I'd thought this child would be the thing that saved our marriage.
I never imagined Claire Delgado would come out of nowhere and ruin it.
Meeting my cold stare, Chester rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"You don't believe me?"
I said nothing.
He sounded utterly worn out.
"The day before yesterday I was in surgery for eight straight hours. I was exhausted. That's why I let Claire answer your messages for me."
"I never once wanted you to get rid of the baby!"
The old me would have backed down the moment he said he was tired, no matter how much it hurt.
I would have swallowed every feeling and dealt with it alone.
But this time, I wanted an answer for my child.
"Oh? Then ask her why she told me to go through with it!"
Chester went silent.
He held his phone and didn't move for a long while.
Frustrated, he went out to the balcony of the inpatient ward and smoked two cigarettes before coming back in.
"This part is on me. It has nothing to do with Claire. Don't blame her. Her mother's seriously ill, she's had a hard time of it..."
The words were barely out of his mouth when Claire burst into the room in tears and dropped to her knees at my bedside.
"I'm so sorry! I misread the report. I thought the baby had already been diagnosed with a heart defect, that's why I told you to terminate. Make me kneel as long as you want, just don't take it out on Dr. Simmons!"
Before I could say a word, Chester pulled her up and tucked her behind him like he was shielding his own.
He looked at me, and his eyes were full of disappointment.
"Didn't I already tell you? This isn't Claire's fault. What gives you the right to make her kneel?"
"It's just one baby. We can always have another!"
"And when I said there probably wouldn't be a problem, that wasn't a guarantee. Maybe if you'd carried it to term the baby really would have had a heart condition. Ending it was being responsible, for the child and for us!"
I hadn't accused anyone of anything yet, and already the two of them were closing ranks to protect each other.
I swallowed every question. All at once, I had no desire left to argue.
The baby was already gone. What was the point of saying any of this?
For that matter, this marriage felt pointless too.
"Chester, let's get a divorce."
"What?"
He stared at me, disbelief all over his face.
"Over something this small, you want a divorce?"
"You really aren't thinking straight. It's just as well the baby's gone. Better than it being stuck with a mother like you who doesn't know what she's doing!"
He took Claire's hand and walked out, slamming the door behind him.
Not once, start to finish, did he ask if I hurt, if I was all right.
Blood ran out of me, warm and fast, and my vision went dark in waves.
On instinct, I pressed the call button.
The last thing I heard before I blacked out was a nurse shouting.
"Hurry! She's hemorrhaging!"
When I came to again, there was still no one beside me, only a cold draft cutting across my body like a blade.
Dr. Lawrence hung his head, unable to look at me.
"Aria, just swallow your pride with that husband of yours and have him get you a bed. You've just lost the baby. You can't be lying out here..."
I made out where I was, on a gurney in the hallway outside the restroom. I bit down hard on my lip and let the taste of blood spread through my mouth.
It was a long time before I spoke.
"There's no need."
Chester had called me out of my mind. He wasn't wrong.
If I hadn't been so blinded by love, why would I have given up the comfortable life of a Rowe heiress in New York to come to L.A. and scrape by with him?
Dr. Lawrence couldn't bear it. He lowered his voice.
"That husband of yours is a stubborn man, but a little coaxing usually does the trick. Look at that intern. A few sweet words and she's got him treating her mother like his own. You could stand to learn from her. Then you wouldn't be suffering like this!"
I shook my head with a bitter smile.
Claire could coax Chester into loving everything that came with her, and it wasn't because she had a sweet tongue.
It was because of who she was.
Three years of dating, two years of marriage. How could I not know Chester gave in to softness and never to force?
