Chapter 5

No sooner had those words left his mouth than a blinding light flashed before my eyes. I looked up and saw several of Nathan’s colleagues walking into Tina’s room, holding various gifts.

Even someone meeting Nathan for the first time could easily read his emotions.

Tina Lewis, his former classmate, was the unattainable goddess of his youth.

He never had the courage to confess his feelings for her, but he made sure the world knew he adored her.

Had it not been for that school reunion I attended with him, I never would have known just how low Nathan Chase could stoop for her.

In front of Tina, he was always humble, almost worshipful.

At that reunion, his college roommates teased the recently divorced Tina, saying, “Tina, you’ve had a rough patch, but if you’d accepted Nathan Chase’s proposal back in the day, you’d be the one standing next to the top OB-GYN in Downtown General Hospital right now. There wouldn’t be room for anyone else.”

And I, the “someone else,” could only stand quietly, becoming invisible in the crowd.

His old friends all seemed to hate me, as though I had come between Nathan and Tina. If it weren’t for me, their beloved “goddess” would’ve been his wife by now.

Nathan didn’t seem to mind them thinking that either.

After that reunion, Nathan started giving me the silent treatment. He claimed he was too busy with work and only came home once a week.

Eventually, he even skipped all my prenatal appointments.

Meanwhile, his face appeared frequently in Tina’s social media posts. She called him her “perfect mentor,” and they appeared as close as ever.

Whenever people misunderstood their relationship, Tina always smiled and shrugged, neither denying nor rejecting it. It was like she welcomed the confusion.

In that way, she and Nathan were eerily similar.

People mistook Tina for his wife, and Nathan seemed to like it that way.

Naturally, this led to fights between us.

Nathan defended himself, saying, “The truth will reveal itself. I don’t need to prove anything. Stop trying to control who I’m friends with.”

He was always so insecure when it came to Tina. Just a hint of attention from her, and he was wagging his tail like a puppy.

But with me, he acted as if he was my best option, the only one I had.

Before the baby, I had been so dependent on him, and now, with the baby, it was even harder to leave. He knew that, and it only made him more reckless, more arrogant.

So, he wasn’t afraid of losing me. Not even if I died.

At four in the afternoon, after what must have been a busy day for him, he finally thought to call me.

But I would never answer again.

Once. Twice. Three times…

As the phone automatically disconnected for the third time, Nathan’s face twisted into an irritated scowl.

“Why are you just standing there? Tina’s asking for you!”

“What happened to Tina?”

He responded as if by reflex, rushing off toward the private ward at full speed the moment he heard her name.

Inside the room, Tina was chatting happily with Nathan’s hospital colleagues.

One of the young nurses spoke up, “Mrs. Chase, you’re so lucky. You don’t know how worried Dr. Chase was when you were in labor. Even when they called him about another woman with amniotic fluid embolism, he refused to leave your side and insisted on finishing your stitches.”

Tina didn’t correct her. She just smiled, accepting the “Mrs. Chase” title without protest.

“He was just nervous…”

Just then, my attending physician and Dr. Lee, who had assisted Nathan, burst into the room:

“Nathan Chase, you’ve gone too far! Not only did you never clarify that Tina isn’t your wife, you’ve let your colleagues misunderstand for so long! They’ve been calling her ‘Mrs. Chase’ all this time!”

Dr. Lee’s voice was filled with genuine anger.

Nathan stayed silent for a long time, then finally said, “I told you to just call her Tina. You’re the ones who insisted on calling her that.”

“Well, well, well. You don’t know, do you? Your wife, Emily Perkins, had amniotic fluid embolism. She didn’t make it. She’s dead!”

“And here you are, still doting on Tina, not even bothering to see your wife one last time.”

“You’re not even scared she’ll come back to haunt you!”

Dr. Lee’s voice grew louder as he tried to push Nathan toward my room.

Nathan slammed the door shut, resolute.

“I don’t believe it. You’re all in on this, trying to trick me.”

“She was the one who chased after me for years. I finally gave her my last name, so there’s no way she’d just leave like that.”

He laughed bitterly. “She’s not like Tina. Tina’s always had health issues, but Emily? She’s an athlete. Amniotic fluid embolism is nothing to someone like her.”

Dr. Lee couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief. “You’re a gynecologist, and you don’t know how dangerous amniotic fluid embolism is?”

“Last year, we lost a patient in perfect physical shape to the same thing!”

“Your wife was RH-negative. You know how risky that is, don’t you?”