Elena was down in the dark basement. Her fingers were gray from the dust on the old papers. Far above her, the sounds of the Palace disappeared. The thick stone walls kept everything very quiet.
Upstairs, the sun was hot and shiny on the windows of the medical wing. The glass was clean and transparent through which the sunlight peeking through the glass windows. Mei Ling lay on her back on the white bed. The mattress was soft, but her body felt very heavy. Her skin was pale. She looked at her hands and saw how thin her fingers were compared to two weeks ago.
She looked toward the glass door. Ethan was not there. Only a quiet nurse sat in the corner, writing numbers on a chart. The nurse did not speak. The clock on the wall made a small clicking sound every second.
Mei Ling breathed in slowly. The air smelled like rubbing alcohol. She put both hands on her stomach. It was round now, pushing against her thin cotton gown.
Suddenly, she felt a small bump inside. It was a quick movement against her left hand. She smiled a little. It felt like a tiny foot saying hello.
Then, another bump happened near her right hip. That was normal. Ethan had already told her the truth. He had sat by her bed and explained that she was carrying triplets—two sons and one daughter. He had already given as her pocket money of $300,000 from this month as he promised. He will also pay her another $3 million in cash once the babies were born safely.
But knowing a fact in her head was different from feeling it in her own body.
A third bump happened. It was right in the middle, high up near her ribs. It happened at the exact same time as the other two bumps. It was a strong, hard kick.
Mei Ling froze. She stopped breathing for a second. She kept her hands perfectly still. She waited. Her heart started to beat very fast against her chest.
One, two, three, she counted in her mind.
Three different movements. Three different spots. All at the exact same moment.
She felt a struggle inside her mind. She looked at the big room, the expensive monitors, and thought about the $3 million. The first part of the money was already in her bank. The deal was real. But carrying three lives at once made her feel very small. She was a trained nurse, but her own body now felt like a machine she could not control.
"They are really in there," she whispered.
The nurse in the corner looked up. "Did you say something, Miss Mei Ling?"
"No," Mei Ling said. Her voice sounded dry. "I am just feeling them move."
The nurse smiled and went back to writing.
Mei Ling lay back on the pillows. Her fear slowly began to change into a heavy sense of duty. She thought about Ethan. He was cold. He treated their relationship like a business contract. He had paid her for this. It was just a trade.
Meanwhile, Ethan was in a private room down the hall. He was watching a digital screen. Using his special [Eye of Discernment], he tracked Mei Ling's health and the three babies. To him, these children were just a way to get more wealth. He did not care about being a king. That was too much work.
His dream was simple and greedy. He wanted to collect the most beautiful women in the world and have many children to get money from his "system." He wanted to be the richest man alive, surrounded by gold and pleasure.
To Ethan, Mei Ling's stomach was just a high-value safe that was working perfectly. The $300,000 he spent was a small investment. He knew he would get much more back once the three babies were born. He adjusted his watch and smiled a cold smile. Then, he opened a file to look for his next female target.