Chapter 3

3.

Dinner was a disaster anyway.

The moment I put the sea bass on the table, Quinn covered her nose and started gagging.

I silently picked the plate back up and walked back to the kitchen.

Quinn followed me, looking a bit panicked. "Alistair, my stomach has just been off lately."

I replied flatly, "It's fine. It's just a normal reaction for a pregnant woman."

Quinn froze. she didn't expect me to already know.

I looked over at Caspian. He was watching her with a concerned gaze.

"You take care of her," I said.

"I'm tired. I'm going to bed."

As I walked past her, she reached out to grab my hand, but I dodged her.

I wasn't lying about being tired. A high fever and a stomach bug had been killing me for days.

I had just come back from getting an IV drip, and my body was failing me.

I lay in bed, weak and shivering. The door wasn't fully closed.

I could hear Quinn whispering to Caspian in the other room. "Don't worry. Even if Alistair knows, I'm keeping this baby."

"This one is different. This is the child I actually want."

Painful memories clawed their way out of my heart.

Two months after we got married, Quinn got pregnant with my child.

But by the time I found out, she had already scheduled the medical procedure to end it.

I knelt at the clinic door and begged her. She just shoved my hand away.

"I'm not ready to be a mother," she said coldly. "I haven't enjoyed my life enough. I don't want this."

Now, she was full of hope for another man's child.

That night, the fever felt like it was boiling my organs.

I struggled to reach for the nightstand to find my meds, but it was empty.

I stumbled out of the room to find something in the living room.

My chest felt tight. I gasped for air, but my lungs wouldn't fill up.

Heavy, rhythmic breathing came from the guest room. It was unmistakable.

I was delirious from the fever. My legs moved toward the sound on their own.

Before I reached the door, the world spun. I collapsed onto the hardwood floor.

"Alistair! Why is your fever so high?"

Quinn ran out of the room, her clothes messy and disheveled. She tried to pull me up.

She gasped when she touched my burning skin.

I looked at her through blurred eyes and smiled like an idiot. "Quinn? Is it the Quinn from when we were seventeen?" I tried to touch her face.

"He's lost his mind from the fever," Quinn cursed under her breath.

She turned and yelled toward the room, "Caspian, get out here! We need to get him to the hospital!"

Caspian walked out looking annoyed. He didn't want to help.

Quinn had to beg and bribe him before he finally dragged me out the door.

He tossed me into the back seat like a bag of trash. The seat was covered in the childish plushies Caspian liked.

Quinn used to hate things like that. She said they ruined her cool, professional image.

"Is he doing this on purpose?" Caspian snarked. "I heard fevers can be dangerous for pregnant women."

"That's enough, Caspian! He's still my husband," Quinn snapped.

There was a hint of annoyance in her voice, but maybe a tiny bit of guilt too.

Caspian wouldn't stop complaining. They argued the whole way.

Quinn got so fed up that she slammed on the brakes, wanting him to get out.

That's when it happened. A loud bang. We were rear-ended by the car behind us.

The impact sent me rolling off the seat. My head hit the door, and everything went black.

When I regained a tiny bit of consciousness, Quinn was already pulling Caspian out of the front seat.

"Get out! What if it explodes?" she screamed.

She was frantic, checking him over. She didn't even look at me in the back.

I tried to call out, but my throat was too dry. No sound came out.

By the time the paramedics pulled me out of the twisted metal, I saw Quinn.

She was carefully dabbing ointment on a tiny bruise on Caspian's forehead.

"Is there a family member who can come in the ambulance?" the medic shouted.

Quinn hesitated. But Caspian grabbed her arm. "Stay with me. I'm scared."

Quinn hugged him tightly. She completely forgot she had a critically injured husband.

I lay on the stretcher, my vision fading as the sirens wailed.

The figures of Quinn and Caspian grew smaller and smaller until they vanished into the blinding white lights.