Chapter 3

A passing nurse finally noticed the blood.

"Oh my God, she's hemorrhaging! Get a gurney!"

Within minutes, I was in the ER, curled against wave after wave of pain. Whatever pride I had left disappeared with it. I grabbed a nurse's hand and begged her through my tears.

"Please save my baby. Please."

She looked almost as panicked as I felt. "We're trying, but all the doctors were called away for Mrs. Stone's prenatal appointment."

I was shaking so badly my teeth nearly chattered, sweat streaming down my face as I waited. I had no idea how much time passed before a doctor finally rushed in.

His expression changed the moment he examined me.

"She's lost too much blood. The pregnancy can't be saved." He immediately turned to the nurses. "Get her ready for a D&C. Where's her family? We need consent."

"We called every emergency contact she listed," one of the nurses said quietly. "They hung up."

Even through the haze of pain, I heard her.

Of course they had.

My eyes filled with tears, but there wasn't even time to cry. Everything was happening too fast for anesthesia, and when the cold instruments entered my body, I bit down on my lip until I tasted blood.

Somewhere outside the room, people were laughing.

Then Jasmine's voice floated through the door, soft and playful.

"Doctor, can you tell yet? Is it a boy or a girl?"

Yuri gave a low laugh. "I hope it's a girl. I want her to look like you."

A tear slipped into my ear as I stared at the ceiling, trembling on the table.

There had been a time when I couldn't have imagined Yuri saying something like that to another woman.

Yuri and I had known each other since we were kids. Everyone around us had taken it for granted that Yuri Stone and Quinn Xavier would eventually get married, and I'd never questioned it either. As far as I was concerned, there had never been anyone else.

When Yuri decided to start a company after we got married, we put every penny we had into a tiny studio. I hustled for publicity, chased potential investors, and sat through business dinners drinking until I could barely stand if that was what it took to get someone interested.

Seeing me come home drunk after one of those nights had reduced Yuri to tears.

"Quinn, I swear, someday you'll never have to struggle like this again."

And eventually, we made it.

His company grew beyond anything we'd imagined. Around the same time, I got pregnant, and I stepped away from the business to raise our family.

For a while, my life seemed almost embarrassingly perfect. I'd married my first love, we had a healthy little boy, and the business we'd built together was thriving.

I truly thought I'd won at life.

Then Jasmine Shaw appeared at my door with proof that she was pregnant.

"Ms. Xavier, I'm having your husband's baby."

She'd been smiling when she told me.

"He says every day he spends with you feels like an eternity."

An eternity.

I'd once had nothing but contempt for women whose husbands cheated and who still refused to leave. They were weak, I'd thought. Stupid. If they stayed and suffered, that was their own choice.

It was easy to think that until I became one of them.

The news hit me so hard my hands started shaking, and my ears rang. I barely remembered crossing the distance between us. The next thing I knew, my fist was tangled in Jasmine's hair, and we were fighting.

There was nothing dignified about me that day. I screamed, I raged, and I let every ounce of fury inside me spill out.

Then I told Yuri I wanted a divorce.

He dropped to his knees.

"I was drunk, Quinn. It happened once. It was a mistake. You're the only woman I've ever loved."

He signed over every share he owned in the company and swore he'd never betray me again.

Then Xander clung to my leg, sobbing and begging me not to leave.

"Mommy, please. I want you and Daddy together."

My mother called too.

"Men make mistakes. Yuri knows he screwed up, so give him another chance. And think about Xander. You know how hard divorce can be on a child."

So I forced myself to swallow the betrayal, like a mouthful of broken glass I could neither choke down nor spit out. Every day I endured it, the shards seemed to cut me deeper from the inside.

If Yuri came home late, I wondered whether he'd been with Jasmine. If he glanced at his phone, my stomach tightened as I imagined another message from her.

Eventually, I barely recognized myself.

Worse, I hated the woman I'd become.

So when Jasmine appeared on my doorstep pregnant a second time, beneath all the rage was something I hadn't expected.

Relief.

At least the uncertainty was over.

Back then, I never imagined I'd soon be convinced that Xander had died because of me.

By the time the procedure ended, I'd bitten my lip open.

The doctor wanted to admit me, but I refused. I couldn't bear to stay in that hospital another minute.

So I went home alone, barely able to keep myself upright.