CHAPTER 001.

“I am sorry, ma’am. We couldn’t save the baby.”

I blinked blankly at the doctor as he said to me and then swallowed the lump that gathered in my throat.

Perhaps, I have heard wrong.

“It is in fact a miracle that you were able to pull this through. The poison had spread tot–”

“Poison?” I cut him short, my eyes broadened and my voice shaky.

“Yes, I am sorry. Poison was detected in your system and the baby couldn't make it through.”

The next words that came from his mouth were totally inaudible as I had spaced out, at the verge of tears.

It had taken everything to finally take in.

For three years, I had tried every medication and herbs to finally get pregnant, but now…?

Poison? There was no way the diagnosis or whatever was correct. I had eaten a homemade meal. I have been maintaining such habit for years, so how the hell could I have consumed poison?

Quacks!

Last night, I collapsed after I finished eating and was rushed to the hospital by the housekeeper, and the last news I was expecting was this.

“Lyra!”

My eyes widened as I heard the unmistakable voice of my best friend, Katherine and then snapped out of my thought.

“Lyra!” she called out my name again, shook my shoulders, and then pulled me into a tight hug.

“K…kathe… Katherine,” I sobbed quietly as I buried my face in her neck and then closed my eyes tightly as she stroked my back.

“Your housekeeper reached out to me through your phone. What…?”

“M… my baby. Kathie, my baby!” I cried out.

“What?!”

“They said I had lost my baby. Oh, God! Katherine, my baby!” I cried profusely as I held onto her as if my life depended on it.

Katherine of all people knew how hard I had tried to conceive. She knew the amount of medications I had taken and the number of doctors I had seen just because I wanted this baby.

“Oh, God, Lyra! I am so sorry!” she pulled me into another hug.

I cried loudly, not minding that I was drenching her shirt with my tears.

She wouldn’t mind, anyway. She has been my best friend for over ten years.

After a while of trying to pet me, she broke the hug and then cupped my cheeks. “This is not the end of it, okay? I believe that you are… wait, where is Kevin?”

She asked and then looked around.

Kevin was my husband.

I sniffed and then shook my head.

“How could he not show his face here?! Did the hospital not call him? How dare he?!” she yelled at the top of her lungs.

“Kathie, please…”

“I am sorry,” she took my hands in hers again, fondled it for a while and then hugged it.

“It is going to be okay. I promise. I am going to see the doctor and then come back to you.”

After Katherine left, I slid back under the covers and then closed my eyes.

How would Kevin take this news?

He was most happy when he heard about my pregnancy.

He was so happy to find out he was going to be a father.

How the hell was I going to explain to him that I had lost the baby that he had yearned for almost all his life?

“Oh, God,” I burst into tears again, curled gently, and then grabbed my chest like I was going to rip it off.

Things were just getting better between us, so how could this happen suddenly?

After a few minutes had passed, Katherine returned from the doctor’s office, and said to me that she was going to drop by at my place to pack my toiletries as the doctor had advised that I remain admitted for the next couple of days at least.

________

A couple of hours had passed since Katherine had left for my house, and I had even taken a nap in between when I heard my phone beeped from the drawer beside my bed.

Hoping that it was my husband, Kevin, who couldn't be reached since I had gotten to the hospital, I sat up, picked up the phone and then clicked on the message that I had just received.

But, it was from an unknown number, i clicked on the message and then drew my brows at the context.

: Hurry home! There is an emergency!

My eyes dilated as I read and without thinking twice, I rushed out of the bed. Staggering, I slid into the slippers and then found my way out of the room.

No matter how hard the nurses had tried to stop me, I didn't heed them and then hurriedly processed my discharge before I rushed away.

What if something bad had happened to my best friend, Katherine?

She had gone home to help me with toiletries and I had just received a message that she was in danger.

I flagged down a cab, and with the little strength I had left in me, I muttered to the driver. “Drive fast, please.”

While the car drove, I kept on calling Katherine but kept getting directed to voicemail.

Nothing bad had better not happened to her.

She was my best person in this world.

I would never be at peace with myself if I lost her too.

When I still could not get through to her, I dropped my phone on my thighs and then classed my hands together, mumbling.

~~~

Finally, the car pulled in front of the gate, and then I rushed out, not minding the driver who yelled out as I hadn't waited to pay him.

Palpitating, I finally got to the huge door of the house and I pushed it open. I strolled into the living room, and while I breathed heavily, I looked around and then prepared to call out her name.

But, then… I heard my husband’s voice.

Kevin.

He was home all these while?

The hospital couldn’t reach him no matter how hard they had tried but he was home all along while I was at the hospital.

As I prepared to head over to the direction his voice was coming from, I heard a female’s laughter and then snapped my brows together.

It sounded like Katherine’s.

“Trust me, you should have seen how miserable she was!” I heard her exclaim and together with Kevin, they laughed loudly.

“Oh, how much I have missed!” Kevin said amidst laughter.

“I thought she was going to die. I must say, she is very strong.”

“I didn’t give her enough dose to kill her. It would raise suspicion if she suddenly died, remember?”

W…what?

I felt my heart miss its beats as he said.

They were talking about me!

Kevin, my husband, had poisoned me and my best friend, Katherine, was in cohort with him!

“At least, she lost the goddamn baby. That is what I want the most. How dare she think she could have a baby of mine?”

He said and they both burst into laughter again.

Oh… God!