Chapter 2

After hanging up, I returned to the examination room. I adjusted my mask again, making sure Silva wouldn't recognize me.

I glanced at the name on the registration form again: Antonella.

Very unfamiliar. I'd never heard Silva mention her to me before.

I suppressed the shock in my heart and asked routine questions again under their puzzled gazes.

"Have you been keeping up with your prenatal checkups?"

Antonella nodded and turned to glance at Silva.

"Yes, we've been on time with all of them."

"For the first prenatal checkup, my husband even left work and flew back overnight to be with me."

My chest swelled with an odd, bloating sensation, and my nose suddenly stung.

Based on her pregnancy timeline, the first prenatal checkup would have been exactly the day after my wedding.

No wonder Silva had changed his clothes before the wedding even ended that day, hastily packing his luggage.

"Alice, something urgent came up at work. I need to catch the last flight back."

He'd held my hand apologetically, his eyes reddening for the first time in front of me.

"Once I've handled everything, I'll definitely take time off for a proper honeymoon with you."

I'd grabbed my wedding dress, wanting to call him back, but even after running until I lost a shoe, I still couldn't catch up to his hurried figure.

With the groom leaving mid-ceremony, the guests didn't say anything outright, but the mockery in their eyes was impossible to hide.

That absurd scene from that night—I never wanted to experience it again in my lifetime.

I smiled stiffly, my tone sarcastic.

"Your husband is so good to you."

I looked through the previous examination report again.

"Last time you were slightly anemic. To be safe, we should draw blood for another test."

Hearing this, Antonella's expression became nervous, her voice tinged with unease.

"Is it necessary? My husband has been personally cooking for me every day recently. I've gained quite a bit of weight, so I shouldn't be anemic anymore, right?"

As she spoke, she shrank into Silva's embrace, her eyes reddening, looking rather pitiful.

Silva immediately gripped her hand gently to comfort her, then looked up to explain to me.

"Sorry, Antonella is a bit afraid of needles, so she gets scared every time we need to draw blood."

Then he gently patted Antonella's back to persuade her.

"But for your health, let's still listen to the doctor and get checked. It's safer that way."

"After the checkup, I'll go home and make soup for you myself."

I gripped my fingers, my eyes fixed on the computer screen in front of me.

Silva was a male chauvinist at his core. Since we'd known each other, he'd always believed housework was women's work.