Walking Away While Pregnant: Dear Ex-Husband, I Don't Love You Anymore

Chapter 119: Chapter 119

Fleur had attempted suicide?

Was it a depressive episode? Just because of those few photos she had taken?

Elise frowned. "Where is she now?"

"She’s still in the ICU." Dylan looked at Elise, pressing his lips together as he took a deep breath. "Robin is at the hospital. I want you to come with me."

As he spoke, Dylan reached out to pull Elise toward the door.

Elise wrenched her arm back right away. "I’m not going."

Dylan froze, looking at her with a tight frown. "Elise, do you have any compassion left? My sister-in-law had a depressive episode and attempted suicide because of you. If Mrs. Walsh hadn’t found her in time, she might be dead right now, and Robin would be an orphan."

"I don’t believe I am at fault here." Elise stared back at him stubbornly. "Just because she knows how to cry and resort to suicide doesn’t mean she’s in the right. You think she attempted suicide because I humiliated her? Fine, let me ask you: Did I force her to dress like that and seek you out in the dead of night?"

"Maybe she didn’t think that much of it."

"She is a mother, and Robin is a boy, no matter how young he is. Dylan, do you honestly believe the pajamas she usually wears are always of that design? Why don’t you go back and ask what kind of pajamas Fleur was wearing when she put Robin to bed last night?"

Dylan was stunned.

In truth, there was no need to ask. Last night, Robin had lingered in the study to play a game with him. Around nine o’clock, Fleur had finished her shower and come to call Robin back to bed. Recalling the scene now, Dylan remembered that Fleur had been wearing perfectly ordinary, modest loungewear—a matching parent-child set with Robin’s.

Elise watched Dylan, taking in the subtle shifts in his expression. She knew her guess was spot on. Fleur would never wear such an explicit nightgown in front of Robin. Any adult would know that a garment like that belonged strictly to the realm of bedroom intimacy.

For a widowed sister-in-law to wear such a thing to her brother-in-law’s study late at night—was she truly just mindless, or did she have an ulterior motive?

The answer was screamingly obvious. Dylan was simply choosing to blind himself to it.

Was Fleur really committing suicide out of overwhelming shame?

No. She just knew entirely too well how powerful the weapon of "death" could be for a diagnosed depressive.

Fleur knew Elise would show the photos to Dylan, and she knew that once Dylan saw them, he would inevitably start keeping his distance to avoid a scandal. That wasn’t the outcome Fleur wanted, so she played her most ruthless card.

As long as Fleur, the tragic widow, appeared pathetic and desperate enough, how could Dylan worry about appearances anymore? He would probably want to stay by his helpless sister-in-law’s side twenty-four hours a day.

Dylan’s current silence only verified Elise’s hypothesis. He claimed Fleur was emotionally fragile and demanded Elise show her sympathy, yet he never once doubted Fleur’s integrity. Perhaps Fleur didn’t even have depression at all.

Thinking of this, Elise let out a cold laugh. "If your heart aches for Fleur, you are entirely free to go to the hospital and nurse her yourself. I won’t object. But I am currently pregnant, and I need peace to protect my baby. You have no right to demand that I go to the hospital to look after your sister-in-law."

"When did I ever ask you to look after her?" Dylan frowned at her. "I’m asking you to come to the hospital to comfort Robin. He was completely terrified this time. I wanted to bring him home first, but he refuses to leave. He’s guarding the ICU door, and no one can persuade him otherwise. I thought since he listens to you the most, he would be willing to come back if you asked him."

Elise pressed her lips together, mulling it over for a brief moment before refusing anyway. "Robin wants to stay by his mother’s side, so let him."

"It’s a hospital, and we don’t even know when my sister-in-law will wake up. Robin is still so young; that kind of suffocating atmosphere is too depressing for a child. You’re his godmother—do you really have the heart to leave him there?"

"I respect Robin’s wishes," Elise said, her face perfectly serene and her tone detached. "As you said, I am only his godmother. His biological mother is lying in the ICU, and he wants to show his devotion by staying. What would it look like if I, the godmother, went and dragged him away? If Fleur wakes up later and accuses me of driving a wedge between them, wouldn’t I just be inviting trouble?"

"My sister-in-law wouldn’t do that."

"Right, your precious sister-in-law is kind-hearted and fragile," Elise sneered, looking at Dylan. "While I am the sharp-tongued, cold-hearted one. It’s best if someone like me stays far away from Robin anyway, lest I corrupt him, don’t you think?"

