Chapter 4

The day before my procedure, I went to the hospital for a final examination.

In the ultrasound room, cold gel spread across my belly as the technician gently moved the probe.

The doctor pointed at the screen. “Your baby is very healthy. Look, there’s a little hand. And there’s a foot…”

The tiny figure on the screen moved, and something twisted painfully inside my chest.

My voice caught. “Doctor, if I go through with the induction now, will the baby feel pain?”

The older doctor adjusted her glasses and looked at me with a complicated expression. “At this stage, an induction can take a serious toll on your body. And… the baby can feel pain now.”

She gently rested a hand on my belly. “Are you sure this is what you want? You have a very active little one.”

I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood.

My legs felt unsteady as I left the examination room.

But at the end of the hospital corridor, I saw the last person I wanted to see.

Nathan stood there in a tailored suit, still every inch the CEO who believed he controlled everything.

“Come home.” He grabbed my wrist so hard I thought he might crush the bones. “Stop this.”

“Stop this?” I looked up at him. “Nathan, do you think I’m playing games?”

“That agreement expired years ago.” His voice was impatient. “Sophie has a heart condition. I only wanted to give her something to wish her well—”

“So I’m supposed to be a stepping stone in your love story?” I wrenched my hand free.

“Nathan, do you remember the year we got married, when I had a fever of a hundred and four? You said you were too busy to come home. Then I saw Sophie’s Snapchat story. You were skiing together in Switzerland.”

“On our third wedding anniversary, you said you had a meeting. But your car was in one of Sophie’s selfies.”

“Every time I had a prenatal appointment, you were too busy. Yet you had time to take her to exhibitions, buy her jewelry, and celebrate every birthday.”

I listed them one by one, my voice so calm I could have been telling someone else’s story.

Nathan’s expression finally changed. “You… knew all along?”

“I never said anything. Every time, I just told myself to give you one more chance. To believe in you one more time.”

I smiled, but the tears wouldn’t stop. “Until I saw that agreement. Then I finally understood what a joke I was.”

He went silent. For the first time, I saw something resembling guilt in his eyes.

But it was too late.

Far too late.

“I’m keeping the baby,” I said softly. “But it has nothing to do with you.”

“From now on, neither my child nor I have anything to do with you, Nathan.”

Then I turned and walked away.

He didn’t follow.

For the next few days, I shut out the world and rested in my apartment.

My lawyer told me Nathan refused to agree to the divorce.

“Mrs. Cole, if you want to proceed, we’ll have to take it to court. Given your pregnancy, the court may encourage mediation first.”

“And Mr. Cole has made it clear that if you insist on litigation, he has ways of securing custody.”

Mr. Parker sounded uncomfortable.

I held the phone and stayed silent for a long time.

I knew Nathan could do it.

He had money and connections. And apart from the child in my belly, I had nothing left.

“Mr. Parker, how long would a contested divorce take?”

“If he fights it and uses his resources to delay things, it could drag on for years.”

Years?

I couldn’t wait that long.

My baby couldn’t be born into that kind of uncertainty and endless conflict.

I had to make Nathan agree to the divorce himself.