My Husband Had a One-Year-Old Daughter While I Was Still Pregnant! Oops, Marriage Over Chapter 05

My Husband Had a One-Year-Old Daughter While I Was Still Pregnant! Oops, Marriage Over Chapter 05

I was pulled out of unconsciousness by the sound of someone being torn apart.

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was the older female doctor slamming a medical chart down in front of Derek, jabbing her finger in his face. “What kind of husband are you? Your wife just had a termination procedure, and now she shows up with hemorrhaging this severe? Another thirty minutes and she would have been dead!”

Derek stood there rigid, his voice shaking so badly the words barely held together. “What termination? Doctor, you must have the wrong chart-she’s pregnant. She fell and had a miscarriage-”

“It’s right here in black and white-voluntary termination of pregnancy! She came in alone and

signed the consent form herself. She didn’t even have anyone with her!” The doctor was so furious

she couldn’t stand to look at him another second. She turned on her heel and slammed the door

behind her.

Derek slowly turned his head.

When he saw my eyes were open, he dropped to his knees beside the hospital bed, eyes blazing red, reaching for my hand. “Zoe, why? Why would you do that? Why would you get rid of our baby?”

Before his last word had even landed, the hospital room door exploded inward-kicked open from

the outside.

Derek didn’t even have time to react. A large hand seized him by the back of his collar and ripped

him away from the bed. Then came the crack of an open palm across his face.

The sound rang off the walls.

Derek clutched his cheek and looked up. When he saw who it was, he swallowed every ounce of rage whole and choked out a single trembling word: “Dad.”

Ten years apart, and my father still carried the same effortless, bone-deep authority of a man who

had never needed to raise his voice to command a room.

He stared down at Derek with ice in his eyes and hurled a thick stack of documents straight into his face. “Did you think that just because the company went public and you became everyone’s golden boy, you could grind my daughter under your heel?”

Watching Derek kneel there, humiliated and too afraid to say a word, my father let out a cold,

mirthless laugh.

“Did you really believe that pitch deck of yours was good enough to land twenty million in Series A funding from Hargrove Capital? Did you really think that when the IRS came sniffing around and your cash flow collapsed, you were the one who begged and scraped your way out of it?”

Lying in that hospital bed, I felt the ground fall out from under me.

I had always believed-truly believed that we’d built that company together. Basement office.

Sleepless nights. Derek drinking until his stomach bled, schmoozing clients, grinding through one

impossible year after another.

“If I hadn’t been behind the scenes bankrolling you with real money and opening every door with my own connections, you’d still be eating dollar ramen under a highway overpass!”

My father pointed to the paper trail scattered across the floor, every word landing like a hammer. never told Zoe. I spent my own money propping you up, and I did it to protect your pride as a man. And what did you do? You ate from my table and then smashed every dish on it.”

I stared at my father in shock. Then I stared at the documents on the floor.

A wave of something beyond anger-something absurd and grotesque-crashed over me and

pulled me under.

Every success Derek had ever worn like a badge of honor was nothing more than a carefully

maintained illusion, paid for by my father to protect my marriage. Derek had cheated because he

felt inferior. But even his self-respect had been purchased for him.

Derek scrambled back to my bedside on his hands and knees, tears pouring down his face, begging

with everything he had. “Zoe, I was wrong. I had no idea Dad was doing all of that behind the scenes.

I’ll send Megan away right now. I won’t even acknowledge the child-I’ll have them both shipped

back to her hometown tomorrow! Please, just forgive me this once -”

Looking at his sniveling, tear-streaked face, I felt a surge of nausea so violent it nearly choked me.

When confronted with real power and real money, he could discard his own flesh and blood without

a heartbeat of hesitation.

I looked at him steadily. And in a voice so calm it surprised even me, I cut straight through his

performance.

“Derek, I want a divorce.”