Chapter 1
The day after our engagement, my fiancé, Ryan Summers, sent me a pure white wedding dress.
I glanced at my wheelchair, signed the papers for the abortion, and told him I wanted to break up.
A minute later, Ryan's childhood sweetheart, Eva Stone, called me, crying. "Yvonne, it's all my fault. I acted on my own. Please, don't fight with Ryan."
Ryan gently wiped her tears and comforted her for a while. Then he said to me with disgust, "You're carrying my child and stuck in a wheelchair. Do you really think you can live without me?"
*****
As I lay on the hospital operating table, a cold dread rose up from deep inside me.
I could feel the way people looked at me, full of pity and sympathy.
They seemed to be saying, "Poor woman, pregnant and her legs are gone, and her husband doesn't even bother to show up."
"If I ended up like her, I'd have jumped off a building already."
As I closed my eyes, it was like I could hear their inner voices.
Why didn't I just die earlier?
At least then, my child wouldn't have to suffer because of me.
I fell into a long, endless dream. In it, the three of us laughed together as a happy family, and my legs were fine, as if all the pain and suffering had never happened.
But when I woke up, I realized my face was already wet with tears.
No one else was in the pale room, except for me.
My phone kept buzzing. I struggled to answer, and Ryan's impatient voice came through. "Your legs are messed up, and you're still pulling this runaway stunt?"
I stayed silent for a long while before I finally heard my own shaky voice. "I'm at the hospital."
Ryan laughed out loud. "Guess I've spoiled you too much. Now you're even pretending to be sick, huh? You say you're at the hospital? Tell me, what exactly is wrong with you?"
A wave of helplessness crashed over me. It was always like this. No matter what I said, Ryan twisted it into some kind of mind game, or accused me of being dramatic.
But I was done trying to please him.
"I got rid of the baby," I said.
On the other end, something dropped with a loud crash, breaking apart.
I let out a cold laugh, like I'd finally gotten my revenge. "Are you happy now, Ryan? Remember today. Your child died because you couldn't be a responsible father."
Ryan's voice was on the edge. "Yvonne, you must be lying, right? How dare you! Now you're using the child to threaten me? Which hospital are you at? Listen, you don't get to decide our child's fate."
"Too late," I shot back, adding fuel to the fire. "Now you want to know which hospital I'm at? What, you want to come see your kid's corpse?
"If you want a kid so badly, let Eva have one for you. She's always mattered more to you than me and our baby anyway."
"Yvonne, you're seriously petty. Just because Eva gave you a white wedding dress, you turn this vicious? How many times do I have to explain it? Why can't you just listen?"
Ryan was desperately trying to explain himself, but honestly, I'd heard this so many times that I was sick of it.
"It doesn't matter anymore, Ryan," I repeated numbly. "Cancel the wedding. If you think I'm vicious, why should I stay with someone who despises me?"
Ryan slammed the phone down in anger.
I bet he was already scrambling to track down which hospital I was in, just so he could come over and make me pay for it.
Not like I could escape even if I wanted to. I was a cripple, stuck here.
It was almost noon, and my stomach was growling. Not that anyone gave a damn whether I lived or died.
I struggled to sit up, ordered some takeout, and then slumped against the bed, exhausted.
After what felt like forever, the door to my hospital room finally opened.
It wasn't the food delivery guy, and it definitely wasn't Ryan. The last person I expected to see was Eva.