Let's create a big family

The cup from Arthur's hand fell. The hot tea inside spilled onto his feet and the ceramic object shattered on the floor. Livy who heard the noise immediately sat up from her position.

"Arthur, what's wrong? What happened?" Livy panicked.

Arthur's face looks shocked. Because he didn't answer, she got down slowly from the bed and touched his arm, attracting the man's attention. She looked worriedly at her husband and saw that the phone was still in his ear. Hesitating, she grabbed the phone, he didn't prevent it, instead he directly covered his face.

"H-Hello?"

Evander's flat voice came, "Ah, just turn off the phone and cheer him up. I have work and have to go."

Before she answered, the phone was hung up.

She didn't know what the problem was and put the phone on the table. She cupped Arthur's cheeks, noticed the reddening of his eyes, and led him to sit on the edge of the bed.

"Did something happen? What did Evander say? Why are you silent?"

As soon as Arthur's eyes found the anxious beautiful object in front of him, he blinked and his tears fell. He pulled Livy and buried his head in his wife's neck. Smelling her scent like this, he calmed down a bit.

"You smell so good." Arthur hugged her very tightly.

Livy felt short of breath, but didn't let go. She had just taken a shower, of course she was full of soapy fragrance.

Feeling his body tremble in her arms, she was sure something had happened. Even hearing Evander's words, everything became clear. Her heart became restless. Could there be bad news?

"You calm down. You can tell me anything. I'm right here." Livy bit her lip, she was really bad when it comes to comforting others. "Everything will be fine. Trust me."

Livy patted his back many times, like calming a child, but he was still in that position.

"Livy." Finally he called.

"Hmm?"

Arthur didn't say anything else, Livy patiently rubbed his shoulder, waiting for him to speak.

After waiting long enough, he suddenly said, "My father ... he turned himself in to the police."

Livy was surprised. "Father-in-law ... but why?"

Arthur shook his head. "Matthew and my stepmother were also put in jail."

This news was very sudden. Livy couldn't digest it.

Suddenly Arthur pulled away. This time Livy could see him looking down expressionlessly, but his eyes couldn't lie. There was sadness in there.

Even though he had told her about his past, she didn't know if that was all or if there were still other secrets.

But from the stories she heard from him, she didn't think his father-in-law's guilt was enough to send himself to prison.

Are there still other problems?

"Are you alright?" Livy asked this instead.

"I'm fine."

Even though Arthur said that, Livy wasn't convinced. Arthur looked like he's really sad and hurt. After all it was his father, there was no way he wouldn't be sad for him.

"You haven't had breakfast. Come on, have breakfast together. Then we'll discuss this later," said Livy.

"Mn."

Breakfast was promptly delivered to the room. They ate in a state of calm and silence. Livy ate some of the food because she had no appetite, so she ate only because she needed to eat, not because she wanted to. Similarly to Arthur, he didn't eat much either. Maybe he's here to keep her company.

After eating he had no intention of saying anything, he said he had things to attend to, then he shut himself in his study most of the day. He even skipped lunch. The maids who tried to enter were also thrown out.

"Lady, will you persuade Master to eat? In the past, if he was like this, he would fall sick." Jim, their butler, said.

Livy didn't know what to do, on the other hand, she wanted to leave Arthur alone to calm down.

"I'll be ask him in half an hour."

Even before half an hour, the house had a visitor. At that time Evander and Dave came without knocking and approached her in the room.

"Sister-in-law—umhp! Mmph!" Evander immediately covered Dave's mouth.

"Miss Livy, sorry that I just visited you now. Two days ago I came, but you were already asleep." Evander smiled.

Livy looked at the tormented Dave and replied, "I'm fine. I recovered today."

When Dave managed to remove his hand, he saw Livy. "Sister-in-law, is it true that you gave birth? You gave birth to a baby! Is this serious? When can I see my nephew, Sister-in-law?! When?"

