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Chapter 5

Author: WeeWoo
The bodyguards tightened their grip.

I twisted against them, trying to pull my arms free.

Alexander didn’t turn around.

“Make her drink it.”

I gagged before the bottle even reached my mouth.

Tears streamed down my face.

“Alexander Hale, you’re blind. You’re heartless.”

He finally looked at me.

“You’re going to regret this,” I said.

His expression didn’t change.

“When you do something wrong, you face the consequences. You owe Celeste this much.”

They forced my head back.

The cloudy liquid poured into my throat.

I choked and tried to spit it out, but they held me until I swallowed.

Then they let go.

I hit the wall and slid down beside it.

For a few moments, all I could do was cough.

Then pain tore through my stomach.

It came so suddenly that my vision went black at the edges. Whatever strength I had left drained out of me.

I pressed a hand to my belly.

Something warm spread beneath my skirt.

No.

I looked down.

Blood.

My baby.

Fear swallowed everything else.

I tried to reach for Alexander, but a voice came from inside the operating room.

“Alex…”

Celeste sounded weak.

He turned immediately.

“Alex, I’m sorry. Take care of our children after I’m gone.”

Her words came in broken sobs.

“I guess we weren’t meant to be husband and wife in this life. Maybe in the next one…”

Alexander’s eyes reddened.

“No. You don’t get to say that.”

He moved toward the doors.

“You’re not dying, Celeste. I won’t let you. Do you hear me? I can’t live without you!”

She went silent.

He slammed his hands against the operating room doors.

“Celeste!”

He hit them again.

“Don’t you dare leave me!”

I watched him from the floor.

Blood soaked through my skirt.

“I love you!” he shouted. “Just stay alive, and I’ll marry you. I don’t want another life. I want you in this one!”

There it was.

The truth, without tears or excuses.

Not duty.

Not his parents.

Not the pack.

He loved her.

Alexander turned to his assistant.

“Get divorce papers printed. Now.”

I curled forward, one hand still pressed against my stomach.

The ache had become something unbearable.

I wanted to tell him I was bleeding.

I wanted someone to notice.

When he finally looked down at me, his gaze caught on the blood spreading beneath my body.

He paused.

For one foolish second, I thought he understood.

Then his face twisted with disgust.

“She’s in there fighting for her life, and you’re out here pulling a stunt with fake blood?”

I stared at him.

“You’re not worth her little finger.”

His assistant returned with the papers.

Alexander crouched in front of me and grabbed my hand.

I tried to pull away.

He forced a pen between my fingers and dragged my hand across the signature line.

Then he pressed my fingertip into the blood on my skirt.

My blood.

Our baby’s blood.

He stamped the bloody print onto the document without hesitating.

“We’re ending this marriage first,” he said. “Celeste needs me more right now.”

He let go of my hand.

It dropped into my lap.

The papers were passed into the operating room.

I stayed where he’d left me.

The pain kept coming. Blood kept spreading.

A nurse passing through the corridor finally saw me.

“Oh my God!”

She dropped beside me.

“Get a gurney! Now!”

Hands reached for me.

Someone pressed something against my body.

Voices rose around me as they rushed me toward the emergency department.

“She’s hemorrhaging!”

“Multiple organ failure!”

“Her uterus is severely damaged. We can’t save the pregnancy.”

I heard the words.

I understood them.

There was no strength left in me to cry out.

The baby I’d come to tell him about.

The baby I’d protected with my hand while he stood in front of another woman.

Gone.

“She’s losing consciousness!”

“Get the defibrillator!”

The ceiling lights blurred above me.

Beyond the doors, somewhere down the hall, another doctor spoke.

His voice was bright with relief.

“Celeste’s awake.”

A pause.

“Congratulations, Mr. Hale. Mother and baby are both doing well.”

A tear slipped from the corner of my eye.

It fell onto the operating table.

Then my hand went limp.

The heart monitor let out one long, piercing tone.
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