Chapter 306: Giving Up All Hope, Severing Ties
Sean Sterling’s gaze turned colder by the second, like the edge of a blade forged in winter ice.
His eyes swept over Simon Sterling, who was protectively shielding Yvonne Donovan, before settling back on her unrepentant face. A soft, cold sneer escaped his throat.
"For my sake? For the Sterling family’s sake?"
As if he’d just heard the most ridiculous joke in the world, Sean Sterling stepped forward. The oppressive aura emanating from him felt like it could rip the very air in the hospital room to shreds.
"Mom, the one thing you’ve always excelled at is packaging your selfishness, cruelty, and control issues as ’what’s best for me,’ hiding the domineering and unreasonable nature in your bones."
The words hit a nerve. Yvonne Donovan’s face turned ugly, a mixture of guilt and fury.
Her voice rose, sharp and trembling. "Wasn’t I doing it for you? A woman like Isla Griffith, with her common family and no connections—is she worthy of your status as the Sterling family heir? The child she was carrying wasn’t fit to enter the Sterling family’s doors either! All I did was speak a few truths to make her face reality. What did I do wrong?"
"Truths?" Sean Sterling’s fists clenched, the veins on his temples throbbing violently. The rage he had suppressed all this time finally exploded.
His eyes were as red as blood as he roared at Yvonne Donovan through gritted teeth.
"You’re still so stubborn, completely unaware of the grave mistake you’ve made! How could I have a mother like you!"
"You...!" Yvonne Donovan’s face flushed, and she nearly choked, unable to catch her breath.
"Your so-called ’for my sake’ was cornering Isla Griffith with lies, trampling her dignity with the most vicious words, and wounding the person I love until she was torn to shreds."
"Do you have any idea? When Isla heard those words, the shock caused her to hemorrhage and miscarry!"
"My children are gone! They were twins, two living lives, my own flesh and blood! And now, they’re gone. They’re never coming back!!!"
Sean Sterling practically screamed the last few sentences, his voice hoarse with a heart-wrenching pain that seemed to make the very room tremble.
Everyone froze in place.
"..." Yvonne Donovan’s pupils contracted. The arrogant self-righteousness on her face crumbled, and she stood there stunned, as if she’d been bludgeoned over the head, unable to process anything for a long moment.
She had only wanted to drive Isla Griffith away, to stop her from pestering Sean Sterling. She had never intended to kill the children in her womb.
Hearing the news, Claire Sterling felt a pang of heartache. Her eyes instantly reddened, glistening with tears.
Those two children were of the Sterling family’s bloodline, two vibrant lives, and now they were both lost at Yvonne Donovan’s hands.
She could understand Sean Sterling’s pain and hatred.
"Yvonne, you’ve truly gone too far this time."
"No matter how much you dislike Isla Griffith, you shouldn’t have provoked her with such childish, vicious excuses. She was a pregnant woman, after all."
"There’s no greater virtue than saving a life, but what did you do?"
Yvonne Donovan snapped back to her senses, clinging to the last shred of her arrogance as she argued, "So what if I went too far? I’ve done right by the Sterling ancestors. Marriages must be between social equals. Those are the rules."
"It’s better to rip the band-aid off. It’s for the best that the children are gone. It’s called pulling out the weeds by the root to prevent future problems."
"Yvonne Donovan!" For the first time, Sean Sterling, burning with an uncontrollable fury, called his mother by her full name, completely shredding the last wisp of affection between mother and son.
"You’re a mother yourself, yet your heart is so dark and venomous. If I could have chosen back then, I definitely would not have chosen to be your child, because you are utterly unworthy of being my mother!"
Simon Sterling’s expression was so grim it looked like it could drip water.
He rose to his feet, raised his hand, and slapped Sean Sterling across the face, the blow even harder than the last.
"Shut your damn mouth! Listen to yourself! Do you even sound human?!"
"Today is the day your mother is being discharged from the hospital! Is it a pretty sight, airing our dirty laundry for all to see? If you have any decency left, you’ll apologize to your mother immediately. We’ll put this matter behind us, and I won’t hold it against you."
Sean Sterling’s head was knocked to the side, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
It would be a lie to say it didn’t hurt, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the agony in his heart.
He let out a laugh, his voice desolate and sarcastic.
"Apologize? You want me to apologize to the person who killed my children? Do you think that’s possible?"
"The fact that I haven’t reported this to the police and pressed murder charges is already the extent of my mercy."
Simon Sterling was seething with rage.
"You bastard! Over those two little things that hadn’t even formed yet, you’re going to sue your own mother? Have you no conscience?! You..."
Sean Sterling cut him off with a roar, his crimson eyes filled with ferocity.
"They were not ’little things’! They were my children! My own flesh and blood! I will not allow anyone to belittle or insult them, and that includes you, Simon Sterling."
"!!!" Simon Sterling was stunned into silence by the shout, shocked by his son’s aura for the very first time.
Sean Sterling had completely lost all hope for this family.
His mother’s excuses, his father’s favoritism, their arrogant and heartless lack of guilt.
It felt like a thousand arrows piercing his heart, grinding his last shred of hope for familial affection into dust.
Sean Sterling took one last look at his cold, selfish parents. There was nothing left to say. He turned and walked away.
"Sean Sterling!"
Simon Sterling’s furious threat came from behind him. He was breathing heavily, his sharp gaze fixed on that rebellious, cold back.
