Chapter 3

Tabitha's POV

The elevator ride up to the penthouse was the longest, quietest sixty seconds of my entire life. When the doors slid open directly into the foyer, the silence of the apartment slapped me right in the face. It was empty. 

Everything looked exactly the way it had when I left this morning—the expensive modern furniture, the floor-to-ceiling windows showing off the city skyline, the plush carpets. But it didn't feel like a home anymore. It just felt like a beautifully decorated tomb.

I collapsed onto the living room sofa, my body aching from the bruises, but the pain in my heart was a thousand times worse. My trembling fingers managed to unlock my phone, and I dialed Ava’s number before I could lose my mind.

She picked up on the second ring, her voice loud and full of energy. "Hey, Tabby! I was just about to text you. Are you guys still out celebrating Bradley’s win from last night, or what?"

The moment she said his name, the floodgates broke. A ragged, choking sob tore out of my throat, and I had to squeeze my eyes shut to stop the room from spinning.

"Tabitha?" Ava’s voice dropped all the cheerfulness, turning dead serious. "Oh my god, Tabby, what’s wrong? Are you crying? What happened?"

"Ava," I choked out, my voice cracking into a million pieces. "I was in a car accident today on my way to the arena. A delivery van ran a red light and slammed straight into me."

"What?!" Ava screamed, and I could hear the sound of her keys rattling as she scrambled around on her end. "Where are you? Are you at the hospital? I'm coming right now—"

"No, no, I’m at the penthouse," I interrupted quickly, wiping a hot tear from my cheek with the back of my hand. "I’m out of the hospital. But Ava... that’s not even the worst part. The doctors ran some tests after they brought me in. They told me I was pregnant."

There was a breathless gasp on the other end of the line. "You're... you were pregnant?"

"They told me I lost the baby because of the impact," I whispered, my voice sounding hollow, even to my own ears. "I didn't even know, Ava. I didn't even get a single day to be happy about it. And when I went to look for Bradley in the hospital... he wasn't looking for me. He was in the VIP wing. Rachelle is back. She got dizzy because of some reporters, and he left his meetings to rush to her side. He brought her flowers. He held her. And then... he asked me for a divorce."

The line went dead silent for three whole seconds, the kind of silence that happens right before a storm hits. And then, Ava lost it.

"Are you freaking kidding me?!" she roared, her voice vibrating through the phone speaker. "A divorce? While you were literally bleeding down the hall? And he was holding that leech?! Tabitha, I swear to God, Rachelle only crawled back into his life because Bradley just won the championship and became the biggest name in professional hockey! She didn't want to stick around when he had to marry you to save his inheritance, but now that his fortune is solid and his spotlight is huge, she decides she's fragile? She always intended to come back once the spotlight was worth sharing!"

I leaned my head back against the leather cushions, letting out a tired, bitter breath. "It doesn't even matter why she's back, Ava. Bradley already made his decision. He told me he never loved me. He said I was just family, an obligation he had to fulfill for his grandfather. He’s already having his lawyers draw up the paperwork."

"He's a monster," Ava spat, her breath coming in angry pants. "He doesn't deserve you. But wait—if you were in a major accident, why are you at the penthouse? Did the doctors discharge you already?"

I bit my lip, looking down at the hospital bracelet still clutched around my wrist. "Not exactly. The doctors wanted to run a bunch of secondary examinations because my vitals weren't stable, but I... I couldn't handle it. Seeing him with her broke me. I left the hospital before they could finish evaluating my condition. I just paid a part of the bill and walked out."

"Tabitha Dawson, you are insane!" Ava scolded, though her tone immediately softened with worry. "You blew off medical clearance after a car crash? not. I don't care how broken your heart is, we are checking your body. I am coming over first thing tomorrow morning and taking you straight back to that hospital. Do you hear me? Don't you dare try to argue with me on this."

"Okay," I murmured, too exhausted to fight her. "Thank you, Ava."

====

The rest of the night was torture. I didn't bother changing out of my clothes or moving to the bedroom. I just stayed curled up on the living room sofa, staring at the wooden front door, listening to the ticking of the wall clock.

A pathetic, desperate part of me kept hoping that maybe the lawyers would call him, or maybe he would check his phone and realize his wife had been in a wreck. I kept imagining the door flying open, Bradley rushing in with panic in his eyes, dropping to his knees to pull me into his arms and apologize for everything. I wanted him to tell me that he was just confused, that he didn't want to lose me.

But the hours ticked by, the dark night slowly fading into a pale, gray morning, and the door never budged. Bradley never returned home. He spent the entire night with Rachelle, erasing any doubt I had left. Our marriage was officially dead.

Exactly at seven-thirty in the morning, the private elevator chimed, and Ava stepped out. She didn't say a single word when she saw the state I was in—the dark circles under my eyes, the messy hair, the dried stains on my shirt. She just walked over, wrapped me in a tight, protective hug, and guided me out of the apartment.

The drive back to the hospital passed in a silent blur. Before I knew it, I was back in a sterile white room, surrounded by the smell of antiseptic and the cold click of medical equipment. The doctors didn't play around this time. Because I had walked out the day before, they put me through a grueling round of tests. I had to undergo deeper blood panels, and then they wheeled me into a specialized room for a detailed, high-resolution ultrasound. I just stared at the blank screen, my hand gripping Ava’s fingers so tightly my knuckles turned white, wanting the nightmare to just end.

Finally, the chief OB-GYN walked into the consultation room, holding a thick medical folder. His face was serious, his eyebrows pulled together in a tense line as he looked at the charts.

My stomach plummeted. "Is it bad?" I whispered, bracing myself for the worst. "Do I have internal bleeding?"

The doctor looked up, taking a deep breath before shaking his head. "No, Mrs. Norwood, there is no internal bleeding. But I need you to listen to me very carefully. Yesterday's initial emergency room diagnosis was incomplete."

Ava leaned forward, her grip tightening on my hand. "What do you mean incomplete? You said she lost the baby."

"In the ER, they saw severe uterine bleeding and a collapsed tissue mass, which usually indicates a complete miscarriage," the doctor explained, turning the ultrasound monitor toward us. He pointed a pen at a tiny faint white speck flickering in the center of the dark screen. "But during our targeted scan just now, we found something else. Your pregnancy actually survived the accident, Mrs. Norwood. The embryo is still attached."

My breath caught in my throat. The entire room went dead silent. I couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't even process the words. My baby... was still alive?

"Oh my god," Ava whispered, her eyes widening as she stared at the screen. "Tabby, look!"

The doctor didn't let us celebrate, his tone immediately dropping into a cautionary whisper. "Please, don't get ahead of yourselves. While it is a miracle the embryo wasn't flushed out by the initial trauma, the baby's condition is extremely fragile right now. The surrounding tissue is highly unstable, and the heartbeat we detected is dangerously faint. Any sudden shock, stress, or physical exertion could end this pregnancy instantly. You are going to need bed rest, constant monitoring, and total peace of mind if we want this baby to survive the first trimester.”