The Scoundrel's Hero

After an unexpected miscarriage, I left my ward in search of Victor. I saw him inside the doctor’s office. Just as I was about to knock on the door, I overheard their conversation.

“Give my wife a hysterectomy. I don’t need her to bear me any children.” Victor Gayes pulled the woman beside him to face the doctor, his hand rubbing her belly. “The baby inside her belly will be my only child. You must protect it no matter what.”

I knew the woman very well. She was Victor’s secretary of three years, Rachel Aniston.

Victor reminded the doctor again and again, sternly and anxiously. “You have to give her the best medicine. I won’t allow anything to go wrong with this baby!”

I pulled my hand back, all my blood running cold.

To think Victor would do something so heartless to me, just after I lost our baby. To think my faith in him would become a dagger, stabbed straight into my heart.

I dragged my feet back to my room in a daze, the sight of Victor’s hand on Rachel’s belly replaying endlessly in my head. That scene overlapped with the memory of him placing his ear carefully to my belly after finding out I was pregnant.

I knew he wanted kids. I thought he loved me.

Now, his love felt so fake and cheap.

Every nurse on this floor looked at me with envy.

“I’ve never seen a man book the entire OBGYN department for his wife before.”

“He even hired twelve nurses to watch her 24/7!”

“You should’ve seen how hard he wept when he found out about the miscarriage.”

If I had not witnessed that scene at the doctor’s office, I would have felt like the happiest woman in the world. Now, their words were simply ironic to my ears.

When I was about to reach my room, I saw a basket of fruit flying through the door. The fruits smashed into rotten puddles on the floor.

“With all of you watching over her, how could you lose sight of her? What do I pay you for, you idiots?!”

It was my second time seeing Victor get upset over me. The first time was when I had a fever that would not break even after a night at the hospital. Back then, Victor seemed angry enough to beat up every doctor in the ward.

He even yelled that he would take down the entire hospital if they could not cure me.

I watched as he paced the room, ignoring the stains on his trousers despite his need for neatness. In the past, I would have thought he loved me and valued me, but now his pretended concern feels so fake.

“Victor, I just went to the washroom,” I said calmly.

As soon as he heard my voice, he turned around and walked up to me, helping me back into bed. “Nina, why didn’t you tell me before running off? You scared the hell out of me. I thought something happened to you…”

“I felt stiff after lying in bed all day, so I went for a walk,” I said coolly, instinctively pulling my hand out of his grasp.

Victor was not bothered at all, yelling at the nurses to give me an IV.

“I’m fine now. I don’t need any more IVs.” I could not forget what he said to the doctor, so I automatically rejected anything he gave me.

Usually, he would go with anything I said. Now, though, he uncharacteristically refuted my refusal. “No, you’ll get better with an IV. Once you heal up, we can have another baby.”

See? He knew I really wanted a baby.

I abruptly pulled my hand back and kicked him away from the bed. “No means no! What part of ‘no’ do you not understand?!”

Victor caught his footing before he fell, his gentle expression turning livid.

I lay down and covered my head in the blankets. I thought I could escape by refusing the drip, but I somehow still lost consciousness, my mind fading to black.

When I next woke up, three days had passed. I knew the worst had happened, but I still prayed for a miracle.

After hesitating for a long time, I pulled up my shirt. The bright red sutures on my stomach proved that it was too late. I stared at the ceiling helplessly, all the strength gone from my body.

Victor walked into my room and tucked me in tenderly when he saw I was awake. “You passed out that day, and the doctor diagnosed you with choriocarcinoma. They had no choice but to give you a hysterectomy.”

He even showed me the signed medical reports. If I had not overheard that conversation, I would have believed him wholeheartedly.

I rubbed the scar through my shirt. That surgery removed my uterus and took away my love for Victor.

It was all because Victor betrayed me. I hated him with every fiber of my being.

He wiped the tears flowing down my face gently and soothed me. “I know you really wanted kids, Nina. We still have plenty of time. Once you recover, let’s adopt one!”