Love and hate are scattered, and the
stars shatter
The day I was supposed to get married, my
fiancé, Mark. Right there, in front of everyone,
he announced he’d already tied the knot with
Sarah. Yeah, Sarah. It was like a bad soap
opera, the whole crowd buzzing, pointing, and
laughing at me.
Just when I thought I’d sink through the floor,
Jake, my best friend since kindergarten, got
down on one knee. He pulled out this gorgeous
ring, all emotional, and asked me to marry him. I
was such a mess, I just nodded, tears streaming
down my face. I figured, what else could go
wrong?
Fast forward seven months, and I’m pregnant.
Then BAM! Car crash. Jake, who’s also a
surgeon, does my surgery. When I wake up, he
breaks the news that the baby’s gone and…
and I can’t have any more kids. I was shattered,
a total mess. Jake held me, crying, saying it
was all his fault, that he hadn’t taken care of
く
me, and promised he’d never leave my side.
Six years later, I accidentally hear a recording
on his phone, a conversation with one of his
work buddies:
“Dude, you really did all that for Sarah? Faking
the pregnancy paperwork and crashing into
Chloe to induce labor? Sending YOUR baby to
her? Don’t you regret it?”
“Sarah can’t have kids, man. You expect me to
stand by and watch her get ripped apart by her
in–laws? I just wish it had been a boy instead of
a girl, it would’ve given her more power in that
family.”
Turns out, my fairytale romance was nothing
more than a twisted, calculated scheme.
The shower’s running, Jake’s in there
scrubbing. The audio clip on my earbuds keeps
playing:
“But dude, you were playing a dangerous game.
What if the crash hadn’t just made Chloe go
into labor, but killed them both?”
“Nah, we tested the impact months beforehand,
using the same car, same speed. We had it
planned to the letter.”
His buddy sounds like he feels bad. “But Chloe can’t have kids now! Her uterus is gone. She
wanted a baby so bad, and she loves you so
much…couldn’t you have just adopted one for
Sarah?”
“Hell no. Not my own flesh and blood? I don’t trust her to love it the same way. I don’t want Sarah to love a baby that’s not ours.”
“You ever think about what happens if Chloe finds out about all this?”
Jake is quiet for a moment. He sighs, “She won’t. But if she does… I guess I’ll just have to
spend the rest of my life making it up to her.”
The recording cuts off.
My hand flies to my mouth, tears welling, a cold
fear creeping up my spine. All this time, while I
was getting excited about my baby, my own
husband was plotting with another woman to
steal her. The whole marriage proposal was a
sham, just so I wouldn’t bother Mark and mess
up Sarah’s picture–perfect life.
<
I remember Jake bringing the baby’s body to
me, weeping, saying he was sorry, that he couldn’t save our baby. I thought he was as heartbroken as I was. Turns out, my baby was already with Sarah, solidifying her place in her
new family. My pain, my years of grief…what
did it even mean?
“Chloe?” Jake’s voice comes from behind me,
sounding surprised.
He sees the tears on my face, and he
practically trips rushing over. He hits his knee
on the bedframe and starts bleeding, but he
doesn’t even care. He pulls me into a hug, his
voice tight and worried:
“Chloe, what’s wrong? Did I do something? Did
I upset you?”
