My legs moved on their own, carrying me across the sterile floor toward him. Each step felt like walking through concrete, my whole body heavy with disbelief.
"This isn't the time, Azalea." Ryker's voice came out sharp, warning.
"I know." The words barely made it past my lips, quiet and hollow. "I know it's not the time. Just like it wasn't the time when I called you twelve times today about Vesper." My eyes drifted between him and Calypso, who'd pressed herself against the wall.
"Why are you with your ex, Ryker? Who-" My throat closed around the question. "You called him your son?"
"I said this isn't the fucking time!" His shout echoed through the emergency room. "My kid is dying!"
Something snapped inside me. The fear, the confusion, the betrayal - it all crystallized into pure rage.
"YOUR KID?" I screamed back, my voice raw. "OUR kid is dying too! Vesper is dying in that room right now!" I jabbed my finger toward her door. "She needs a blood transfusion. YOUR blood type. But you've been-" My voice cracked. "You've been with them?"
Ryker's face drained of color. "What?"
"Don't you dare 'what' me." My hands shook. "The doctor just told me she has weeks to live without treatment. WEEKS, Ryker. Where were you? Where the hell were you when I was trying to reach you?"
The emergency room doors burst open. A doctor in blue scrubs rushed toward us, his face tight with urgency.
"Mr. Thorne." He glanced between us. "We have a situation."
My heart plummeted. The air grew thick, suffocating.
"Both children are critical. They've both gone into shock and need immediate transfusions." The doctor's words came fast, clipped. "But we only have enough of your blood type for one child right now. Our blood bank is depleted, and the nearest matching donor is forty minutes away."
"You have to choose"
The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead. My ears rang.
"What do you mean, choose?" Calypso's voice cracked. "You can't make us-"
"There's no time." The doctor checked his watch. "We need a decision now. Which child receives the transfusion first?"
I stared at Ryker. His face had gone ashen, his eyes darting between Vesper's room and the other hallway where his secret son lay dying.
"My daughter." The words ripped from my throat. "Vesper needs-"
"No." Ryker's voice cut through mine. "The boy. Give it to him."
The world tilted sideways. My vision blurred.
"Mr. Thorne, are you certain?" The doctor pressed. "Once we begin the procedure-"
"I said give it to my son!" Ryker grabbed the doctor's arm.
I lunged forward, fingers clawing at Ryker's sleeve. "She's four years old! She's your daughter!"
"Both children are four," the doctor interrupted. "But we need an immediate decision. Their conditions are deteriorating by the minute."
Ryker yanked his arm from my grip. "The boy. That's my final answer."
The doctor nodded and rushed away, leaving me standing there, my world crumbling around me as my husband chose another child over our dying daughter.
…
I pressed my palm against the cold glass, watching the monitors spike and fall around my baby girl. The oxygen mask dwarfed her tiny face. Her chest rose and fell in desperate, shallow breaths.
"Hold on, sweetheart. Please hold on."
A nurse adjusted Vesper's IV.
Through the opposite window, Ryker lay on a bed, his sleeve rolled up as dark blood flowed through tubes. Calypso hovered over him, stroking his hair. Their son - their secret son - lay in the adjacent bed, already receiving what should have been Vesper's lifeline.
"How long?" I asked the passing nurse. "How long until more blood arrives?"
"Forty minutes if we're lucky. Traffic's bad tonight."
My knees buckled. I gripped the window ledge to stay upright. Four years of marriage. Four years of thinking I knew the man I'd given my life to. But while I'd been planning birthday parties and decorating nurseries, he'd been building a second family.
The boy looked just like him - same sharp jaw, same dark hair. How many times had Ryker missed dinner because of "business"? How many nights had he spent with them instead of us?
A harsh beeping cut through my thoughts. Vesper's heart rate was dropping.
"No, no, no." I banged on the glass. "Someone help her!"
Medical staff rushed into her room. Through my tears, I caught Ryker's eye across the hall. He turned away, pulling Calypso closer as she whispered something in his ear.
My daughter was dying, and he couldn't even look at me.
I turned back to Vesper's window, my heart stopping as the monitors screamed their warning. The sharp beeps pierced through the glass, through my skull, through my soul.
"Baby, please." Tears streamed down my face. "Please fight."
Her tiny body convulsed on the bed. The medical team swarmed around her, their voices urgent but muffled through the barrier between us. My legs gave out, and I pressed my hands against the glass to keep from collapsing.
Then I saw her face. Through the gaps between the doctors, Vesper's eyes found mine. Those beautiful amber eyes - my eyes - wide with fear and confusion. Her small hand lifted from the bed, reaching toward me.
"Mommy's here!" I slammed my palm against the door. "I'm right here, baby!"
The sobs tore through my chest, ripping me apart. Her fingers stretched toward me, trembling in the air.
And then... they fell.
The monitor's frantic beeping turned into one long, continuous tone.
Silence.
..
My daughter was gone.
