Chapter 70

In the hotel room, Mountside County. After Ethan sat on the edge of the bed and diligently blow-dried her hair, Stella lay on his lap without getting up. She casually picked up her phone from the side and noticed the recent call log she had just hung up. Lately, she had been receiving these silent prank calls, each time from different numbers, but she hadn't paid much attention to them. Closing the call log, she opened X. At the top was a photo taken during the daytime visit to the graves. On Moonshadow Mountain, scattered graves dotted the landscape. Director Moore used to live in the village at the foot of the mountain. Before passing away, she had told Shane that she wanted to be buried on Moonshadow Mountain so he could overlook the direction of the orphanage. When they arrived, some thorny weeds had grown near the grave of Director Moore. Ethan was afraid she would cut herself, so he bent down and cleared the weeds himself. His movements were not very skilled, but his expression was earnest. Turning back, he saw Stella staring at him with gentle eyes, momentarily stunned. He raised an eyebrow and asked, "What, am I too good-looking? Have I dazzled you again?" Stella sighed with relief, wiped the sweat off his forehead for him, and smiled, shaking her head. "I just wanted to tell Director Moore that I lack nothing now." Just moments ago, as she gazed at his back while he pulled weeds, the unfamiliarity she had felt toward the orphanage these past few days seemed to dissipate at that moment. Ethan had given her a new sense of belonging. She lacked neither a home nor that special love. Lost in thought, Stella clicked on the comments and noticed a message: Check your DMs, add me on SnapChat. The username was Sushi, and the comment was made after a class reunion. Checking the updates, it seemed to be Liora. Stella rarely used Facebook, and the person probably couldn't contact her, but managed to find her on Instagram through mutual interests. Opening the messages in the unread DMs, Stella saw a long string of messages, not just from Liora with a SnapChat ID, but also more from another person. "What are you looking at?" Ethan saw her frowning and sitting up, leaned closer, and brushed the stray hairs from her ear, asking. Stella relaxed, handing him the phone honestly. "These messages seem to be from Aaron." Aaron was quite persistent, sending a few messages every day, offering warmth, holiday greetings, apologies, and expressions of missing her. Unfortunately, they were all piled up in the unread messages, and she hadn't seen them at all. Of course, even if she had seen them, it wouldn't have made any difference; she would have just added a few more to the blacklist. Stella had never thought she was unclear with Aaron. His other contact methods had already been blocked, leaving only this method to contact her. Unless there was a special situation, Ethan would pick her up from work every day, and most of the opportunities Aaron could find to meet her were avoided. Now thinking about it, when her car was already repaired, Ethan still insisted on picking her up and dropping her off. Could it be to guard against Aaron coming to find her? The more Stella thought about it, the more likely it seemed. "Keep it." Ethan glanced at the private messages Aaron sent, tilted his smooth chin, and said casually, "When our baby is born, ask him for a gift." "A baby?" Stella frowned at him. "Where did this baby come from?" The way he said it, it was as if a child would pop out in the next second. "Isn't it," his gaze drifted lightly over her flat abdomen, "up to you?" Stella instinctively touched her abdomen, then lowered her eyes, remaining silent for a while. "What, don't you want to have children?" Ethan assessed her expression, lightly pursing his lips, then seemingly casually continued, "Actually, whether we have a child or not doesn't matter. I can sacrifice a bit to stay with you longer." They say life is unpredictable. He was just afraid that if that day really came, she would be left all alone without anyone to accompany her. "It's not that I don't want to, it's just..." Stella paused, looking up at him. "Do you think I could be a good mother?" She wasn't even sure what a mother should be like. "It's okay if you're not good at it. Isn't there still me?" Ethan smiled, his eyelids slightly drooping, his expression arrogantly casual. "Then I'll reluctantly do it, both as a dad and a mom." Seeing this, Stella sighed inwardly. Thinking back to the days when Alex lived at home, she felt that he was even less reliable as a father. But he meant well. She couldn't show any hint of disdain towards his confidence. "Do you still miss Dylan?" She changed the subject, mentioning his father. "Occasionally." Ethan didn't deny it. As if remembering something, he patted her head and smiled. "Speaking of which, you really made him happy." Stella looked at him in confusion. "Me? Why?" He pulled her close as they lay down, his voice soft, "Probably because you've made his son proud." After he got into Johnson Financial University, Dylan would bring it up whenever he saw people, proudly boasting for nearly half a year. Of course, he also acknowledged Stella's indispensable contribution. "At that time, he figured out that I liked you, and was single-mindedly trying to make you his daughter-in-law. He even said the betrothal gifts were ready, constantly hinting at me to put in more effort," Ethan recalled. He thought, if things hadn't turned out the way they did, if Dylan had known he succeeded, he probably would have continued to boast about having a daughter-in-law who aced the exams. Thinking of Dylan's kindly chubby face, Stella smiled and said, "No wonder Jessica said you had a girl you liked. At first, when I heard her hinting, I thought..." "What did you think?" His deep gaze locked onto her. Stella pursed her lips, sighing inwardly. What she had thought, of course, couldn't be brought up again. She didn't want the man to physically dispel rumors about her again. So, she shook her head, turning to hug him instead. "Nothing, just a misunderstanding. It doesn't matter."