When a patient dispute broke out in the hospital director hospital, Sidney Harding's first instinct was to pull his intern, Cecily Swanson, into his arms.
His shove sent me stumbling into the corner of the desk, and I felt a warm trickle low in my belly.
He didn't notice. He just scooped up the trembling intern and threw an order at me.
"You've got experience handling this kind of thing. The poor girl's scared out of her mind. Cover her night shift, the usual arrangement."
Face pale, I reached toward him. "Sidney, but my stomach really hurts right now..."
His gaze dropped to the red spreading across my white coat, and his steps jerked to a halt.
Cecily, tucked against his chest, said in a small, careful voice,
"Dr. Harding, I'm fine. Since Sheila's just having her period, you should go take care of her first..."
Disgust flashed across Sidney's eyes in an instant. "Sheila Simmons, drop the act. You've never had cramps in your life. Getting jealous over a girl at a time like this, don't you think that's beneath you?"
With that, Sidney carried Cecily off without a backward glance.
Watching him walk away, it hit me all at once.
This marriage had reached its end.
...
A heartbeat after the pain crashed through me, my vision went black and I dropped to the floor.
When I came to, my colleague Patricia Dickerson handed me the miscarriage report.
She looked like she wanted to say something and couldn't. "Sheila, try not to take it too hard. You're still young... there'll be other babies..."
I took the report calmly, my eyes moving to the line marked with how far along I'd been.
That was how I learned I had been a month pregnant.
That whole month I had been run off my feet.
Because Sidney was always finding some reason to dump Cecily's work on me.
"The girl scrubbed in on her first full surgery today. I promised I'd treat her to a big dinner to celebrate, so write up her post-op report and submit it for her."
For the academic conference that by the rules only full physicians could attend, Sidney said,
"I'm bringing the girl to the specialist conference this time. You take over all her clinic hours and rounds next week."
Cecily sneezed a few times, and Sidney said,
"The girl was out having fun and caught a chill. She's got a weak constitution. You cover the emergency shift tonight and let her rest in the on-call room."
And so I did the work of two people alone.
Worn down until my feet never touched the ground, so busy I didn't even know I was pregnant until the day I lost the baby.
I laughed, but the tears slid down my cheeks anyway.
I opened my phone, and the first thing to pop up was Cecily's post.
【Dr. Harding says a little one like me who's had a fright needs sweets and fireworks to feel better!】
In the photo, Sidney had Cecily perched on his shoulders, biting into cotton candy, the theme park castle rising behind them, a sky full of fireworks blazing as bright as the two of them were smiling.
Sidney and I had fought our way up together, all the way from a small town to Los Angeles.
Right after we married, not long after we'd both moved to this hospital, our salaries were low, and everything we ate, wore, and used had to be stretched to the bare minimum.
It pained Sidney to see it. He held my hand and promised,
"Baby, next year on our anniversary, let me take you to that theme park you've always wanted to see, okay?"
But after that he got busier year by year, and the anniversary usually came and went with nothing more than a cheap meal.
Today he had kept that promise and gone to the theme park at last. Just with another woman, in the very moment I lost my child.
I lay on the hospital bed for a while with my eyes closed.
The hospital director heard about the dispute and my collapse and came to check on me.
When he mentioned the recent staffing transfer to the European branch, I suddenly spoke up.
"Director, let me take the transfer."
His face filled with surprise. "But Dr. Harding is still here... Sheila, living apart from your husband is no small matter. Have you talked it over with Dr. Harding?"
