He Made Me Draw A Lottery For Our Dead Child Chapter 02

He Made Me Draw A Lottery For Our Dead Child Chapter 02

The cold wind howling outside brought back the night I’d been stalked and harassed.

Bastian had promised to pick me up after work, but he canceled at the last minute, so I had to go home alone.

A stranger suddenly grabbed me from behind and refused to let go, muttering disturbing nonsense.

Terrified, I screamed and fought until a passerby noticed what was happening. The man and I were both taken to the police station.

Even at the station, he remained defiant.

“Go ahead. Put me in prison if you can.”

My hands shook as I called Bastian.

He came.

The first thing he did was pull the wooden box from his bag.

He looked at me without expression.

“Elowen, draw a token.”

My token wasn’t green, so Bastian refused to represent me.

The man continued harassing me for another six months. I didn’t get a moment of peace until he was arrested for theft.

I buried every ounce of hurt and told myself Bastian was simply honoring his principles.

But now, after watching him break that rule without hesitation for his ex-wife, I finally understood.

He was perfectly capable of making exceptions.

He just wouldn’t make one for his wife.

I rested a hand on my stomach, almost imagining that I could still feel our baby’s heartbeat.

“We don’t need him anymore, do we?”

Bastian came to the hospital the following morning.

The night before, I’d learned through his firm’s private Slack channel that Bastian had used his reputation and legal expertise to get the elderly couple who’d tried to extort Colette locked up.

When he arrived, I’d just accepted an offer to continue my doctoral studies abroad. I would be leaving in a few days, and I’d already had a divorce agreement drafted.

Bastian entered carrying an insulated food jar, his expression giving no sign that anything was wrong.

“Something came up yesterday. That’s why I couldn’t make it back.”

“Okay,” I replied, my voice flat.

He opened the jar and set the chicken-and-rice soup in front of me. “By the way, have you decided whether you want to sue over what happened to the baby?”

Before I could answer, he picked up the token box he’d left in my room the day before.

“Go ahead and draw. The odds are good, so don’t worry.”

“That was my baby too.”

The food caught painfully in my throat.

“Do I have to draw?”

“Can’t you just take the case?”

He paused, his expression turning serious.

“Elowen, you know my rule. I can’t break it. I…”

“Forget it.”

I forced a smile as the last of my hope disappeared, then reached into the box and pulled out a token.

It wasn’t green.

Bastian didn’t notice anything unusual in my voice. He stared at the token for a moment before saying, “I’ll have one of my associates represent you. They’re just as good.”

“Okay.”

While he went to wash the food jar, I picked up his phone.

The passcode was my birthday. He’d never hidden it from me, which was why I’d never felt the need to look through his phone.

I knew he’d been married before, but I’d always believed that relationship belonged in the past.

Now, I wasn’t so sure.

I unlocked his phone and found only one pinned conversation.

Colette.

A bitter laugh escaped me.

What did that make me?

Their message history was brief, and neither of them had crossed an explicit line. They never said they still loved each other, but every exchange made it clear that neither had truly moved on.

I turned off the screen, certain now that I was leaving.

I got out of bed, intending to find Bastian and make everything clear.

As I passed another room down the hall, I heard his familiar voice.

“Your injury isn’t serious, but you were badly shaken last night. You still need to rest.”

Through the narrow gap in the door, I saw Bastian holding an identical insulated food jar and feeding Colette one spoonful at a time.

This was the third time I’d ever seen her.