My Birthday Present Was My Wife's Infidelity
"There's a foreign object lodged in the patient's lower region. Due to the unique circumstances, we need the patient's next of kin to sign the consent form for an extraction procedure."
My body stiffens when I see the name on the consent form.
"I'm Renee Becker's next of kin."
It's Liam Cassidy who says that. He's the first love of my wife, Renee Becker, who has been away for a month, claiming she's off on a business trip.
Liam doesn't recognize me. He takes the pen and signs the consent form. In the section to mark his relationship to the patient, he writes the word "husband".
After passing the pen back to me, he grips my hand tightly and beseeches me, "Doctor, you must do everything you can to help her. She's carrying my baby."
As I wrench my hand back from him, my wedding ring slips off and falls onto the floor.