Chapter 1

My best friend and I married two brothers from the Sterling family, becoming sisters-in-law.

My husband was a fire captain, and hers was a renowned ER doctor. We lived in the same apartment building and became pregnant around the exact same time.

Just ten days after I gave birth, a massive earthquake tore through our city.

We were trapped beneath the collapsed ruins of our building.

My newborn baby and I were covered in deep cuts, the smell of blood mixing sickeningly with the choking dust.

Shielding my baby beneath my trembling body, I desperately dialed my husband’s number.

Call after call, he hung up on me.

Finally, the call went through, but instead of help, a barrage of furious shouts poured through the speaker: "I'm on duty! Don't you know there's an earthquake? You still want to start a damn fight right now? I just pulled Nana from the rubble and I need to get her to safety. Leave me alone!"

He hung up immediately.

Then came the violent aftershock. A slab of falling concrete crushed both my arms, and right before my eyes, my baby was killed.

The world went blood-red.

Just when I had lost all hope, my best friend arrived leading a rescue crew in her car. But her brakes failed, and she crashed straight into the debris.

Blood soaked through the bottom of her dress instantly. Trembling, she dialed her husband’s phone.

Her husband snapped in fury, "Are you insane? There's an earthquake! The ER is packed with casualties and you're calling to nag me?"

Before she could speak, his tone shifted on the other end, turning sickeningly tender: "Nana, don't cry. We'll go look for your dog later. Right now, let me treat your wounds, okay? Be a good girl."

That sweet, doting tone was immediately cut off by the harsh dial tone.

The rescue team eventually pulled both of us onto stretchers and rushed us to the hospital.

I barely survived with my life. She lost the baby in her womb.

In that quiet hospital room, we both decided to get a divorce.

...

I sat on the hospital bed, feeling like an empty shell. Both of my broken arms were wrapped in heavy plaster casts, and absolute despair slowly crept into my heart.

"My baby is dead. Why wasn't it him instead?"

I had just watched them wheel my little boy into the morgue. I couldn’t even arrange a proper funeral for him yet. All I could do was think of him lying alone in that freezing cold room.

Before he died, his tiny fingers had still been wrapped tightly around mine, his small mouth parted as if crying out for his mom.

My best friend looked at me with aching eyes, reaching out to wrap me in a gentle hug.

Her previously rounded belly was now flat. A profound, hollow darkness swallowed her gaze.

I looked up urgently. "My phone is gone. Call Ethan Sterling for me. I want a divorce!"

She complied quietly and dialed Ethan’s number.

The phone rang for a painfully long time—so long that I thought he would never pick up. But finally, the call connected.

"What ridiculous drama is Chloe feeding you now? I don't have time for this crap. There are real victims out here who need saving."

Ethan barely suppressed his fury, spitting each word through gritted teeth.

In the background, a woman’s soft, fragile whimpering drifted through the line, along with the patient, gentle voice of his brother, Lucas, soothing her.

It was Nana.

My baby had just died, and these two brothers were busy fussing over another woman. A cold, bitter laugh escaped my lips. "Ethan, let's get a divorce."

My voice was remarkably calm. Saying those words out loud actually brought an unexpected rush of relief.

Hearing my voice, he exploded on instinct: "If you're out of your mind, go see a shrink! I'm out here doing search and rescue. Why do you keep blowing up my phone?"

"You just had a baby—can't you just stay put and rest? Why do you have to stir up drama 24/7? Nana was a victim of this earthquake! I pulled her out myself! Can you stop being so insecure and paranoid?"

"Let me tell you something: stop using divorce to threaten me! I have lives to save. Don't you dare call me again!"

Before I could say another syllable, the line went dead.

When I tried calling back, the number was already blocked.

A sharp, sour ache gripped my chest. Tears spilled uncontrollably down my cheeks, turning from burning hot to ice cold against my skin.

Just like the love I had once carried for Ethan Sterling.

I never could have imagined that the man I loved for six whole years could rot away into something so despicable.

I truly must have been blind.

His fire station was stationed in the East District. His assigned patrol area only covered our immediate neighborhood and surrounding blocks.

Nana’s apartment was across town in the West District—miles away from his jurisdiction.

I couldn't help but wonder: how exactly did she end up being his "rescue victim"?

While he rushed across the city to play her knight in shining armor, did it ever cross his mind that his own home was right in the middle of the earthquake zone?

Or did he just not give a damn about me—or the ten-day-old life we had brought into the world?

What made him think that a woman only ten days postpartum could sprint down three flights of stairs holding a newborn?

He didn't come to save me. He didn't even bother to make a single caring phone call.

If I hadn't taken basic emergency survival training in college, I wouldn't have even survived long enough for my friend to find me.

A part of me wished I had died alongside my son beneath that suffocating rubble.

At least then, I wouldn't have to face this shattered reality.

Memories of the earthquake flooded back. I had clutched my baby tightly, desperately trying to limp down the stairs, but the agonizing pain in my body made it impossible to run. Trapped, all I could do was crouch down in a structural corner.

My baby's terrified wails hammered against my chest. My hands shook violently as I dialed my husband’s number over and over again.

Call after call went unanswered, or got brutally disconnected.

I lost count of how many times I redialed before that familiar voice finally snapped: "Hello?"

"Babe, please, save us, I'm—" I choked out, desperate to tell him what was happening.

"I'm on duty! Don't you know there's an earthquake? You still want to start a damn fight right now? I just pulled Nana from the rubble and I need to get her to safety. Leave me alone!"

He cut me off before I could finish, unleashing a barrage of vitriol before hanging up and blocking my number entirely.

He abandoned me and our child in that living hell.

When the aftershock struck, unstable cracked concrete slabs collapsed from above. Both of my arms snapped under the impact, and my baby was pinned beneath the weight.

He was so tiny! He hadn't even had the chance to see what the world looked like!

I fought desperately to crawl to him, but my arms were completely useless, and heavy debris pinned my back to the floor.

All I could do was listen as his cries grew weaker and weaker, until his tiny chest stopped rising altogether.

No matter how I begged, no matter how hard I screamed, nothing changed.

He had become a cold, lifeless body forever.

Right before darkness completely swallowed my vision, I heard my best friend’s frantic voice shouting: "Over here! Hurry, get them out!"

Then came a violent, crushing crash.

All I knew was that when I finally woke up, her baby was gone, too.