Chapter 3
When I opened my eyes, I was already lying in a cold hospital room, undergoing a uterine evacuation.
It felt like a pair of icy forceps was scraping violently inside my abdomen, gouging bone and flesh, sending waves of pain through me until I broke out in a cold sweat.
In the midst of the agony, my phone rang.
It was Nicole, my best friend.
“Marina, is Emmett home?” she asked cautiously.
“I think I heard his voice next door, and, well… the noises were… not exactly PG.”
Nicole and Paulina lived next door to each other.
My hand, clutching my phone, dropped limply onto the bed.
The fluorescent light above me blazed hot and harsh. I had no idea how long I stared at it, until it seemed to burn away the tears at the corners of my eyes.
That half hour felt endless.
Finally, I heard the doctor say, “There’s still a risk of heavy bleeding–you didn’t expel everything.”
At last, I was allowed to leave that room.
While I was alone in the ward, a girl who looked no older than 16 or 17,
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eyes red and swollen, handed me a tissue.
“Ma’am, here… wipe your tears.”
I brushed away my tears, dazed and numb.
This child had been in an accident this year.
Ever since my mom passed away, I’d been completely alone in this world, with no family left.
From that moment on, I longed for someone of my own, a family member who belonged to me.
For this child, I’d gone through countless rounds of IVF, swallowed medicine that was nearly impossible to keep down.
I knew the sooner I had the baby, the safer it would be.
So I gritted my teeth and kept on going.
The bruises and needle marks on my belly hadn’t even faded before new ones appeared.
But now, my baby was nothing but a pile of bloody, mangled tissue.
When the doctor showed me the basin, I broke down, sobbing uncontrollably.
The family I’d dreamed of day and night was reduced to a basin of blood.
Six years of effort–all for nothing.
Swallowing the pain that nearly suffocated me, I took a cab home, ready to pack up and move out of the place Emmett and I had shared.
But as I was gathering my things, I realized my mother’s wedding dress
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was missing.
It was all I had left of her.
Two years ago, before cancer took her, she told me how much she regretted not being able to live to see my wedding.
She couldn’t be there for my big day, but she hoped I would one day walk toward happiness in that dress.
I tore through the house in a frenzy, searching everywhere.
But the dress was nowhere to be found.
Emmett’s phone was unreachable.
As I broke down, sobbing, Nicole called again.
“Marina! Check the video! Why is Emmett having a wedding with someone else?!”
My frantic hands froze. Fighting back panic, I opened the video she sent
- me.
The next moment shattered my heart.
On the screen, Emmett was walking Paulina down the aisle on the lawn at The Gardens Hotel, her hand tucked in his arm.
Paulina, clutching a bouquet, smiled shyly–and she was wearing my mother’s wedding dress.
My vision went black.
Anger and agony threatened to tear my chest apart.
Emmett, how could you?
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By the time I rushed to The Gardens Hotel, Paulina was pressing a kiss to Emmett’s cheek.
Smack!
I slapped her, hard, across the face.
“You little thief!”
“Ah!
“Emmie, she hit me! She hit me, I-” Paulina clutched her cheek, her eyes instantly red as she choked back sobs, ducking behind Emmett.
All of Emmett’s buddies were there.
Seeing what happened, their faces darkened. They closed ranks around Paulina, glaring at me like I was the
enemy.
“Are you crazy? Do you even know whose turf this is? You dare lay a finger on Paula?!”
Emmett’s face was thunderous.
He marched up to me, looking like I’d just humiliated him in front of everyone.
He shoved me, hard.
“Marina! Haven’t you had enough?
“Do you even realize where you are? All of Paula’s friends and coworkers are here!
“She got a marriage license with me–isn’t she entitled to a proper wedding ceremony?
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“I’m just walking her through the motions, putting really have to come here and make a scene?”
on a
