Chapter 5

Iris POV

When I woke, the surgery was already over.

Rowan stood by the bed holding medical records, his expression sorrowful. "Iris, I'm sorry... You were already hemorrhaging badly when you arrived. It was an extreme emotional shock that caused threatened miscarriage. We did our best, but we still couldn't save them."

He paused, his voice dropping even lower. "And this miscarriage caused severe damage to your uterus. In the future... you may have great difficulty conceiving again."

I lay in the hospital bed, staring at the ceiling. Tears slid silently from the corners of my eyes into my hair.

No hysteria, only a hollow deadness from being emptied out.

"Rowan, this isn't your fault." My voice was hoarse. "This child-he killed it with his own hands from the very start."

He killed not only our past but also our future.

That blood connection in my body was completely severed. Between Adrian and me, it was finally clean.

Though my body was extremely weak, I couldn't lie still.

My phone on the nightstand vibrated once. It was a photo from an unknown number.

One photo, one location.

The photo showed the wedding dress I'd designed with my own hands-my heart's blood.

The location was New York's most luxurious bridal boutique.

That shop's owner was me.

I pulled out the IV from the back of my hand. Ignoring Rowan's attempts to stop me, I dragged my body-fresh from a D&C procedure-changed clothes, and took a cab there.

The car stopped across the street from the bridal shop.

I sat in the car, my whole body freezing from blood loss. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, I immediately spotted Adrian and Luna standing at the shop entrance.

He embraced her, eyes full of adoration, voice tender enough to drip water. "Even though I can't give you a public wedding, I still want you to wear the most beautiful wedding dress in the world once."

Just then, several luxury sports cars pulled up one after another at the shop entrance.

Doors opened. The faces that emerged were all painfully familiar.

Grayson. And so many others. Our mutual friends. The people who had witnessed twenty-five years of us.

Inside the car, I rolled the window down just enough to hear their chatter.

"Is Adrian preparing a surprise for Luna? Isn't he afraid Iris will find out?"

"Afraid of what? Iris and I are just fake-married anyway. Besides, the one pregnant now is carrying gold. Keeping her happy is more important than anything."

So everyone knew.

Only I, like a fool, had been kept in the dark by the entire world.

I'd just lost my child, yet they were here celebrating another child's impending birth.

My hands and feet were terrifyingly cold. Only hatred kept me from collapsing.

Using my identity as owner, I quietly entered the bridal shop through the back door and went alone to the VIP room.

I stood in a dark corner, looking down from above, coldly watching that absurd ceremony prepared for someone else.

Adrian wore an impeccably tailored bespoke suit. Luna wore that wedding dress.

That dress-I'd stayed up countless nights designing it to commemorate Adrian's and my first kiss at dawn in Santorini.

Now it dressed another woman, receiving blessings from all my friends.

"Exchange rings!"

Friends egged them on. Grayson whistled. Adrian produced a deep blue velvet ring box and knelt on one knee.

From my high vantage point, I saw everything clearly.

Inside the box was a pair of custom Cartier wedding bands, identical to the ones we'd exchanged years ago.

So even sacred things like rings weren't one of a kind.

Just as Adrian was about to slide the ring onto Luna's finger, I pulled the main breaker.

The bridal shop went dark in an instant.

Then I pressed the remote. A powerful spotlight blazed down from above, landing squarely on me, swaying precariously on the third floor.