The Ring He Gave Her Chapter 02

The Ring He Gave Her Chapter 02

Nathan scrambled to his feet, his surgeon’s hands—the ones that had saved hundreds of lives—now trembling at his sides.

“Sadie, let me explain—”

“Explain?” I laughed, and it came out like broken glass. “Explain why you proposed to another woman with my grandmother’s ring while I was home heating up leftover soup, thinking my husband was saving lives?”

The dining room had gone morgue-silent. Thirty of New York’s medical elite sat frozen, forks halfway to mouths, champagne going flat.

Lily placed a protective hand on her belly and turned to Nathan with glistening eyes. “Nathan, you told me the divorce was finalized. You said she signed the papers months ago.”

I went rigid. “What papers?”

Nathan’s jaw clenched. He wouldn’t look at me.

“What. Papers. Nathan.”

Lily’s lip quivered with rehearsed precision. “He told me you agreed to a clean separation. He said you wanted to focus on your mental health after… after the miscarriages.”

She wiped a tear delicately. “I would never have gotten involved if I’d known you were still together. I’m not that kind of woman.”

The dean’s wife, Margaret, leaned over and rubbed Lily’s arm. “Oh, sweetheart. Don’t stress yourself. Think of the baby.”

My blood turned to ice. “You’re comforting her?”

Margaret shot me a withering look. “Dr. Chen has been through enough. She’s carrying a high-risk pregnancy, and frankly, this kind of ambush is—”

“Ambush?” I stepped forward. “I am his wife. I have been his wife for eight years. I held his hand through residency. I worked three jobs to pay off his med school loans. I sat in that hospital chapel and begged God every single time he lost a patient because he couldn’t handle the guilt alone.”

My voice broke, but I forced it back together. “And now you’re telling me I’m the one ambushing?”

Nathan finally spoke. “Sadie, you need to calm down.”

“Don’t you dare tell me to calm down.”

He straightened his tie—a nervous habit I knew too well—and lowered his voice. “You’re making a scene. These are my colleagues. This is my career.”

“Your career?” I stared at him. “I ghostwrote every research paper that got you tenure. I reviewed every case file you brought home. The Chen-Cross Cardiac Protocol that made you famous? I built the data model. You just presented it.”

A murmur rippled through the room. The dean shifted uncomfortably.

Nathan’s eyes hardened. “That’s enough, Sadie.”

“No.” I held up my grandmother’s ring, letting the chandelier light catch every facet. “This is my property. She is wearing my ring. You are my husband. And I want to know—right now, in front of all these witnesses—when exactly did you divorce me?”

“Sadie—”

“WHEN?”

The silence that followed was suffocating.

Then Lily pulled a folded document from her Chanel clutch—because of course she had it ready—and handed it to me with trembling fingers.

“I’m so sorry, Sadie. He told me it was done.”

I unfolded the paper. It was a divorce decree, filed with the New York County Clerk. My signature was at the bottom.

Except it wasn’t my signature.

Someone had forged it.

I looked up at Nathan, and for the first time in our marriage, I saw him for exactly what he was.

“You forged my signature,” I whispered. “You forged a legal document to fraudulently divorce me so you could marry your pregnant mistress.”

Nathan’s composure finally cracked. He grabbed my arm and hissed, “We are not doing this here—”

I yanked free and turned to the room. “Is there a lawyer present? Because what this man just did is a felony.”

The room erupted.

And then, from the back corner, a small, shaky voice cut through the chaos.

“Mommy?”

I spun around. There, standing in the hallway in dinosaur pajamas, clutching a stuffed rabbit, was my four-year-old daughter, Emma.

The daughter Nathan had told me was at a sleepover tonight.

She looked at Lily, then at Nathan, then at me—and her little face crumbled.

“Mommy, why is Daddy’s friend wearing your ring?”