Dylan stared at Elise, hearing the deep-seated resentment in her words. He let out a weary, helpless sigh. "That’s not what I meant."

"Whatever. My stance is perfectly clear: I am not going to the hospital. Do not come to me for anything regarding Fleur ever again. Furthermore, if Fleur survives this, please keep her on a short leash and tell her to stop bothering me. I have no shortage of sisters-in-law."

"Elise, do you really have to be this ruthless?" Dylan raised a hand to rub his temples, his voice heavy with exhaustion. "Even if it’s just for Robin’s sake, can’t you show her some decency?"

"Haven’t I shown her enough decency? It was precisely because of Robin that I gave her chance after chance, and what did I get in return?" Elise looked at Dylan, her eyes flashing with mocking disdain. "The results prove that Fleur doesn’t deserve an ounce of my decency!"

"You..."

"And stop using Robin to emotionally blackmail me!" Elise cut him off, her voice dropping to an icy register. "When Fleur attempted suicide, she didn’t give a single thought to Robin. She wasn’t worried about whether her own son would be heartbroken if she died, so what right do you have to demand that I care about him?"

Dylan stared at Elise, stunned. Facing her unyielding stance and sharp, biting words, his expression grew incredibly complex. After a long pause, he finally spoke in a low voice.

"I just feel that the issues between adults shouldn’t involve the child. You and Robin have been getting along so warmly lately; I thought you genuinely valued him in your heart."

"I admit Robin is a sensible, good child. But things are different now. Fleur is back, and he has acknowledged her as his mother. Dylan, can’t you see it?"

Dylan flinched, caught off guard.

Elise continued, her eyes boring into his. "Compared to me, Robin has entirely accepted Fleur as his real mother now. He might be young, but he isn’t stupid. His absolute refusal to leave her side right now makes it clear enough. Between Fleur and me, he knows exactly who his real mother is and who matters more. A five-year-old child has a clearer head regarding priorities than you do!"

Dylan gazed at Elise blankly, his thin lips pressed into a hard line.

Taking advantage of his distraction, Elise wrenched her hand from his grip and rubbed her aching wrist. She took a deep breath, her voice returning to a calm, steady cadence.

"I bear zero responsibility for Fleur’s suicide attempt. She is an adult, and she must be responsible for her own actions. Having depression is not an excuse for her to slip into a suggestive nightgown and seduce her brother-in-law in the middle of the night, nor is it an excuse for her to abandon Robin yet again as his mother. And it is certainly not an excuse for you to condemn and blackmail me!"

Dylan looked at her, his expression growing increasingly bewildered and pained.

"I will handle the communication on my sister-in-law’s end," Dylan sighed heavily. "But regarding Robin, I still hope you can make a trip out there."

"I’m not going," Elise stated firmly. "Robin has fully accepted Fleur. My job is done."

Dylan’s face darkened. "So Robin was nothing more than a job to you?"

"What else would he be?" Elise laughed, her eyes turning freezing cold. "Dylan, haven’t you noticed? Your position toward me has always been one of endless demands. You always assume that whatever you need me to do, I must comply, and if I am unwilling, then I am the one in the wrong."

"But do you remember? I was once trapped in profound agony after losing our two children. I had my dark moments, too. I self-harmed, and I wanted to end my life. Back then... what did you do?"

Dylan’s pupils contracted violently, his breathing instantly turning heavy and ragged.

Elise looked directly into his eyes, her lips curving into a ghost of a smile. "Back then, you were always out at business dinners. When I called you, you told me you were busy, your tone dripping with annoyance. Afterward, you coldly condemned me for being weak, for not loving myself. When I developed anorexia due to the side effects of my medication and withered away day by day, you told me that a woman like me wasn’t qualified to be a mother."

"Dylan, looking back now, I still can’t wrap my head around it. We were married for five years. I don’t understand how in the exact same scenario, I was deemed a woman who ’didn’t love herself,’ while Fleur becomes a poor, wretched thing you feel compelled to protect at all costs?"

Dylan’s hands clenched into tight fists at his sides.

Looking at the unadulterated irony and deep-seated grievance burning in Elise’s eyes, his throat moved with immense difficulty. His dark eyes swirled with a chaotic tempest of emotions—remorse, agony, struggle, and utter helplessness.

The truth buried deep within those dark, forgotten years... she had forgotten it.

But he could not speak of it, let alone explain.