“Oh, and Ray changed his college application at the last minute so he could go to the same school as Carissa.”

“Those four years, the two of them were basically the golden couple on campus.”

She pulled up their joint account and showed it to me, the one where they'd documented their relationship.

“Look at this. Jealous yet? You should find someone of your own instead of being a third wheel all the time.”

Four years. Over a thousand posts.

Every video, every photo, the way they looked at each other only growing fonder with time.

All those important moments Ray had canceled on me, one after another, he'd been spending them with Carissa.

He kept her in the open, lavishing her with affection for the whole world to see.

And me? I was the one who didn't belong.

Something inside my chest tore wide open, and the pain was so fierce I couldn't breathe.

Back then, I'd been naive enough to believe Ray really had missed his target score, that it was just bad luck he didn't get into the same university as me.

But now, thinking back to the gap between our scores, he could have easily gotten in. He chose not to.

Carissa caught up to us and saw the screen. She rushed to explain.

“Alice, don't overthink this. Ray and I got photographed once and it went a little viral, so I……”

“Carissa, drop the act.”

“If I'd known you were this shameless, I never should have saved you. I should have let you die there!”

My eyes were bloodshot. The words ripped out of me in a scream.

Carissa flinched like I'd struck her. Her mouth opened, then closed. Tears streaming down her face, she flagged a cab and left.

Ray's brow furrowed hard, his expression darkening in an instant, voice thick with disgust.

“Alice, when did you become this vicious?”

“Just because you saved Carissa once, she has to give in to you on everything? Hand over everything she has?”

“Do you have any idea how hard these years have been for her?”

His words lodged in my throat like wet cotton, bitter and suffocating.

He could see everything Carissa did. He couldn't see a single thing I'd endured.

He tossed my bag back at me.

“I'm going to check on Carissa. Get yourself home.”

I watched him walk away without looking back, and something in me finally gave. I crouched on the curb and wailed.

I cried until I couldn't feel my hands or feet, hyperventilating so badly that everything went black.

When I came to, I was in a hospital.

No one beside me. Not a single message on my phone.

I thought of my mom waiting for me at home and got up to pay the bill at the front desk.

But the doctor walked in first and handed me a lab report.

“Ms. Garner, congratulations. You're pregnant.”

“The pregnancy is still very early, and given that your overall health isn't the strongest, you'll need to rest and keep up with your checkups.”

“You can't let your emotions run this high. What happened to you today wasn't good for you or the baby.”

I took the paper with trembling hands. My voice barely made it past my throat.

“You're saying I'm pregnant?”

“Are you sure there's no mistake?”

“I was injured before I turned eighteen. The doctors told me back then that my chances of conceiving were almost nonexistent.”

The doctor was a kind, older woman. She smiled gently as she reassured me.

“Almost nonexistent isn't impossible. Try not to overthink it. Just take good care of yourself.”

I sat on the hospital bed, one hand pressed against my still-flat stomach, crying and laughing at the same time.

Why did you have to come now, of all times?

I'd barely stepped out of the hospital, hadn't even had time to hail a cab, when Ray came storming toward me.

Before I could say a word, he grabbed me and shoved me into the car, rough and wordless.

The car tore through the streets and pulled up in front of a private hospital.

My heart dropped like a stone. Dread flooded through me, and my eyes burned red in an instant.

“Ray, why did you bring me here?”

He slammed the car door shut, dragged me out of the passenger seat, and shoved me forward.

I wrenched free with everything I had and stumbled back a few steps, my voice shaking so badly the words barely held together.

“Ray, what are you doing?”

Ray spun around. His eyes were bloodshot, veins standing out on his forehead, his voice raw.

“Do you have any idea what you did? Those things you said at the courthouse today sent Carissa over the edge. She ran straight to the alley where you two were attacked, and that animal had just gotten out of prison!”

“If I hadn't gotten there in time, she'd be dead!”

“Is that what you wanted? Would that make you happy?!”

He stared at me, unblinking, like I was the one on trial.

“Come on. You're giving blood.”

I hadn't even processed what he'd said before he grabbed my wrist and started pulling me toward the blood draw room.

“Carissa lost too much blood. The hospital's blood bank is running out, and your blood type matches hers. You have to donate.”

My mind went white. I clamped down on his hand and the words tore out of me.

“Ray, I can't give her blood.”

Ray stopped. His brow furrowed, and his voice was threaded with exhaustion he couldn't hide.

“Alice, I know you're upset about me and Carissa, but this isn't the time. Can you stop being so selfish?”

“I'm pregnant!”

I screamed it, cutting him off. My eyes burned with tears I refused to let fall.

“Ray, I'm carrying your child! How am I supposed to give her blood?!”

Something flickered in his eyes, a split second of hesitation, before it went cold again. His voice was flat and certain.

“That's impossible.”

“The doctor said during our prenuptial physical that your chances of conceiving were almost zero.”

“And this baby just happens to show up now, of all times.”

The disappointment in his eyes deepened.

“Alice, you're really something. Carissa is your best friend.”

The doctor beside us spoke up, keeping his voice low.

“Mr. Henson, per medical protocol, a pregnant woman cannot donate blood to a patient.”

“To be safe, we should run a pregnancy test on her first.”

Ray cut him off, his voice like a blade.

“No need. She's faking it. Whatever happens, I'll take responsibility.”

He lifted me off the ground and carried me toward the blood draw room.

My pupils shrank. My whole body went cold, as if I'd been dropped into a frozen lake.

For years, because of how unlikely it was that I'd conceive, Ray had never once used protection.

