“Don’t go! Baby, don’t go…”

When I opened my eyes again, I found myself lying in a hospital bed, wrapped in thick bandages. My entire body was aching.

The doctor looked at me with a face full of regret.

“Ms. Sanders, now that you’re awake, please settle the medical bill. When you were brought in, your injuries were severe. The fetus had already passed away, so we had no choice but to perform an emergency induction. Please accept our condolences.”

He handed me a small jar. Inside were pieces of flesh, the fetus’s hands and feet were partially developed.

My eyes stung. My heart ached in a thousand tiny ways.

Years ago, Jeremy had been attacked with a knife while trying to secure a multinational deal that his rival opposed. I had taken the blow for him.

He came out unharmed, but my uterus was injured, leaving me with difficulties conceiving.

I finally got pregnant after eighteen rounds of IVF and forty-five hormone injections. It was such a hard-won miracle.

It felt so close. I should have been able to meet my baby. Now, all that remained was a jar of blood and tissue…

I bit my lip, forcing the tears back. Then, a thought struck me, a desperate hope rising.

“Doctor, is there such a disease? Loving one person in your heart, but being uncontrollably physically dependent on another?”

The doctor shook his head immediately. “Ms. Sanders, medically speaking, there’s no such thing as physiological dependency. That ‘strange illness’ doesn’t exist.”

My heart sank completely.

So, the “strange illness” had been nothing but Jeremy’s excuse for his infidelity.

I forced a bitter smile and paid the medical bills.

The nurse who had treated me gave me a sympathetic look.

“Where’s your husband? You’re hurt like this, and he hasn’t come to see you?”

“Some women have it easier. There’s another patient ahead, just diagnosed pregnant, and her husband has been with her the whole time. He’s so attentive. I heard that because she has sensitive skin, they even gave her a private VIP room for her checkups.”

The nurse did not need to name her. It was clear enough.

At that moment, my phone buzzed with a message from Jeremy:

[Zoe, why were you calling me so many times earlier? I’m busy right now. We’ll talk later.]

I clenched my fists, took a deep breath, and calmly replied to the nurse, “My husband can’t come. He’s dead.”

From the moment he chose Molly over me, from the moment my child was lost because of him, he was dead to me. Our marriage was over.

The nurse wisely did not ask further. I closed my eyes and rested for a while.

Once I had regained some strength, I forced myself to get discharged. I needed to cremate my child and lay them to rest.

However, just as I stepped out of the hospital, I ran into Jeremy and Molly, hand in hand.

…

At that moment, Jeremy was carefully supporting Molly, his eyes soft and full of adoration.

My eyes burned with tears, and I sneered coldly when I saw that.

“Jeremy, so this is what you call ‘busy’? Yeah, that’s really busy.”

Jeremy turned at the sound. The moment his eyes landed on me, his hand supporting Molly froze midair. Shock and a flicker of guilt danced across his face, leaving him momentarily paralyzed.

Before he could utter a single word, Molly spoke up first.

“Zoe, you’ve misunderstood! I’m here with Jeremy to help him with his illness.”

“His condition has worsened lately. Attacks are more frequent, and relying on me alone isn’t enough. He came to the hospital to consult specialists and find a cure for this strange illness. Everything he's doing is for you!"

“By the way, Zoe, what are you doing here? You weren’t following us, were you?”

Molly’s words hit their mark. Jeremy’s gaze darkened. Disappointment flashed across his face as he looked at me.

“Zoe, you were following me? We’ve been married five years, and you don’t even trust me this much?”

“How can you doubt my sincerity after everything I’ve done for you?”

I almost laughed.

When I was in danger, he did not care. When I lost our child, he was with Molly at her prenatal checkup, celebrating that she was pregnant. This was the sincerity he claimed?

I let out a cold laugh. While Molly was still stunned, I snatched the prenatal report from her hands and flung it straight at Jeremy’s face.

“You claim you’re sincere and that everything you do is for me. You’ve already had a child with Molly! Is this your idea of doing things for me?”

“And tell me, do you actually have this so-called strange disease, or is it just an excuse to play around and satisfy your desires? You know the truth in your heart!”

Jeremy froze for a moment as his face paled.

“How did you know Molly is pregnant?”

Molly seized the moment to stir the fire.

“Jeremy, Zoe must have seen my post on social media about my pregnancy.”

"It was my fault. I shouldn't have celebrated online, but it was my first time being a mom. I was just too happy to control myself. I didn't think Zoe would see it."

