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'

-