Chapter 4

"Evelyn! Are you really throwing a tantrum because of the baby?!"

Sitting in the passenger seat, the pain in my abdomen tightened and kept coming in relentless heavy waves.

I looked straight at him. "Who answered your phone last night when the hospital called?!"

Carter hesitated for a fraction of a second.

That fraction was all the answer I needed.

Chloe’s voice floated out from his car parked nearby.

"Evelyn, stop cornering him. He was up late celebrating my birthday last night. He's exhausted."

My fingers dug into the seatbelt.

On my birthday last year, he told me something came up at work.

He couldn't accompany me to visit my mother's grave.

It turned out my important days were kept empty just so he could fill hers.

Carter scowled.

"She didn't know the call was important. Why do you always jump to the worst possible conclusion?!"

I didn't answer him.

I turned to Sarah. "Drive."

Carter grabbed the window frame, holding the car in place.

"If you walk away tonight and miss the deadline to cancel the divorce tomorrow, this is going to get ugly."

A notification chimed on my phone.

It was a voice message from Carter’s mother.

Sarah tapped it open.

"I’ve already had someone collect the keys to your late mother's house," her cold voice echoed through the speakers. "I’m moving her belongings to the main estate for safekeeping.

“Just in case your unstable mood makes you do something foolish."

My fingertips went ice-cold.

My mother’s memory was the one thing keeping me anchored long before this marriage ever began.

The Jackson family had just crossed a line they couldn't uncross.

I looked at Sarah. "Hospital first."

---

At the ER, the doctor finished the exam and admitted me for observation.

Threatened miscarriage.

Those two words left my head ringing with nothing but the monotonous hum of the medical monitors.

Carter stood in the hallway outside, talking on the phone.

Chloe was crying on the line, complaining that online trolls were making it hard for her to breathe.

He glanced back at me through the glass panel.

Then he turned to his assistant. "Handle her admission."

He walked in, bent down, and brushed his lips against my forehead.

"Wait for me to get back," he whispered to me softly. "Stop making a scene."

I watched his retreating back.

Seven years ago, he knelt on a hospital floor and begged me to try for a baby one more time.

He promised he would stand by me until the very end.

Now, his ‘until the very end’ lasted only until Chloe called.

---

The chair beside my hospital bed remained empty.

The assistant handed me the deposit receipt. Carter was listed as the payer.

I turned to Sarah. "Transfer me to another hospital."

Sarah stared at me, her eyes filled with concern. "Evelyn, you can't move around right now. It's too dangerous."

"I know," I said quietly.

I picked up a pen and crossed out the emergency contact on my file.

Removed Carter Jackson.

Turned off shared location.

Unlinked every joint account.

Sarah set her jaw and nodded.

I opted out of the fetal preservation ward. I signed the high-risk waiver forms instead.

At 2:00 AM, Sarah finalized my transfer.

At 3:00 AM, I returned to my mother's old house.

The locksmith sent by Carter's mother hadn't arrived yet.

I packed up my mother’s keepsakes.

Then I opened the hidden safe in the study and pulled out the physical copies of all ninety-eight previous divorce drafts.

Every single one bore Carter’s signature.

Every single time, he was the one who pushed me onto his gambling table.

Before dawn broke, I boarded a bus heading out of the city.

I snapped my SIM card in half and tossed it into a trash can.

I left my blood-stained wedding ring on the hospital nightstand.

---

When Carter rushed back to the hospital room, he found only an empty bed.

Realizing what happened, he sped straight home.

He burst through the front door, shouting my name.

The closets, the medicine cabinet, the photo albums and my document drawers were all completely bare.