Chester was already storming out the door when I arrived.
The second he saw me his eyes went bloodshot, and he grabbed me by the collar.
"Aria, fine, fight with me all you want. But why go after Claire's mother?"
"I finally pulled off her surgery, and you, over some dead baby, want her dead?"
"I didn't!" The denial came out on instinct.
He didn't believe me. He dragged me into the hospital room by force.
"Get down on your knees. Apologize to Claire's mother properly. Beg her to forgive you!"
I wouldn't kneel. I dug in and demanded the security footage to clear my name.
Chester clenched his jaw and told the monitoring room to pull it up.
But Claire was already holding out her phone, eyes brimming with tears.
"I know I was wrong about the report, big sister. But if you're angry, take it out on me. Why would you hurt my mom?"
Chester glanced at the video, then asked me through gritted teeth.
"The evidence is right here. Are you still going to lie your way out of it?"
I stared at the figure in the footage, suited up and masked, sneaking into the room to swap out the medication, and something in my chest twisted like a blade.
Five years sharing the same bed, and Chester couldn't recognize the shape of his own wife.
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
But the tears were already falling, fast and out of my control.
They landed on the back of his hand. His whole body stiffened, yet his face stayed dark.
"So now you're scared? Where was the fear when you were hurting someone?"
"If I hadn't caught it in time, you'd be a murderer right now!"
I wiped my eyes and pulled out my phone.
"Then call the police. Let them investigate!"
He snatched the phone away and smashed it on the floor.
"Aria, can you stop being so ungrateful?"
"You keep making a scene, do you think I'll have any standing left at this hospital?"
"All you have to do is admit you were wrong to Claire's mother and this is over. Otherwise I'll seriously reconsider our relationship!"
His gaze slid to the divorce agreement in my hand. He didn't need to say the rest.
All at once, the tension drained out of me.
"I did nothing wrong!"
"Sign it!"
He looked at the stubborn lift of my chin, the way I was fighting to keep the tears from spilling, and an unease he couldn't name rose in him.
Just as he picked up the pen and set it back down, Claire suddenly grabbed the fruit knife off the table and drove it hard into her own stomach.
"Big sister, everything is my fault, all of it!"
"I cost you your child. I'll pay you back with my life! Just stop torturing my mom!"
"No!"
Chester shoved me away and lunged forward, closing his hand around the knife already half-buried in her.
He begged Claire, his voice breaking.
"Claire, don't be a fool! She aborted her own child. What does that have to do with you? Don't punish yourself for someone else's mistake!"
I dropped to the floor, my head hitting the fire hydrant, and something warm pulsed out against my scalp.
I lifted my head to call for help, but not a single word would come.
I only saw Chester clamp his most precious right hand around that blade, holding it back from sinking deeper into Claire.
Then he used that blood-soaked hand to sign the divorce agreement.
"You've made this big enough. Happy now?"
The moment it was done, he scooped me up and carried me straight toward the emergency room.
He never noticed that I had gone into shock from blood loss.
Behind me, Claire's mother rose from the hospital bed and slammed her foot into my stomach.
"Fighting my daughter for a man, you really are begging to die!"
In the trauma room again, dragged back through death's door, I didn't hesitate to dial a number.
"Hey. I lost. A bet's a bet. Is the deal still good?"
"Where are you? I'm coming to get you."
Half an hour later, I left from the hospital rooftop by helicopter.
By the time Chester finished closing Claire's wound and calming her down, it was deep into the night.
He went to her ward and was told she had already checked out and gone.
The unease in his chest swelled, and he pulled out his phone and called her.
No one answered.
Instead, one of the young nurses brought him a document envelope.
"Aria asked us to give this to you."
Chester frowned as he took it and tore it open.
One glance, and his whole body went rigid, the color draining from his face.
