Chapter 2

When I woke up again, the sharp smell of bleach filled my nose.

My vision slowly cleared, revealing the sterile white ceiling of a hospital room.

"Sloane? Sloane, you’re awake?!"

My mom’s cracked, tearful voice echoed beside me.

I turned my head with difficulty. Her eyes were red and swollen, her hair a messy bird's nest. She looked like she had aged ten years overnight.

"Mom..." My throat was so dry it felt like sandpaper.

Instinctively, my hand went to my stomach.

It was flat. Completely empty.

A wave of terror gripped me, and I scrambled to sit up.

"My baby! Where is my baby?!"

The incision on my abdomen flared with a burning, tearing pain. I gasped, falling heavily back onto the pillows.

"Don't move! Sloane, don't move! You just had an emergency C-section!"

My mom rushed to gently hold me down, tears streaming down her face.

"The baby is alive. It’s a boy. But because of the premature birth and your massive blood loss, he suffered severe oxygen deprivation. He’s in the NICU right now."

Hearing that my baby was alive, my frayed nerves finally relaxed. Tears poured from my eyes.

"You almost died..." Mom held my hand, her body shaking as she sobbed.

"The doctors said it was extremely dangerous last night. You lost so much blood. I was shaking so hard I could barely sign the consent forms."

"I called Nathan fifty times! Fifty times, Sloane!"

"He hung up on me every single time, and then he turned his phone off!"

Mom gritted her teeth, her eyes burning with pure rage and heartbreak.

"Where the hell was he?! His wife and child almost died, and he was nowhere to be found!"

I stared at the ceiling, my heart completely numb.

No anger, no grief. Just a freezing, hollow coldness creeping out from my bones, freezing every emotion I had left.

"He went racing," I said quietly, my voice like a faint whisper.

"What?" Mom froze.

"The roads were closed. He stayed at the resort on the mountain with his assistant."

I closed my eyes. Chloe's giggles and Nathan's annoyed 'stop overreacting' played on a loop in my mind.

We had been together for five years, married for three.

We used to be the couple everyone envied.

When Nathan first started his tech company and his funding was cut off, I stayed up for weeks, writing the core algorithm that secured his very first multi-million-dollar investment.

Back then, we lived in a tiny studio apartment under 300 square feet. He would put the only egg in our ramen into my bowl, his eyes red as he promised:

"Sloane, when I make it, I’ll give you and our children the best life in the world."

Eventually, the company grew, and he got busier.

And then, Chloe showed up.

She was a fresh college graduate, radiating a kind of clueless innocence and a total lack of boundaries.

She would bring Nathan warm honey water during board meetings.

She would naturally slide into his passenger seat on rainy days, asking him to drive her home.

When I confronted Nathan about it, he called me unreasonable.

"Sloane, why are you so insecure and paranoid lately?"

"Chloe just graduated. She doesn't know anything. What's wrong with me mentoring her as her boss?"

"You didn't use to be like this. You're acting like a bitter housewife."

A bitter housewife.

So, after I gave up my career and stepped back to focus on a difficult pregnancy, I had become nothing but a bitter housewife in his eyes.

I slowly opened my eyes and looked at my phone on the nightstand.

The screen lit up with several unread text messages.

All from Nathan.

—The storm was crazy last night. There was no signal on the mountain, and my phone died.

—What was your problem last night?

—Chloe was just giving me a work update. Did you really have to call and scream at her?

—The company has a massive pitch meeting today. I’ll come check on you tonight.

—Just rest at home and stop making up scenarios in your head.

Looking at the cold text, I felt a sudden, hysterical urge to laugh.

He didn't even know I wasn't at home.

He had no idea his wife had just crossed the gates of hell, or that his newborn son was currently hooked up to tubes in an incubator.

I didn't reply. I simply blocked his number.

Then, I looked at my mom.

"Mom, hire a private nurse for me."

"And go to the hospital admin. Update my emergency contact. Remove Nathan. You are my only contact."

"For the baby's birth certificate... leave the father's section blank."