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The moment the needle pierced her vein, Emma shut her eyes.
Six hundred milliliters of blood was drawn quickly. Her face grew paler with each passing second.
Braydon stood nearby, anxiously staring in the direction of the operating room, not even sparing Emma a glance.
By the time the blood draw was over, Emma’s legs gave out beneath her. She nearly collapsed.
Only then did Braydon snap out of it and rush to support her. “I’m sorry, Emma……. I know you’re worried about the baby. Don’t worry–the nurse knows what she’s doing. If you’re still unsure, I’ll have the doctor run a checkup right now.”
Without giving her a chance to refuse, he took her straight to the examination room. A short while later, the doctor came out holding the
results.
Braydon immediately stepped forward. “How’s the baby?”
The doctor looked surprised. “Baby? There’s no…..”
“Mr. Lederer!” A nurse suddenly came running out. “Ms. Ritchie has been calling your name throughout the procedure. Could you come in and be with her? It might help strengthen her will to fight.”
Without hesitation, Braydon turned on his heel and hurried into the operating room.
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The doctor glanced at Emma, hesitating. “Mrs. Lederer, Mr. Lederer… He doesn’t know you already terminated the pregnancy?”
Emma simply smiled and shook her head. “No. And there’s no need for him to know. Not ever.”
By the time she left the hospital, the setting sun bathed the sky in shades of orange and pink. Emma, pale and weak, gazed up at the glowing clouds. She suddenly remembered how, back in college, Braydon once promised to take her to see the most beautiful sunset in
the world.
The sunset was still here. But they could never go back to what they
used to be.
Emma spent the next week recovering at home.
The blood loss had taken a serious toll. She was constantly dizzy, and even getting out of bed became a struggle.
The housekeepers were so worried they wanted to call Braydon, but she stopped them.
“There’s no need,” she murmured, leaning weakly against the headboard. “He’s busy.”
She knew exactly what he was busy with–most likely doting on Caitlin.
Caitlin was posting Stories every day, flaunting how attentive Braydon
was.
He fed her himself, took her to every prenatal appointment, and even went out in the middle of the night to buy her cravings…
Braydon was so good to her that he seemed to have completely
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forgotten who his wife was.
Then, one day, Braydon finally came home.
“A buddy of mine in the circle is throwing a baby shower for his kid,” he said as he stood in front of the wardrobe picking out a tie. “Emma,
come with me.”
Emma said nothing. She quietly got changed and followed him out the door.
But when she opened the passenger–side door, she was met with the sight of Caitlin already sitting there.
“Emma,” Caitlin said with an apologetic smile, “I’ve been cooped up in the hospital too long, and I asked Braydon to bring me along. I get carsick, so I have to sit in the front… You don’t mind, do you?”
Emma’s hand froze mid–air for a moment before she slowly pulled it back. “No, I don’t mind.”
She quietly took a seat in the back, eyes fixed on the two figures in
front of her.
Braydon adjusted the air conditioning for Caitlin and handed her a pillow to rest against.
All the tenderness that once belonged to Emma now belonged to someone else.
At the party, Braydon stayed by Caitlin’s side the entire time, oblivious to the way everyone was looking at Emma.
She could hear the murmurs around her, like needles pricking her skin.
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“Poor Mr. Lederer… He loved his wife so much, but she ended up pregnant with a kidnapper’s baby…”
“Didn’t they say she was assaulted?”
“Assaulted? Ms. Ritchie was kidnapped, too, wasn’t she? How come nothing happened to her? Emma must’ve seduced someone to save her skin.”
“I always knew she was trouble. Probably threw herself at one of the kidnappers to survive. And now Mr. Lederer’s in so much pain… He only slept with Ms. Ritchie because he was drunk, and now she’s the one carrying his baby…”
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