”Aubrey, what is he talking about?” Ysabelle demanded an explanation because she was confused. “He claimed that you are pregnant with his child!”

Aubrey closed her eyes and refused to speak about it, but her stepmother wouldn't let her go without asking more. “What does it matter if I am really pregnant?” She asked Ysabelle, who was too stunned to speak at the moment.

“Everything matters! You have to marry the bastard who did it to you, understand?” Ysabelle declared, and her stubborn stepdaughter glared at her in response. “I don’t care if you are of legal age right now, but you belong to this family, Aubrey, and I say that you must get married to the one responsible for your situation!”

“W-what? Are you serious right now, Ysabelle? My god, it’s twenty-twenty-two, and you asked to do something so medieval!”

“Then what about your reputation? Your father would crawl from his grave if he knew about this!”

“My father will not mind at all, don’t you think? Besides, he’s already dead and buried,” she added, but instead of gaining sympathy from her Ysabelle, she earned a slap, a hard one that echoed inside the living room. Ysabelle was about to slap her again, but Collin quickly stopped the woman from being violent.

“How dare you stop me right now?” Ysabelle screamed at Collin.

“I know you are angry, Madame, but can we just talk about it like civilized people? This is a serious situation wherein we need to be reasonable,” Collin explained.

“Reasonable? It’s all your fault, bastard!” Ysabelle continued to anatomize Collin for making Aubrey pregnant. Yes, her stepdaughter could start her family in terms of financial standing, but she couldn’t allow her granddaughter to be born out of wedlock.

“And that’s why I’m here to discuss it,” Collin stated a fact and didn't back down against Ysabelle's gaze, but he was taken aback when he overheard Aubrey giggling. “Is there something funny about this, Aubrey?”

“No, it’s not you, Collin, but Ysabelle. Can you imagine that? She asked me to marry you just because I am pregnant, isn’t it funny?”

“No, it’s not funny, Aubrey, because she was right,” Collin said.

“So what do you she was right? You’re going to agree to the wedding?” Aubrey inquired.

“No,” he answered briefly. “People like Ysabelle would assume marriage as the only solution, but there’s a lot of clinic in Cordova, Aubrey. We can just visit one of them and terminate your pregnancy,” he suggested, but after seeing their facial expressions, he wondered if he said something wrong. He suddenly heard Ysabelle dismissing everyone except for Aubrey.

“Are you suggesting that Aubrey should abort the child?” Ysabelle asked, and after Collin nodded his head, she wanted to kill him immediately! “Get out. Get out!” She shouted at Collin for being disrespectful. How could he suggest such a thing to her stepdaughter?

“No, let him stay,” Aubrey stopped Ysabelle from sending Collin away.

“Aubrey! Did you hear what he just said? He wanted to abort your baby!”

“I’m not deaf, Ysabelle. I heard him,” she answered.

“Then why do you want him to stay?”

“Because I still have to talk to him, and besides, I’m still thinking about killing him or not,” Aubrey said in a calm voice, and Ysabelle gave her a thumbs-up sign.

“Good girl. Then, I’ll leave you to handle him,” Ysabelle said and winked before leaving.

Meanwhile, Collin was unsure how to react upon hearing the conversation between Aubrey and Ysabelle. When he glanced at the woman, she looked so calm, and he couldn’t explain why she looked scary at the same time.

“Sit down, Collin,” Aubrey said before doing the same, and when the man hesitated for a second, she lifted the tip of her eyebrow. Earlier, she was taken aback by the prospect of marriage, but she was taken aback when Collin proposed an abortion.

Collin sat across from her and crossed his legs to appear confident, but the woman’s gaze challenged his confidence. “I’ve changed my mind about the child,” he said.

“I see. Is that the reason why you come here? To suggest an abortion? Before you answer that, can you tell me how you got my address?”

“I got it from Dean, your cousin,” Collin replied calmly.

“Ah, Dean. Okay, go ahead and explain why you suggested that horrible thing earlier?”

“I don’t want any of my kids to be a bastard. I’m sorry if it took me so long to realize this,” he explained.

“A bastard? How dare you!” Finally, her patience ran out, and she screamed at Collin Hendricks for being insensitive about the issue. She erupted in rage when the bastard kept on insisting on terminating her pregnancy.

“Aubrey, please be reasonable,” he pleaded with her.

“I think you should be the one to be reasonable at this moment, Collin. I told you before that I need to get pregnant, so you are just wasting your time in coming here,” she stated a fact.

”I'm not quite ready to be a father yet, Aubrey.”

“I'm confident that my child will be alright without you, Collin. Just get out of here before I become a criminal,” she warned him.

Collin clenched his jaw because the woman remained stubborn no matter what. He did his best in convincing her, but Aubrey Calderon was just so pigheaded! “I am the one responsible for your pregnancy, Aubrey, so I also have the right to decide, don’t you agree?”

“Listen, motherfucker because I’m not going to say it again. Speaking of rights, you had forfeited yours when you suggested the abortion. Now, the least that you can do, is to leave from my property and don’t come back no matter what, understand?”

“No, I can’t agree to that,” he declared.

Aubrey was perplexed at his stubbornness and asked, “How can you expect me to kill her even before she is born? That’s a horrible thing to say to her, Collin, and I can’t forgive you for being mean. Please, just leave now!”

“No,” he answered.

“I won’t tolerate your callousness towards my unborn child, Collin. Leave now, or you will regret it later,” she warned him.

“I'm not going anywhere as long as you don't agree with my suggestion! I have the same rights as you when it comes to your pregnancy, and I will do whatever I want!”

How stubborn he was, Aubrey thought. As he listened to him, the more she wanted to snap his neck. “Didn’t you hear what I said earlier? You have forfeited your rights for my child,” she repeated.

”Aubrey, please...” he pleaded, his voice breaking.

“Just get out of here, Collin.” Please…?” She begged because it was emotionally exhausting to fight against someone who wanted to kill her child.

Collin had gone completely silent for a minute, and he just stared at the woman who was too stubborn to let her pregnancy go any further. She has the potential to be an excellent mother for their child. However, he couldn’t let it happen. “For once, Aubrey, will you please listen?”

“No, there’s no need for us to talk anymore,” she dismissed him with a wave of her finger, and when he refused to stand up, she glared her eyes towards him.

“I am not leaving,” he announced.

“Fair enough!”

Both Aubrey and Collin turned their heads towards Ysabelle, who returned with someone else. Aubrey immediately furrowed her brows upon recognizing Ysabelle’s companion. “Ysabelle, why did you bring the judge?”