Whenever I worried about an accident, he'd pull me close and murmur against my hair.

“Alice, if it really happens, we'll keep it. I promise I'll be a good husband and a good father.”

And now, for Carissa, he'd betrayed me and was sacrificing our child.

No matter how hard I struggled, how hard I cried, the dark red blood still drained out of me.

Tears slid down my face. I looked at Ray through blurred, reddened eyes, nothing left inside me but despair.

“I hate you. I will never forgive you for as long as I live.”

Pain flashed across his eyes. He reached for me, but the doctor behind him spoke first.

“Mr. Henson, Ms. Butler is out of danger!”

“And she's pregnant!”

Ray didn't hesitate. He turned and ran out without looking at me again.

I lay on the hospital bed and forced a bitter smile.

Fighting through the weakness in my body, I braced myself against the wall and left the hospital one step at a time.

When I got home, Mom was in the living room, cutting down the red paper decorations from our wedding.

The moment she saw me walk in, her eyes lit up, her smile so wide it could barely be contained.

“You're back! Was it crowded at the courthouse today?”

Her gaze swept past me, scanning the doorway.

“Where's Ray? How come he didn't come back with you?”

I swallowed the bitterness rising in my throat, nails digging into my palms, and forced a smile.

“It was pretty busy. After we finished the registration, we stopped by to confirm the wedding dress and the venue, so we got back late.”

“He had something come up at the office, so he couldn't make it over.”

“Mom, I'm exhausted. I'm going to lie down for a bit.”

I stepped into my room and saw the wall of photographs.

Every one of them marked a moment that had mattered.

There was the first photo Ray and I ever took together, the day we made it official. We were still in our school uniforms, barely more than kids.

There was the day I introduced him to Carissa for the first time, proudly calling him my boyfriend.

There was a shot from one of my competitions, the two of them holding up cameras, posing with me onstage.

And there were the crystal heels Ray gave me on my eighteenth birthday.

He told me that once I wore his glass slippers, I'd be his princess forever, and he'd be my knight for the rest of our lives.

Nothing would ever come between us.

Now every single one of those words was a knife buried in my chest.

A sharp cramp tore through my lower abdomen. I rushed to the bathroom and found blood.

Tears fell before I could stop them. I leaned against the door and stayed there for a long time, thinking.

Maybe this baby was never meant to come.

I pulled out my phone to book a doctor's appointment, but my mother's voice cut through the door, furious and shaking.

“What are you doing?!”

“How could you do this to Alice?!”

I bolted out of the room. Ray was kissing Carissa. She was sitting in a wheelchair in our living room, and he was kissing her.

At the sound of my mother's voice, Carissa shoved Ray away, stumbled to her feet, and started stammering.

“Mrs. Garner, please, let me explain. It's not what you think!”

My mother was shaking from head to toe. She screamed.

“Carissa Butler, when that man nearly assaulted you, it was my Alice who saved your life!”

“And after that, when I found out how bad things were at your house, I'd rather go without than ask you for a single thing!”

“And this is how you repay us? By stabbing my daughter in the back?!”

I rushed forward to steady my mother, then grabbed the cup off the table and hurled it straight at Ray.

“Ray Henson, take her and get the hell out of my house!”

“You two can humiliate me all you want, but don't you dare upset my mother!”

The cup struck Ray's head. Blood slid down from his temple instantly.

Glass shattered across the floor, but Ray didn't even flinch. Eyes red, he dropped to his knees in front of my mother, his voice steady and absolute.

“Mrs. Garner, I know you're angry, but I have to say this.”

“Carissa is carrying my child. I can't abandon her to marry Alice.”

“Even if I do marry Alice, it has to wait until Carissa has recovered and safely delivered the baby.”

My mother's chest heaved violently. Her finger trembled as she pointed at him.

“You were the one who begged to marry my daughter. You swore you'd protect her for the rest of her life, you animal!”

I was about to get up and throw them both out when Carissa burst into tears.

“Ray, what are you saying?!”

“I'm not keeping this baby! We've already done enough wrong. We can't keep hurting Alice!”

My mother's eyes went bloodshot. She grabbed the cup of water and flung it into Carissa's face.

“So you know you're wrong! And you still had the nerve to show up in my house?!”

The next second, Ray stepped in front of Carissa and shoved my mother hard.

“Mrs. Garner, if you're angry, take it out on me. Don't hurt Carissa!”

My mother hit the ground. She didn't get up.

I screamed, holding my mother, shaking her, calling her name over and over. I looked at Ray.

“Ray! Call an ambulance!”

But Ray was already carrying Carissa, her face white as paper, striding toward the door. He tossed back a single sentence without turning around.

“Carissa just woke up and came here to apologize, and this is how you and your mother treat her? You're so capable. Handle it yourself.”

There was no time for grief. I grabbed my phone and called 911.

Then I started chest compressions and rescue breaths on my mother.

I didn't know how long it took before the paramedics finally arrived. After the examination, the doctor looked at me with quiet regret.

“I'm sorry for your loss.”

I stared at my mother's lifeless face, unable to process what I was hearing, and then a raw, shredded wail tore out of me.

“The pregnant woman is hemorrhaging! Get her into surgery, now!”

When I came out of the operating room, my belly was empty.

I ignored the pain racking my body, took my mother's ashes in my arms, and walked into the sea where Ray had once proposed to me.

At a private hospital across town, Ray was spooning soup for Carissa when a sharp pain lanced through his chest.

The next second, the smartwatch on his wrist, still linked to mine, screamed with an alarm.