The "Prized" Son

1
On Thanksgiving Day, I got a call from a fertility clinic. They were congratulating my wife.
“Sir, the surrogacy for your and your wife’s second son was a complete success. Our advanced medical technology ensured your wife experienced none of the pain of childbirth.”
I froze. We didn’t even have a first child. Where did a second son come from?
I called my wife, Isabella, a renowned pediatrician, and demanded an explanation. She just laughed it off, suggesting some adoring patient’s parent must have listed her number as an emergency contact.
I looked at the Thanksgiving feast I had painstakingly prepared for her, a table groaning with food. In a single, furious motion, I swept it all onto the floor.
Then, I dialed my sister at the DOJ.
“Fiona, Isabella has a secret child. And not just one.”
“Get the divorce papers ready. I want her out of my hospital.”
…
What a Thanksgiving. Isabella had certainly given me one hell of a surprise.
I grabbed my car keys and sped to the hospital.
“Get Isabella Felton out here. I need to see her.”
The receptionist barely glanced up. “Dr. Felton is with a patient. She’s not available.”
“I’m her husband. It’s an emergency.”
The young nurse looked at me like I was insane. “Sir, please don’t joke around. Dr. Felton’ husband is upstairs with their newborn. You should probably leave.”
For the sake of Isabella’s pathetic pride, I had never publicly revealed my connection to the hospital. The entire staff knew Dr. Felton as a brilliant young physician, a rising star favored by the director. No one knew that I was the one who actually owned the place.
And now, in my own hospital, she was celebrating a new baby with another man.
Advanced medical technology? Bullshit. It was surrogacy, plain and simple.
Just as the nurse finished speaking, a man emerged from the maternity ward, cradling a newborn. A swarm of nurses immediately surrounded him.
“Jim, you’re up already! Taking the baby for his shots? You should have just called one of us.”
“You’re so lucky. First, you and Dr. Felton are always so disgustingly sweet, and now you have a beautiful baby boy.”
I pushed through the small crowd, my feet heavy as I walked toward them. It was only then, when I was standing right in front of him, that I saw the man’s face.
It was my cousin, Jim. The one I’d brought here from some backwater town.
His parents had begged me, said he couldn’t find a job after graduation and wanted to try his luck in the city. My heart softened. I not only let him live in the house I shared with Isabella, but I also gave him a job at the hospital, figuring with my wife looking out for him, he might actually make something of himself.
I never imagined he’d be the one sleeping with my wife. That they’d have children together. Two of them!
No wonder he’d insisted on moving out after a few months, claiming he didn’t want to be in our way. It wasn’t about giving us space; it was about making it easier to carry on their affair!
How dare they?
The moment Jim saw me, the color drained from his face. The hands holding the baby began to tremble.
“Ethan… what are you doing here?”

