The day after I lost our baby in a car accident, my best friend, a self-proclaimed bachelorette, handed me a gilt-edged wedding invitation.
"I've met the one. The wedding is in the Hamptons."
I forced a smile for her, but my eyes welled up. I'd always been the one to cry happy tears for her.
But my fiancé, Rhett, just stared at the invitation, his face ashen.
The water glass in his hand slipped, shattering on the plush carpet.
He muttered an excuse about company business and fled my hospital room.
When he didn't return, I pushed through the searing pain in my abdomen and hauled myself out of bed.
In the dimly lit private lounge, the city lights glittered beyond the floor-to-ceiling window.
I saw Rhett, pinning a woman against the glass. His voice was laced with anguish as he demanded, "Five years ago, you were the one who said you didn't want to marry. You pushed me away, and now you're marrying someone else?"
"How could you choose him, but not me?!"
The neon lights flashed across the woman's tear-streaked face as she looked up.
"I'm pregnant."
"You can't give me a future. You have no right to stop me from finding one with someone else."
That woman was my best friend, Destiny.
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1
My mind went blank.
For a few seconds, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me.
In our five years together, I had never seen Rhett lose his composure.
The day I was wheeled out of the operating room, I’d cried until I nearly passed out.
"Rhett, our baby… our baby is gone…"
He’d simply wiped the tears from my eyes, his expression calm.
"Gen, breathe."
"We're still young. We'll have another."
But now, he was the one holding that woman, his eyes bloodshot as he clung to her.
I saw a tear glisten on his lash, poised to fall.
So, it wasn't that he was some cold, unfeeling monolith—it was just that my pain didn't move him.
But the woman resolutely shoved him away.
She tilted her head back, tears carving paths down her makeup.
And I saw that devastatingly familiar face with perfect clarity.
My best friend, Destiny.
In that instant, the world fell out from under me.
I wanted to run, but my feet felt nailed to the floor.
Just a moment ago, she had been perched by my hospital bed, all smiles and cheerful chatter.
"I couldn't let you march into the prison of marriage all by yourself. I had to come and keep you company."
"Get well soon. You have to be my maid of honor."
But now, she was a sobbing mess in my fiancé's arms.
"I'm pregnant."
"You can't give me a future. You have no right to stop me from finding one with someone else."
A roaring sound filled my ears.
The color drained from Rhett's face.
"That night…"
His denial was automatic.
"Impossible."
A pained smile touched Destiny's lips as she looked at him through her tears.
"The charity gala… you haven't really forgotten, have you?"
"In the car, you were the one who wouldn't let me go. You kissed me first."
Memories I’d pushed aside came flooding back.
That day, I had just gotten the report confirming my pregnancy.
Destiny had been with me at the clinic, and I’d clutched the results, ecstatic.
I couldn't wait to surprise him.
But Rhett said he had a charity gala that night, an important client to entertain.
I sat in our apartment, deflated, endlessly scrolling through my phone.
Destiny couldn't stand my moping and grabbed the car keys herself.
"Alright, I'll go drag him out of there. You're pregnant. Stay put."
I had hugged her, overwhelmed with gratitude.
"Destiny, I'm so lucky to have you."
I waited on the sofa until I fell asleep.
Rhett never came home.
So that whole night…
My fiancé was with my best friend.
While I was at home, joyfully planning how to tell him about our little life.
I leaned against the wall, my body swaying.
No wonder.
When he came back the next day, I couldn't contain my excitement and handed him the pregnancy report.
But he just stared at the paper, his face blank for so long that the smile on my face slowly froze.
Only when I pulled my hand back did he seem to snap out of it, pulling me into a rough embrace.
"Don't get me wrong. It's just… the baby came so suddenly. I wasn't prepared."
But now, Destiny was saying she was pregnant.
