Chapter 5

I woke up to the smell of disinfectant and the quiet beeping of a machine. I was in a hospital bed. A different one.

A doctor came in, her face full of sympathy.

"I' m so sorry, Mrs. Watkins," she said gently. "You suffered a miscarriage. The fall caused a significant trauma. I' m afraid... I' m afraid it will be very difficult for you to conceive again."

She handed me a report. I stared at the clinical words. Spontaneous abortion.

The words blurred as tears filled my eyes. My baby. Gone.

My body felt hollow, empty. A sob escaped my throat, then another, until I was shaking with grief.

"Is... is my husband here?" I managed to ask, my voice hoarse.

The doctor' s professional kindness faltered. "He... we tried to reach him. He said he was in an emergency with his son."

His son. He had left me bleeding on the floor for his son.

I nodded, unable to speak, the tears streaming down my face. She quietly left the room, leaving me alone with my shattering loss.

In another wing of the same hospital, Jackson was pacing outside the pediatric ICU. Leo had been stabilized, but the seizure had been severe. He was weak, and the doctors were worried.

Karly was slumped on a bench, her face pale and tear-streaked. Jackson felt a pang of guilt as he remembered me, falling in the room. He' d been so panicked about Leo, he hadn' t even checked on his own wife.

"You should go check on Eleanor," Karly said, her voice small. "This is all my fault."

"She' s fine," Jackson snapped, his voice harsher than he intended. "She' s tough. I need to stay here until I know Leo is okay."

He couldn' t stand to see Karly cry. He went and bought her a bottle of water, telling her to rest.

Hours later, Leo was finally moved to a regular room. He was out of immediate danger. Karly grabbed Jackson' s hand, her relief palpable.

"Thank you, Jackson. I don' t know what I would have done without you."

He finally felt like he could breathe again. He patted her shoulder awkwardly.

"You should get some rest," he said, booking her a room at the five-star hotel across the street. "I' ll stay here with Leo."

Later that night, after settling into the hotel room Jackson had paid for, there was a knock on the door. It was Karly.

"The nurse said Leo wants to talk to you," she said, holding out her phone.

Jackson took it, and his son' s weak, whimpering voice filled the room.

"Daddy? I' m scared."

A sharp pain went through Jackson' s heart. "It' s okay, buddy. Daddy' s here."

"I didn' t mean to push her," Leo whispered. "But I don' t like her. I want you to be with Mommy."

Karly took the phone back, murmuring soothing words to her son. She hung up and looked at Jackson, her eyes full of unshed tears.

"He just wants a family, Jackson. A real family."

In the dim light of the hotel room, she looked fragile, vulnerable. She reminded him of that night in Vegas, of a woman who had needed him. He was overwhelmed by guilt-for his sick son, for his terrified mother, for his neglected wife.

He reached out and touched her cheek. "I' m sorry, Karly. For everything."

She leaned into his touch, her eyes wet. It was a moment of shared grief, of weakness. He saw his wife' s face in his mind, and he pushed it away. He pulled Karly to him, a desperate attempt to numb the guilt, to feel something other than pain.

He slept with her. It wasn' t about love or even desire. It was a raw, selfish act of desperation.

The next morning, he woke up alone. Karly was gone. He felt a wave of self-disgust. He threw his clothes in the trash and called his assistant to bring him a new suit.

He smoked a cigarette, the guilt gnawing at him. He finally called the house, his heart pounding.

"Maria, is Eleanor there?"

"No, Mr. Watkins. She never came home last night."

Panic seized him. He called my phone, but it went straight to voicemail. He raced back to the hospital, his mind reeling. He found my name on the patient directory and ran to my room.

He stood outside the door for a long time before finally pushing it open.

I was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, my face pale and tracked with tears.

"Ellie," he breathed, rushing to my side. "I am so, so sorry."

I turned my head away, the sight of him too much to bear.

"Please, Ellie, don' t be angry. I know I messed up. I' ll do anything, just please forgive me."

He tried to wipe away my tears, his touch making my skin crawl. I was crying for our lost baby, and he thought I was crying over a fight. The gap between our realities was a vast, unbridgeable canyon.

I couldn' t tell him. The words were trapped in my throat, choked by grief and betrayal. He was already consumed with guilt over one child; I couldn't burden him with the knowledge that his neglect had killed another.

So I just cried, clutching his hand like a lifeline, letting him think my pain was something he could fix with promises.

"I only love you, Ellie," he whispered, his voice thick with emotion. "I swear it."

I closed my eyes, swallowing my silent scream. I would carry this secret alone. I would protect him from this one last, devastating truth.

I would be the good wife.

He held me, relieved that my tears had stopped. As he hugged me, his collar shifted slightly.

And there, just below his ear, was a dark, unmistakable mark. A hickey.

The blood in my veins turned to ice.

I noticed he was wearing a different suit. A different shirt, a different tie. He hadn' t been home. He had been with her all night. While I was here, losing our child, he had been with her.

In that moment, the man I loved, the man I had built my entire world around, died. The image of him shattered, and what was left was ugly and rotten to the core.

He didn't notice the change in me. He was too busy being relieved.

"Ellie, I have good news," he said, pulling away, his face bright with a desperate hope. "They found a bone marrow match for Leo. The surgery is next week."

He took a deep breath, his expression turning serious. "There' s just one thing. Leo... he has a wish. Before the surgery, he wants to see his parents together. As a family."

He looked at me, his eyes pleading.

"He wants me to marry Karly. Just for a little while. A temporary separation for us, a fake wedding for them. Just until he' s better. Please, Ellie. It would just be for show. You' ll always be my wife. My only love. Can you do this? For my son?"

I stared at him, the sound in the room fading to a dull roar. He was asking me to step aside. To watch him marry another woman. To sacrifice my dignity for the happiness of the child born from his betrayal, on the very same day I lost my own.

The pain was so immense, it was beyond tears. It was a cold, dead certainty.

I looked at his desperate, selfish face, and a strange calm settled over me.

"Okay," I said, my voice flat and even. "I' ll do it."

He didn't love me. He had never loved me. He had only loved the idea of me, the perfect wife for his perfect life. And when things got messy, I was the part he was willing to discard.

I was an orphan. I had survived on my own before. I had strength he knew nothing about.

And I had a secret of my own.

A brother. A family. Waiting for me in Los Angeles.

I would give Jackson exactly what he wanted. And then I would disappear from his life forever.