Chapter 2

I woke to an agonizing, gnawing pain.

It felt like thousands of fire ants devouring my internal organs.

"She's awake! Doctor! The patient is awake!"

Ethan's voice rang out, raw with sudden joy and immense relief.

I struggled to force my eyes open.

His jaw was covered in rough stubble, his eyes bloodshot, his uniform rumpled and creased. It looked like he had been keeping vigil for days.

The moment he saw me open my eyes, he grabbed my hand so hard my knuckles throbbed.

"Avery, you're finally awake. Do you have any idea how terrified I was?"

"If anything happened to you, I would never have forgiven myself."

His tears fell onto the back of my hand, scalding hot.

Once, my heart would have ached for him. I would have wiped his tears and teased him, saying this wasn't like the cold, unflinching Detective Vance.

Now, I only felt sick to my stomach.

I pulled my hand back and croaked hoarsely, "Where's the baby?"

Ethan froze.

The ecstatic relief on his face instantly solidified, his eyes darting away in panic.

"Avery, you just woke up. You're weak. Have some water first—"

"I asked you where our baby is!"

I screamed with every shred of strength I possessed. The sudden strain tore at my surgical stitches, breaking out a cold sweat across my forehead.

Ethan pushed down gently on my shoulders, terrified of meeting my gaze.

"Avery, calm down, please."

"The car was too crushed... a rebar pierced right through your abdomen."

"The surgeon said... if they didn't perform a full hysterectomy, you wouldn't have survived."

"I'm a cop, but I'm your husband first. I had to save you."

Boom.

The last tether holding my sanity together snapped.

A hysterectomy.

I hadn't just lost my baby. I had lost the chance to ever be a mother.

I stared at him with unblinking, hollow eyes, the tears drying inside my sockets.

"Ethan, you knew I was pregnant."

It wasn't a question.

Before leaving for that mission, I had left the ultrasound scan right in the center of the coffee table, wanting to surprise him.

There was no way he missed it.

Ethan's face went dead white as he dodged the point. "I thought... I didn't think the psycho would actually find you—"

"You're lying."

"You're a forensic and crime scene expert. You wouldn't recognize an ultrasound? You knew I was carrying your child, yet you forced me into that red dress to draw a psychopath's attention."

"You sent me, your tactical-officer wife, to die so delicate little Laney could walk away scratch-free!"

Crash!

Ethan slammed the glass water cup onto the bedside table, shattering it into pieces.

His eyes flared red, and he roared, "Avery! Enough! Are you ever going to drop this?!"

"Laney had an asthma attack from pure terror! You are a trained officer with survival skills! What does she have? She's completely helpless!"

"Putting ourselves on the line to protect civilians—didn't we take that oath together at the academy?!"

"And I did everything to fix it! I put two bullets through that bastard's skull myself! What more do you want from me?!"

I looked at the furious man towering over me.

Suddenly, I laughed.

I laughed until my stitches tore, blood seeping through the front of my hospital gown.

"Ethan, that was your child."

"To save Laney, you murdered your own baby."

Ethan shuddered violently, all the strength drained from his limbs. He collapsed onto the chair, looking utterly defeated.

"Avery... I'm sorry."

"We don't need kids. I'll take care of you for the rest of your life, okay?"

"Laney feels terribly guilty too. She—"

Before he could finish, a custom ringtone sounded from his pocket.

It was almost an instinct. Ethan snatched the phone and answered, his voice dropping into an impossibly tender tone within a fraction of a second.

"Laney, don't cry. I'm right here."

"A nightmare? Don't be scared, I'm coming right over."

Hanging up, he didn't even dare look me in the eye.

"Avery, Laney's in the room next door. She's emotionally unstable and showing signs of self-harm. I need to check on her."

"Rest up. I'll call a nurse to watch you."

With that, he bolted from the room as if escaping a fire.

I stared at his retreating back.

The man who once knelt on the academy track field in front of thousands of cadets, declaring he would gladly give his life for mine, was now walking over the blood of his unborn child just to tuck another woman into bed.