"No way, I can't cheat on my husband," Sherry Summers Lin crossed her arms in front of her chest defensively.
"Calm down, Miss Everleigh Long..." The tall stranger in a black jacket called out her maiden name.
"Everleigh Lin," she corrected him.
"Calm down, Mrs Lin. It's not what you are thinking. I understand your husband has been in a coma for a long time. Don't you wish for some financial aid?"
Sherry bit her lips and took a glance at her husband who was lying in the hospital.
That was Anders, who had been in a vegetative state for a whole year.
During this year, Sherry visited different temples in Bangkok and prayed for forgiveness for their sins. Just wants him to wake up and come back to their son, Andrew. But no matter how much she worshipped, her efforts were fruitless. Anders showed no signs of recovery or waking up.
Everything seriously exhausted her. Goodness knows how many times she wished that they didn't go on that holiday. She never thought that things could end up like this.
Her knees would give way soon. Worse, her savings were about to run out. What could she even do?
“Mrs Lin, don't be so defensive.”
Sherry stopped recalling the past when the tall stranger named Walter called her again. His eyes were sharp and appeared to be very bright.
"If you think of me as a loose woman, there’s nothing worth discussing at this point," With her eyes red and puffy, she lowered her head to act naturally as if nothing had happened.
She may have put the past behind her, but a rich businessman had once pestered her to be his mistress. He had even tried to kidnap her, but an unknown man had come to her aid. Until now, she didn’t know who had saved her that night.
“Calm down, Mrs Lin. I'm here to present you with an offer, which could solve your financial problem.”
Her cherry lips quivered. This man seemed to know just too much. She had applied at all the banks in the city that she could find, but they had given her the same answer. Because her husband was the breadwinner of the family and she didn’t have a stable income despite returning to work, they found it difficult to approve her loan. Each time, she had left empty-handed.
“You’re willing to help?” She refrained herself from showing her excitement in front of the stranger, but she found this too good to be true. She couldn’t be dreaming, could she?
“For a price,” the man stated calmly. When he saw her furrowing her brow, he continued, “It’s not a difficult task. What my boss is looking for is, in simple terms, a surrogate.”
“A surrogate?” she repeated blankly. “As in, a vessel for his children?”
“You got the point right,” Walter stated, digging briefly in his pocket for something. He produced a card immediately, which he handed to Sherry. She studied the card grimly for a few seconds, before putting it down in the space between them.
“But why me?” Sherry questioned. Her eyes followed Walter’s as he maintained his sitting position. Sherry found it strange how he had sat up so straight for such a long time without the need to change posture.
“One of the requirements of a successful surrogacy is that the woman in question has had a healthy pregnancy, meaning, full-term. Of course, we need to make sure you are able to carry our boss’ babies to term. Otherwise, what is the point of finding a surrogate?”
“But, I don’t understand. Surely there are many other women who had children before, why me?”
“That, Mrs Lin, is my boss’ choice. We, as employees, do not question our boss’ decisions,” Walter answered firmly. “We simply carry out his instructions. Since he has chosen you, then he thinks you are the right person to carry out the job.”
Sherry grimaced. For her to carry a stranger’s child in her womb for nine long months was inappropriate. After her last pregnancy had ended in an early miscarriage at six weeks for natural reasons, she had been reluctant to try for another with Anders. But now, for his sake, there was the possibility she might have to go down this route. Carry another man’s child? Was this morally and ethically right?
“Trust me, Mrs Lin, you’ll not get a better offer,” Walter encouraged. “I overheard your conversation with the receptionist earlier. You have three days before they evict your husband from the hospital because of your long overdue fees.”
“What options do I have?”
“Of course, you can be artificially inseminated, or you could have it the traditional way,” Walter responded with a devious grin. “It’s all up to you. My boss wouldn’t mind you, but I have to tell you ahead of time that it won’t be comfortable compared to the insemination.”
Walter’s words made her uneasy. She picked up the card again before looking him in the eye. “And your boss is?”
“Stark Williams.”
That familiar name created a sharp pang in Sherry’s chest, making her fall backwards in her seat. Stark Williams, the most ruthless billionaire in Asia. But that was not all about this man. This man, who hated her with a passion when she was a teenager.
What could he possibly want from her?
Sherry trod back to Anders’ room in utter silence. Questions popped up in her mind repeatedly.
What was Stark Williams doing in Thailand and what could he possibly want from her?
She immersed herself in her thoughts. Once, she was fifteen years old and innocent. She was a hopeless romantic who lived in a world of her own, believing in true love.
When suddenly meeting Stark Williams changed her insight about love.
At that time, he wasn’t a billionaire yet. At the age of sixteen, he was incredibly handsome and irresistibly attractive. Once seeing him, Sherry's heart couldn't stop accelerating.
However, he was so ruthless. She could never forget how he stared at her after she confessed her love to him. Stoic and cold, as he taunted her.
“You, Sherry Summers? Do you think someone would ever like you?”
His laughter was icy and penetrating. Sherry gasped, dropping her book as he pinned her with his powerful arms against the bookcase at their high school library.
“You’re really naive.”
She remembered vividly the piercing stare of his cold eyes as he released her, mocking her with an emotionless laugh. One by one, he pointed out her negative points.
Points that made her seem worthless in his eyes. Those words hurt like hell. She had believed his words, and they were the reason for her insecurities, even for months after her entanglement with Anders Lin.
“Sherry, get a hold of yourself,” she conquered herself by attempting to create positive vibes. “These years, didn’t you feel loved by Anders? Didn’t he cherish you like a princess?”
She knew that what she told herself was true. Despite her insecurities, Anders was sweet to her. Like any other human, he may have made mistakes and neglected her when she was at her lowest point.
But for the last three years, he had done all he could to redeem his past mistakes and prove his worth to her as a husband. She had not regretted reconciling with him after leaving him for two long years before their remarriage.
Sherry had grown used to the sounds of Anders’ life-support machine. Her greatest fear was that one day, his heart would stop beating and he would desert her, leaving her all alone with their only child.
Moving closer, she knelt on the floor near her husband’s bed and prayed silently.
If there was a god in the heavens watching over them, why wasn’t he listening to her pleas for Anders to wake up? She was losing hope.
“Tell me, Anders, what should I do?”
Tears streamed endlessly down her cheeks as she wept for hours on end, but nobody answered her cries.
