Chapter 290: Extra: The Continuation of Life

One night, just a few days before Leah Sinclair’s due date, she lay in bed, unable to fall asleep. She had a vague feeling that today might be the day, but she had no other symptoms—she simply couldn’t sleep. Asher Keating was already fast asleep beside her.

Lately, even her slightest movement would wake Asher, so she didn’t dare to move, afraid of disturbing him.

A little after one in the morning, just as a drowsy fog began to settle over her, Leah felt a sensation like a balloon rolling downward inside her belly. Then, as if it had been pricked, a slight, sharp pain jabbed her lower abdomen.

She was wide awake in an instant. But other than that, she had no other reactions. Rubbing her belly uncertainly, Leah decided to wait a little longer.

After a while, the pain of contractions began to creep in. With it, Leah recognized the feeling. She had already researched what to expect during childbirth.

She grabbed her phone and started timing her contractions. By a little after four in the morning, seeing the increasingly frequent entries, she turned, touched Asher Keating’s hand, and softly called out, “Asher.”

Asher Keating’s eyes shot open. His mind was still catching up, but his body reacted on instinct, his hand immediately squeezing Leah’s.

Before he could speak, Leah’s voice came again. “Asher, I think I’m going into labor.”

What followed was utter chaos. All the lights in the Silverwood villa flickered on.

Asher Keating was normally as steady as a rock, but seeing Leah’s face turn pale with the pain of each contraction, his heart ached and his fingers trembled with anxiety. He knew childbirth was painful, but he never imagined it would hurt her this much. ‘That’s it,’ he decided. ‘No more. This one is enough. Just one.’

Leah was drenched in sweat from the pain, gripping Asher’s hand and unconsciously digging her nails into him. All Asher could do was murmur words of comfort to her over and over again.

“Come on, breathe in, and push.”

“Good, I can see the baby’s head! One last push. Breathe in, hold it… excellent! Here we go!”

“WAAAH…”

As all the strength drained from Leah’s body, the sound of a baby’s cry filled the room.

“Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Keating. It’s a lovely baby girl.”

The doctor’s smiling voice followed. “Mr. Keating, you can come cut the umbilical cord now.”

Asher Keating was still processing the sound of his child’s cry when Leah, her face pale, gave him a gentle nudge. “Asher, go cut the cord.”

As he held the scissors and looked at the purplish cord connecting the baby to Leah, his hands trembled. Following the doctor’s instructions, he slowly brought the scissors forward. The moment he snipped the cord, his vision blurred.

The doctor cleaned the baby, wrapped her in a blanket, and handed her to Asher Keating, praising how beautiful she was.

Asher Keating hesitated for a long while before daring to reach out and hold her. She was so small, just a tiny thing bundled in a large blanket. He was so afraid of hurting her that his whole body went stiff.

Leah wanted to see the baby. Asher moved over, his body still rigid, and placed the baby beside her. As Leah gazed at the tiny child, her own eyes blurred with tears.

She looked up, her face still pale, and said, “Asher, this is our baby.”

Asher leaned down and kissed her forehead, his voice full of tenderness. “Yes. This is our baby.”

In that moment, watching Leah gaze at the baby with such gentle eyes, seeing the tiny child beside her making little sucking motions…

…Asher Keating finally understood the meaning of the continuation of life.

Her name had been decided on long ago: Silas Keating. The name was inspired by a line from a classic poem about a friend’s departure.

Just as the doctor had said, Silas Keating was beautiful. Not long after birth, she could already open her eyes. After her first bath, her whole body was rosy pink. She was so soft and cuddly that Mabel Grant and Ruth Hughes were utterly smitten and couldn’t bear to put her down.

Aside from holding the baby right at the beginning, Asher Keating’s attention was focused entirely on Leah. Watching him bustling about, she laughed. “Asher, why don’t you go hold the baby?”

“I already held her earlier.”

“Then hold me.”