"If you dare walk out that door today, you will forever lose your right as the Sterling family heir! You won’t get a single cent of the Sterling family’s assets or shares!"
Sean Sterling’s steps paused. He slowly turned back to look at his father, his eyes devoid of fear, containing only a bone-deep chill.
"Heir?" He chuckled softly, his expression dripping with disdain.
"The moment you conspired to kill my children, I no longer wanted to be the Sterling family heir."
"You can keep the Sterling family’s glory and wealth for yourselves."
"From this day forward, I will not back down another step. My life, my relationships, my everything—it all has nothing to do with you. You have no right to interfere."
Hearing her son’s resolute declaration, Yvonne Donovan’s face went deathly pale. She was utterly panicked.
Sean Sterling was her only son. If she lost him, her world would collapse. What hope or meaning would be left in her life?!
"Sean, can you really bear to throw away all the money and status you have now? Without the Sterling family, you’re nothing."
Sean Sterling replied coldly, "I don’t care for it."
With that, he looked at no one, striding out with a resolute back that showed not a hint of reluctance.
BAM! The hospital room door was slammed shut, the heavy thud sealing off all the hypocrisy, arguments, and coldness.
The room fell into a dead silence.
Yvonne Donovan’s strength gave out. Her vision went black, and she fell straight backward.
Simon Sterling frantically caught her. "Yvonne!"
Yvonne Donovan collapsed into her husband’s arms, her face as white as a sheet of paper, gasping for breath.
All her earlier arrogance, cruelty, and obsession had vanished completely.
She clutched Simon Sterling’s sleeve tightly, her fingertips turning white as tears finally rolled uncontrollably down her cheeks.
It wasn’t guilt, but panic—the despair of losing her son.
"Sean’s really gone. He doesn’t want me as his mother, and he doesn’t want this family anymore."
Simon Sterling was both anxious and furious. He held his wife with one arm and slammed his other fist on the cabinet by the hospital bed.
"That bastard son of a bitch, Sean Sterling! He thinks he’s all grown up now. For a woman, for two unborn children, he’s abandoning his home, even his parents! This is rebellion!"
He roared until he was hoarse, but the son who would always endure, always back down, and always be suppressed by his status and bloodline was no longer in the room.
Nearby, Claire Sterling’s eyes were already bloodshot, her heart aching with a chilling pain.
"Brother, Sister-in-law, has it really come to this, and you still don’t understand?"
"It wasn’t Sean who abandoned the Sterling family. You’re the ones who pushed him away."
Her voice was choked with emotion, wrapped in a long-suppressed disappointment.
"Sean was finally going to be a father, and now his children are gone. That was his own flesh and blood. He’s in gut-wrenching pain, yet you didn’t offer a single word of apology, not a trace of remorse. Instead, you tried to force him to apologize and threatened him with his inheritance. Anyone in his shoes would have left."
Claire Sterling’s words were like a dull knife, carving into Simon Sterling and Yvonne Donovan’s hearts.
Yvonne Donovan was flustered and on the verge of collapse, tears streaming down her face.
"I didn’t do it on purpose! I really didn’t mean to harm the children! I just didn’t want Isla Griffith to marry into the Sterling family! I did it all for Sean! Was I wrong? Where did I go wrong?"
Even now, she was still trapped in her own obsession, refusing to admit her own malice and selfishness.
She felt she had done everything for her son’s own good. It was Isla Griffith who shouldn’t have appeared, much less gotten pregnant, and it was Sean who didn’t understand her painstaking efforts.
Claire Sterling, emotionally exhausted, looked away and picked up her bag to leave.
"Whether it was intentional or not, two children are gone because of you. You can’t escape the blame."
"Isla believed the lies you wove. She’ll probably break up with Sean now."
"You not only killed Sean’s children, but you also made him lose the love of his life. How could he possibly not hate you?"
"!!!" Yvonne Donovan could almost hear her own heart shattering.
Simon Sterling looked at his wife’s devastated state, then recalled his son’s blood-red eyes, his hoarse roars, and the back that left without a single look of reluctance...
His heart suddenly felt hollow. A wave of exhaustion he had never felt before washed over him, so heavy he could barely breathe.
「...」
At the end of the hallway, Sean Sterling leaned wearily against the cold wall, a suppressed sob catching in his throat.
He didn’t cry out loud. Only his shoulders trembled violently as cold tears hit the floor, shattering into pieces of despair.
The Sterling family’s wealth, power, and status—the things he had been indoctrinated to desire and required to possess since childhood—were worthless in the face of two unborn lives.
"I’m so sorry, my children. Daddy failed to protect you. I failed to protect your mother."
"If there’s a next life, please come back and be my children again. Let Daddy make it up to you, okay?"
"Daddy will give you the best of everything, let you be born with silver spoons in your mouths, and never let you suffer for a moment."
After an unknown amount of time, Sean Sterling took a deep breath and wiped the tears from his face. The grief in his eyes faded, leaving only a dead, silent resolve.
He took out his phone and dialed his lawyer.
"Prepare the documents. I want to resign from all my positions at the Sterling Group and renounce all my inheritance rights to the Sterling family."
Sean Sterling’s voice was calm, without a ripple of emotion, carrying an unwavering finality.
"Also..."
He paused, his gaze turning toward the hospital room, so cold it was devoid of any warmth.
"If Yvonne Donovan and Simon Sterling harass or harm Isla Griffith again, file a lawsuit directly for intentional injury and causing a disturbance. Don’t worry about saving face, and show no mercy."