side me. The dull ache in my abdomen suddenly sharpened into a searing pain. It was a
the driver asked, his v
harper than the last. I felt a horrifying wetness spread bet
" I choked
constant, roaring fire in my lower body. I was losing the baby. I was losing my child, this child of lies, in the
heir faces a blur of urgent concern. They shouted medical terms I didn't understand. They wheeled me into
aching emptiness. The room was quiet. I was alone. I knew, with
ss, his suit rumpled. He must have come straight from Chloe's bed. T
appened? Are you okay?" he asked, hi
im, at the faint lipstick smear on his collar he'd missed, at the
hifted. A flicker of guilt, or maybe jus
voice flat and empty. I didn't feel anything.
ncere. "Ava, I was in a meeting. It went late.
gauge my reaction
an?" I asked, my voi
was important." He was lying. He was lying to my fa
a liar,"
dened. "What
ke stones into the silence. "I saw you wi
oment, he was speechless. Then, the panic in his eyes w
" he hissed. "You
for the first time. "While you were with her, I wa
aggered back, his face a mask of shock and h
as a form of love. I had built my entire world around him, a man who saw me as nothing more than a beautiful object he had acquired. He
s all a sham. He hadn't just betrayed me with Chloe. He had betrayed me from the very beginning, from that firs
cal event. It was the death of the last, stupid, lingering piece of hope I
It was a choice born not of anger or revenge, but of a sudden, fierce
arrived. I had talked to the kind-
chilling strength. "...that because of the complications,
lie. A ne
ooking him straight in the eye. "To prevent i
ashen. "No. Ava, no. We
rs, Ethan," I said. "I'm h
lity of a future with him. I was taking away his heir, his legacy, the one thing he seemed to truly w
gery wasn't just a medical procedure; it was a declaration of independence. It w
The grief for the lost child was real, a sharp, private pain. But mixed with it
, revealing the desperate man beneath. He saw
do this,"
," I said. "It'
-