Chapter 3

Oliver stared at me in disbelief. When he realized I wasn't joking, he gripped my jaw. His voice was raw with pain. "Selena, have you lost your mind?! You'd throw away all our years together over this one thing? All I'm doing is helping look after Chloe and Ron. Why can't you understand that?"

"Understand what? Because of them, my baby is gone, and my husband has walked out on me again and again," I said slowly, my eyes locked on his.

He shot to his feet and studied me. "They already apologized. What more do you want?"

I jerked upright. A sharp pain tore through my wound, and I went white.

Oliver panicked and hurried over to steady me. He sighed. "Fine. If it really bothers you that much, I'll have Chloe reassigned—"

Before he could finish, his phone rang. It was Chloe. I didn't know what she said, but his expression changed. "Okay, I'll be right there!" he said in a rush.

He abruptly let go of me and hurried out.

Without his support, I fell back hard onto the bed. Pain seared through me, and cold sweat broke out on my forehead.

The man who'd once promised he'd never let me get hurt kept leaving me behind. He'd become the one who hurt me the most.

Then I finally understood. Maybe Oliver did love me. But whenever Chloe showed up, he'd forget I existed and use his ridiculous sense of duty as an excuse.

He didn't even realize that he, Chloe, and her son had become as close as a family.

Our relationship had settled into routine, something he no longer thought he needed to work at.

There was no reason to keep groveling and bending over backward to hold this rotten marriage together.

So I contacted Daniel Reed, a divorce lawyer, to find out what I needed to do and get the process started.

For the next few days, Oliver didn't come to the hospital once.

The moment I walked into the house after being discharged, I stopped dead.

Our vintage decor was gone, replaced with sleek, understated luxury. Our wedding photos had been swapped out for childhood pictures of Ron.

Lilies sat on the table. I was allergic to them.

Even the little room that had belonged to my cat, Happy, had been turned into a kid's bedroom.

Happy had been locked in a tiny cage and dumped in the bathroom. Her food bowl was empty.

When she saw me, she let out a pitiful wail and clawed frantically at the cage door.

My heart ached as I held Happy close and turned on Oliver. "This is my home. What gives you the right to get rid of her room and redo the whole place?"

But he sounded cheerful as he laid out his plans. "Baby, Ron loves this house, so I want to give it to them. Once the new place is ready, we'll move there, and then it'll be just you and me.

"Until then, we'll all live here together for a little while. Think of it as me doing my duty by Luca."

All the anger I'd been holding back burst out. I smashed the vase on the table.

So this was the wonderful husband I'd loved for years. What a joke. While I was in the hospital grieving our baby, he'd been busy redoing our house, all to please another woman!

The scent of the lilies made me feel like I was choking again. It was unbearable, just like our marriage.

Oliver held me back. "Enough, Selena. Stop making a scene! Come eat. Chloe made all this food especially for you. She wants to apologize."

He practically dragged me to the dining table and sat me down.

Chloe came over with a glass in her hands, looking fragile. "Selena, I'm so sorry Ron scared you. I've been wanting to apologize this whole time, but Oliver was worried about Ron's health, so it had to wait until today."

Her apology was really just a way to show off how much Oliver cared about them.

Too bad for her, I didn't care anymore.

I sat there, stone-faced and silent. Chloe's eyes instantly filled with tears. "Selena, hit me, yell at me, whatever you want! You just lost your baby. Don't keep it all bottled up."

Ron started crying too. He held his arms up to Oliver and whimpered, "Daddy, pick me up..."

Oliver gently scooped him up. "There now, don't cry."

When he turned to me, irritation crossed his face. "Selena, you've made enough of a scene. Chloe already apologized. She hasn't been sleeping well these past few days because of all this. If I hadn't been comforting her this whole time, she wouldn't have eaten..."

Oliver stopped short, as if he'd realized he'd said too much, and searched my face warily.