My Husband Regretted It After I Died in Childbirth

: Separated by Life and Death

Perhaps because they were premature, both of them looked so small, as if they might stop breathing at any moment.

No matter how much my heart ached, there was nothing I could do.

I flew to Zane Vance's side. He and Celia Blanc were sitting on a bench by the sea, a picture so beautiful it was unreal.

"Zane, let's go collect seashells, okay?"

The girl blinked her starry eyes, asking him with childlike innocence.

He ruffled her hair and gently said yes.

It was impossible to imagine that just a moment ago, he had hung up on me with such a cold and decisive tone.

"AH!"

The girl's shriek shattered the harmony of the scene.

"What's wrong?"

He anxiously took her hand, turning it over and over, inspecting it closely, only to find a cut that was almost healed.

"How could you be so careless?"

Though they were words of blame, they were filled with doting affection.

He used to use that tone with me, too, but never again after we got married.

After carefully disinfecting it with iodine, he took out a bandage and meticulously wrapped it for her.

That cut was so small it would have healed on its own if left unbandaged.

The girl looked at him, happy and content, like a scene from a teen drama.

Watching this scene, tears scrambled to escape my eyes, and pain spread from my heart throughout my entire body.

'So a soul can cry, and feel pain, too.'

Mother Vance, having received the hospital's call for family, arrived fashionably late.

"The patient suffered a massive hemorrhage. Resuscitation was unsuccessful. I'm sorry for your loss."

The doctor shook his head and sighed, but Mother Vance looked thrilled.

"Good, she's dead. Finally dead, the unlucky thing."

My Best Friend couldn't take it anymore and slapped Mother Vance hard across the face.

"Nina marrying into a family like yours was a dozen lifetimes of bad luck."

"You dare hit me?"

Mother Vance clutched her cheek, her face a mask of disbelief, before grabbing a handful of my Best Friend's hair.

"You damn girl, you're just as shameless as that little wench! I'll teach you to hit me! I'll teach you!"

The scene descended into chaos. The doctor finally managed to pull the two of them apart.

Knowing what kind of person Mother Vance was, my Best Friend was naturally unwilling to hand the babies over to her.

"Doctor, I'm the family. These are my son's children. Who else would you give them to but me?"

'I thought that no matter what, they were her grandchildren. That even if she despised me, she wouldn't go so far as to mistreat the babies.'

'But I had still underestimated her.'

"Doctor, what about the babies' umbilical cord blood? That stuff is valuable, you know? It can sell for a lot of money."

I furiously tried to block her, standing in front of the babies, but I could only watch as her hand passed right through my body.

It turned out that before I had even given birth, Mother Vance had already told the doctor to save the umbilical cord blood.

After getting the "precious" umbilical cord blood, she happily abandoned the babies and disappeared, who knows where.

My Best Friend sat by my bedside, crying as she called Zane Vance again and again, but the call never went through.

'How could the call possibly go through? He's with Celia Blanc, happily collecting seashells right now.'

I followed Mother Vance, wanting to make her go back to the hospital to see the babies.

But no matter how hoarsely I screamed, she couldn't hear a thing.

She sold the babies' umbilical cord blood for a full $15,000. The moment she got the money, she found the nearest mahjong parlor and started playing.

An immense feeling of powerlessness washed over me.

Zane Vance finally remembered me and gave Mother Vance a call.

"Where is Nina Sterling? She's not picking up her phone or answering her texts."

"Oh, her? She just gave birth, so she's in a foul mood. She's mad you didn't come back to be with her for the delivery, so she's intentionally ignoring you. Son, you can't fall for this woman's tricks."

There was a clear note of anger in Zane Vance's voice.