Seeing the red mark on Freda's face, Jake abruptly pushed me away. "Have you lost your mind?"
He immediately shielded her in his arms.
As my hipbone wound crashed heavily against the table corner, a wave of agony sent shivers down my spine, leaving me pale.
Yet Jake was solely focused on checking Freda's condition. Only after confirming she was unharmed did he coldly turn to me. "Do you have any idea that she's pregnant? If anything happens, can you bear the responsibility?" Molly, I never thought you'd be so unreasonable."
Even though my heart had long since shattered, I still received a heavy blow to my chest when I saw Freda's swollen belly and Jake publicly humiliating me for her sake. That scene suffocated me with pain.
Jake and I once had a baby, too.
Back then, he found the best doctors for me and canceled her work plans to accompany me to prenatal check-ups. He had handled everything personally.
On the day of delivery, I was in the passenger seat, barely conscious from the pain, while he repeatedly turned back to comfort me. "Just bear it a little longer. We're nearly arriving at the hospital..."
I felt so much pain and couldn't bear it any longer. When I reached for the painkillers in the glove compartment, I found a few unopened boxes of condoms.
Jake had always shunned having sex. We had done it so rarely that even having a child was just an accidental result of his drunkenness.
His voice was strained at the time. "They're not mine... A colleague borrowed the car a few days ago."
In that moment, I couldn't even feel the excruciating contractions.
Later, when I was wheeled into the operating room, I remained numb.
The baby seemed to have sensed my despair, too. It wrapped the umbilical cord around its neck and died on the operating table.
Afterwards, he brought the colleague who had borrowed the car to me and apologized repeatedly.
But my heart was soft after I saw his diagnosis of terminal bone cancer.
I wasn't wrong. Those condoms belonged to him and Freda.
Regret and heartbreak surged up and choked me.
I should have left him long ago.
The wound on my hipbone tore open, and I collapsed to the floor in pain.
Jake instinctively wanted to rush over, but Freda stopped him. "Jake, she pushed me just now, and my stomach hurts... Will the baby be okay?"
He paused and then ran out carrying Freda. He only said hurriedly before leaving, "Ellen, take her to the hospital. I'll be there later."
I grabbed Ellen, who wanted to call him back, and shook my head.
After a brief treatment in the clinic at the orphanage, I grabbed my luggage and headed straight for the airport without hesitation.
On the other side, after confirming Freda was fine, Jake finally breathed a sigh of relief and hurried downstairs. He asked the nurse, "Could you tell me which room Molly Jensen is in? I couldn't find any record of her room."
The nurse checked the files and looked up, saying, "She was discharged two days ago."