Asher hesitated. He really wanted to hold Leah, but he was afraid of hurting her. Seeing the laughter in her eyes, he carefully wrapped his arms around her and placed a gentle kiss near her lips. “Does it still hurt?”

“It doesn’t hurt anymore. Don’t worry. The pain stops after you give birth.”

Leah took his hand, her eyes welling with tears. “Asher, it’s a girl. Do you think… do you think it’s Grandma Sinclair coming back to me?”

“Yes, I believe so.”

Asher squeezed her hand. During her pregnancy, Leah had a dream about Grandma Sinclair. In the dream, her grandmother watched her with a kind, gentle smile. With red-rimmed eyes, Leah had asked her, “Grandma, have you come to find me?”

Grandma Sinclair had only looked at her and smiled.

By the time Silas Keating was a month old, Asher Keating’s true nature as a doting father was completely exposed. The chairman of the Keating Group, who was usually always away on business trips or working overtime, had never been so punctual about leaving work since his daughter was born.

He even started leaving early. The first thing he did upon returning home was shower and change his clothes—he did everything short of burning incense to purify himself. Once the baby was in his arms, she rarely left his embrace until she was asleep for the night.

This fostered a habit in Silas Keating. When a certain time of day arrived, she couldn’t stand lying in her crib anymore. She had to be held, and if she wasn’t, she would cry.

Leah was at a loss about this habit. She had thought about trying to correct it, but it was useless. The moment the baby cried, Asher Keating, Mabel Grant, Brandon Jacobs, and Ruth Hughes would feel their hearts break and immediately scoop her up.

And that was just Asher. As for Mabel Grant and Brandon Jacobs, they hadn’t left Riverfall since Leah gave birth. Especially since Leah had a daughter, the two of them seemed to want to lavish on Silas Keating all the affection they’d missed out on from the years they were apart from Leah.

They showered her with all sorts of gifts as if money were no object—houses, property deeds, stock certificates. Leah had lost count of how many were stashed in the safe.

With them around, Leah’s life was incredibly comfortable. Her only problem was breastfeeding. Because she was nursing, her nipples would often get sore and cracked from Silas Keating’s feeding.

She never knew this pain could feel even worse than childbirth. It was a vicious cycle of healing and breaking open again, over and over.

Finally, Asher Keating’s heart ached for her too much. When Silas Keating was about three months old, he firmly insisted that Leah stop breastfeeding.

On the first day of weaning, Silas Keating cried for a long time. Having only been breastfed, she vehemently rejected the bottle. It was the first time Asher Keating had ever let her cry without intervening.

Listening to her baby’s cries, Leah’s heart twisted into a knot. She asked Asher, her eyes red, “Asher, maybe we should just forget it?”

Asher held her, comforting her. His heart ached for his daughter too, but even more than that, he ached for Leah. The woman who hadn’t cried once while being tormented by labor pains had been brought to tears several times by breastfeeding. He couldn’t bear to see Leah cry.

When the baby’s cries finally, gradually subsided, they both let out a heavy sigh of relief. After a while, Asher went to check on the baby.

She had drunk some milk and was probably full now, busy playing with her little hands. When she saw Asher, her lip trembled. The tiny little person stared at him with her big, round eyes, babbling and cooing as if to protest why he had taken so long to come see her.

Asher’s heart melted completely. He gently picked her up and cooed, “Mommy’s in pain, and Daddy’s heart aches for Mommy. You have to feel bad for Mommy too, okay?”

In his arms, Silas Keating broke into a wide, gummy smile and reached out a tiny hand to touch his face. He smiled back. The sunlight fell upon him and the baby, a sight that dazzled Leah as she stood in the nursery doorway. Asher turned and saw her. Holding the baby with one arm, he reached his other hand out to her.

Leah walked over and took it, their fingers intertwining. She looked up at him. “Asher, I’m so happy.”

Asher leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Mm, me too.”