Chapter 78
Ella froze, her eyes locked on him.
"What do you mean?"
Joshua looked back at her. "I had Aurora's treatment stopped. Without treatment, she'll naturally die."
"Are you serious?"
Ella suddenly panicked.
Her hands trembling, she grabbed Joshua's arm.
"You're lying to me, aren't you? You worked so hard to find her. How could you just watch her die?"
He must be lying.
She had only slapped Joshua once.
Ella knelt on the ground, clutching Joshua tightly, her emotions on the verge of collapse.
"If you're mad about me hitting you, then hit me back, okay? Even if you beat me to death, I'll accept it. But please don't stop the treatment. Joshua, I'm begging you."
Joshua sat in his chair with an air of superiority, showing no mercy, and shook off her hand.
"You should have known the consequences before you raised your hand."
If he didn't teach Ella a lesson, she'd really think she could do whatever she wanted, even daring to hit him.
If he didn't have a policy against hitting women, she'd be dead already.
"I know I was wrong. Please don't stop Aurora's treatment. Please save her, Joshua."
Ella was truly terrified of losing Aurora. She prostrated herself on the ground, kowtowing to Joshua while trembling and pleading.
Her Aurora was still so young. Falling into the ocean had already made her suffer enough. If she left this world because of Joshua, Ella would go insane.
"Joshua, I'm begging you. Don't let her leave me. Don't hurt her."
Ella kowtowed until her forehead was swollen, only begging that Joshua would soften his heart and spare her three-year-old Aurora.
At first, Joshua had only wanted to scare Ella.
To make her understand that some of her behavior was unacceptable.
But seeing Ella kneeling on the ground now, crying until her voice was hoarse, he felt a bit reluctant.
Unable to bear watching anymore, Joshua softened his tone.
"Get up. I didn't have them stop the treatment."
That's right—he had been lying to Ella.
Ella was stunned. Her kowtowing stopped.
She slowly pushed herself up and looked at Joshua with eyes full of resentment and hatred, grinding her teeth.
But she didn't dare get angry again.
Ella could only suppress the emotions exploding inside her and asked in a low voice, "She'll be fine, right?"
Joshua grunted in acknowledgment, realizing he'd gone too far a moment ago, and quickly made an excuse for himself.
"If you defy me again or raise your hand against me, I won't just be scaring you."
Ella hurriedly wiped the tears from her cheeks and struggled to stand up.
"As long as you can make sure Aurora returns safely to me, I'll do whatever you say from now on. Including right now. Give me the divorce papers and I'll sign them."
She didn't want to maintain a marriage with Joshua for even one more moment.
Being with him, she was constantly on edge.
"Now you're eager again?"
Joshua stopped looking at her and deliberately flipped through the documents on his desk, his voice a few degrees colder than a second ago.
Ella was dazed, her emotions from the previous moment of collapse nearly making her lose her balance.
She leaned against the desk, her voice still hoarse.
"I'm sorry. Earlier I thought you were lying to me, so I deliberately didn't sign. Now I know you really found Aurora and are paying for her treatment."
"I'll always remember your kindness to me. I also know I'm not good enough for you, so let's get divorced. Right now."
However, Ella's readiness made Joshua unhappy.
Joshua stood up and grabbed her, pulling her by the waist with an intimidating presence.
"After divorcing me, are you going to immediately take those two illegitimate children and run to Michael?"
Ella no longer had the strength to struggle.
She slumped weakly against Joshua's chest, her vision becoming somewhat blurred.
"Joshua, actually Michael isn't the children's father. I don't love Michael either, and I would never go abroad with him."
Ella knew that explaining now was useless.
Joshua would never believe her.
But she didn't want him constantly angry about Michael's existence.
"So you have another man?"
Joshua was simply impressed with Ella.
If the children's father wasn't Michael, then there must be someone else.
How could she be so promiscuous?
Ella was only 24 years old. She probably couldn't even remember how many men she'd slept with.
Joshua got even angrier and roughly pushed her away in disgust.
Ella had no strength left at all and fell to the ground unprepared.
This was just seen by Dorian, who had rushed to the doorway.
Dorian was furious. He rushed over and first kicked Joshua, then helped his mother up, crying with heartache.
"Mommy, are you okay? Get up quick, let's go find the police."
The police could take Michael away, so they could definitely take this thoroughly bad Joshua away too.
He really couldn't bear to let Ella stay here and suffer anymore.
Ella pushed herself up and took Dorian's little hand.
"Dorian, Mommy's fine."
Then she looked at the suddenly angry Joshua and explained, "Whether you believe it or not, I've only been with you and Dorian's father, and Dorian's father is..."
Ella wanted to tell Joshua about what happened four years ago.
But before she could finish, Joshua flew into a rage and threw the fruit bowl from his desk.
"I don't want to hear stories about you and any other man. Get out."
Ella looked at the fruit scattered all over the floor.
Afraid of scaring Dorian, she could only leave with him first.
Walking out of the study, she could still hear Joshua throwing things.
What Joshua probably minded most was that she had given birth to another man's children and had been hiding it from him.
It wasn't because he cared that he was so angry.
"Mommy, can we call the police, please?"
Dorian looked at Ella's swollen forehead, his big eyes full of tears.
Ella shook her head in refusal.
"We can't call the police. The police don't handle these kinds of things. Besides, Aurora is in Joshua's hands. We have to please him so he'll give Aurora back to us."
"But he keeps bullying you. You're still sick, and now he's hurt you again."
Dorian's heart really ached for Ella like this.
Ella took Dorian's hand downstairs, back to the servants' room where they lived.
"It's okay. As long as Aurora can safely return to us, any amount of suffering Mommy endures is worth it."
She crouched down and touched Dorian's chubby little face, forcing a smile to comfort him.
"Dorian, once Aurora is back with us, we'll leave and go somewhere no one can find us, okay?"
Dorian could only agree with Ella for now.
After Ella carried him to bed, he took out his little notebook and wrote in it.
Recording the number of times Joshua had hurt him and Ella.
When he grew up, he would pay him back for each one.
Ella finished washing up and got into bed too.
But her heart kept worrying about Aurora.
The next morning, she had no choice but to try to please Joshua again.
She went upstairs early to iron the clothes Joshua would wear today, matched them up, and carried them to his room.
Seeing that Joshua was up, she went over and offered to help him change.
Joshua glanced coldly at Ella but didn't refuse.
For some reason, smelling the fresh scent on her body, he inexplicably felt at ease again.
Joshua said, "I'm going on a business trip for a week. You're coming with me."