While I Was Losing Our Baby, He Was Celebrating Her Dog’s Puppies Chapter 01

While I Was Losing Our Baby, He Was Celebrating Her Dog’s Puppies Chapter 01

The day I was rushed to Harborview Medical Center with severe bleeding after a miscarriage, my parents raced through a Seattle downpour to reach me.

They were in a car crash on the way.

I lay on the operating table and signed my mother’s emergency surgery consent form with a hand covered in blood.

I lost my baby, and neither of my parents survived.

Meanwhile, the husband I had called seventy-six times had just posted an excited update on social media.

“Congratulations, Daisy. You worked so hard all night. You’re finally a mom.”

I barely had the strength to tap Like.

Almost immediately, he sent me a message.

Two words.

“Unlike it.”

I sent him my location at Harborview Medical Center.

“Come to the hospital. I need to tell you something in person.”

“I have something important to deal with. I can’t come. Have your parents go with you to your prenatal appointment. They’re retired. They have plenty of time.”

“So your ‘important thing’ is helping her dog give birth?”

“What is wrong with you lately? You get pregnant and suddenly you’re jealous of everything. Now you’re jealous of a dog?”

I had no strength left to argue.

Since he refused to come, he could deal with my lawyer next.

…

By the time I finished arranging my parents’ funeral and handling the paperwork, it was already the following evening.

I could barely stay on my feet, but I still went back to our home in Queen Anne.

The house I always kept spotless was a wreck.

Drawers had been pulled open, and their contents were scattered across the floor.

Ethan Walker was searching for something, tossing things aside as he went.

He threw things wherever he pleased, as if someone would always be there to clean up after him.

When he heard the door open, he did not even look up.

His irritation was obvious.

“Where have you been all day? I had to order takeout for lunch.”

I froze.

So he had not come home the night before either.

For the past two years, this had become normal.

If a light burned out in Blair Harper’s Belltown apartment, he would get up in the middle of the night and drive over to fix it.

Yet he once forgot to lock our own front door, letting a drunk stranger wander inside and leaving me with nightmares for a month.

When Blair’s dog went into labor, Ethan had no problem skipping my prenatal appointment.

He had even taken an entire week off to stay with Blair, as if a professional veterinarian could not handle it without him.

I said nothing.

Eventually, Ethan looked up and stopped short when he saw me.

“Why are you so pale? Is the pregnancy making you sick again?”

I stepped back before his hand could reach my stomach.

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

His hand remained suspended in midair as he frowned.

“Erin, are you interrogating me now? Blair and I grew up together. Daisy isn’t just some random pet from her shop. She’s been with Blair for years. Something went wrong during the delivery, and Blair was beside herself.”

Ethan got to his feet, looking at me as if the answer should have been obvious.

“You know I had to help. I couldn’t keep stopping to answer every call you made. It was one prenatal appointment. Plenty of women go alone. Your parents could’ve gone with you. What difference did it make if I wasn’t there?”

There was not a trace of guilt on his face.

I wanted to tell him that my parents would never be there for me again.

The crash had been devastating.

My father had no signs of life by the time he reached the hospital.

My mother had been rushed into emergency surgery, but her injuries were severe and complicated.

One of Ethan’s colleagues told me that Ethan knew her medical history better than anyone.

Her only chance, however slim, was for him to operate on her himself.

He claimed he had been too busy to answer my calls, yet the moment I liked that post, he had messaged me at once and told me to unlike it.

Because the only thing that mattered to him was whether Blair might get the wrong idea.

I had confronted him once before, when I had nearly died.

“Are you two really just childhood friends? Ethan, I saw you kiss her.”

It had happened at Canlis, in the exact spot where he had once proposed to me.

I had gone out to get some medicine when I saw them inside the restaurant.

My mind went blank.

I walked straight into the street and never saw the motorcycle coming.

The rider braked in time, but I still lost the baby when I was exactly three months pregnant.