Chapter 2

2 I woke up in the hospital.

Jake stormed in, grabbing my throat again, his whole body shaking with rage.

"Amy, you heartless bitch! You knew you were pregnant and you did this to taunt me!"

"You wanted me to kill our child, didn't you?!" He tightened his grip.

I couldn't breathe.

Seeing Sarah there, I knew she'd told Jake something.

"Yes, I did it on purpose." I forced down the crushing pain in my heart.

"Amy!" Jake's fury reached a fever pitch. "How could you be so cruel?!"

"That was a living, breathing child! Wasn't killing our daughter enough?" His eyes were red-rimmed, tears streaming down his face.

My heart ached. My daughter was gone, now this baby too.

The pain was more than I could bear. No mother could stand losing her children.

But to let Jake move on with Sarah, I had to make him believe I'd killed our daughter.

"Not enough."

As I spoke, the doctor entered.

"Let go of her! She's in bad shape!"

But Jake didn't release me. He held on, needing to release his fury somehow.

"Let go! She has cancer!"

"What?" Jake's grip loosened, disbelief etched on his face.

Then, a sneer. "Amy, you really underestimated me. You bribed the doctor to lie about your cancer. You think I still care?"

"I stopped caring the moment you killed our daughter!"

Each word was a poisoned arrow to my soul. Tears flowed freely.

My daughter, only three, had died in a car accident. An accident. Soon after, I was diagnosed with cancer. To ease Jake's pain after my death, I had to convince him I'd caused the accident. To make him hate me. Only then could he move on.

Jake dragged me home, forcing me to kneel before our daughter's picture. My baby lay in a glass jar nearby.

Tiny, stillborn. My heart shattered. My baby, I'm so sorry.

I hadn't known I was pregnant because my periods hadn't stopped.

If only I'd known, I wouldn't have tried to provoke Jake. I wouldn't have wanted to die.