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I smiled,amused.”Anything?”
“Yes!”
“Officer,I feel unwell and need to be taken to the hospital.”
Accompanied by the police,I got a full hospital checkup,claiming I had headache and insisting on a concussion diagnosis requiring admission.The thousands in medical bills made Tom’s mother sweat,and she knelt again,saying she didn’t have that much money.
Mid-argument,Mark rushed in.He helped Tom’s mother up,sarcastically remarking that I had sent Jane’s husband to jail while she was pregnant,leaving her and her mother-in-law helpless.
I ignored him and started to leave.Mark,angrier,followed me,nagging that antagonizing a pregnant colleague was wrong and that my actions would bring bad karma,making it harder for me to be pregnant in the future.
He rambled until his phone pinged.Smiling,he replied to the message,then told me Jane had texted,apologizing and asking me to help request maternity leave since she would be in the hospital longer.
I snorted. “You and Jane are pretty close,huh?”
Mark,caught off guard,hid his phone behind him before snapping:
“She only contacted me because youwouldn’t answer her texts!”
“Oh.”
Given Jane’s manipulative charm and Mark’s obsession with children,I could guess their conversations.But I didn’t care—those who did wrong always reveal themselves in the end.
“So,are you helping or not?”
“Help my ass.”
Mark,furious at my coldness,stopped walking and hissed:
“Emma,you’re just jealous Jane’s pregnant and you’re not,aren’t you?”
I turned to face him,my heart sinking.So this was how he saw me.
He didn’t know I wanted a child because I once loved him so deeply,craving that something would come out of our love.Now,I felt only disgust—how could I want a child with him?
There are some people who just side with reason,not family—but Mark was a baby fanatic,siding with neither reason nor me.The man I once trusted was now utterly repulsive.
After leaving the hospital,Mark didn’t contact me.But during my follow-up visits,I saw him multiple times with flowers and fruit baskets.
His family lived in a neighboring city,so the only person he would visit so attentively was likely Jane.
They were up to something.
A few days later,Jane sent me a photo:Mark asleep by her hospital bed,her leaning in for a cozy selfie.
Her message dripped with fake innocence:
“Emma,your husband’s so sweet.He visits me and the baby every day.Yesterday,he was so tired from caring for me that he fell asleep.You don’t mind,do you?”
Mind?I wished she would sent a compromising photo to confirm that Mark was cheating on me so I could divorce him and leave him penniless.
