Chapter 4

I've always been decisive in my actions. After handling some company matters, I headed straight to the hospital.

The doctor looked at the test results and frowned:

"Threatened miscarriage. This embryo's quality isn't good."

"Let's do the D&C procedure now. Don't delay. By the way, where's the father? This is such a big deal—why didn't he come with you?"

My eyes stung.

Aside from the unexpected pregnancy when I was eighteen, the other two had both come when I was hoping for them.

But only I had been hoping.

My voice caught:

"He cheated on me."

The doctor looked at me with sympathy.

As the anesthesia entered my body, I felt cold all over.

The doctor helped me out of the operating room and had me sit and rest. I never expected to run into Ethan here.

He was clearly startled too, then immediately stepped in front of Claire:

"Leah, I already told you—after two years, I'll send her away myself. Why did you have to chase us to the hospital? You're so aggressive, I'm really exhausted. I've accommodated you for over twenty years. Can't you accommodate me just once?"

What accommodation.

If I had to compare, I hated Ethan even more than I hated Victor's betrayal.

Ethan's parents were busy and entrusted him to my mother's care.

Ethan spent his entire childhood and adolescence growing up in the household. My mother treated him like her own son. He knew very well what a terrible blow Claire's mother had dealt my mother, so much so that she's still lying in a hospital bed. Yet he still got involved with Claire.

I braced myself against the wall and slowly stood up. My body was weak, my legs trembling, but I forced myself not to show any sign of distress.

"Fine, I'll accommodate you. Let's get divorced, Ethan."

With that, I turned to leave.

Before Ethan could respond, Claire suddenly said softly:

"Don't be angry with Ethan. It's my fault. I'm the one who insisted on keeping this baby. Yesterday when my mom found out I was pregnant, she almost beat me to death. Thankfully Ethan got there in time."

She took a step forward. Ethan reached out to stop her, but she gently shook her head, smiled at him, then continued:

"I know you hate me. But I really don't mean to compete with you for Ethan. Ethan said that you'll be his only wife for life, and once I have the baby, he'll let you raise it."

She touched her still-flat belly, her eyes slightly reddening, her tone impossibly sincere:

"You haven't had it easy these years either—pregnant three times but couldn't keep any of them. From now on, you can be this child's mother. I won't compete with you."

"Claire..."

Ethan called her name softly, guilt in his tone, but he didn't deny what she said.

I stared at their faces and suddenly laughed:

"Let you raise it for me?"

Claire nodded, her eyes bright:

"Ethan said the position of Mrs. Johnson will always be yours."

I looked at Ethan.

He gazed at me with heavy eyes, remaining silent.

I felt sick to my stomach.

"Ethan," my voice was quiet, "do you think I can't live without you?"

I waved my phone at him:

"I'll have my lawyer send you the divorce papers. Happy divorce, Attorney Johnson."

Ethan's head jerked up. The words rolled around in his mouth, but finally he said calmly:

"Leah, as long as I don't want a divorce, we will never get divorced."

I had nothing more to say.

This man and woman—one a hypocrite, the other brazenly shameless.

Standing before me, one performing devotion, the other performing magnanimity. Just watching them exhausted me.

I turned toward the elevator. Pain from my lower abdomen came in waves.

Behind me came Claire's voice, tearful:

"Please don't be angry. I really didn't mean it."

I didn't look back.

The elevator doors opened and I quickly stepped inside, my hand gripping the handrail, my whole body trembling.

Just as the elevator doors were about to close, a hand suddenly reached in and stopped them.

It was Ethan.

His face looked terrible. He stared at me with complicated eyes, as if wanting to say something. His gaze moved from my face downward, pausing on my lower abdomen where my hand rested.

I suddenly realized something, reached into my pocket, and sure enough—when I'd pulled out my phone earlier, I'd accidentally brought out the miscarriage report too.

Without noticing, I'd dropped it on the floor, and Ethan had picked it up.

He gripped that paper tightly, his knuckles white.

His voice was hoarse beyond recognition:

"You were pregnant and didn't tell me?"

I said nothing.

He took a step forward, the hand clutching that paper trembling:

"Leah, was it really an accidental miscarriage or did you want to abort it? Do you hate having my child that much?"

I looked into those reddened eyes of his and suddenly found it laughable.

He'd just been protecting Claire, personally saying he'd let her give birth to the child for me to raise. Now, holding my miscarriage report, he had the nerve to ask if I really didn't want his child.

"Ethan, you've known me for almost thirty years. I've always been someone who can let go. Since you're unfaithful to our marriage, why would I keep the child?"

I looked at Claire rushing over behind him and raised my chin:

"Besides, Ethan, your child is already in Claire's belly, isn't it?"

"As for me, all I can give you is divorce papers."

He staggered backward.

The elevator doors slowly closed.

I leaned against the elevator wall, tilted my head back to look at the lights overhead, and wiped away the tears from the corners of my eyes.