Chapter 3

3: 3

I never imagined the man who'd shared my bed for five years could say something like that. In the moment I let my guard down, my hand was pried open and pressed to the paper.

Ada snatched the confession away at once.

Looking at her smug face, and at my husband standing off to the side as if none of this had anything to do with him, I closed my eyes.

Holding on to one last thread of hope, I pulled all my preconception reports out of my bag.

"The doctor said my body is fine. There's no problem with me."

The air went quiet for a beat. Then someone said,

"If it's not you, then don't tell me it's Ben's problem?"

Benjamin, who'd been standing above it all like a bystander, changed in an instant. His face went dark, and before I could react, he slapped me across the face.

"What problem could I possibly have? The baby died inside your belly. Any way you look at it, that's your problem. If you ask me, you had too many boyfriends, lost track of how many times you've miscarried, and that's why you couldn't hold on to this one."

"How did I ever end up marrying a slut like you?"

I was shaking all over with rage.

I couldn't believe the man in front of me was the same husband who'd once treated me with such care.

I touched my burning cheek and laughed out loud.

In my heart, I passed a death sentence on this marriage.

I slapped Benjamin back across the face.

"Divorce."

I turned and walked away, taking long strides.

There was no point wasting a single word more.

I forced my body all the way back to my parents' house.

The moment I stepped through the door, I couldn't stop myself from crying.

My parents panicked at once and pressed me to tell them what happened.

I told them everything.

My father was so furious he grabbed the kitchen cleaver and made for the door to have it out with them. My mother and I held him back.

Mom told me to go rest right away. She said I had to take proper care of myself after losing the baby, or it would leave me with lasting damage.

I pushed myself to rest for one night, and the moment the sky lightened I got up and went back over everything.

I wanted to know exactly how I'd lost my child.

I'd prepared so carefully, and now they'd dumped the blame squarely on my head.

I went through my preconception screening and my prenatal reports over and over.

In the end, my attention settled on Benjamin's test report.

Preconception testing for men is short. There are really only two main items.

The urogenital system, and a routine semen analysis.

Benjamin's report wasn't good. It barely met the standard, but the doctor had said there was no problem, so I hadn't thought much of it.

Now, going over it again, there were clearly plenty of problems.

I stared at one of the borderline values for a while, then started digging up references.

I had a feeling yesterday was only the beginning.

Benjamin and Ada demanding a million dollars hadn't come out of nowhere. It was like they'd planned for it long in advance.

A million. If I walked away from the divorce with nothing, plus my parents' savings, I could just about scrape it together.

They'd worked it all out.

The stalled pregnancy had only sped the process along.

Since they'd already made their move, they'd never let it go until they got what they wanted. I had to be ready before they came at me again.

The more I thought, the clearer my head got.

I took out my phone and hired someone to look into why they were doing this.

A woman's instinct told me Benjamin was cheating.

There was no other way to explain it. He'd turned into a completely different person, as if I were his enemy.

I pushed the questions down. My parents were getting old. I couldn't let them worry any more than they already had.