At exactly 8:00 PM, the penthouse doors flew open with such force they slammed against the walls.
Alexander stormed in, his face purple with rage, his usually perfect hair disheveled.
"Vivian!" he roared, his voice shaking the glass chandeliers.
I stood in the center of the living room, forcing my eyes to widen in innocent surprise. "Alexander? What's wrong?"
He marched across the room and shoved his phone into my face. On the screen was a fraud alert from American Express.
"Fifteen thousand dollars?" he spat, his eyes wide with fury. "You charged fifteen thousand dollars to a card you shouldn't even know exists? Are you out of your mind?!"
I shrank back, playing the part of the fragile, confused wife perfectly. I let tears well in my eyes. "I... I found it when I was hanging up your jacket, Alex. You froze my accounts, and my only coat was ruined. Serena told me you insist I only have the absolute best. I thought... I thought it was an emergency card for our family."
"You snooped through my private belongings!" he yelled, stepping so close I could feel the heat radiating off him. The "perfect husband" facade was completely gone. "You had no right to touch that!"
"Why are you so angry?" I cried, letting my voice tremble with genuine heartbreak. "You said we had to freeze our joint accounts to budget for the baby! But you have a limitless black card? You took Serena out to a luxury lunch, but I can't replace the coat she destroyed?"
"Don't you dare bring Serena into this!" he snarled. "She is twice the woman you are! She doesn't skulk around my pockets like a paranoid thief!"
The words hit me like physical blows. Even when I played the victim, even when I used Serena's own words as an excuse, he still defended her. He still chose her.
"I am your wife, Alexander!" I sobbed, the emotional exhaustion finally bleeding through my act. "I'm carrying your child! Why am I always second place to her? Why am I never enough?"
"Because you're a suffocating burden, Vivian!" he sneered, looking at me with pure, unadulterated disgust. "I am sick of your neediness. I'm sick of this marriage. As soon as that baby is born, I'm filing for divorce and taking full custody. You're going to leave this house with absolutely nothing!"
My breath hitched. Hearing him say it directly to my face, confirming everything I had recorded at the club, shattered whatever naive fragments of my heart remained.
"You will never take my baby," I whispered, stepping forward.
"Watch me," he snarled.
He shoved past me in disgust, his shoulder slamming hard into mine.
With my heavy, seven-month pregnant belly, my center of gravity was already off. The force of his shove sent me stumbling backward. My foot caught on the edge of the heavy Persian rug.
"Alexander—!" I gasped, my arms flailing.
I went down hard.
My back and hip slammed against the unforgiving marble floor with a sickening crack.
A sudden, blinding agony ripped through my abdomen, so intense it stole the breath from my lungs. It felt like I was being torn apart from the inside.
I curled into a ball, clutching my stomach, a high-pitched scream tearing from my throat.
"Oh my God," I sobbed, feeling a sudden, terrifying warmth pooling between my legs. Blood. So much blood, soaking through my maternity dress and staining the white marble. "Alexander... the baby! Please!"
Alexander stopped halfway to the door. He turned around, looking at me writhing on the floor, looking at the dark red puddle spreading beneath me.
For a second, I thought he would rush to me. I thought the sight of his dying child would snap him out of his rage.
Then, his phone rang.
He pulled it from his pocket. Serena’s name flashed on the screen. He answered it right in front of me.
"Alex?" Serena’s voice whined through the speaker, sounding breathless and needy. "I'm having a panic attack. The restaurant got my order wrong and the waiter was so rude to me... I just... I need you here. Please."
I reached a trembling, blood-stained hand toward him. "Alexander... please... call an ambulance. Our baby..."
Alexander looked at my bleeding form. Then he looked at his phone. His jaw tightened in annoyance.
"I'm on my way, Serena," he said softly into the receiver.
He hung up and looked down at me with absolute zero remorse.
"Stop faking it for attention, Vivian," he said coldly. "I'm not falling for your hysterical acts anymore. Clean yourself up. I'll deal with you tomorrow."
He stepped over my bleeding legs.
The front door opened, and then it slammed shut.
He left me. He left his wife and his unborn child to die on the floor, all because his mistress had a fake panic attack over a restaurant order.
The physical pain was blinding, but the emotional abandonment was a fatal blow. The room began to spin. The edges of my vision turned black. I was losing too much blood. My baby had stopped kicking.
With trembling, slippery fingers, I reached for the heavy gold watch on my wrist. I pressed the hidden Smith Family SOS button on the side, holding it down until it vibrated.
Seconds later, my phone on the floor buzzed on speaker.
"Vivian?" Arthur's panicked voice echoed in the silent room. "Vivian, your vitals are dropping! What happened?"
"Arthur..." I choked out, tasting blood on my lips as the darkness pulled me under. "My baby… please save my baby.”
