Chapter 3
I pressed my back against the cold wall. My hands and feet were numb, and my tears fell silently to the floor.
He didn't just keep a place for her in his heart. He could hand over everything we'd built together, gift-wrapped, without a second thought.
The next morning, I dragged myself out of the bedroom. A sleepless night had left my legs unsteady.
Maya was already at the dining table, sipping a bowl of oatmeal in dainty little spoonfuls.
She looked up and smiled at me, her fingers casually brushing her collarbone, where a delicate diamond necklace caught the light.
My breath caught. I recognized that necklace.
It was part of the same set as the bracelet Leon had saved three months' salary to buy three years ago.
He had held me and promised, "Claire, when we make it, I'll get you the whole 'Unilux' collection."
Maya's voice was sugary sweet as she toyed with the pendant. "Isn't this necklace gorgeous? Leon said it's called 'Unilux.' He told me it was a welcome-home gift, and he insisted I try it on first thing this morning."
She tilted her head, her smile equal parts innocent and smug. "Hey, doesn't it match that bracelet you're wearing? How sweet! Leon got us matching pieces!"
My stomach turned violently. A sharp cramp ripped through my abdomen and my vision went dark at the edges. Warm liquid soaked through my nightgown, sticky and cooling fast. I looked down and saw red spreading.
Cold sweat drenched my body in an instant. I was shaking uncontrollably when I grabbed onto Leon, who had just walked over. "Leon... my stomach... it hurts so bad..."
Leon looked down at me. There was no alarm in his eyes, only heavy irritation and suspicion.
He wrenched my hand away and snapped. "Maya just started feeling better, and now you're pulling this? Seriously? I've given you so much jewelry, and you're gonna throw a jealous fit over one necklace?"
The words from his proposal echoed in my ears. "I will always believe in you. I will always protect you." He had choked on those words the day he proposed. Now they cut through me like the sharpest knife.
The light in my eyes dimmed, one flicker at a time.
Maybe it was how terrifyingly pale I'd gone, or the sheer amount of blood. Leon froze for a second. Some of the anger drained from his face, and he furrowed his brow, looking like he was about to scoop me up.
That's when Maya let out a moan, clutched her forehead, and swayed as if she were about to collapse. "Leon... I'm so dizzy..."
Leon made his choice in a heartbeat. He turned around, caught her by the arms, and his voice went frantic. "What's wrong?"
Maya slumped against his chest and pointed weakly toward the kitchen counter. A small bag of something that looked like a blood pack had appeared there, ruptured, dripping red liquid onto the surface.
"I was just trying to get Claire some water, and I accidentally saw..."
She gasped for breath, tears materializing on command. "Is Claire still mad at me? Did she do this on purpose to..."
She grabbed Leon's sleeve, sobbing through her words. "This is all my fault. Forget about me, go check on Claire! She must be so upset that she did this to get your sympathy. I'm fine, really, I'm fine..."
Leon's face turned to stone. The last trace of doubt in him was swallowed whole by fury. He whipped around to face me, his eyes filled with ice-cold disgust.
"Do you have to start trouble right now? If anything happens to Maya, you and I are done!"
He remembered how tough I'd been pulling three consecutive all-nighters with him on a project. In his mind, I could never be as fragile as Maya, who had "lost a baby and never recovered."
He scooped Maya into his arms and strode out the door without a single glance at me, curled up on the floor in a pool of my own blood.
The car door slammed. The engine roared and faded into the distance. The world went silent. So did my heart.
I used every last ounce of strength to reach my phone on the floor and dialed 911 with trembling fingers.
When I woke up, the smell of antiseptic flooded my nostrils. My body felt hollowed out, cold and aching all at once. My hand went instinctively to my lower abdomen. The flatness made my heart stop.
A nurse walked in, her voice carrying the rehearsed sympathy of someone who had delivered this news a hundred times. "Ma'am, you're awake. I'm sorry. We couldn't save the baby. Please take care of yourself."
Take care of myself? My baby had slipped away in silence while its father abandoned me to bleed alone on the floor.
The anesthesia was wearing off, and the surgical wound and my shattered heart competed to see which could hurt more.
I picked up my phone. The screen was blindingly clean. No missed calls from Leon. No frantic texts. No pathetic excuses. Nothing.
In the deafening silence, memories rushed in like a tide and dragged me under.
Him standing in the rain with an umbrella held awkwardly over nothing, half-soaked, waiting for me to get off work. Him staying up all night to bake my birthday cake, flour smeared on his face, grinning like an idiot.
Him dropping to one knee with shaking hands, pulling out a ring, and saying, "Marry me. I'll spend the rest of my life making you happy."
Every warm, luminous memory hardened into the same image, his twisted face screaming at me while he held Maya in his arms. Maybe Maya was right all along. I was just a consolation prize, a stand-in he settled for out of spite.
Once the heart truly dies, everything becomes remarkably calm.
I called my secretary and calmly signed the resignation and share transfer documents I'd had her prepare the night before. Then I called my lawyer.
"Mr. Smith, bring the divorce papers I asked you about last night. Yes, right now. Downtown hospital, OB-GYN ward."
The lawyer arrived quickly. I took the thick stack of papers, turned to the last page, and signed my name without a moment's hesitation. The pen carved through the paper and severed everything between us for good.
Shortly after I left, the hospital room door burst open. Leon had finally shown up.
His hair was disheveled, and lingering irritation clung to his face. "The nurse just called me. What happened to you? God, can you stop being so drama..."
His voice died mid-sentence. His gaze swept across the empty hospital bed and landed on the nightstand. A document sat there, perfectly still. On top, in bold black letters, were the words "Divorce Agreement."
Beside it lay a post-miscarriage care instruction sheet. My wedding ring, the one I had never taken off, sat on top of the agreement.
A corner of a note peeked out from under the ring. He pulled it out with stiff fingers. It held a single line, written with the last of my strength. "Leon, your obsession with her killed our child."