"I went through with the induced labor. The doctors are the ones who admitted me."

Chester's whole body jerked, and he whipped his head around to look at me.

"What did you say?"

"Just like you wanted. I lost the baby."

His hand closed into a fist, and the displeasure poured off him.

"What do you mean, like I wanted? There was nothing wrong, so why would you go through with it? Why didn't you tell me? Didn't I say to wait until I was free and I'd look at the scan myself?"

I watched the anger on his face, cold, not understanding what he thought he had any right to be angry about.

"You're the one who told me to do it."

His whole body went rigid. He denied it flat out.

"When did I ever—"

Something seemed to occur to him. He pulled out his phone and scrolled back through our messages.

His face went green, then red, then drained to white.

"I was just too busy, so I had Claire look at the scan for you. I didn't think there was anything wrong with the baby. I didn't know she'd say that to you—"

Now it was my turn to freeze.

The man who usually took hours to answer me hadn't just replied in seconds yesterday.

He'd even sent me a romantic cash gift through the app.

It had been the intern the whole time.

The Chester I used to know couldn't stand anyone touching his phone.

That one time, when his parents were fighting and I was only trying to calm his mother, I asked him for his passcode so I could send her some money through the app.

He'd flown into a rage and accused me of having no sense of boundaries.

And now he'd handed his phone to an intern, let her read our baby's scan, let her decide whether our child lived or died.

He'd even given her his payment password to send me money.

And he'd trusted Claire Delgado so completely that a full day had gone by and he still hadn't bothered to check what she'd written back to me.

Or maybe he just didn't want to open the chat with me at all.

Chester zoomed in on the scan I'd sent, studied it for a moment, then rounded on me.

"I didn't have time to look at the report, so why couldn't you find someone else? These things usually aren't anything serious!"

"I'm not the only cardiac surgeon in this hospital. Are you that stupid, or did you get rid of our baby on purpose?"

"Just because I was too busy to answer you right away?"

One furious question after another, until they shook a wet, broken laugh out of me.

I really was stupid.

Stupid enough to think that hearing I'd actually lost the baby, he might say two kind words to me.

I pointed at that last message, the one that read better than wasting time, just get the surgery over with, and threw it back at him.

"You're my husband, and the head of cardiothoracic surgery. When you tell me to get the surgery, isn't that a death sentence for our child?"

"Did I not go to your department? You'd called away every surgeon to operate on Claire Delgado's mother. You're the one who told me to wait until you were done!"

Chester opened his mouth to argue back.

"I already told you, that wasn't me who replied!"

"Why couldn't you wait? Wait until I was finished? Claire's mother is a patient, waiting on surgery to save her life! What was the rush?"

But I just didn't want to wait anymore.

He was the one who'd chased me in the beginning, and yet through all of it, dating and marriage alike, it had always been me chasing after him.

Waiting for him to find a moment to answer me, waiting for him to keep me company, waiting for him to say he loved me.

The more used to waiting I got, the more I felt like I was no different from someone living completely alone.

I couldn't take it, the house that should have been full of life, the bed meant for two, always so cold.

So I begged him for a child.

At first he refused. He wanted to wait until he was thirty-five.

But by the time he turned thirty-five, I'd be a high-risk mother.

So I used a little trick and got pregnant.

When he found out, the truth was he wasn't happy about it.

But he still held me, his voice thick when he spoke.

"Claire, thank you. I'm going to be a father!"

After that he threw himself into work even harder, saying he had to earn the money for our baby's formula.

I'd thought this child would be the thing that saved our marriage.

I never imagined Claire Delgado would come out of nowhere and ruin it.

Meeting my cold stare, Chester rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"You don't believe me?"

I said nothing.

He sounded utterly worn out.

"The day before yesterday I was in surgery for eight straight hours. I was exhausted. That's why I let Claire answer your messages for me."

"I never once wanted you to get rid of the baby!"

The old me would have backed down the moment he said he was tired, no matter how much it hurt.

I would have swallowed every feeling and dealt with it alone.

But this time, I wanted an answer for my child.

"Oh? Then ask her why she told me to go through with it!"

Chester went silent.

He held his phone and didn't move for a long while.

Frustrated, he went out to the balcony of the inpatient ward and smoked two cigarettes before coming back in.

"This part is on me. It has nothing to do with Claire. Don't blame her. Her mother's seriously ill, she's had a hard time of it..."

The words were barely out of his mouth when Claire burst into the room in tears and dropped to her knees at my bedside.

"I'm so sorry! I misread the report. I thought the baby had already been diagnosed with a heart defect, that's why I told you to terminate. Make me kneel as long as you want, just don't take it out on Dr. Simmons!"

Before I could say a word, Chester pulled her up and tucked her behind him like he was shielding his own.

He looked at me, and his eyes were full of disappointment.

"Didn't I already tell you? This isn't Claire's fault. What gives you the right to make her kneel?"

"It's just one baby. We can always have another!"

"And when I said there probably wouldn't be a problem, that wasn't a guarantee. Maybe if you'd carried it to term the baby really would have had a heart condition. Ending it was being responsible, for the child and for us!"

I hadn't accused anyone of anything yet, and already the two of them were closing ranks to protect each other.

I swallowed every question. All at once, I had no desire left to argue.

The baby was already gone. What was the point of saying any of this?

