Chapter 582
Sanford fell silent. He finally said, “If you don’t mind, maybe we could just partner up and get by together?” Jennifer looked up at him, puzzled.
Sanford said, “Like you said, I’m stuck with the ‘bastard’ label, and everyone judges me. Who’d want to marry me? I used to chase after you, so why don’t we just team up? You’re divorced, I’m a bastard—neither of us has much room to talk about the other’s reputation.”
Jennifer shook her head. “Don’t be silly, Sanford. We could never be. I got married for love. That’s why I chose Donald. He once got into a car accident for me; he’d even give up his life for me.”
Sanford said, “A man who’d give his life because of you. I don’t think he’d ever divorce you.”
“He will,” Jennifer struggled to get the words out, her voice thick with emotion. “Donald is a man of purity, and the love he yearns for is just as pure. In his eyes, I’ve always been this perfect, kind-hearted woman. But more importantly…”
“What’s more important?” Sanford pressed.
Jennifer said, enunciating every word, “When I said I was pregnant at the wedding, it was true.”
Sanford froze. He had always assumed that Jennifer’s announcement was merely a ploy to cover up Mike’s unexpected appearance at the wedding.
Sanford exclaimed, “But didn’t you say you weren’t pregnant?”
Jennifer explained, “That’s because later, when Vincent, our hospital director, said he wanted to promote me to department head, he asked if I was pregnant. I couldn’t admit I was. Otherwise, that opportunity would’ve gone to someone else.”
Sanford finally understood everything. He was even more at a loss to figure out what Jennifer was truly thinking.
Sanford said, “It’s just becoming department head a year or two later. What’s meant to be yours will come to you. It’s not going anywhere.”
Jennifer sighed. “Once an opportunity slips through your fingers, it’s gone for good. Do you remember back in college, when I ran for a position at the campus radio station? I got sick, and they gave the spot to someone else. A senior promised to save it for me, but in the end, it was gone for good. It never belonged to me again. I’ve learned that sometimes opportunities only come around once.”
Sanford let out a sigh. “You’re always so pessimistic about everything. You’re already outstanding as you are. Being an attending physician is quite an achievement, isn’t it?”
“Everyone has ambition, and who doesn’t want to climb higher? Don’t you? Isn’t your revenge on Jonathan precisely because you want to see him fall from grace?”
However, Sanford suddenly let out a wry laugh. He turned away and stared out the window at the scenery.
He said, “My revenge was simply to make him experience what it’s like to have no family, to have the person he loves snatched away. Things like fame and fortune? Honestly, I never really cared about those. Maybe it’s because our upbringing was so different. All my life, I’ve only ever been obsessed with one thing: who my father really was, and why he abandoned me and my mom. Now I finally get it that my mom was the other woman who broke up someone else’s family, and that makes me nothing but a bastard."
“The truth I wanted is nothing like what I imagined. Honestly, Jonathan is pretty pitiful, too. If I were him, finding out that the father I was so proud of had a secret bastard son would hurt like hell.”
Jennifer scoffed. “Why pity him when he’s rolling in money?”
Sanford shook his head. “No matter how wealthy he is, some things just can’t be measured by money. Honestly, I’m just like you. Whenever I think of his domineering mother, I can’t bring myself to face him objectively.”
Jennifer fell into a heavy silence. She slowly sank onto the sofa.