“Zoe, please don’t be mad. If this child really bothers you, I can abort it right now…”

By the time she finished her sentence, her eyes were already red and brimming with tears.

Jeremy’s heart softened, and instinctively, he moved to shield her behind him.

“Zoe, don’t take your anger out on her, or her child!”

“This was supposed to be a simple accident. I thought about asking her to abort the child after I knew she was pregnant. But the doctor said her body is special. This will be her only chance at motherhood. I can’t take that away from her.”

“Zoe, I told you, no one can shake your place as Mrs. Lane. You’ve already had so much. Let Molly be this time. Give her and her child a chance.”

Was Jeremy not fighting for me in the same way at one point in the past?

However, the one he defended was Molly now.

My eyes burned red thinking of the child I had lost because of him. I grabbed the induction report from my bag and slammed it onto his face.

“Jeremy! You claim I shouldn’t take away Molly’s right to be a mother. But why are you so cruel to me? Why did you take away my right to be a mother?”

“Do you realize why I called you so many times? Because the billboard fell on me! And because you didn’t answer, our child is gone! That was the one I’d been waiting for five years!”

Jeremy’s eyes widened in shock at those words. His hand, holding the report, trembled uncontrollably.

“What did you say? The child’s gone?”

“No, that’s impossible. How could this happen? You and the baby were fine this morning…”

Molly’s eyes flickered with a brief thrill as she glanced at the report, but when she caught Jeremy’s expression faltering, her excitement instantly vanished, replaced by cold calculation.

Her eyes rolled around wildly, and then, as though she had come up with something, she pointed at me with a pitiful expression.

“Zoe, I know you’re angry that I posted that update. You’re mad that I’m carrying Jeremy's child, but there’s no reason for you to curse your own baby or use a fake termination report to lie!”

“If you’d really had a miscarriage, your lower belly would be flat. How could it still look so full? Misfortune shouldn’t touch innocent children. As a mother, I am deeply ashamed of you using a child to compete for affection!”

I was wearing loose hospital clothes, and my belly was wrapped in thick bandages. It did look slightly rounded, almost like I was still pregnant.

“Jeremy, don’t listen to Molly’s nonsense. The child has already…”

Before I could finish, his hand slammed across my face. The burning pain shot through me.

I looked up and met his eyes, filled with rage.

“Zoe, you’re utterly unreasonable! You’ve thrown away all sense of principle just to compete for attention! You would even curse your own child to win favor!”

“As a mother, why can’t you show even a little empathy for Molly? Must you destroy her and her unborn child to satisfy yourself?”

“How could I have not noticed how cruel you are before? Zoe, you’ve disappointed me beyond words!”

Ha! The one who should be disappointed is me.

Jeremy constantly claimed he loved me, yet a few words of Molly were enough to make him question my character.

He said I did not trust him. When had he ever truly trusted me? He knew how precious my unborn child was to me. There was no way I would joke about the baby!

“Jeremy, the child is already gone. My belly looks swollen because of the bandages on my injury…”

I was about to lift my shirt to prove it.

At that moment, Molly clutched her stomach, pretending to be weak, and leaned helplessly into Jeremy’s arms.

“Jeremy, my stomach hurts so much…”

Jeremy, usually so composed and self-assured, was thrown completely off balance. He scooped Molly up in his arms, gave me a cold, dismissive glance, muttered “unreasonable,” and carried her off to see the doctor.

Once again, I was left behind.

At that moment, my heart completely broke.

I wiped away my tears and went to the crematorium to lay my child to rest.

‘My baby, Mommy could not protect you. Go peacefully, and if fate allows, I hope one day you’ll return to me and choose me as your mother…’

After leaving the crematorium, I went to a law office to have a divorce agreement drafted. I brought the papers home, ready to get Jeremy to sign.

The moment I stepped inside, I saw Molly lounging lazily on the sofa. There was Jeremy, the man with a notorious obsession with cleanliness, sitting beside her, peeling grapes with meticulous care, and feeding them to her one by one.

Back then, seeing this would have made me furious. Yet I felt nothing now. My only thought was getting him to sign the divorce papers.

Jeremy spoke when he saw me come in.

“You’re just in time. I need to tell you something. You and Molly are both pregnant. Both carrying my children. I can’t favor one over the other, so I’ve decided to let Molly stay at home, where she can rest and take care of herself.”

Molly leaned against his shoulder, shooting me a look full of smug provocation.