Chapter 5

The ambulance ride was a terrifying blur of flashing red lights and the deafening wail of sirens. Every bump in the road sent a fresh spike of agony through my lower stomach. I squeezed my eyes shut, praying into the dark. *Please, please let my baby live.*

Now, I lay completely still in a sterile hospital room. The air smelled of sharp bleach and rubbing alcohol. The steady *beep-beep* of the heart monitor was the only sound. A cold IV needle was taped to the back of my hand. I felt empty, exhausted, and incredibly fragile.

Dr. Evans stood at the foot of my bed. She held a thick plastic clipboard. Her face was tight with sympathy. “You have a severe threatened miscarriage, Laila,” she said quietly. “The bleeding is heavy. Your cervix is irritated. You need strict, continuous bed rest. No stress. No walking. Absolutely no sudden movements.”

I nodded weakly. A fresh tear slipped down my cheek and soaked into the stiff hospital pillow. I rested both hands gently over my stomach. The tiny heartbeat was still there, but it was hanging by a thread.

Cristian stood by the small window. He had driven his own car behind the ambulance. His clothes were dry. His hair was perfectly styled. He didn't look like a man whose wife was fighting for their child's life. He looked inconvenienced.

“Will the baby make it?” I asked Dr. Evans. My voice was a hoarse whisper.

“The next few days are critical,” she replied softly. “We just have to wait. Try to keep her calm, Dad.” She offered Cristian a tight smile and walked out of the room.

The heavy wooden door clicked shut. The silence in the room felt suffocating. I looked at my husband.

“Cristian,” I whispered. I reached my trembling hand out toward him. “Please come here. Hold my hand.”

I needed him. I was stripped bare, terrified, and bleeding. I just wanted my husband to sit beside me and tell me we were going to be okay.

He took one reluctant step toward the bed. Then, his cell phone buzzed loudly in his pocket.

He stopped. He pulled the phone out and looked at the screen. His eyes widened. He swiped to answer it immediately. “Hello? Mrs. Gable?”

It was our elderly neighbor. Cristian had dropped Madalyn off at her house when the ambulance arrived.

Even from the bed, I could hear the frantic tone of Mrs. Gable’s voice. Then, I heard the loud, unmistakable sound of glass shattering in the background.

“What do you mean she's throwing plates?” Cristian demanded. His voice jumped an octave. “She locked herself in the bathroom? Is she hurt?”

A high-pitched, hysterical scream echoed through the phone speaker. It was Madalyn. She was putting on a flawless, deafening show.

“I'm coming right now,” Cristian said quickly. “Don't call the police. I'm on my way.”

He hung up the phone and shoved it into his pocket. He didn't even look at me. He grabbed his damp jacket from the back of the visitor's chair.

Panic seized my chest. I ignored the doctor's orders and tried to sit up. A sharp, hot cramp ripped through my lower belly. I gasped and fell back against the pillows. “Cristian, wait. Where are you going?”

“I have to leave,” he said. He wouldn't meet my eyes. His right hand reached up and rubbed the back of his neck vigorously. “Maddie is destroying Mrs. Gable's kitchen. She won't eat. She's screaming that I abandoned her. She's having a total meltdown.”

“I might lose our baby tonight,” I cried. My voice cracked. The monitor beside me beeped faster, matching my racing heart. “She kicked me, Cristian! She did this to me! I am in a hospital bed. Please, do not leave me here alone.”

He stopped at the door. He finally looked at me, but his eyes were hard and cold. He let out a heavy, dramatic sigh.

“Laila, be reasonable,” he snapped. The annoyance in his voice felt like a slap to the face. “You are surrounded by doctors and nurses. You have a button right there to call for help. You are perfectly safe. Maddie is an eight-year-old orphan having a severe trauma response. She has no one else in the world. She only has me.”

“I am your wife!” I sobbed. I gripped the cold metal bedrails so hard my knuckles turned white. “This is your child! Don't walk out that door!”

“Stop being so selfish,” he muttered.

He turned his back on me. He walked out into the hallway. The door swung shut behind him, cutting off the light.

I was completely alone.

I stared at the closed door. I couldn't breathe. The betrayal was so heavy it felt crushing. I curled into a tight ball on my side, ignoring the dull ache in my pelvis. I cried until my throat felt like sandpaper. I cried until there were no tears left in my body.

The sun came up. The nurses brought me a plastic tray of scrambled eggs and dry toast. I didn't eat. I just stared at the blank wall.

One day passed. I watched the clock tick. Every time footsteps paused outside my door, my heart jumped. I thought he would come back. I thought he would realize what he had done.

He didn't.

Two days passed. The cramping slowly faded. The bleeding turned to a light spot. The nurses smiled and told me the baby was holding on. I nodded, but I didn't smile back.

Three days passed. Three entire days in a sterile white room. Three days of eating bland food, staring at the ceiling, and guarding the tiny life inside me.

I didn't get a single phone call from him. No flowers were delivered. No visitors walked through that door.

On the afternoon of the third day, my cell phone buzzed on the rolling tray table.

I turned my head slowly. I reached out and picked it up. The screen lit up with a text message. It was from Cristian.

*Maddie needs me right now. She is still refusing to come out of her room. You're in good hands with the doctors. Let me know when you get discharged.*

I read the words. Then I read them again.

I waited for the familiar sting of tears. I waited for the heavy, suffocating pain in my chest.

It never came.

Instead, a strange, profound stillness washed over me. It started deep in my bones and spread all the way to my fingertips. It was pure, freezing ice.

I looked at the text message one last time. The desperate, weeping woman who begged him to stay three nights ago was gone. The forgiving wife who wanted to make peace with a troubled child was dead. She had bled out on this hospital mattress while her husband comforted the very monster who put her here.

I locked my phone screen. I set it face down on the table.

I looked out the window at the gray, rain-washed Seattle skyline. My vision had never been so crystal clear. Cristian had made his choice. He chose his lie. He chose her.

Now, I would make mine.

The tug-of-war was finally over. I dropped the rope. I pressed the red call button for the nurse. I needed to get out of this bed. I had a lot of work to do.