Chapter 4

His entire face petrified.

"What did you just say?"

"I scheduled the procedure myself. It was done this afternoon."

Logan stood frozen like a statue.

A long, suffocating silence passed before he spoke, his voice dangerously low: "Why?"

I didn't answer.

"Why?!"

He asked again, his volume rising sharply.

"The baby was healthy! Why would you abort our child?! Evelyn, have you completely lost your mind?!"

"I'm completely sane."

"Then tell me why!" he roared.

A faint shuffle came from the entryway. Chloe peeked nervously toward the living room before hastily looking back down at the floor.

Logan drew in a sharp breath, forcing his voice down:

"What happened? Why didn't you talk to me? Is there anything you couldn't have told me?"

I looked directly into his eyes.

"Talk to you?"

"What was I supposed to say? Tell you that you bailed on my checkup again to stay with Chloe?

Tell you that your patient is forever more important than your wife? Tell you that after going through six ultrasounds completely alone, I refuse to raise a child by myself?"

His expression shifted into disbelief.

"Over this?"

He stared at me as if I were insane.

"Just because I couldn't make it to your appointment today?!"

"It's not about today."

"Then what is it about?!"

"It's about the fact that you were never there."

He went dead silent.

"My first appointment, you were with Chloe. My second, you were with Chloe. The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth."

"Every single time, it was Chloe. I carried this baby for five months, Logan. Did you accompany me even once? Do you even know how our baby was growing?"

He couldn't find words.

"You don't know. You don't know a single damn thing. All you cared about was whether Chloe was in a good mood, whether Chloe took her meds on time, whether Chloe could fall asleep."

"Evelyn, she is a critically ill patient!"

"I know she's a patient!"

My voice cracked, shattering into a shout.

"But I am your wife! The child in my belly was your baby! What gave you the right to make me wait over and over, stand me up over and over, and force me to walk into that clinic alone every single time?!"

He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

"You told me to be sensible. You told me to be understanding. You told me not to get angry. I did all of that! I was sensible! I was understanding! I swallowed my anger! And what did I get in return?"

"Nothing changed. You didn't come today, you wouldn't have come tomorrow, and the day after that you'd still tell me Chloe needed you."

Hot tears finally broke free, streaming down my cheeks.

"I waited for you for five months. I kept telling myself you're a doctor, you have duties, you can't just abandon her. But who was supposed to look after me?!"

"I wanted someone to hold my hand at the hospital and tell me everything would be fine! I wanted someone to bring me a glass of water and rub my back when I was throwing up my own stomach acid!"

I wiped my wet cheeks violently.

"But you were never there. Not once."

Logan stood rooted to the spot, unmoving.

"That's why I couldn't keep this child."

"I refuse to let my baby grow up in a home without a father. I refuse to let my child suffer the way I did."