Tonya Hugh
My husband, Mason Crawford, is a renowned obstetrician-gynecologist with more thank-you greeting cards from patients than I can count.
But when I start bleeding during my first trimester and rush to the hospital to see him, he kicks me out.
"Family doesn't get special treatment. Hospital rules. You have to register and wait in line like everyone else."
I take his words to heart. I never bother him, not once, for any of my prenatal checkups.
That is, until his first love, Vivian Werner, who married and moved abroad, comes back pregnant. That's when everything changes.
When Vivian comes in for her prenatal checkups, he personally pulls strings to arrange a VIP room for her.
And the checklist of tests he draws up for her is even more detailed than the one he gave me.
Vivian says she's scared something might happen to her baby, so he brings in the best medical team to watch over her 24/7.
I find this unfair, so I complain to him about it a lot. But Mason simply wipes away my tears gently.
"She's divorced and pregnant. She's already got it hard enough. Do you really have to be jealous over this, too?"
Since I can't think of a comeback, I have no choice but to bite my tongue and bottle up my feelings. Then, on my way to get a fetal heart-rate monitoring test, I get into a car accident.
I call him countless times, but he never comes to sign the consent forms.
The surgery ends, and I hold our stillborn baby in my arms. I want him to come see our daughter one last time, but he still doesn't pick up.
It isn't until the sun goes down that his buddy calls me with the "good news".
"Leah, Vivian's given birth. It's a boy. I've never seen Mason's hands shake like that before. You should go get a gift and bring it here as soon as possible. Mason says he wants to become the baby's godfather."
So this is why he hasn't picked up. He's busy delivering his ex-girlfriend's baby.