Finally Love Myself

Synopsis

It was the night my little daughter Lily Carter spiked a fever of 103.6°F. At the entrance of the Obstetrics and Gynecology ward, I stumbled straight into my husband, Andrew Carter. He was crouched down in front of another woman, his palm resting gently over her swollen belly. His tone held a warmth I had never once heard directed at me. "There's nothing to worry about. The baby's heartbeat is strong and steady. I'm right here." Tucked tight in my arms, Lily was delirious from the fever, her small face flushed scarlet, her forehead burning like a furnace. She looped her tiny arms around my neck, whimpering weakly. "Mommy... I feel so sick..." I froze on the spot. A loud buzzing rang in my ears, as if something precious inside me had shattered into irreparable pieces. Just three minutes earlier, I had called Andrew. He sent the first call straight to voicemail. The second call earned me a short text: [I'm in a meeting. Don't make a fuss.] Glancing down at my phone, I then lifted my gaze to the man standing at the end of the hallway. Beneath the harsh fluorescent lights, his suit jacket was slung over one arm, the top button of his dress shirt undone. Weariness and irritation clung to his face, a look I knew all too well, yet the quiet tenderness beneath it was meant neither for me nor for our feverish daughter trembling on the edge of convulsions. It belonged to the woman beside him, Olivia Lane. She was his company's newly hired Brand Director. At the annual corporate gala the month prior, she raised her glass with a smile that seemed all too sweet and innocent, and greeted me as if nothing had ever happened. Now her pregnancy bump was impossible to hide.