Chapter 5

Cali Massey POV:

The smell of antiseptic filled my nostrils, sharp and familiar. I slowly opened my eyes, the harsh fluorescent lights of the hospital room blinding me. My head throbbed, a dull, insistent ache behind my temple.

The last thing I remembered was the ballroom. The flashbulbs. Dallas. Chase's shove. The glass table. The blood. A wave of nausea, cold and consuming, washed over me.

"Cali? Oh, my God, you're awake!" A voice, choked with tears, broke through the haze. My best friend, Ava, was sitting by my bedside, her eyes red and swollen, her face streaked with dried tears. She looked like she hadn't slept in days.

She rushed forward, grasping my hand, her touch gentle. "Thank God. I was so worried." Her voice was a fragile whisper.

My throat felt raw, my mouth dry. "Ava," I rasped, the sound a painful croak. The word was a desperate plea for comfort, for understanding.

She squeezed my hand. "Your parents... I called them. They're on their way."

My parents. They couldn't see me like this. They couldn't know. "No," I shook my head, the movement sending a fresh wave of pain through my skull. "Don't tell them. Please." I wasn't ready to add my brokenness to their worries.

Ava hesitated, her gaze searching mine. "Cali, what happened? What was that... that circus at the party? And Chase... he just left you." Her voice trembled with a controlled fury.

The dam broke. The words tumbled out, a torrent of pain and betrayal. The e-vite. Dallas. Hayden. The double life. The hospital scene. The planned humiliation. His shove. The fall. The blood. The baby. My baby. Our baby.

Ava listened, her face growing paler with each word. By the time I finished, her eyes were blazing with a cold, terrifying anger. "That bastard," she hissed, her voice low and venomous. "I'm going to kill him. I swear to God, Cali, I'm going to make him pay for this."

"No," I said, my voice surprisingly steady. "Don't. It's over, Ava. All of it. I want him out of my life. Forever."

I wanted distance. I wanted oblivion. I wanted to erase every trace of him, of them, from my existence. My pain was a physical weight, crushing me, but beneath it, a tiny spark of resolve began to glow.

Ava pulled me into a fierce hug, careful of my IV and bandages. Her warmth was a fragile comfort in the arctic landscape of my heart. "Please don't leave," she whispered into my hair. "Please don't go away."

"I'll see you again," I promised, the words feeling hollow even to me. But I would. I had to.

I spent five days in that sterile hospital room. Chase never came. Not once. No calls, no texts, no flowers. Nothing. He had simply vanished, erasing me from his life as easily as he had created his other one. Each passing hour was a step closer to my escape.

On the morning of my discharge, Ava was there, a silent, comforting presence. We went straight to my lawyer's office. The divorce papers were waiting. A thick stack of documents, cold and impersonal.

"He'll never sign them," Ava predicted, her voice tight with disdain. "He'll drag this out, try to control you."

"He'll sign," I stated, my voice devoid of doubt. "He wants to be free. He wants his new life, his new family. He just needed me to make the first move, to be the villain." My heart was a dead thing in my chest. The love I' d felt for him, once a roaring fire, was now nothing but cold ash.

I had a plan. A risky, dangerous plan. But I had nothing left to lose.

I started by observing Hayden. I knew her routine from what little I remembered from Chase' s office banter. Her favorite coffee shop, her lunch spot. I needed to catch her alone.

Two days later, I found her. She was sitting at a small table in a bustling coffee shop, scrolling through her phone, a latte clutched in her hand. Her face, usually composed, stiffened when she saw me. A flicker of fear, quickly masked by defiance, crossed her features.

I walked to her table, my movements slow and deliberate. I placed the stack of divorce papers on the table between us. "You planned it, didn't you?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper, yet it held the weight of all my shattered dreams. "The party. Denver. Everything. You wanted to humiliate me. To make sure everyone knew."

Her innocent facade crumbled. A smug, triumphant smile spread across her face, chilling me to the core. "You should have left him years ago, Cali," she purred, her voice dripping with false sympathy. "He was never truly yours. He was always meant to be mine."

The words sliced through me, but I refused to flinch. I had no tears left. Only a cold, hard resolve. I pushed the divorce papers closer to her. "I want him to sign these immediately. You can deliver them."

Her eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed with a calculating glint. "You want a divorce?" she asked, a smirk playing on her lips. "After all this time? My, my. What a sudden change of heart." She picked up the papers, fanning herself with them. "And what makes you think I'll help you?"

"Because you want him," I said, my voice flat. "And I'm the only thing standing in your way. Once I'm gone, he's all yours. Officially."

She considered this, her smile returning, even wider now. "Fair enough." She extended a manicured hand. "Give me your number. I'll let you know when it's done."

I gave her my number, a perverse part of me wanting to see how far her malice would go. As she took the papers, she leaned in, her voice a cruel whisper. "You know, Chase was so worried about Denver in the hospital. He barely even mentioned you. He was with us the whole time you were lying in that bed. He brought Denver toys, read him stories. He's a wonderful father."

Her words should have stung. They should have ripped me apart. But they didn't. Instead, a strange sense of calm settled over me. It didn't matter anymore. His betrayal had burned away all traces of love, leaving only an empty space.

"Are you happy, Hayden?" I asked, my voice soft, almost curious. "Is this everything you wanted?"

She looked at me, her eyes glinting with a savage satisfaction. "More than you could ever imagine, Cali." She laughed, a high, tinkling sound that grated on my nerves, then turned and walked away, her laughter echoing in the crowded coffee shop.

My hand instinctively went to my abdomen, a phantom ache blooming in the emptiness there. My baby. The baby I would never hold. The baby Chase had cost me. Everything was gone. Everything. And yet, a strange sense of lightness, of freedom, began to unfurl in my chest. It was truly over.