Chapter 3

At two in the morning, a faint whimper came from the guest room.

I jolted awake and scrambled out of bed.

The moment I turned on the bedside lamp, my heart instantly clenched into a knot.

Juliet was curled up under the covers like an injured kitten.

Both of her hands were pressed tightly against the lower right side of her abdomen, and she was shaking all over from the pain.

Cold sweat had long soaked through her pajamas, and her little face was so pale there was not a trace of color.

“Mom… my stomach hurts so much…”

In a panic, I fumbled for my phone and dialed Sinclair’s number with trembling hands.

“Sorry, the number you have dialed is powered off.”

The cold mechanical voice stabbed my eardrums.

I refused to believe it and called seven or eight times in a row.

Powered off, all of them were powered off!

Just a few hours earlier, he had liked Margaret’s Ins post, and the location was a children’s theater in the neighboring city.

Now, to accompany someone else’s son to a show, he found my calls annoying and simply turned off his phone!

Juliet was in so much pain that she started dry heaving, and she did not even have the strength to cry anymore.

I did not dare delay any longer, so I grabbed a thick coat and wrapped it around her, not even bothering to change out of my thin slippers before picking her up and rushing outside.

The emergency hall late at night was lit by deathly white lights that made my head spin.

“Doctor! Help her!” I rushed toward the triage desk with Juliet in my arms, and my voice was so hoarse it did not sound like my own.

The ER doctor moved very quickly, and after pressing her abdomen a few times, he immediately made a judgment.

“Suspected acute appendicitis, and the situation is urgent, so prepare for hospitalization and surgery immediately!”

My head buzzed, and my legs went weak, almost making me collapse to my knees.

“Family member, go pay the fees and complete the paperwork first, then come sign the surgical consent form, quickly!” the nurse urged loudly.

I held Juliet tightly with one arm while my other hand frantically searched through my bag.

My hands shook too badly, and I could not open the zipper no matter what I did.

With a clatter, the bag fell to the ground, and cards scattered everywhere.

There was still a long line at the payment window, and Juliet weakly gasped in my arms.

Despair was like freezing seawater, drowning me from every direction.

“Samuel?”

A deep, steady voice suddenly sounded above my head.

I lifted my tear-streaked face.

Hernandez was wearing a black coat, his brows tightly furrowed as he strode quickly to me.

There was no nonsense and no unnecessary small talk.

He glanced at Juliet, whose face was ashen in my arms, and immediately crouched down, efficiently picking up the cards from the ground and tucking them into my hand.

“Give me the child.” Hernandez’s tone was calm, carrying a force that left no room for doubt.

He stretched out his strong arms and steadily took Juliet from me.

His broad shoulders instantly blocked the bone-chilling draft in the hall.

“Go sit on that chair over there and wait for me, and I’ll pay the fees.”

Watching his back as he strode toward the window, my nerves, which had been stretched to the point of snapping, finally found a little room to breathe.

Hernandez ran back and forth, and in less than ten minutes, all the procedures were completed.

Outside the operating room, a nurse came out holding a form.

“Family member, come sign.”

I rushed forward and picked up the pen, but my hand shook so badly that I could not hold it, and the tip drew a messy ink mark across the paper.

Hernandez came over, and his warm, broad hand lightly covered my wrist.

“Don’t be afraid, I’m here. It’s a routine surgery, and Juliet will be fine.”

His voice was low and firm.

The warmth of his palm miraculously suppressed my panic.

I took a deep breath, gritted my teeth, and signed my name.

The red light outside the operating room came on.

The moment the heavy doors slowly closed, the last breath I had been forcing myself to hold was instantly drained away.

My legs went weak, and I slid down the cold wall to sit on the floor.

In my line of sight, a cup of steaming hot tea appeared.

Hernandez crouched in front of me and tucked the paper cup into my icy hands.

“Drink some hot water.”

He did not ask why I had brought my child to the emergency room alone in the middle of the night, and he did not ask where my husband had gone.

He only stood quietly to the side, blocking the cold wind in the hallway for me.

Through the warm paper cup, my tears silently fell onto the back of my hand.

When I was at my most helpless and most desperate, while Juliet lay on the operating table and her life was uncertain, my husband had his phone off and was in the neighboring city with someone else’s child.

And the person who gave me the last bit of support was actually a high school classmate I had not seen in years.

At that moment, the ruins in my heart named Sinclair completely turned to ash.

Sinclair, everything between us was over.