Chapter 4

I could clearly hear his footsteps as he walked away, deliberately distancing himself from Chloe.

Then, his lowered, angry hiss came through the speaker.

"Serena, I didn't think you could be this malicious."

"Using such a pathetic, low-life trick to harass Chloe just to make her feel guilty?"

"I suggest you put away your petty jealousy.

Your constant, unreasonable tantrums are only making me detest you more."

Listening to his blind, unjust accusations, a wave of nausea washed over me.

"Ethan, I am in Room 702, Building 3. Come here and pay my hospital bill. You have ten minutes."

I paused, my voice cold and sharp as glass.

"If you aren't here in ten minutes, I won't hesitate to tell Chloe everything."

I could hear his heavy, furious breathing on the other end.

"Serena, do you always have to be this incredibly demanding?"

After a few seconds of tense silence, he spat out,

"Don't you dare bother Chloe. I'm coming."

Less than ten minutes later, the door to my hospital room was violently slammed open.

Ethan stood there, his face clouded with residual rage, the air around him suffocatingly cold.

He walked straight to the nurse, scanned the QR code, and paid the bill without a second thought.

Looking down at the receipt, his brows knitted together in annoyance.

"What kind of tests did you even run? It's just a few scratches. Why does it cost this much?"

I lay on the bed, quietly staring at the man I had loved for five years,

watching the very last drop of my affection dry up.

I slowly looked up, my eyes dead.

"The baby is gone. I just had an emergency D&C."

Ethan froze. A flicker of shock crossed his face.

But it vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

He didn't believe me at all. He assumed I was using the baby to gain sympathy.

"Serena, can you please stop lying about things like this?

You really will do anything just to get my attention, won't you?"

"It was probably just a tiny bit of spotting, and you insisted on getting hospitalized."

"Chloe's heart was acting up, and her condition was critical. I couldn't just abandon her."

"After all, she's been your best friend for twelve years."

Seeing how his entire mind and soul were wrapped around another woman,

I suddenly felt incredibly exhausted.

"Ethan, let's get a divorce."

"Since you think Chloe is so perfect,

I'm stepping aside to let you two be together."

Ethan's hand froze on the door handle.

He turned around, staring at me with utter disbelief.

"What did you just say?"

"I said, I want a divorce."

I pronounced every single word clearly, cold and resolute.

Ethan stared at me for a long time,

as if trying to figure out if I was bluffing.

Suddenly, he let out a mocking laugh.

"Serena, do you seriously think this is funny?"

"Who would even want a secondhand woman like you if you leave me?"

"Is this all because I put you on silent? Are you seriously throwing a fit over this?"

"Stop blaming me for everything. Look at yourself first."

"Every time I reply to one of your texts, you just keep spamming me. You want to share every single mundane detail of your day."

"Your 'love' has become a suffocating burden. It's annoying. Do you have any idea how annoying you are?"

It felt as though a thousand needles were piercing my heart, making it impossible to breathe.

So... that was how he had viewed me all along.

Seeing my silence, he assumed I had backed down.

He delivered a cold, final warning.

"Lest you forget, your grandmother is only clinging to life because of the elite medical specialists I hired."

"I suggest you don't push my patience."

My chest tightened violently, and the blood in my veins ran cold.