Chapter 3

Then, my body started screaming. A sharp, searing cramp ripped through my lower abdomen.

I dragged myself into the bathroom and checked. No blood.

My heart dropped into my stomach, a wave of panic flooding my veins.

Bracing myself on the walls, I opened the nightstand drawer and pulled out a fistful of pregnancy tests.

A hollow laugh escaped my throat.

Years ago, Tristan and I had been so desperate for a baby that we stashed pregnancy tests in every single room, terrified we might miss the moment.

Five minutes later.

One test, two tests, three tests, four tests...

Every single one showed two dark lines.

On my laptop, the divorce settlement sent by my lawyer and the lab results from my routine hospital checkup lay open side by side.

I clicked on the lab portal. Progesterone: 35.72. HCG: 358.43.

I was pregnant.

After years of failed treatments, I was pregnant now, at the absolute worst possible moment.

The child of love I had prayed for had finally arrived—long after the love was dead and buried.

Placing a trembling hand over my stomach, I let out a ragged breath.

"Little one... you picked the wrong time to come. Mommy doesn't even know if she can keep you."

"BAM!" The door to my clinic office was kicked open.

Tristan's mother, Eleanor, marched in with Chloe clung to her arm, her face twisted in rage.

"You spiteful bitch! You forced Tristan’s baby out of her again!"

"Just because you’re barren doesn’t give you the right to slaughter Tristan's flesh and blood!"

Still fuming, she grabbed the medical charts off my desk and hurled them at my head.

I ducked instinctively.

Tristan was the one who refused to let them carry his babies, yet everyone pointed their fingers at me.

Seeing me dodge only stoked her fury.

"You dare dodge?! If Tristan hadn't protected you all these years, I would have thrown your useless, barren ass out on the street long ago!"

Eleanor screamed and wrecked everything in sight, completely out of control.

She ripped my "Excellence in Medicine" honorary plaque off the wall and smashed it.

"A healer?! You’re nothing but a baby-killing monster!"

"Mrs. Hayes, please don't be too hard on Evelyn," Chloe chimed in, feigning concern. "Tristan will be devastated if he finds out."

"Devastated? Let him be!"

Eleanor lunged forward, grabbed a fistful of my hair, and delivered a vicious slap across my cheek.

Crowds gathered outside the glass doors, gawking like spectators at a circus.

Watching an animal get tormented, yet not a single soul stepped in to help.

Surrounded by the wreckage of my office, my knees buckled, and I sank to the floor.

I closed the lab report window and reopened the divorce agreement.

This time, without a second thought, I hit print.

"Chloe said my mom took her to see you for a follow-up this morning," Tristan's anxious voice came through the phone later that day.

"How is she? Is Chloe recovering well? Any complications?"

"Your mother trashed my office, beat me, and called me a barren monster," I said, my voice deadpan.

"You know how my mother is. Don't take it to heart, just bear with it," Tristan sighed dismissively.

"It's not like this will affect your position as Mrs. Hayes."

"Now answer me, how is Chloe doing?"

I hung up the phone without another word.

Tristan thought I stayed because I was terrified of losing the title of Mrs. Hayes. Everyone else thought so, too.

The truth was, I didn't give a damn about that title anymore.