Love Died One Apology at a Time Chapter 05

Love Died One Apology at a Time Chapter 05

The emergency room was crowded.

People rushed back and forth.

Ethan stared at the blood covering his hands.

No matter how hard he rubbed them together, they never seemed clean.

His hands shook uncontrollably.

As if all strength had been drained from his body, he sank to his knees outside the operating room.

The baby didn’t make it.

I never even knew he or she existed. And now they were gone.

Tears slid silently from my eyes.

Ethan paused while using a damp cotton swab to moisten my lips.

As though crushed beneath a grief he couldn’t bear, he lowered his head gently onto my stomach.

“I’m sorry, Claire.”

“I’m so sorry.”

My pale lips moved slightly.

The tiny bit of water couldn’t quench my thirst.

Just like Ethan’s apologies.

“Fifty-three.”

He froze.

Outside the window, a violent storm had battered the flowers in full bloom.

Not a trace of beauty remained.

“You’ve apologized for Riley fifty-three times now.”

“This time, I almost died. And I lost my baby.”

I turned away. But the tears kept coming.

Every word caught painfully in my throat.

It hurt. Everything hurt.

“Ethan. This is the kind-hearted little girl you kept defending?”

“This is the girl you told me to have empathy for? The girl you told me not to overreact about?”

I was choking on every word. Pulling them from my throat.

“You asked me once whether I could live with the consequences if something happened to Riley.”

“Now I want to ask you something.”

“The injuries I suffered. The life of my child. Can she pay for that?”

“And can you?”

The room fell silent except for my sobbing.

I’d cried so much that everything in front of me looked blurred.

Even Ethan’s face.

“I want to call the police. I want to press charges.”

“She’s an adult now. She’s not a child anymore, right?”

I looked at him. “Attorney Carter.”

After everything that had happened, it was the only way I could think of to address him.

“Are you still going to defend her?”

Ethan shook his head again and again.

As if begging me to stop.

“I’m sorry, Claire.”

“I regret everything.”

But regret was the most useless thing in the world.

“I shouldn’t have…”

His voice broke.

He couldn’t even finish the sentence.

“When she got arrested for fighting again… I should’ve listened to you.”

After Riley’s case had ended, she’d attached herself to Ethan.

Her family was one of the firm’s biggest clients.

And Ethan had always been willing to spare her a little patience.

One day, he was too busy.

He missed her calls. Ignored her messages.

The next thing he knew, the police were calling him at her parents’ request.

When he arrived at the police station, Riley was swinging her legs casually.

The moment she saw him, she pouted.

“You ignored me.”

“Then Just let me do whatever I want.”

Ethan and I had rushed there together through the night.

The other parents were saying some pretty ugly things.

“First bullying kids at school. Now fighting in the streets. She’s going to end up in prison.”

Ethan took off his coat and draped it around Riley’s shoulders.

Then he covered her ears.

Protecting her from every ugly word. Like he always did.

I stood outside the police station and told him exactly what I thought.

“She’s seventeen, Ethan. That’s not a child.”

“And after her case ended, your relationship with her should have ended too.”

But Ethan only grabbed my arm.

Meanwhile, Riley skipped ahead and climbed into the passenger seat.

She leaned out the window and waved.

“Ethan, hurry up!”

He whispered to me. “Don’t say things like that in front of her. She’s sensitive.”

Then he smiled at her.

“Coming.”

And that…

Was how we ended up here.