For that matter, this marriage felt pointless too.

"Chester, let's get a divorce."

"What?"

He stared at me, disbelief all over his face.

"Over something this small, you want a divorce?"

"You really aren't thinking straight. It's just as well the baby's gone. Better than it being stuck with a mother like you who doesn't know what she's doing!"

He took Claire's hand and walked out, slamming the door behind him.

Not once, start to finish, did he ask if I hurt, if I was all right.

Blood ran out of me, warm and fast, and my vision went dark in waves.

On instinct, I pressed the call button.

The last thing I heard before I blacked out was a nurse shouting.

"Hurry! She's hemorrhaging!"

When I came to again, there was still no one beside me, only a cold draft cutting across my body like a blade.

Dr. Lawrence hung his head, unable to look at me.

"Aria, just swallow your pride with that husband of yours and have him get you a bed. You've just lost the baby. You can't be lying out here..."

I made out where I was, on a gurney in the hallway outside the restroom. I bit down hard on my lip and let the taste of blood spread through my mouth.

It was a long time before I spoke.

"There's no need."

Chester had called me out of my mind. He wasn't wrong.

If I hadn't been so blinded by love, why would I have given up the comfortable life of a Rowe heiress in New York to come to L.A. and scrape by with him?

Dr. Lawrence couldn't bear it. He lowered his voice.

"That husband of yours is a stubborn man, but a little coaxing usually does the trick. Look at that intern. A few sweet words and she's got him treating her mother like his own. You could stand to learn from her. Then you wouldn't be suffering like this!"

I shook my head with a bitter smile.

Claire could coax Chester into loving everything that came with her, and it wasn't because she had a sweet tongue.

It was because of who she was.

Three years of dating, two years of marriage. How could I not know Chester gave in to softness and never to force?

But five years of coaxing him hadn't bought a single last glance at my child.

Which mattered more was no longer a question. The verdict was already in.

So why keep playing the fool, debasing myself to beg for some scrap of love too small to matter?

Let the cold wind clear my head. Let it knock the lovesickness out of me.

After Dr. Lawrence left, I dialed a number.

"Dad. Chester's invitation to the international medical forum—cancel it."

Then I called a lawyer to draw up the divorce papers.

When I went to the nurses' station to borrow the printer, I heard a young one pointing at a video, squealing.

"God, Dr. Simmons is so handsome when he smiles! My heart just melted!"

Another nurse scoffed.

"You could rip your heart out and it wouldn't matter. He doesn't smile at his own wife. That smile's only for the intern and her mother."

"His wife hemorrhaged, they're trying to save her, and you know what he said?"

"What?"

"See for yourself."

I took a couple of steps closer.

Close enough to finally see the video clearly.

One look, and the blood in my veins turned to ice.

"There are doctors in the ER, aren't there? What do you need me for? She got rid of the baby herself. A little suffering will teach her a lesson."

In the video, Chester gave a long look toward the ER, then turned and walked into Lois Delgado's room.

A nurse asked him to sign for my emergency treatment. He refused without a flicker of feeling.

"She can sign it herself when she wakes up. I'll cover the bill, but keep her away from me."

The footage cut to him sitting at the bedside, peeling fruit for Claire and her mother.

Then carefully feeding the cut pieces to Lois.

I couldn't help thinking of last year, when I'd broken my right arm and couldn't manage on my own. I'd leaned into him, playful, asking him to feed me, to peel my fruit.

He'd said:

"My hands are for surgery, not for spoon-feeding you and peeling fruit."

The bleakness of it swallowed me whole, drained every ounce of strength from my body.

I swayed, stumbled, and the sound startled the young nurses.

They turned, saw the white of my face, and scrambled to lock their phones.

"Aria, are you all right? We're sorry, we shouldn't have been gossiping about you—"

I gave a bitter little laugh.

"You didn't do anything wrong. There's nothing to apologize for."

The one who owed me an apology was Chester.

Watching me print the divorce agreement, the nurses tried to talk me out of it.

"Don't! If you actually divorce him, won't that just hand the intern exactly what she wants? We all know she's been deliberately throwing herself at Dr. Simmons, but he's never once given her the time of day—"

Is that so?

If he truly hadn't, why treat another woman's mother better than he ever treated me?

I picked up the pen, signed my name stroke by careful stroke, and went to cardiothoracic surgery to find Chester.

But he wasn't there.

A doctor from his department wouldn't quite meet my eyes.

"Dr. Simmons took some personal time off. Maybe come back tomorrow?"

On the way back to my room, I overheard two patients griping.

"What's the deal with Dr. Simmons? My dad finally gets bumped up for surgery, and now the man takes the day off!"

"Tell me about it. Rotten luck. My nephew's surgery was supposed to be today too, and it got pushed."

I don't remember how I made it back to my room.

By the time I came to, I'd already pulled up Claire Delgado's social media.

Of course. Chester had taken half a day off to be with her.

In one of the photos she'd posted, the hand holding the cake—I'd know it anywhere.

Five years together, and Chester had never once taken a single day off for me.

He held his work above every holiday, every anniversary we had.

And now, for Claire Delgado's birthday, he hadn't just taken time off. He'd pushed back two surgeries.

The last thread of feeling in my heart dissolved completely.

Early the next morning, after finishing the discharge paperwork, I went to his office to leave the divorce agreement.