Chapter 2

“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 abortion. 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.