Evander banged his head so that Dave glared in protest.

"In one week we can all see him. He's still so weak right now." Livy answered.

"Then have you prepared a name for this baby boy?"

"Name?"

That's right, a name for the baby. Livy didn't think of this. So many things happened and she couldn't focus on her baby, she even almost put her baby in danger. She's a failed mother, right?

Dave's excited voice distracted her again, "What if I give him a name?"

Livy was dazed. "T-That's ..."

"You don't know when it's time to stop, do you?" Evander covered Dave's mouth and pulled him away from saying more, looking at Livy. "Where's Arthur?"

"Ah, he's in his office, he hasn't come out since earlier." Livy replied.

Neither Evander nor Dave sighed, they knew that Arthur must not be in a great mood right now. Problems kept coming and hitting him repeatedly. Even though Luther wasn't a very good father to him, Arthur's last encounter with Luther must have made him forgive his father, and he probably didn't expect his father to end up in prison himself. After all, Luther was his biological father.

"Is it true that the father-in-law was caught by the police?" Livy asked hesitantly.

"Since you already know, I won't mince words. I came here wanting to talk about it, but he's unreachable."

"I also already know about the evil deeds of mother-in-law and Matthew in the past. But father-in-law ..." Livy hung up on her words and became even sadder.

"You don't need to think about the matter, guilty or not, only he knows." Evander pushed up his glasses.

"That's right, Sister-in-law! Don't dwell on the matter to make you sick." Dave was just about to start talking nonsense when Evander again banged his head.

But she was still thinking about it, even though she had nothing to do about the matter that happened in the past, she couldn't stay silent.

If she was in Arthur's shoes, she would feel the same way.

Then she remembered something and asked, "Arthur had told me, that his stepmother faked the DNA test and made his father not recognize him as a son. To the extent that his father only found out recently since the facts started to come to light. But doesn't Arthur know the truth that he is a Luther Finnegan's biological son?"

Evander and Dave looked at each other.

"I mean ... if he knows the truth, why hasn't he proven that he's his son to his own father? And prevented all these problems from dragging on?"

Then Dave smiled bitterly as if he didn't want to talk about it anymore. Instead, it was Evander who explained, "Because he's hated Luther since his mother's death. Do you think he can still recognize him as his father after what Luther did?"

Evander pushed up his glasses quietly.

"The wound he received is no longer bleeding, but it has left a very ugly scar on his heart." Then he cleared his throat before continuing, "It makes no difference whether his father knows the truth or not, his mother is gone and one who has been left by death will not return."

Livy bit her lip.

"Arthur ... if he didn't meet you, he might choose to be alone for life." Evander continued.

Dave agreed. "Well, he doesn't believe in relationships with 'family' status anyway. But now it's different. Sister-in-law, believe me, he has opened his heart again after meeting you, you know."

Livy breathed a sigh of relief and sadness.

***

In the room, after Arthur came back, he saw Livy lying straight up staring at the ceiling, her eyes blank.

He approached her carefully on the bed. "How do you feel? Does your wound still hurt now?"

She shifted her eyes to him, nodded briefly before shaking her head quickly.

Arthur stared at her. "Hm?"

"It doesn't hurt anymore," Livy replied weakly, trying to smile. "Just a little sleepy."

"You should eat something. Then you can sleep." Arthur rubbed her sweaty forehead.

Livy bit her lip. She felt his cold fingers tracing her skin and her heart couldn't stop pounding. She knew it wasn't good for her condition, but what Evander had told her, she couldn't shake off.

There are such evil people in the real world. Livy had seen many dramas, and thought the villainous roles the characters played at times were absurd, there couldn't be such a bad guy anywhere. But hearing all of Evander and Dave's story that morning, she understood that a lot of drama might be based on someone's true story.

What made the Arthur family be so cruel?

No, not his family. He doesn't deserve to have a family like that!

They are so mean!

They are criminals!

