one a decent father.
“I’m so sorry, baby,” I whispered.
Not long after, Carl walked in with a blank look. His assistant, ready to hand him the scalpel, hesitated.
Carl looked confused. “What’s going on?”
The assistant paused before speaking up. “Are you sure about this, Dr. Larson?”
Carl was about to perform an abortion on me, his wife. It was something no one would ever expect. He had no idea the woman lying there was me–his wife of six years, the one he used to care about.
He thought the assistant was worried about his condition, so he gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder and said, “Don’t worry. This is what I do best, right? Let’s get this over with.”
With practiced hands, he cut into my abdomen. Since I was only two months pregnant, my belly wasn’t big, and the baby hadn’t developed much, so the procedure was over quickly.
About an hour later, Carl wiped the sweat off his forehead and set the bloodied scalpel on the tray. He walked over to me, like he always did with his patients, and said, “The surgery went smoothly—”
He stopped mid–sentence. His eyes locked onto my face–the same one he’d seen every day for years,
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Chapter 5
the face of his wife, the woman he used to love. And at that moment, he realized he’d just taken the life of his child.
As I expected, Carl’s face twisted with panic, helplessness, and despair, all battling for control. His eyes widened, and his lips began to quiver. How could it be you… How could it be…“‘
The operating room erupted into chaos.
“What’s happening? Dr. Larson didn’t realize it was Hailey on the table?”
“I kept wondering why he seemed so calm.”
“He actually performed an abortion on his wife. That’s cold–hearted.”
Carl broke down. After they wheeled me out of the operating room, he barged into my ward. His eyes were bloodshot. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Had he forgotten? I had told him–while he only cared about sleeping with Wendy.
Suddenly, he choked up, staring at me. “Why… Was the baby mine?”
I froze for a second, then slowly turned to him.
I grew up as an orphan, abandoned by my parents, so the idea of having a child always terrified me. That fear ran so deep that I couldn’t even bring
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Chapter 5
+15 BONUS
myself to talk about pregnancy.
Carl understood and never pressured me since I didn’t want kids. But every day, I’d catch him liking posts about babies or staring longingly at families with kids running around happily.
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