The world tilted.
“What?” My voice barely came out.
Hanabi placed a hand on her stomach, proud. Smiling. “Yes. It’s Gusion’s. I’m carrying his baby.”
I couldn’t breathe.
My husband.
Her child.
While I was alone in hospitals. While I was told I was dramatic. While I was slowly dying and no one cared.
My mother nodded, pleased. “This is what Gusion needs. A fresh start. A proper family.”
Then I felt a small tug on my sleeve.
I looked down.
Nana.
Her big eyes were filled with confusion and hope, the kind only a child can carry without knowing it hurts.
“I like Auntie Hanabi,” she said softly. “She’s nice to Daddy. If Daddy loves her… maybe it’s okay, Mommy. Maybe she can be my mommy too.”
That was it.
That was the moment I shattered.
Everything around me went out of focus.
Hanabi’s little smile, like she’d finally won something she’d been waiting for. Gusion’s face, calm and empty, like this was just another meeting he needed to get through. My parents standing there saying nothing, letting it happen. And Nana… my baby… looking up at me with that hopeful smile, not understanding that my heart was breaking right in front of her.
I knew if I stayed one more second, I would fall apart. Or scream. Or do something I couldn’t take back.
So I turned around.
I grabbed Nana’s hand, tight, like she was the only solid thing left in the world.
“Miya!” Gusion called after me. “Where are you going now?”
I didn’t answer.
I just walked.
My legs felt weak, like they might give out any second, but I kept moving. Nana’s small hand was warm in mine. She kept looking back, confused.
I didn’t stop.
...
The house felt dead when we got back.
Nana fell asleep almost the moment her head hit the pillow.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered to her, even though she couldn’t hear me. “I’m so sorry, baby.”
I stayed there longer than I should have. Just watching her. Memorizing her face. Because everything else in my life had already been taken from me.
When I finally left her room, I didn’t walk. I collapsed onto my bed like my bones had given up. The sobs came hard and ugly, shaking my whole body until there was nothing left inside me.
Gusion Colombo.
Billionaire. Tech empire king. Investor everyone worshipped.
Gusion used to chase me like I was the only thing that mattered. When my family sent me to Paris for business, he booked a flight the same night.
“I can’t go a whole week without you,” he’d said, standing in the hotel lobby with flowers, smiling like he’d won something.
I laughed and called him crazy.
He pulled me close and said, “Yeah. Crazy about you.”
Back then, he was warm. Possessive. Proud to be mine.
We got married fast.
Our honeymoon was Sydney. A whole month of luxury and soft mornings and nights that felt endless. He promised me forever like it was a fact, not a lie. When Nana was born, he hovered over me like I might break.
“Don’t move,” he’d say. “I’ve got everything. Just rest. I love you more than anything.”
I believed him. God help me, I really did.
Then Hanabi came home.
She’d been overseas for years studying fashion. When she returned, she was polished. Beautiful. Confident. The kind of woman people looked at twice.
Gusion noticed.
I noticed him noticing.
The way she laughed too easily around him. The way he suddenly paid attention. The way conversations stopped when I walked into the room. I told myself I was imagining it. She was my sister. He was my husband.
I didn’t want to see it.
Until one night, I walked into our bedroom and found them in my bed.
Together.
I couldn’t breathe.
“Gusion?” My voice sounded small. Weak.
Hanabi jumped up, pulling the blanket around herself. Gusion didn’t even sit up properly.
“Relax,” he said, rubbing his face like I was annoying him. “She wasn’t feeling well. She fainted. I was just helping her.”
And I let it go.
Because Nana was sleeping nearby.
Because I was tired.
Because I didn’t want my world to end.
Now I knew how stupid that was.
They didn’t just betray me once. They’d been doing it for a long time.
I lay there staring at the ceiling, my chest tight. The worst part wasn’t even the affair. It was that I still loved him.
After everything, my heart still wanted him. Still missed the man he used to be. I hated myself for it.
Then my phone rang.
Mom.
I almost didn’t answer. But some weak, broken part of me still hoped. Still wanted my mother.
“Hello?” My voice cracked.
She sounded calm. Annoyed, even. “Are you still crying? For fucking sake, Miya, this is getting ridiculous.”
My breath hitched. “Mom… did you really just say that?”
She sighed like I was exhausting her. “Hanabi is younger than you! She maybe adopted but you should love her. She hasn’t had a happy life. She deserves to be loved too.”
“And me?” I whispered. “What about me?! I’m your daughter too. Don’t I deserve anything?”
There was a pause. Then my father took the phone.
“Miya,” he said firmly, “you need to think rationally. Hanabi is sick. She has cancer. The doctors said she might only have a year left.”
The words hit me hard.
“What…?” My hands started shaking.
“She’s dying,” he continued. “All she wanted was to marry the man she loves before it’s too late. Can you really be that heartless?”
Heartless. What about me? I am dying too.
“She loves my husband,” I said softly. “A-and you’re telling me I should be happy about that?”
“Yes,” my mother cut in. “At least she loves someone we know. Someone respectable. Not some random man. You should be grateful.”
Grateful. Wow.
My father added, “Gusion will be her husband now. For Nana’s sake, it’s best if you cooperate. Don’t make this harder than it already is.”
Something inside me broke clean in half. I screamed until I passed out.
I didn’t say another word.
I threw the phone across the room. It hit the wall and shattered before sliding down to the floor. Then I buried my face into the pillow and screamed until my throat burned and my body shook.
