Joel frowned, as if he hadn't expected me to give in so easily.
"Smart of you."
He wrapped his arm around Lillian and walked away without looking back.
Lillian turned her head and flashed me one last smile. A victor's smile.
I watched them go.
Then I turned to the doctor.
"Let's go. Take me to the operating room."
The doors slammed shut behind me.
Cold steel pushed inside.
Pain.
The kind that splits you open from the inside out.
I bit down and gripped the sheet until my knuckles ached, and I did not make a sound.
Tears slid from the corners of my eyes and disappeared into my hair.
Then a brutal, twisting cramp—and something tore free from deep inside me.
Five years of loving Joel Delgado, ripped out along with it.
The surgery lasted three hours.
When they wheeled me out, my face was the color of paper.
The doctor held my hand, eyes rimmed red.
"Miss Sullivan, it was a fully formed baby boy."
"Would you… like to see him?"
I closed my eyes and shook my head.
"Dispose of it."
Don't look. If I look, I won't be able to let go.
If I look, I won't have the strength left to leave.
I lay in the general observation room for two hours.
Then I forced myself upright and changed into my own clothes.
A nurse tried to stop me.
"Miss Sullivan, you can't leave—you're still bleeding badly—"
I pushed her hand away.
"I'm fine."
Every step I took, warmth soaked through beneath me, steady and unstoppable.
But I had to keep walking.
When I reached the elevator, I heard laughter drifting from the VIP suite.
Lillian's voice.
"Joel, this room is gorgeous. When I have our baby, I want to stay here too."
Joel's voice came back so tender it practically dripped.
"Sure. Whatever you want."
I leaned against the cold wall and forced the ghost of a smile.
Goodbye, Joel.
I pressed the elevator button and rode it down.
A black Maybach was already waiting at the hospital entrance.
The door opened, and a man in a bespoke suit stepped out under a black umbrella.
His eyes dropped to the bloodstains on my skirt, and his pupils contracted sharply.
"Pauline!"
He crossed the distance in a few quick strides, wrapped a long overcoat around me.
Then he lifted me into his arms.
"Brent. Take me home."
I leaned into him and blacked out.
…
Inside the VIP suite.
Joel was peeling an apple when his assistant burst through the door, white-faced and gasping.
"Mr. Delgado! Mr. Delgado, it's bad—"
Joel frowned.
"What's the panic? Is the sky falling?"