My Marriage: His Debt to Another Woman Chapter 24

My Marriage: His Debt to Another Woman Chapter 24

My contractions started in the middle of the night.

I was wheeled into the delivery room, and time dissolved into a blur of pain. It came in waves, each one threatening to tear me apart. The doctor coached me from one side, and Leo was on the other. His words of encouragement weren’t exactly professional, but they were constant.

Just when I thought I had nothing left to give, a baby’s cry pierced the air.

Clear, sharp, and full of life.

My child was born.

I was so exhausted I just closed my eyes, and for a moment, the world went silent.

***

The moment I truly panicked wasn’t when Chloe had another breakdown on the anniversary of her husband’s death.

It was when I told Elara we needed to separate, and she was too calm.

“Fine,” she’d said, looking right at me. “My lawyer will contact you.”

In that instant, my world felt hollow.

I rushed to explain that it was only temporary, that once Chloe was stable, we could go back to how things were.

But Elara just shook her head.

“No, Jake,” she said. “This is permanent.”

After three years of marriage, I knew her.

Elara never made promises she couldn’t keep, and she never spoke in absolutes unless she meant them. When she said something, she didn’t go back on it.

Looking into her eyes, I felt for the first time that things had spun out of my control.

But I’d already made a promise to Chloe.

The next day, the papers from Elara’s lawyer arrived.

I went through the motions in a daze, signing where I was told. Chloe was by my side the entire time, leaving me no chance to speak to Elara alone.

It wasn’t until we were in the lawyer’s office that the pregnancy report slipped from her folder and landed at my feet.

In that instant, my panic was replaced by a wild, desperate joy.

Elara was pregnant.

I thought that with a child between us, she could never truly leave me.