2
Jim frantically pulled me aside, his voice a panicked whisper. “Ethan, please, can you just go home for now? There are too many people here.”
“It’s not what you think. Nothing is going on between me and Isabella, I swear. This baby isn’t hers. Please, don’t make a scene. Let me explain later, okay?”
Explain? We were far beyond the point of explanations.
I shoved his hand off me and stormed past him. White-hot rage was pounding in my skull. All I wanted was to drag Isabella out and demand to know what the hell was going on.
CRACK. I kicked the office door open.
The room was empty.
Jim rushed in behind me, still holding the baby. “Ethan, calm down! She’s still in surgery. Whatever it is, can we please just talk about it at home?”
A bitter laugh escaped my lips. “Which home is that, Jim? The one you lived in for six months while you were sleeping with my wife and cooking up a surrogate baby?”
Just then, a little girl ran out from a connecting break room and hugged Jim’s leg.
“Daddy, Mommy went to do surgery. Why isn’t she back yet? She promised she’d take me to the amusement park today!”
My gaze dropped to the little girl.
So, all those late-night “emergency surgeries” Isabella had… she was spending them with her other family. A family with a child old enough to talk.
On the wall hung a framed family portrait. In it, Isabella was holding the same little girl, a gentle, maternal smile on her face. Standing beside her was Jim.
A perfect, happy family of three.
And now, a family of four. All this time, they had been living this life right under my nose, without a shred of guilt.
The absurdity of it all made me want to laugh. I pulled out my phone and made a call.
“I want every piece of dirt on Isabella Felton’s affair. And paternity tests for those two kids. I want every detail. Money is no object.” My voice was ice. “I want her to leave this marriage with nothing.”
Jim heard me, his face twisting in desperation. “Ethan, you can’t! You’ll ruin her! She worked so hard to get where she is. How can you be so cruel?”
I nearly choked on his audacity. “Jim, who the hell do you think you are to stand there and question me?”
His eyes darted around nervously. He took a few steps closer, his entire demeanor softening into a pathetic plea. “Ethan, I’m begging you. Just go home. This has to be a misunderstanding. Don’t let everyone here see you make a fool of yourself.”
He was too close, reaching for my arm. I sidestepped, repulsed by the thought of his touch.
And in that instant, Jim suddenly staggered backward, and the baby in his arms went flying.
“AH! My baby!” he screamed, scrambling on the floor toward the crying infant. He pointed a shaking finger at me. “Ethan, how could you be so heartless?! Just because I wouldn’t give you my wife, now you’re trying to kill my child?”
The nurses rushed in, followed by doctors and patients’ families who had heard the commotion.
“Is he crazy? Attacking a newborn? Someone call security! Call the police!”
The little girl burst into tears, screaming, “You’re a bad man! You hurt my daddy! You tried to kill my brother!”
Just then, a familiar voice cut through the chaos. “What is going on here?”
The moment Jim saw her, he scrambled to his feet. “Isabella! Thank God! If you hadn’t come, he would have killed us!”
Isabella rushed forward, scooping the baby into her arms. “It’s okay, it’s okay,” she soothed. “Let’s just talk about this calmly.”
Then she looked up and saw me. The color drained from her face.
Jim seized the moment. “Isabella, save our baby! Ethan’s gone mad! He tried to kill our son!”
Isabella’s head snapped toward me. She stormed over and kicked me, sending me sprawling to the floor.
“Ethan, who gave you the nerve to harm my son?” she spat, her voice dripping with venom. “This is a hospital, not your personal playground!”
She leaned down, her face a mask of fury. “Or do you not care about your mother anymore? The one rotting away in the ICU? Because I can have her dragged out here for you to see.”

3
She dared to threaten me with my own mother?
My mom had a massive stroke three years ago and had been in a coma ever since. For three years, every time I came to visit her, Isabella insisted on keeping her distance, claiming it was to “avoid conflicts of interest.”
Was it to avoid conflicts of interest, or to keep her disgusting affair with Jim a secret?
She had played her part so well. No wonder she was always rushing me out, assuring me Mom was stable and I had nothing to worry about.
“Isabella,” I said, my voice dangerously low. “Who gave you the nerve to lay a hand on me?”
Her expression flickered. She turned to the gawking crowd. “I apologize for the scene. This is my husband’s cousin, Ethan. He’s been under a lot of stress… his mental state is not very stable. He often has… delusions.”
With just a few words, she branded me a lunatic.
I pushed myself to my feet, and started walking toward her, one slow step at a time.
Jim flinched, shrinking behind her. “Stay away! Isabella, I think he’s really lost it…”
Isabella stood her ground, shielding Jim. “Ethan! What more do you want?”
“Isabella.” I stopped in front of her. “What was that you just said? That I’m mentally unstable? That I have delusions?”
She must have thought I was about to back down. Her expression softened slightly. “Ethan, I know you’re not thinking clearly, but you hurt my son…”
The sharp crack of my hand across her face cut her off. Before she could recover, I drove my foot into her knee.
She crumpled to the floor.
“You ungrateful, backstabbing bitch!”
The room exploded into chaos. Humiliated, Isabella’s face twisted with rage.
“Have you lost your mind, Ethan?! My husband is sleep-deprived from taking care of our child, and you’re here causing trouble!” Her voice rose to a shriek. “Do you want your mother to die?”
I met her glare without flinching. “Threatening me with my mother? Is that all you’ve got, Isabella?”
“Fine,” she snarled, her face contorted. “You want to see what I’ve got? I’ll show you.” She whipped out her phone and dialed a number. “Bring the patient from ICU bed three to my office. Now.”
That was my mother’s bed.
Isabella… she wouldn’t. She couldn’t.
Rage, pure and blinding, consumed me. “I dare you! Isabella, if you touch my mother, you can get the hell out of this hospital!”
She laughed, a harsh, ugly sound. “Get out? Ethan, who do you think you are?”
“I own this hospital! That’s who!”

