Chapter 4

After the whole family found out I was pregnant, the house went very quiet.

It stayed that way until the afternoon of the fourth day.

Then Lloyd's mother shoved the bedroom door open in a panic.

"Alvin is gone!"

I sat up sharply.

"What did you say?"

She was so frantic she kept stamping her feet.

"At noon I told Lloyd that once this baby in your belly is born, Alvin will end up an outsider sooner or later, so he should figure out a way to reassure the boy soon."

My head snapped toward her.

"You said that in front of Alvin?"

Her face went white with panic.

"How was I supposed to know he was hiding behind the door!"

"And what did I say that was wrong? Once your own child is born, can you really value Alvin the way you used to?"

"I just wanted Lloyd to pay a little more attention to him."

Out in the living room, Lloyd was already heading for the door.

I threw off the covers.

"I'm going with you."

He pressed a hand on my shoulder.

"No, you stay home."

"I'll call Bella. She might know where Alvin is."

And with that, Lloyd and his mother rushed out.

Once the door shut, the whole house fell silent.

At six that evening, the abdominal pain started.

At first it was just faint, but then it came in waves, each one worse than the last.

When I went to the bathroom, I saw the blood on my underwear.

More than last time.

I called Lloyd right away.

It was chaos on the other end.

I could hear his mother crying, and Bella's voice too.

"Alvin's locked the door from the inside. He won't see anyone!"

Lloyd asked urgently,

"What's wrong?"

I gripped the phone tight.

"I'm bleeding again. Come back and take me to the hospital."

Bella suddenly cried out.

"Lloyd! Alvin's smashing things!"

Lloyd's words came faster now.

"Cynthia, call a car yourself first. The hospital isn't far from home."

"Alvin is really unstable right now!"

"I'll come find you at the hospital the second I'm done here."

My voice was already shaking.

"Lloyd, the doctor said bleeding can't be put off."

He was silent for two seconds, then lowered his voice.

"Cynthia, I know you feel wronged."

"But the reason Alvin ran off today is because you're pregnant."

"Can you please not force me to choose right now?"

The call ended.

I stood there in the bathroom.

So he still thought I was forcing him to make a choice.

My vision went black, and my whole body collapsed onto the bathroom floor.

I tried to get up, but my legs were too weak, and I couldn't manage it.

In the end all I could do was call for an ambulance.

When the ambulance arrived, the nurse cut away my blood-soaked pants.

His expression changed at once.

"Where's the family?"

I opened my mouth.

"I can't reach him."

The whole way there, my mind grew more and more hazy.

Someone kept patting my face.

"Cynthia, don't sleep! Look at me!"

When we reached the hospital, the world turned into a blinding white.

I caught a few sounds here and there.

"Get an operating room ready right away."

"Have you reached the family yet?"

"The placental tissue hasn't fully detached, the bleeding won't stop..."

Right before I lost consciousness completely,

I had only one last thought.

Baby, I'm sorry. Mommy couldn't keep you.

The surgery took more than three hours.

By the time Lloyd got to the hospital, it was almost dawn.

"Where's Cynthia? Where's my wife?"

The doctor on duty looked up.

"Are you Cynthia's husband?"

Lloyd nodded again and again.

"I am."

The doctor stared at him, his face grim.

"We called you twenty-seven times."

Lloyd yanked out his phone.

The screen was full of missed calls from the hospital.

The doctor glanced at him.

"We couldn't save the baby."

He swayed on his feet, his voice shaking badly.

"That's... that's okay."

"As long as she's all right, we can still—"

The doctor cut him off.

"There won't be a later."

Lloyd froze.

"What do you mean?"

The doctor's voice fell again.

"The miscarriage was complicated by massive hemorrhaging. Her clotting function deteriorated fast, and several methods to stop the bleeding all failed."

"To save her life, we had no choice but to remove her uterus."

"Mr. Matthews, your wife will never be able to get pregnant again."

Lloyd stood there, completely motionless.