Chapter 2

I figured after everything I said, David would at least take it seriously, maybe even call to check on Jack, if nothing else.

But for the next three days, right up until Jack was finally pulled through and got moved out of the ICU to a regular ward, David never once showed.

The families of other patients in the other wards started gossiping about it.

"What kind of doctor just ditches his patient halfway through surgery? Is he just scared of getting sued or what?"

"I heard that kid is actually his own son. Seriously? He left his own kid cut open on the operating table and ran off. What kind of father does that? Even a stepdad wouldn't do something that cold."

"Yeah, and I heard he left because his ex called. If a man can ignore his own child like that, he may as well be dead. Saves his family the trouble later."

"You'd have to be cursed to end up with a man like that."

Gossip spread like wildfire through the wards, but David still didn't turn up.

The hospital couldn't reach him either. They called and called, he didn't answer, and eventually his phone went straight to voicemail.

Because of this avoidable "medical incident," I no longer trusted this hospital with my child. I transferred Jack to a better, safer hospital.

My father pulled together the best team of specialists, and after consulting them all, the doctors said that while the surgery had caused some damage to Jack's body, it wasn't irreversible. He would need another operation once he was a little older, and for the next few years we'd have to keep a close eye on him—no slipups allowed.

Hearing that, my parents both breathed a sigh of relief, then turned their righteous fury on David. The anger quickly swung toward me as well.

"I told you he wasn't the one for you, and you wouldn't listen. Now look—he nearly got my grandson killed," my father said.

"You said he had no family, and I felt sorry for him, so I agreed that you marry him. If I'd known, I'd have thrown him out the moment I could," my mother added.

"Listen to me. I won't steer you wrong. Get a divorce from that jerk, and fast," my father insisted.

While my parents kept laying into me, I just held Jack's hand and couldn't take my eyes off him for a second.

He had just taken his medicine and was sleeping soundly. His little face was almost ghostly.

Looking at him, I finally made up my mind. "Dad, I'm not getting a divorce."

"Are you brain-damaged or just born without one?" my father snapped.

He was furious. "That bastard did all this, and you still plan to stay with him? If he could nearly kill his own son today, maybe tomorrow he could wipe out the whole family."

"Dad, hear me out." I forced myself to stay calm. "If I file for divorce using this incident, the court won't think our marriage is beyond repair. He'll walk away with half our assets.

"He already ruined Jack for that woman. I'll be damned if I let him use my money to feed that tramp and her bastard."

My father nodded. "It makes sense. So what's your plan?"

I held Jack's cold little hand, gritting my teeth so hard I thought they'd crack. "I want him to walk out with nothing. I want him shamed for life. I want the two of them to never know a day of peace."

David and I met in college. I majored in finance. He was in the medical school next door.

One day, I fainted on the track from low blood sugar. He carried me to the infirmary and stayed until I woke up.

From that moment on, I never forgot him.

After that, we started running into each other—sometimes by accident, sometimes not—and before long, we were together.

My father owned several industrial companies and was considered a top entrepreneur in the province.

David was an orphan who put himself through grad school with part-time jobs and student loans.

My father had planned to let him take over one of his companies, but David refused to depend on others and insisted on working as a doctor at a private hospital instead.

At first, our married life was blissful. He was devoted to the family. When Jack was born and diagnosed with a congenital heart defect, no one took it harder than David. From the moment Jack came into the world, he did everything he could to help him get better.

That was until Emily, now divorced and with a kid of her own, reached out to him again.

They used to date back in college, but her parents had forced her to dump him, thinking he was just a poor boy with no future. After that, she married someone else, and they hadn't spoken since.

Ever since Emily came back, he'd spent all his time hovering around that woman and her son, treating that brat better than his own child.

He didn't even care about Jack's condition anymore.

The woman he once couldn't have become the one that got away, and I became just the old ball and chain he couldn't stand to look at.

I had thought no father could ever be so heartless toward his own child. But one call from his darling, and he abandoned his own son on the operating table, hanging on the brink of life without so much as a backward glance.

There was a time I'd been proud to have a husband like him.

Now, just thinking of him made my stomach turn.