Chapter 4

When I officially "woke up," Nicole was a masterpiece of performative grief. Her eyes were red-rimmed, her face a mask of devastation. She clutched my hand, her touch feeling like a brand on my skin.

"Oh, Ethan, thank God," she sobbed, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I was so scared I'd lose you too."

She told me Lily didn't make it. She delivered the news with the practiced sorrow of a politician delivering a eulogy, her voice cracking in all the right places.

"And Ethan... the doctors... they had to," she continued, her gaze dropping. "To prevent a life-threatening infection from the burns... they had to perform a procedure. A vasectomy. I'm so, so sorry. But I'll dedicate my life to taking care of you. We'll get through this together."

She then presented me with a gift. A cheap, generic watch with a flimsy metal band.

"I wanted you to have something," she whispered.

My eyes drifted to the nightstand. Sitting there was a Rolex. Not just any Rolex, but a bespoke, custom-designed piece. As an architect, I know design, I know materials. I had watched her spend months on the design for that watch, obsessing over every detail. I had always assumed it was for Lily, a future milestone gift for her 16th or 18th birthday.

"What's that?" I managed to rasp, my throat raw.

Nicole glanced at it, her expression unchanged. "Oh, that? It's a gift for a donor's son. His 20th birthday is coming up. Just some campaign business."

In that moment, I understood. I was never her world. Lily was never her world. We were props in her stage play, placeholders until her "real family" could take their rightful place. The cheap watch on my wrist and the priceless one on the nightstand said it all. We were the disposable part of her life.