All Chapters of The Muted Wife’s Return: Chapter 1 - Chapter 6

The rush to the hospital felt like it was dragged on for hours…hours of agonizing pain and panic.Martha had found me collapsed in the hallway, water pooling beneath me, and had immediately called for help. My water had broken when I was trying over and over to call Adrian, all to no avail.I remember the ambulance, the piercing wail of sirens, the fluorescent lights of the emergency room passing overhead like shooting stars.I remember the blood…so much blood.And then there were so many voices…the doctors’ frantic voices filling my senses.I couldn’t hear their exact words over the roaring in my ears, but I saw their faces—the concern, the fear. I felt myself slipping away, darkness creeping in at the edges of my vision.But I fought.God, how I fought.For my baby. For the tiny life that depended on me. For the one person in this world who would finally, truly be mine.When I opened my eyes again hours later, the harsh hospital lights made me squint. My body felt like it had been t

{Ava’s POV}Divorce.The word echoed in my mind like a death knell as I stared down at the papers still sitting on my hospital bed tray three days later. The black ink seemed to blur and sharpen with each passing moment, the legal terminology swimming before my eyes.Petition for Dissolution of Marriage.Irreconcilable differences.Division of assets.I should have expected this. Part of me had even wanted it—dreamed of being free from a marriage built on resentment and lies. But I never imagined it would happen like this. Not hours after I’d nearly died bringing his daughter into the world. Not with him standing there, cold and unmoved, while I held our newborn baby against my chest.Not with another woman waiting just outside the door.The nurses had been kind, tiptoeing around the obvious tension, pretending not to notice that my husband hadn’t returned since that first devastating visit. Three days had passed. Three days of me recovering alone, learning to nurse alone, changing di

{Adrian’s POV}Why did she agree so easily?The question gnawed at me as I walked away from the library, my footsteps echoing through the empty hallway. I’d expected resistance. Arguments. Tears and pleading. That’s what manipulative women did, wasn’t it? They clung to whatever power they had, used every tool at their disposal to maintain their position.But Ava had just… agreed.No fight. No negotiation. Just those simple hand movements: I agree to the divorce.It didn’t make sense.I loosened my tie, trying to shake off the unsettled feeling in my chest. This was what I wanted. What I’d been working toward for months. The divorce papers had been ready for weeks, just waiting for the right moment. And now that she’d agreed, I should feel relieved. Victorious, even.So why did I feel like something was wrong?The image of her in that library kept replaying in my mind. The way her hands had moved so frantically, so desperately, as she tried to convince me she could support Nova on her