<b>Chapter </b><b>182 </b>


    I did not hear anything else Alvin said after that.


    This news alone was enough to leave me shaken.


    The questions that had always puzzled me finally had answers, but I never expected them to be like this.


    I was very familiar with Benjamin. He was a lean and cheerful man, <i>someone </i>who gave off the warm and approachable vibe of an older brother next door.


    Who would have thought he died because he could not ept the fact that his wife had betrayed him with his best


    friend?


    No wonder Alvin had been so devastated and tormented when Benjamin died…


    It was because he was the one who killed him.


    No wonder Benjamin’s parents had treated Thea the way they did after his death–so much so that they even


    refused to acknowledge the child in her womb.


    They probably did not believe the baby was Benjamin’s.


    I had not hated Alvin much for his infidelity, but at this moment, I realized just how despicable he truly was. He had


    taken a life–the life of his closest friend.


    Jasmine noticed my unease and led me away.


    4


    Once inside her lounge, I sank into a chair and remained silent for a long time.


    I had never been particrly close to Benjamin, but thinking about the despair he must have felt in his final moments made my heart ache as if I could feel the suffocating hopelessness he had endured.


    “Alvin is truly unforgivable,” Jasmine remarked, equally shaken and furious.”


    After a brief pause, she added, “Now that Thea hastched onto him, even if he does not want to, he will probably have to force himself toply.”


    “This is what he owes her,” I said.


    Jasmine agreed. “Serves him right.”


    <i>“</i>And Thea… She mes Alvin, but do you really think he would have made a move on her if she had not given him a signal first?


    “It takes two to tango, yet now she is acting as if he is solely to me. And to make matters worse, just to secure her ce in the Dolton family, she even harmed the only child Benjamin left behind. She is absolutely vile!” Jasmine eximed as she fumed.


    13:02 Thu, 21 Aug


    I absentmindedly picked at my nails and murmured, “Jasmine, find a way to save her baby.”


    831%?


    I knew I had no right to make decisions for Thea. But this was what she owed Benjamin. I was only speaking up for


    him.


    Jasmine gripped my shoulders and tried tofort me, “Zoe, I understand how you feel. But if Thea truly does not want the child, even if I intervene, she could always go somewhere else to have the procedure done. Besides…”


    She hesitated before continuing, “She has already set her sights on marrying Alvin. There is no way she will keep the baby. And even if she does, that child’s future will be anything but happy.”


    A sudden thought struck me: ‘No one has the right to decide someone else’s life.


    ‘Yes, I had no right.‘


    But the baby inside Thea was already a living being. It was also Benjamin’s only legacy. If the baby was gone, then Benjamin would be truly gone from this world.


    A wave of helplessness washed over me, making me feel utterly miserable.


    This feeling was even worse than when I first found out about Alvin’s affair with Thea.


    “If Alvin has even a shred of conscience left, he will not let Thea go through with it,” Jasmine added, fully aware of the significance of this child.


    I closed my eyes and sighed. “Let’s hope he has some conscience left.”


    While I was still trying to collect myself in Jasmine’s lounge, my phone rang–it was Alvin. He asked, “Can you talk to Jasmine? Tell her not to perform the surgery on Thea.”


    The way he said it almost made him sound human,


    I repeated Jasmine’s <i>words </i><i>to </i>him, then concluded, “Alvin, Thea once used this baby to tie you down, and now, for


    your sake, she wants to get rid of it. Whether the baby stays or not–it is not up to Jasmine. It is up to you.”