### Chapter 5
When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the hotel. I had no idea when or how I'd been brought here.
Sunlight sliced through the window. I stared at the ceiling for a long time before the memories pieced themselves together. The basement. The darkness. Passing out. They'd tossed me in there like a broken piece of furniture they no longer had use for.
Dustin's messages sat waiting on my phone.
"Letting it slide this time. Alice's condition is unstable. You'd better not provoke her again, or I'll make sure you learn your lesson."
"I'm taking her abroad for treatment. I won't be able to go to your prenatal appointments."
I'd barely finished reading when my phone buzzed again—the notification tone I'd set for priority alerts. Alice had updated her social media.
In the photo, a man's familiar back filled the frame. A woman rested her head on his shoulder, the two of them nestled together against a backdrop of glaciers and penguins in Antarctica.
The caption was only a few words: "With you, to the ends of the earth."
I stared at that photo for a very, very long time.
When we got married, I'd made a list of all the places I wanted to visit with Dustin. Every time I brought it up, he'd say the same thing: "Sure, Cecily. Once I close this deal, we'll go."
"Cecily, just let me get through this busy stretch, and we'll go."
"Once the project launches, I promise I'll take you."
"Once..."
So I waited. And waited. I waited past our wedding anniversary. I waited through a pregnancy and a miscarriage. I waited as time slipped through my fingers like water and love dissolved like smoke, and still, not once did we take that trip for two.
The first place on my list had been Antarctica. To see the penguins.
He'd gone to Antarctica after all. With Alice Dotson.
How absurd.
I closed out of Alice's page and tossed my phone onto the bed. A notification popped up on the screen: Your scheduled termination procedure is today at 3:00 PM.
I rushed to the hospital. The nurse glanced around when she saw me alone, professional concern settling across her face. "Where's your family? You may need someone to look after you post-op."
"My husband is dead."
I said it calmly. She blinked, then her expression softened into sympathy.
She helped me change into a surgical gown, her hands gentle as she guided me onto the gurney.
The ceiling tiles slid past overhead, one by one, as I was wheeled down the corridor. Harsh white light carried me into the operating room.
The surgical lamp blazed down, so bright it made my eyes ache. I closed them. Cold instruments probed inside me. A tiny life, scraped away from my body. Tears blurred my vision once more.
The next time I surfaced, it was the sound of voices outside my room that pulled me back.
"To help Mrs. Delgado carry the baby to term, Mr. Delgado actually flew in the best specialists from all over the world to our hospital. I heard he even got certified as a nutritionist, just to make sure the Delgado heir is born healthy."
A second woman's voice dropped to a whisper. "But I heard this 'Mrs. Delgado' is actually his sister-in-law? So what about his real wife? That poor woman..."
"Shh! Do you want to get fired? That topic is off-limits at this hospital. Keep your mouth shut!"
Footsteps retreated. The corridor fell silent.
I lay on the hospital bed, staring at the ceiling. Motionless.
My child had never once had his father present for a single prenatal checkup. Not one, right up until the termination.
Her child was given the best of everything the world had to offer.
I slowly turned my head toward the television mounted on the wall. An entertainment segment was playing. A private jet sat on a runway, and Dustin was helping Alice down the stairs, a procession of bodyguards, attendants, and medical staff trailing behind them.
"Sources say Delgado Group CEO Dustin Delgado has spared no expense in chartering a private jet for a global trip to pamper his wife during her pregnancy. The couple's devotion has left the public green with envy..."
I remembered an urgent meeting once that required a fourteen-hour flight. I'd mentioned it offhandedly: "It'd be nice if we could take the private jet. It'd be so much more comfortable."
He'd looked at me with open disapproval. "Cecily, if you can't handle a little discomfort, how are you going to set an example for the employees at Delgado Group? As CEO, I have to lead by example."
Now I understood. He wasn't principled. He simply didn't think I was worth making an exception for.
Over the next few days, Alice posted more from their travels.
Notre-Dame Cathedral. She leaned into Dustin's arms, Gothic spires rising behind them.
The Pampas grasslands. He grilled steak for her with his own hands. She photographed his busy silhouette and his smoke-flushed face.
The Great Rift Valley in East Africa. He crouched on the ground and caught her vomit in his bare hands. The photo was blurry, as if taken candidly, but the caption dripped with pride: "Morning sickness hit. He panicked and just caught it with his hands."
Every landscape I'd fantasized about a thousand times, every destination I'd never reached—Alice Dotson had claimed them all.
I was more certain than ever. Alice knew exactly what she was doing. She'd been faking her illness the entire time. All of it, to steal Dustin from me.
Finally, the sixth day arrived. Tomorrow evening was the time my father and I had agreed upon.
The sun was sinking. I stood by the window, slid the wedding band off my ring finger, and dropped it into the trash can with a sharp clink.
Out of nowhere, a large hand with pronounced knuckles reached past me and fished it out bare-handed.
"Cecily, you threw away our wedding ring?" Dustin's fingers were smeared with filth from the trash, but he gripped the ring tight, his eyes wide with disbelief. "Why?"
His little vacation with her was over, then.
"No reason." My voice was flat. "You stopped wearing yours a long time ago."
I glanced at his ring finger. Our wedding band was long gone. In its place sat a custom-made matching ring—the one he'd spent a fortune designing as a set with Alice's.
"I've told you over and over, Alice and I are just putting on an act." His voice rose, edged with the kind of anger that comes from being caught. "Do you have to be this unreasonable?"
Unreasonable. In the past, those words would have gutted me. I would have been devastated, drowning in hurt.
But now, even feeling hurt was just another form of self-destruction.
"You're right. I'm being unreasonable." My tone was as flat as a weather report. "Happy now?"
He froze, as if he couldn't believe those words had come out of my mouth. Then irritation creased his brow, and he changed the subject with blunt force. "I don't have time for this. The family banquet is tomorrow. Be there early."
I paused. "You still need me there?" The Delgado family banquet—that symbol of status and belonging.
"You are carrying my child, after all. Come quietly, and don't stir up trouble with Alice."
The way he said it, like he was granting me a favor. As if I really were the other woman, permitted to attend only because I happened to be carrying Dustin Delgado's baby, and even then, I had to sneak in through the back door.
It didn't matter. This would be the last time anyway.
Dustin fixed me with a hard stare. Something flickered in the depths of his eyes—a thread of unease he couldn't quite name.
I nodded.
"Alright. I'll be there on time."
He exhaled, the tension leaving his shoulders so subtly it was almost imperceptible.
