Chapter 3
Adam's face flickered with shock and panic—everything except guilt.
His eyes went wide in disbelief. "Weren't you supposed to be working at the Regional Medical Center? What are you doing here?"
Rachel was the first to react. She lunged at me, fingers digging into my clothes. "No wonder my grandson died! You killed him on purpose!"
Frank pointed his finger at me, furious. "You vicious woman! You killed my grandson! The Carter family will make you pay for this!"
Adam's face darkened, his jaw clenched tight. "Claire, you just found out about me and Lily, so you let her baby die on purpose, didn't you? How could you be so cruel? That was a life—my son!"
William and the other medical staff didn't know the whole story, but afraid things would escalate, they quickly surrounded me, keeping the Carters at a distance.
William addressed them calmly but firmly, "Dr. Simmons is an obstetric specialist from a major hospital in the city, here to support our team. She's highly skilled. If not for her, Lily might not have survived."
But Adam and his parents refused to listen. Rachel plopped down on the floor, wailing hysterically. "Claire, you killed my grandson! You'll rot in hell!"
I looked at the three of them, a cold wave washing over me.
It wasn't just the betrayal that stung—it was the cold fact that since I stepped out of the OR, not a single one of them bothered to ask how Lily was doing.
I couldn't even imagine it. If I were the one pregnant, lying on that table, would Adam just ignore me too?
Just hours ago, I had honestly believed Adam loved me just as deeply as I loved him.
Ever since we'd bumped into each other at the Regional Medical Center three years ago, Adam had been relentless in his pursuit of me.
Even though I was always busy with work, Adam would drop by the hospital whenever he had a free moment, doing everything he could to spend time with me.
When Adam proposed, he handed me a bank card, looking a bit embarrassed.
"Claire, my family doesn't have much—we're just regular people from the county. But this card has about 170 thousand dollars—six years of savings. The PIN is your birthday. If you say yes, that's our down payment. And the house will be in your name."
At that moment, I was moved beyond words.
They say the true measure of a person's heart isn't how much they have—it's how much they're willing to give.
I already owned an apartment downtown, so whether my future husband had a house or not never mattered to me.
But Adam giving me everything? That meant everything.
Who would've ever imagined that after just two years of marriage, he already had another wife over in his hometown?
No wonder, every time a holiday came around, he'd come up with some reason to head back to Riverdale County by himself, always saying his mom wasn't feeling well and he needed to check on her.
He always made it sound like it was all for me.
"Honey, just focus on your shift at the hospital," he'd say.
"Honey, you finally get a break—don't waste it visiting my family. My parents aren't very educated, and my mom is always nagging. You'd hate it," he'd say.
And I actually kept telling him to bring his mom to the city for a checkup. How stupid was I?
Thinking about all this, I called out to Adam over the crowd. "Adam, you should go see Lily. She'll need her 'family' by her side when she wakes up from the anesthesia.
"As for us, I'll have my lawyer send you the paperwork."