Livy used to think that her life was very unfortunate. There was no way anyone could be more unfortunate than her; her parents died suddenly due to an accident, she was raised by an aunt who was crazy about wealth, made her a maid for many years and all the wealth left by her father was gone without her being able to enjoy it.

Every day at her aunt's house for ten years, she felt like she was at the stage where she could barely survive. Sometimes she asked God, why didn't she just die?

Even though she had the wish to disappear from this world, she never dared to kill herself.

Then when Livy heard what Evander told her about Arthur, about how Arthur had to give one of his kidneys without his knowledge—it really hurt her heart. It was as if she was the one who donated the kidney, so the pain was really unbearable. Plus he had to lose his mother because of the cruelty of his own biological father and lived for years above pain and revenge.

Arthur ...

What if, despite all that suffering, he was still able to stand up straight?

"Why are you quiet?"

A touch on her cheek caught her attention. Seeing the worried face above her, she wanted to cry, but she didn't want to cry to show her weakness.

She held Arthur's hand against her cheek. "Arthur, let's have lots of kids. Let's create a big family, our own, that will fill our house with a flurry of joy."

Arthur still had anxiety in his heart, unable to smile. "You recover first. Think about something else later."

"No!" Livy insisted. "Arthur, come on tell me, how many children do you want to have? One son is not enough. I want to have many children and make a big family. They will live with us until they finally get married. We will guide them to be good and virtuous children, they will really respect and love you as a father. How's that?"

Livy's eyeballs had a serious glint.

Arthur felt that if he made a refusal sentence, it would discourage his wife, so he replied, "Fine. We can make a big family of our own. The children will also love and respect you as their mother."

He suspected that she may be saying this because she was feeling sad for her parents. She was very young when they died in an accident. He thought this and felt sad, he kissed her forehead gently.

"But no matter how many children will be present later, I don't mind. The most important thing is your happiness," he continued.

Her eyes reddened. “Mn. I also thought of your happiness.”

Livy stretched out her hand, right where Arthur's kidney was.

Although Dave had said Arthur was fine with one kidney for years, his health was of course much more vulnerable than someone with two intact kidneys. She was still dissatisfied with what happened.

She still felt that it must be painful.

"What does this mean?" Arthur was confused because Livy's hand rubbed his upper left stomach in a smooth motion.

Livy answered perfunctorily, "I don't know. Maybe I want to experience your six pack."

Arthur's eyebrows rose.

After finding out his little wife was pregnant, he had done a lot of internet surfing. It is said that in early pregnancy, the wife will experience cravings. Most of these craving things have very odd requests. But his wife has given birth, does she still have cravings?

"Are you craving?"

"It seems so."

His cold hands slowly warmed up and he slowly placed them on her stomach. It's even. Unlike before, now her stomach was no longer bloating and there was only a plaster bandage from the surgery.

"How many children do you want?" This question just came out of her mouth.

"I already answered."

"Think again. Ask your heart, how much do you want?" Livy didn't let go.

Arthur thought for a moment before responding, "Two."

"Why only two?" Livy disagreed.

Arthur replied seriously, "Giving birth isn't easy, it's life threatening. Remember how you were in pain? I can't let you go through that process again and again."

Arthur's intentions were good, but Livy still didn't agree because she was determined to give him a big and warm family. She wanted to fulfill that promise, so that later he could feel what a family is where he can lean on when he is tired.

She also wanted this for herself.

"How about twenty?" She said happily.

Arthur thought this was funny and didn't want to argue anymore. "Finish this one kid and you can talk again after that."

After all, they had yet to be said to have successfully taken care of a single child that was already born. If they really want to have more children, they need to be successful with the first one.

Livy didn't get the point and seeing Arthur's ambiguous smile, she couldn't help but say, "Deal!"

The two hugged each other the rest of the day. And Livy, who has not fully recovered, was completely spoiled in bed until she felt like the happiest woman in the world.

... to be continued ...