Chapter 3

Ruby’s POV

The leather seat of the taxi was cold against my bare legs, and every bump in the road sent a sharp, agonizing jolt straight through my lower abdomen. I stared out the window, watching the streetlights blur into long streaks of yellow and white. I didn't care where the driver was taking me, as long as it was far away from that hospital room.

My phone vibrated in my lap. It was a calendar reminder for dinner with Emily.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, blinking back a fresh wave of tears as I unlocked the screen and dialed her number. She picked up on the very first ring.

"Hey, babe! I'm already at the restaurant, I got us that booth you like. Where are you?" Emily’s cheerful voice flooded through the speaker, and the sheer normalcy of it almost made me sob out loud.

"Em," I choked out, my voice cracking completely. "I can't make it tonight. I'm so sorry. I was in a car accident."

There was a sudden, loud crash on her end, like she had dropped her fork onto the table. "What? Oh my god, Ruby, are you okay? Where are you? Are you hurt?"

"I'm in a cab on my way back to the house," I whispered, rubbing my temples where the thick hospital bandage was starting to throb. "I'm alive. But... everything is messed up, Em. It's all completely ruined."

"What happened? Start from the beginning, Ruby. Did that jerk Ethan even go to see you?"

I let out a breath that felt like glass in my lungs, and then I told her everything, the divorce inclusive. 

By the time I finished, the line was dead silent for three whole seconds before Emily exploded.

"Are you freaking kidding me?!" she screamed, her voice so loud I had to pull the phone an inch away from my ear. "Vivian? That bitch! She hit you with her car and he's defending her? And now he wants a divorce? Ruby, she only crawled back into his life because his grandfather died and he officially became the Alpha. She didn't want him when he was just an heir with a threatened inheritance. She's a gold digger, plain and simple!"

I leaned my head against the cool glass of the taxi window, letting out a bitter, exhausted smile. "It doesn't even matter anymore, Em. A lot of things are just completely out of my hands now. Ethan already made his choice. He doesn't want to stay married to me. He never did."

"So what are you going to do?" Emily asked, her tone dropping into something fierce and fiercely protective. "You can't just let them walk all over you like this."

"Right now, I just need to survive tomorrow," I muttered, looking down at my torn, dirty dress. "The doctor was trying to run more examinations on me, but I walked out because I saw Ethan. I have to go back to the hospital tomorrow morning for more tests to make sure there's no internal bleeding."

"I'm driving you," Emily said immediately, leaving no room for argument. "Don't you dare try to go alone. I will be at your house at eight sharp tomorrow morning. Do you hear me?"

"Okay," I whispered. "Thank you, Em."

The pack house felt entirely empty that night. It was a massive, beautiful estate, but sitting alone in the dark living room, it just felt like a giant cage. I didn't bother changing into proper pajamas. I just pulled on an oversized shirt and curled up on the sofa, staring at the front door.

Deep down, some pathetic, naive part of me was still waiting for it to open. I kept thinking that maybe Ethan would feel a shred of guilt. Maybe he would realize how cruel he had been, leave Vivian's side, and come home to check if his wife was even alive.

But the hours ticked by, the sky turning from pitch black to a deep, bruising blue, and the front door never moved. Ethan never came home. He spent the night with her, and I spent the night mourning our dead child completely alone.

By the time the sun fully rose, my eyes were dry and burning. True to her word, Emily’s car pulled into the driveway exactly at eight o'clock. She didn't say a word when she saw the state I was in—she just wrapped me in a tight, warm hug, helped me into the passenger seat, and drove us straight back to the hospital.

The nurses moved me from one department to another, taking more blood, running scans, and making me lie down on a hard table while they pressed a cold ultrasound wand against my lower stomach. I just stared at the ceiling, completely detached from my own body, waiting for the nightmare to be over.

Finally, Emily and I were led back into a small consultation room. The doctor who had treated me the day before walked in, holding a thick yellow folder. He looked at the paperwork, then looked up at me, his eyebrows pulled together in a look of sheer disbelief.

"Mrs. Sinclair," the doctor began, his voice completely serious. "I've just reviewed the results of your secondary ultrasound and the deeper blood panels we ran this morning."

I braced myself, my hand instantly reaching out to grip Emily’s fingers. "Is something wrong? Is there internal bleeding?"

"No, it's not that," the doctor said, shaking his head slowly. He paused, rubbing his chin as if he was trying to figure out how to even phrase his next words. "Yesterday, when you were admitted after the crash, we confirmed a miscarriage. The trauma from the impact caused severe uterine bleeding, and we fully removed the remains of a fetal sac. We assumed that was the end of the pregnancy."

"It wasn't?" Emily piped up, her grip tightening on my hand.

The doctor looked directly at me, his eyes wide. "Mrs. Sinclair, you were actually pregnant with twins. It's a rare phenomenon, especially with the level of trauma you experienced, but the two embryos were in completely separate sacs. One baby was unfortunately lost during the accident yesterday. But the second one... the second one is still there."

The room went completely, dead silent. I couldn't breathe or move. I just stared at him, my heart hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs.

"What?" I whispered, my voice barely audibly. "What do you mean it's still there?"

The doctor turned the ultrasound monitor toward me, pointing a pen at a tiny, flickering white speck on the dark screen.

"We ran the scan twice to be certain," the doctor explained, a small, genuine smile finally breaking through his serious expression. "One sac was destroyed, but the other survived the impact. It's still incredibly high risk, and you are going to need bed rest and constant monitoring, but look right here. It still appears to have a faint heartbeat.”