Chapter 9
Steven quickly tracked down where Emma was.
“Emma didn’t miscarry. She gave birth to a baby boy at a private hospital.”
“The baby has severe congenital heart disease. The surgery costs a fortune, which is why David’s been doing all these side gigs. to make money.”
I held that report, my fingers ice cold.
David, oh David.
Is this what you use your psychology skills for?
Making up one fancy lie after the other?
We found Emma at the hospital.
She was skin and bones, pressed against the glass window of the NICU, staring blankly at that tiny figure hooked up to all those tubes in the incubator.
Helen wanted to confront her, but I stopped her.
I walked over and said calmly:
You could testify that the baby is his…”
Emma cut me off with a cold laugh:
That would just prove my kid’s a bastard, wouldn’t it? I’m not stupid. He’s a famous professor. Eventually we’ll have enough noney to treat my baby…”
Steven cut in on her:
Your baby’s in a really bad way. He might not have much time left.”
‘If you agree to help us right now, we can get the surgery going right now. We’ll cover all the costs.”
Her bony fingers gripped the glass, watching her weak child inside.
Finally, tears streaming down her face, she nodded.
A few hours later, the surgery was successful.
Emma was crying with joy, but when the lawyers and reporters showed up, she suddenly got scared and backed down:
“The baby isn’t David’s… it’s just mine…”
David smirked, but before he could get too smug-
SLAP!
Your Future Jailbird!
Chapter 9
A sharp slap cracked across his face!
Everyone turned in shock.
There was David’s mom, holding her husband’s portrait, eyes red and raw, her whole body shaking:
“Get on your knees!”
Her voice was broken:
“Your father woke up before he died and told me Emma admitted the baby was yours! He… he died from the shock you gave
him!”
“Mom, what are you talking about? Dad was out of it. How can you believe what he said?”
Right then.
The operating room doors burst open!
A nurse ran out in a panic:
“Emma’s family! The baby started bleeding in his lungs after the surgery… we couldn’t save him…he’s gone!”
All the color drained from Emma’s face like her soul had been ripped out.
Few seconds later, she flipped out and lunged at David:
“It’s you, it’s all you! Karma, karma!”
She screamed at all the cameras:
“The baby was his! He LIED to everyone!
“Now karma’s here and my baby’s gone! Gone!”
Cameras flashed like crazy.
David lunged toward me, but Steven blocked him.
In court, my divorce case had rock-solid evidence.
David lost everything-left with nothing, his reputation destroyed.
He tried to corner me outside the courthouse:
“Rachel! I was wrong! I was so wrong! Please forgive me…”
With my arm linked through Steven’s, I calmly looked past his pathetic, groveling figure,
not stopping for even a second.
Forgiveness?
That would be betraying my past and disrespecting my future.
Chapter 9
A year later, at the Coleman family garden.
Helen was showing off the baby clothes she’d bought for her future nephew:
“I heard Emma went completely insane. Turns out she already had depression and was studying psychology to treat herself. Too bad she ran into that scumbag…”
“And your ex-husband got kicked out of his profession. I heard he’s got prostate cancer or something…”
I smiled slightly. “That’s all in the past. Why bring them up?”
Steven came over and gently placed his hand on my belly, feeling our new life moving inside.
All that betrayal and heartache…
Like old dreams, all swept away by today’s sunshine.
Real happiness, is having someone treasure you, building you a solid safe haven with actions, not lies.
And that man kneeling in the dirt, along with his pathetic regret, has long been forgotten in some corner of time.
Nobody cares anymore.
