Chapter 2

The hospital air was cold, sterile. A doctor, kind but serious, stood by my bed. "Mrs. Miller, the impact was significant. Your injuries, combined with the extreme emotional distress… it's putting the baby at high risk." High risk. The words echoed. My hand went to my belly. Our baby. I needed David. I picked up my phone, my fingers clumsy. He answered on the fourth ring, his voice impatient. "Sarah, what now? I'm a little busy." In the background, I heard a child's voice, bright and demanding. "Uncle David, Lily wants a slushie!" Then Chloe’s voice, sweet, cloying. "David, honey, don't be long." My heart fractured. He was with them. Playing happy family. "David," I said, my voice barely a whisper. "The doctor said the baby is at high risk." "Oh, come on, Sarah," he sighed. "Don't exaggerate. Chloe thinks you're just being dramatic because you're jealous she needed me." Jealous? My world was collapsing, and he thought I was jealous? The doctor came back in, his expression unreadable. Mark appeared at my door a little later, his captain's hat in his hands. His eyes were full of a pity I didn't want. "Sarah," he said gently. "There's something you need to know." He told me David hadn't been on shift for the past five days. He'd lied. He'd been staying with Chloe and Lily. Five days. While I thought he was working, saving lives, he was with her. The pain was a physical thing, crushing my chest. It was too much. The betrayal, the lies, the fear for my baby. A sharp cramp seized me, then another. I cried out. The world went dark. When I woke up, the emptiness in my womb was a cold, hard fact. I had lost the baby.