗀a𝗹𝘯о𝘷e𝗅𝗌.𝖼𝗼𝘮

“Things were different in my day,” Margaret said gently. “But times have changed. And Mr. Brooks truly loves you. He isn’t going to leave you because you can’t conceive.”

Tears shimmered in Cathryn’s eyes. “I know Andrew won’t leave me over my infertility. That’s exactly why I can’t selfishly cling to him in the name of love and rob him of the chance to be a father. That would be too cruel. And Kyla’s baby is innocent — whatever she has done, that little life is blameless.”

The baby was Andrew’s own flesh and blood. How could she stand by and watch it be destroyed?

Margaret let out a quiet sigh. Andrew and Cathryn cared so deeply about each other that they were turning something that could have been simple into something impossibly tangled. She rested a hand on Cathryn’s shoulder. “But aren’t you terrified of losing Mr. Brooks for good?”

Cathryn forced a thin, sad smile. “If Kyla can take him from me, then he never truly loved me in the first place. If it weren’t her, eventually it would have been someone else. You simply can’t force a person’s heart to stay.”

Meanwhile, Kyla had barely stepped through her front door when her phone rang. It was Cara. Her emotions had already swung wildly all day, but the news that greeted her was a shock she hadn’t seen coming.

“Cathryn is pregnant,” Cara announced without preamble.

“What? How is that even possible?” Kyla exclaimed.

“Even if you carry Andrew’s child, it won’t matter anymore. It’s already too late for that to work,” Cara said, her voice flat and cold.

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