Chapter 1
On the day I had a difficult labor, my husband was taking wedding pictures with his old flame.
I thought he would come back to us for our baby, but he just got worse.
I was done with him. Once the baby was born, I would file a divorce.
“You’re hemorrhaging. Where’s your husband?” the doctor asked, looking
worried.
“Ile’s tied up.” I didn’t tell him that my husband was with his ex.
My phone buzzed. It was a picture of Antonio Kaufman and his first love, Anna Snyder.
“Thanks for sharing your hubby with me!”
In the photo, Antonio kissed Anna’s check, and their friends were looking at them with happy faces.
At that moment, I was losing blood and needed a family member’s
signature, but I couldn’t reach Antonio.
AT
Finally, he answered and said, “You’re just giving birth. The doctors are taking care of you!”
“Today’s Anna’s thirtieth birthday. I can’t miss it. And I promised I’d be there for her.”
“You buzzkill!”
I was about to black out when Anna sent another picture.
Chapter 1
They were on a big bed, everyone joking around them.
“Her oxygen levels are crashing. She’s going into shock. We need blood from other hospitals. Get all the specialists in here now!” said the doctor urgently.
The whole hospital sprang into action.
The emergency alarm blared loud and urgent.
The medical team rushed to my ward. I felt like I was on the brink of death, my consciousness slipping away.
Now and then, the nurse’s soft voice reached my ears.
“Hold on. Your baby was just born and is in the incubator. You haven’t even held your baby.”
“Don’t give up on yourself. We’ll do everything we can to save you.”
Her voice was urgent, with a hint of choking.
I didn’t respond, but I kept thinking, “I have my baby. I can’t die. I just
can’t…”
The hospital was going all out, bringing the city’s best gynecologists. After an emergency meeting, they quickly arranged to get blood from every hospital’s supply.
“We still can’t reach her family.”
“What is her husband doing? His phone is off.”
“The patient’s parents passed away a few years ago. She only has her husband. If we can’t reach him, we’ll have to operate first. Her life comes first.”
The voices around me came and went. Sometimes, the silence scared me.
I wondered, “Are these doctors going to give up on me too? Am I going to die on this operating table? Can I still see my baby? No, I can’t die. Antonio won’t treat my baby well. If I die, my baby’s whole life will be
ruined.”
I wanted to recover right away.
But I heard the nurses‘ tense calls, “Has the blood arrived yet? The patient is not doing well!”
“Has Dr. Kaufman from the General Hospital been reached? He’s an authority in gynecology. With him around, the success rate of this surgery. could be higher.”
Dr. Kaufman? I wanted to speak up so badly.
I wanted to tell them Dr. Kaufman was my husband, the one I couldn’t reach.
But I couldn’t.
Someone said, “Dr. Kaufman won’t come. He’s on a week off. He just got married to his childhood sweetheart and is on his honeymoon.”
“I thought Dr. Kaufman wouldn’t get married. Whenever I asked if he was married or dating, he said no. Turns out he’s into his childhood sweetheart.”
He had never told his colleagues about our marriage. No wonder he was against me going to his hospital for my pre–wedding and prenatal check- ups.
He said it was to avoid bothering his colleagues, but he was just scared they would find out he had a wife for seven years.
“Forget about Dr. Kaufman. He’s with his wife now. Let’s focus on saving this patient first!”
I could hear them clearly, but I couldn’t respond. The anesthesia dulled the pain, but it didn’t put me into a deep sleep.
It just made everything worse.
I could feel the cuts, sense their tension, and the chill running through
- me.
Just when I thought I was done for, the head nurse shouted, “Dr. Kaufman’s on the line!”
