Billionaires with Benefits

160 160. Fake Protection

Linda froze at Patrick’s words. She was still holding Clara in her arms, but her soul was not there at all. Clara? The daughter she cared about, was ever pregnant? Ever had a miscarriage?

Meanwhile, Clara looked at her father in disbelief. Tears welled up in her eyes. The news his father brought made her chest feel tight. She could barely breathe. She was suffocated.

“What?” Clara asked again. “Then why did I never know about it? Why didn’t anyone tell me I was pregnant?”

“Patrick, you’re kidding, right?” asked Linda, still confused. She was afraid that Patrick had done something worse than he said.

Clara broke away from her mother’s embrace. “Mom, are you keeping this a secret from me? Dad must have told you, right?”

Linda shook her head. “I swear, my love, I will never keep something as important as this from you.”

Clara rose from her seat. She approached her father, without the slightest fear. Why was she afraid of him? She turned out to be a mother too. The one who lost her child without knowing that she had ever had a child.

“Why didn’t you tell me I was pregnant?” Clara asked again, clutching her father’s arm. “And what did you say earlier? Did I get a miscarriage? Was it true?”

Patrick nodded. He didn’t feel guilty or sorry for Clara at all. He only blamed Clara for her own misfortune.

.....

“Why would I lie?” Patrick said, giving Clara a level look. “What benefits will I get from making up a silly story like that?”

“Then why didn’t you tell me? Why are you just now telling me everything?” Clara insisted, shaking her father’s body.

Patrick looked away from Clara. “I told you the reason, no? After you miscarry, the doctor says you won’t be able to get pregnant again. How could I tell something like that to you, who is only sixteen? A dumb teenager!”

Clara’s gaze grew sharper, but she burst into tears. She could no longer contain the sadness that was in her heart. Her father’s excuse was completely unacceptable.

“No matter how old I am, you shouldn’t have kept that secret from me. It’s very important, dad!” protested Clara, who did not accept her father’s treatment. She was crying while gritting her teeth in annoyance and anger. “That’s not fair to me, dad! All this time, what did you think of me? I also have a heart and feelings, dad!”

Patrick sneered at Clara as if her daughter was demanding unreasonable things. Like a child asking to be given an adult job.

“What happened to you back then if the doctor told the truth? You can be mentally unprepared, even a child as spoiled and fragile as you will hurt yourself,” Patrick laughed bitterly, sneering at Clara. “Isn’t that what happens right now? You were furious when Linda told Lea that you are barren. You can’t accept that you’re not perfect, can you?

Patrick looked at Clara who just stared at him. She felt shot right in the gut.

“For you, it’s better to die than live in shame, right? Clara is perfect. The most perfect woman who ever lived on earth. Beautiful, daughter of a respectable family, the rich, genius who graduated from medical school at the age of 22,” Patrick sneered, mentioning all of Clara’s strengths that people always said and making all the girls jealous of her.

Clara could only bite her lip. Indeed, what Patrick mentioned had always made her feel superior to other women. She just couldn’t accept that someone knew that she was not perfect.

“How can Clara be able to continue living if the world knows that she is infertile?” Patrick added in a sharp whisper, hissing like a snake.

Clara’s face looked even paler, complementing the bruises and wounds on her face. Her eyes stared closely at her father’s amber eyes.

“Look! You, who are currently unable to face that bad reality. How could the you of six years ago be able to deal with it?” Patrick said, looking down, facing Clara’s face without blinking.

“I’m not that weak,” Clara replied fiercely. “You only think I’m a crybaby.”

“Let’s just say you are lucky that I protected you,” Patrick snapped. “Didn’t you manage to finish your medical school well, at a very young age, because I gave you a pleasant life? The fiancé who always supports you, the happy youth without having to be haunted by the sufferings of being a young mother, it’s because I kept all of this a secret from you.”

“What do you mean, Patrick?” interjected Linda. “Don’t say such things to Clara! You’re guilty but you don’t feel guilty. Shouldn’t you at least tell me that since I’m her mother?”

“Stay out of the way, Linda!” he snapped. “You had a lot on your mind. You cannot live in peace if you know that your sweet child has a dark past, right?”

“I have the right to know what happened to Clara!” Linda insisted. She didn’t usually fight Patrick like this. She would usually just go along with Patrick and ask Clara to be patient. However, what Patrick did this time was too much.

“I’m the head of the family! I know best what is best for all of you!” Patrick snapped again. “And you, Linda! Why are you against me for this whore?”

“She’s your daughter, Patrick!” Linda argued loudly.

“Linda!”

Patrick and Linda continued to argue. They blame each other for everything that happened with Clara. Meanwhile, Clara still couldn’t believe what Patrick said about the protection. Everything he had been saying about protection had been utter nonsense. Everything he did was just for the sake of his business.

“If you behave like this, you have never been a good father to her!” she snapped. “A person like you can even harm your own blood and flesh!”

Linda’s statement made dark thoughts creep into Clara’s mind. Did she truly have a miscarriage?

“Are you the one who aborted my baby, dad?”