The moment my clothes were torn apart, I shut my eyes. The cold air stung like needles, but it wasn't the cold that broke me. It was the shame. It felt exactly like five years ago—powerless, humiliated, exposed.
The hospital corridor was packed—patients, visitors, staff—but no one helped. Phones hovered in the air. Faces lit with anticipation. Every pair of eyes judged, ridiculed.
I dropped to my knees. My voice cracked. "Please... let my son go. He's just a child. Don't let him see this. Please!"
No one listened.
"You deserve it! That's what homewreckers get!"
"Disgusting. Filthy slut!"
They laughed. Hands grabbed at me, tearing the last shreds of fabric from my body. My skin was bruised, marked. Every inch a reminder of what I had to trade for my son's surgery.
Then I saw her. Isabella.
She stood at the back. Watching. Cold, unreadable. Just like Adeline had been five years ago—when her sister destroyed me and she said nothing.
I didn't even register when the crowd quieted. When the hands stopped hitting. I was curled on the floor, whispering one phrase over and over.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."
Noel fainted from the shock. A nurse finally stepped in and rushed him to the ER.
For the first time, I couldn't bring myself to wait outside. I was too ashamed. Too broken.
Then, a coat draped over my shoulders. Heavy. Familiar.
Adeline.
She looked down at me, her voice cool and detached. "See what happens when you let someone use you? If you'd chosen me, at least you wouldn't be lying here... naked."
Her words hit harder than the slap.
It was her. She had tipped off Isabella's sister. She set this up.
I stared at her, then laughed—dry, bitter, shaking.
"Even if I'm like this," I rasped, "at least she's single. That's better than being your fake husband."
Her eyes narrowed. She wanted begging. Regret. Instead, she got defiance.
"Keep being ungrateful, Gavin," she snapped. "You'll regret it."
I already did. I regretted ever meeting her.
***
Three days passed in silence. Pain. Numbness.
Then—finally—light. Noel got a match. A donor heart. The surgery was set. The money ready.
For the first time in five years, I could breathe.
Then my phone rang.
"Mr. Cooper," the doctor said, urgency in his voice. "Your mother is showing signs of waking up."
I ran to her room, lungs burning with hope. But the moment I pushed the door open, it shattered.
Adeline was inside.
My mother's eyes—glassy, confused—were fixed on a phone screen in Adeline's hand.
That video. The video when I was humiliated at the hospital.
"Mom—no—let me explain—" I gasped.
I lunged and slapped the phone away. It hit the wall and cracked apart.
My mother flinched. Her lips parted, forming one word: "You... disgrace..."
Then the monitor screamed.
"Patient's heart has stopped!" a nurse yelled. "Code blue!"
Doctors swarmed in.
I sank to the ground, paralyzed. I couldn't speak. Couldn't move. Couldn't undo what had just happened.
Minutes passed. Then the doctor came out.
"We did everything we could. I'm sorry for your loss."
I couldn't feel anything. My limbs were numb. My brain frozen. Only rage remained.
Adeline stood nearby. Watching again. Like she always did.
My body moved before I could think. I grabbed her by the collar, dragging her close.
"Why did you show her that video?!" I shouted, voice trembling, eyes burning.
She paled. "I just... I wanted to wake her up. I didn't think—"
I let out a hoarse, broken laugh.
"You killed my dad five years ago," I said, my voice shaking. "And now my mom too? You dragged me through hell—fine! I accepted that! But why this?"
Tears blurred my vision.
Then, without warning, she wrapped her arms around me. Her body trembled.
"Gavin... I'm sorry..." she whispered.
But I didn't feel her. I only felt everything I'd lost.
"I only wanted to make amends after I found out Noel is my son. I wanted to give you and him a family..."