4
“Hahahahaha!” Isabella burst out laughing. “Ethan, you really have lost it. This hospital is yours? Why don’t you just say the whole world is yours?”
She waved at the security guards who had just arrived. “Get this lunatic out of here!”
“If he resists, tie him up and send him to the psych ward. Put all the expenses on my account. Consider it a final act of charity from his loving sister-in-law.”
The guards started to close in on me.
I fixed them with a cold stare. “You might want to think very carefully about the consequences of touching me.”
My intensity gave them pause, but Isabella grew impatient. “What are you waiting for? He’s one crazy person! Are you scared of him? If anything happens, I’ll take full responsibility!”
Just as a guard’s hand was about to grab my arm, a voice boomed from the end of the hall.
“Everyone, stop!”
It was Director Evans, the man I had personally promoted from deputy. The man I had specifically told to take good care of Isabella.
“Director Evans,” I said, my voice cutting through the silence. “Relay my orders.”
“Effective immediately, Dr. Isabella Felton is suspended from all duties, pending an internal investigation. Furthermore, I want Jim and his two children escorted out of this hospital. Immediately.”
But to my astonishment, Director Evans scurried past me and bowed respectfully to Isabella.
“Madame Chairman, my sincerest apologies. I am so sorry you and your husband were disturbed.”
I stared, dumbfounded.
What was this? Had Evans betrayed me? Was he on Isabella’s payroll?
Isabella sauntered over to me, a triumphant smirk on her face as she gestured toward the hallway, where a hospital bed was being wheeled toward us. “Still acting tough, Ethan? You wanted to kill my son? Today, I’ll show you who really has power in this hospital. I decide who lives…” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “And who won’t live to see the morning.”
My blood ran cold as I saw the gurney approaching. “Isabella! You’re not human…” My voice was shaking uncontrollably.
I tried to run to my mother, but Isabella grabbed my arm, her grip like iron.
“Scared now?” she purred. “Too late.”
They wheeled my mother right in front of me. An oxygen tube was taped to her nose, and the monitors beside her bed beeped a steady, fragile rhythm. At a nod from Isabella, the guards pinned me down.
“Look, Ethan. Your mother is doing quite well. It would be a shame if she just… stopped breathing.”
“Isabella!” I twisted my head, my eyes burning with hatred. “Put her back! Damn you, put her back right now!”
She raised an eyebrow. “Whether she goes back or not… depends on you.” She lightly tapped the red handprint still visible on her cheek. “This hurts.” Then she pointed to her knee. “And this hurts, too.”
“Now,” she said, her voice low and menacing, “get on your knees and apologize to my son and my husband.”
Her hand moved, hovering over my mother’s oxygen tube. “Or your mother runs out of air. Right now.”
I watched in horror as she pulled the tube halfway out. My mother’s face began to turn a terrifying shade of blue.
I couldn’t risk it. I couldn’t bet my mother’s life.
My knees buckled. I was about to kneel.
Just then, a hand shot out from the side, firmly holding me up.
“Who would dare make him kneel?”

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