Chapter 1
I never imagined that on my birthday, my son would give me a piece of chestnut cake, the one that could trigger a fatal allergic reaction in me.
As my mind started to blur, I heard Andrew Lane yell angrily. "Max, don't you remember your mom's allergy to chestnuts?"
Max Lane's young voice came through, clear and sharp. "Yeah, but I want Susan to be my mom.
"Dad, you feel the same way, don't you?"
"Even if I—" Andrew began.
A wave of suffocation crashed over me, and I could no longer hear what Andrew was saying.
Just before I lost consciousness, one thought flashed through my mind.
If I ever opened my eyes again, I no longer wanted to be Andrew's wife or Max's mom.
*****
After five hours of life-saving efforts, I finally made it through the danger.
When I woke up, every breath hurt like hell, and my face was swollen up like a balloon.
I struggled to open my eyes, instinctively looking for two familiar faces, but the hospital room was completely empty.
My phone was sitting on the cabinet nearby. I stretched out my arm, trying to grab it, but it was out of reach.
Just as I was about to force myself up, the nurse walked in to change my IV and immediately stopped me.
"You just came out of the ER, so you shouldn't be moving around. Let me get it for you," she said.
The nurse kindly handed me my phone while swapping out my IV, and reminded me, "Don't you know you're seriously allergic to chestnuts?
"Remember, never eat anything with chestnuts. You were lucky they got you here in time, or you'd be dead."
I didn't know what to say.
Should I really tell her that my son knew I was allergic to chestnuts and still gave me chestnut cake on purpose?
My eyes drifted over my body, wired up to all these monitors. I managed to ask, "Where are they?"
I didn't want to call Andrew and Max my family anymore.
The nurse paused for a second, then caught on right away.
"You mean your husband and son? They dropped you off, paid the bill, and left in a hurry, saying they had something to deal with. Maybe you should call them and ask," she said.
Then she muttered, "I really don't get what could be more important than their own wife and mom. That's heartless."
Her words sent a sharp pang through my chest.
Only one person could make those two drop everything and rush off like that.
I unlocked my phone. The chat with Andrew remained frozen, filled entirely with my own voice and none of his.
I scrolled through my feed, and Susan Young's post was right at the top. [Big thanks to the two guys who dropped everything to get rid of a cockroach for me. Guess a house really needs men around. (wink)]
The photo showed Andrew, looking awkward with a broom as he pinned a cockroach to the floor, while Max stood in front of Susan with his little arms spread wide, trying to protect her.
Seeing those two familiar figures made my eyes sting. Then the suffocating feeling came back.
After nearly dying, they abandoned me just to help Susan catch cockroaches.
Even worse, it was Max who triggered my allergy in the first place.
Not a shred of guilt, not a trace of concern from either of them.
I gave a bitter smile.
Yeah, Max was probably hoping I'd never wake up again.
And even if Andrew was clueless about what happened, deep down, he probably wanted Susan as his wife, just like Max wanted her to be his mom.
With both of them not even liking me, why would they stick around at the hospital for me?
I put my phone down and stared up at the blinding hospital lights, memories rushing back in waves.
Andrew and I grew up in the same neighborhood. We were childhood sweethearts.
Andrew was always a straight-A student, skipped several grades, and went abroad early to get ready to take over the family business.
Meanwhile, I was shy and quiet. When we were kids, I'd sit off to the side and watch everyone play. As I got older, I was still pretty much invisible.
But somehow, even though I was a nobody, I fell for the dazzling Andrew back in my teens.
I thought my secret crush would finally end when Andrew married someone else.
But as soon as Andrew came back, he came straight to me and asked if I wanted to marry him.
The unexpected surprise absolutely floored me. I couldn't keep my feelings in check any longer, so I said yes right away.
Just like that, I married Andrew.
One night when Andrew was drunk, he confessed to me that he'd had a girlfriend he loved deeply back when he was studying abroad.
She told him that if he proposed 99 times, then on the 100th proposal, she would marry him.
Andrew bought it.
They went to a snow capped mountain, a famous tower, a black sand beach, and a massive cathedral...
Each place witnessed one of his proposals.
On graduation day, Andrew set up his 100th big, romantic proposal, all ready to get married the moment she said yes.
But right there in front of all their friends and classmates, she turned him down for the 100th time.
She told him she wasn't ready and asked him to wait three more years.
Andrew completely lost his patience.
On impulse, he went back home and married someone to get it over with.
As for me, I was just the girl who happened to live closest to Andrew's family.
When I learned the real reason behind our marriage, I didn't let it bother me at first.
I thought that with time, Andrew would come to love me.
A year after we got married, I gave birth to our son, Max, and our relationship grew a lot closer.
From the outside, we seemed like the perfect happy family of three.
But then, about a month ago, Andrew's first love Susan came back into his life.