He Missed My Emergency To Deliver Her Dog’s Puppies Chapter 01

He Missed My Emergency To Deliver Her Dog’s Puppies Chapter 01

The day I lost the baby, I was bleeding out. My parents drove through a downpour to get to me and never made it.

I signed their surgical consent forms right on the operating table, my hands still covered in my own blood.

They couldn’t save the baby. They couldn’t save my parents, either.

The man who ignored my calls was posting on social media, all smiles.

[Congrats to our girl Buster! Long night, but she’s officially a mama!]

I liked the post, though I barely had the strength to lift my thumb. His text came instantly.

Two words. [Unlike it.]

I sent him the hospital’s location pin.

“Come to the hospital. I need to talk to you.”

“I can’t. I’m busy. Just get your parents to take you to the checkup. It’s not like they have anything better to do.”

“So the big emergency was delivering her dog’s puppies?”

“Seriously? You’re pregnant and starting fights over a dog now? You’re jealous of a pet?”

I didn’t have the energy to fight him. If he wouldn’t come, fine. He could talk to my lawyer instead.

…

Arranging my parents’ funerals took two days. By the time I got home, it was dark.

I could barely stand when I pushed through the front door.

The apartment I’d left spotless had been trashed.

Julian Ashford was tearing through the drawers, tossing things onto the floor without a second glance.

Expecting me to always be there to pick up after him.

He didn’t even look up when I walked in. Just talked at me, annoyed.

“Where’ve you been all day? It’s the weekend. I had to order takeout for lunch.”

It hit me then. He hadn’t come home last night. Again.

Two years of this. Two years of the same thing.

If a lightbulb blew at Stella Brooks’s, he’d roll out of bed at 2 a.m. to fix it.

But he couldn’t even remember to lock our own front door. A drunk wandered in one night, giving me nightmares for a month.

Stella’s dog goes into labor, and suddenly my prenatal checkup doesn’t matter anymore.

He took a whole week off to be there for her. For something any vet could’ve handled.

When I didn’t answer, Julian actually looked at me. Something flickered across his face. Surprise, maybe.

“You look terrible. Is it the baby again?”

I stepped back before his hand could reach my stomach. My voice came out flat.

“I called you seventy-six times yesterday. Why didn’t you answer?”

His hand froze in midair. Then, he scowled.

“Are you seriously interrogating me right now, Clara?”

“Stella and I go way back. And Buster isn’t just some random pet. Stella raised her from a puppy. She means everything to her.”

“Buster was in labor and Stella was losing it. I was elbow-deep delivering puppies. You think I had time to answer the phone? For what? Another one of your nagging check-ins?”

“It was just a routine checkup. Millions of women go alone. Your parents could’ve taken you. It’s not like they had anything better to do. You didn’t need me there.”

He stood there, so entirely sure of himself.

I wanted to scream. What about my parents?

Dad was gone before they even got him through the ER doors.

Mom made it to surgery, but the doctors said the damage was bad. Really bad.

One of his colleagues told me Julian was the only surgeon who could’ve saved her.

Too busy to pick up the phone. But the second I liked that post, he suddenly had time to text me and demand I unlike it.

All because Stella might get the wrong idea.

“Just childhood friends? Really?”

“I saw you kiss her, Julian.”

It had been at the same restaurant where he proposed to me. The exact same booth.

I had been so deep in my own head that I didn’t even see the motorcycle.

The rider tried to stop in time. But the impact was enough. Three months. Gone.