Chapter 4

I had barely stepped out of the office when my phone started vibrating in my pocket.

It was the hospital.

“Ms. Smith, your father suddenly began coughing up blood during treatment today. He’s already been moved to the operating room.”

My heart lurched.

Ignoring the pounding rain, I ran straight into the street and flagged down a cab.

The roads were slick, traffic was jammed, and by the time I reached the hospital, nearly an hour had passed.

My mother was crying so hard outside the operating room she could barely stand.

“Waverly, the doctor says we can’t wait any longer. Your dad needs a lung transplant right away if he’s going to survive...”

My hands shook as I called the doctor in charge of organ allocation.

The doctor sounded confused.

“Mr. Hale reassigned that donor lung to a relative of Ms. Carter last week. Didn’t you know that?”

Every drop of blood in my body seemed to freeze.

Julian had given away my father’s donor lung.

I had spent nearly seventy thousand dollars and waited a full year for that match.

I called him, needing to hear him explain it himself.

He was quiet for a brief moment.

“Rachel’s great-uncle has emphysema, and he’s old. He needed the lung first.

“Your father’s condition was stable anyway. It wasn’t urgent.”

I tipped my head back and shut my eyes as cold tears slid down the side of my face.

In the background, I could hear Rachel crying softly.

Julian’s tone turned impatient.

“You made a scene and left, and Rachel’s been blaming herself ever since. She’s cried so hard she’s practically passed out. Are you happy now?

“Waverly, come back here right now and apologize to her—”

I hung up on him.

In that instant, the last shred of attachment I had left for him vanished.

Just then, the red light over the doors went dark.

The doctor walked out, removed his mask, and shook his head at us.

“I’m sorry. We did everything we could.”

My mother let out one broken wail and collapsed to the floor.

“Mom!”

I threw myself down and caught her.

I stood frozen like stone outside the operating room, numb and unmoving, for what felt like forever.

Then the doctor came back out again.

“The patient suffered a severe brain hemorrhage brought on by acute emotional distress. We couldn’t save her.”

“Dad... Mom...”

Something inside me snapped.

I sank to the floor, shattered, feeling as if my soul had been ripped out of me.

In a single day, I lost every member of my family.

I stood in the morgue in a daze, helpless, with no idea what to do next.

In the end, I called Julian.

But the one who answered was Rachel’s son, Ricky.

“You bad woman, stop calling.

“Daddy Julian is putting my mom to sleep. I won’t let you take him away!”

Then the line went dead.

I called Rachel next. It rang for a long time before she finally picked up.

Her voice was thick with tears.

“Waverly, you’re capable. You can make money. You can live just fine on your own. But I can’t. I have Ricky to look after.

“I’ve never begged you for anything in my life. Today I’m only begging you for one thing—please let me have him. Okay?”

Behind her words, I could hear Julian’s voice in the background, soft and gentle as he comforted her.

I ended the call and felt every last bit of strength leave my body.

With guidance from the funeral home staff, I sent my parents’ bodies in for cremation.

Their ashes wouldn’t be ready until the next day.

When I returned to the hotel, the clothes they had neatly folded on the bed still seemed to hold the warmth of their hands.

I clutched them to my chest and cried until my body gave out and darkness swallowed me whole.

The next day, I went back to the house I had once shared with Julian and got into the car he had bought me as a wedding gift.

The driver’s seat had been readjusted.

The system profile showed Rachel’s saved settings.

When the car started, it automatically began playing children’s beginner alphabet lessons.

I couldn’t hold it in anymore.

I dropped my head onto the steering wheel and sobbed.

The first time I had ever sat in that car, Julian had helped me adjust the seat himself, inch by inch, and loaded in the calming music my therapist recommended.

But in the six months I’d been gone, all of that had been erased.

In its place were Rachel and Ricky.

Without thinking, I touched my lower abdomen.

When I was twenty-four, Julian and I had a child too.

Back then, our careers were just taking off. We didn’t have the time or the stability to keep the pregnancy.

After we made the decision to end it, he held me tight in his arms and promised me in a hoarse voice,

“Waverly, give me a little more time.

“When this baby comes back to us someday, I promise that child will be the happiest kid in the world.”

I had waited eight years.

I wiped my tears away hard.

Julian, I’m done giving you time.

This is where we end.

I went back to the primary bedroom to pack.

While pulling out my documents from the study, I accidentally bumped the computer tower.

The monitor lit up.

A screenshot filled the screen.

It was dated January 24, six months earlier—the day Rachel got divorced.

It showed a message she had sent Julian:

"I chose the wrong man. Do we still have a chance?"

Ten minutes later, Julian had replied:

"I’ll always be here."

I suddenly laughed.

I laughed so hard tears spilled down my face.

Ten years.

After ten years, Julian still hadn’t let go of the woman who rejected him and chose a rich heir instead.

Suddenly, the sheer absurdity of it all hit me.

And me?

What had I been in all of this?

Something inside me went cold and final.

The last thread tying me to him was gone.

I dragged my suitcase behind me and walked out of that house without looking back.