Chapter 4

Evelyn Roman POV:

I was standing in the hospital corridor, the termination consent form a cold, sharp-edged reality in my hand, when he found me.

Blake rounded the corner, his suit jacket now gone, his tie loosened. He looked tired and stressed, but when he saw me, his expression was one of pure, unadulterated annoyance.

"There you are," he said, his voice tight. "I' ve been looking all over for you. Why haven' t you been answering my calls?"

I just stared at him, clutching the papers to my chest, trying to instinctively hide them from his view.

His eyes narrowed. "Were you following me? Is that why you' re here? Evelyn, this is getting ridiculous. I told you, I took Cali home because she was sick."

The accusation was so absurd, so profoundly self-centered, that a laugh bubbled up in my throat, harsh and humorless. "Following you?" I asked, my voice dripping with a sarcasm I didn' t know I possessed. "Yes, Blake, that' s it. After you abandoned me at our wedding, my first thought was to track you and your intern across town. My father-in-law' s heart attack was just a convenient excuse to be in the same building."

He had the grace to look momentarily ashamed. The accusation died on his lips as he realized how insane he sounded.

The silence that stretched between us was heavy and suffocating. He took a hesitant step toward me, his hand outstretched as if to touch my arm. His eyes, however, were drawn to the papers I was holding.

"What' s that?" he asked, his gaze fixed on the bold letterhead of the clinic.

Before I could answer, his mother appeared, her face pale and drawn. She stormed past me and slapped Blake across the face. The sound echoed in the quiet hallway.

"You selfish boy!" she cried, her voice trembling with rage. "Your father... he almost died! Because of you! Because of your ridiculous, selfish stunt!"

Blake recoiled, his hand flying to his cheek. "What are you talking about? It wasn' t a stunt! Dad was fine this morning!" His eyes darted to me. "Did you tell them? Did you run to them with some twisted version of what happened to make me look bad?" His voice lowered, laced with venom. "You couldn' t stand it, could you? The idea that I might have to care about someone else for five minutes. You had to make sure Cali' s name was dragged through the mud."

I felt the blood drain from my face. Even now, his primary concern was her reputation. Her. The intern.

"I didn't say a word, Blake," I said, my voice barely a whisper. The weight of his injustice was crushing me.

"You' re a lawyer, Blake," I said, finding my voice again, a cold fury rising within me. "A partner at one of the top firms in New York. People trust you to have sound judgment. To uphold a certain code of ethics. Do you think abandoning your bride at the altar to rush to the side of your young, female subordinate demonstrates good judgment?"

His face went white. I had struck a nerve. I had attacked not his heart, but his ego. His professional pride.

"She' s right, Blake," his mother said, her voice shaking. "How could you? How could you humiliate Evelyn like that? In front of everyone?"

Blake looked at his mother as if she' d grown a second head. He was so used to her being his staunchest defender, the one who saw no wrong in her perfect son. "Mom, you don' t understand. It was an emergency."

"An emergency that required you, and only you?" I retorted. My own years of placating him, of smoothing things over, of making excuses for him, were over. He was a lawyer. Let him defend himself.

His mother, still operating under the assumption that he' d rushed off to a car accident or some other unavoidable catastrophe, shook her head. "No matter what it was, your place was with your wife."

My wife. The word was a bitter irony. In my mind, I saw the picture Cali had sent. Her hand on his arm. In his car. At our apartment. The famous ginger-lemon tea.

Blake' s face shifted from white to a blotchy red. He opened his mouth to apologize, to smooth things over, but it was too late.

"Blake? I' m so sorry... is your father okay?"

A small, timid voice cut through the tension. Cali Beard stood at the end of the hallway, her big eyes wide with feigned concern. She was clutching a designer handbag to her chest, looking like a lost, fragile bird. She directed her question to Blake, but her eyes flickered to me, a glint of pure, unadulterated triumph in their depths.

"I feel just awful," she whispered, a tear tracing a perfect path down her cheek. "This is all my fault."

Eleanor Howard looked ready to explode. "You-!"

"Mom, stop!" Blake snapped, stepping in front of Cali as if to shield her. "It' s not her fault. She' s sick."

His mother stared at him, aghast. "Blake, are you hearing yourself? This is the woman you are about to marry! This is your family!" She gestured wildly between me and herself.

"The wedding is cancelled, Eleanor," I said, my voice eerily calm.

Blake' s head whipped back to me. "No, it' s not," he said, as if it were his decision to make. "Evelyn, you' re just upset. You' re talking nonsense."

"Am I?" I asked.

"We' ll postpone," he declared. "I already told you, I' m handling the situation with Cali. She' s being transferred Monday morning."

A small, pathetic sound, like a wounded kitten, came from behind him.

My hand on my abdomen tightened. I could feel the faint, fluttering beginnings of life inside me, a life whose father was actively choosing another woman over its mother.

"Where is she being transferred to, Blake?" I asked, my tone conversational. "The mailroom? The London office?"

"I' m moving her to the corporate law division," he said, puffing his chest out slightly, proud of his magnanimous solution. "It' s on a different floor."

A different floor. That was his solution. Keep her in the same building, a ten-second elevator ride away.

"You' re unbelievable," I whispered, the last vestiges of my seven-year love turning to ash in my mouth.

"What is wrong with you, Evelyn?" he demanded, his voice rising. "It' s a good solution! She' s a good paralegal, she has a family to support, I can' t just fire her and ruin her career because you' re feeling insecure!"

He was right. He couldn' t ruin her career. But he had just detonated mine. My life. Our future.

He was standing on her side of the line. He had drawn it in the sand himself. Him and her against me. Against his own mother.

I was suddenly so tired. Tired of the fight. Tired of the drama. Tired of him.

"You' re right," I said softly.

He looked momentarily relieved.

"I am being insecure," I continued, my voice gaining strength. "And I' ve decided I don' t want to be in a relationship that makes me feel this way. So I' m removing myself from it."

I held up the papers in my hand, turning them so he could read the words at the top.

"Pregnancy Termination: Informed Consent."

His eyes scanned the words. His brain, the sharpest legal mind of his generation, processed the information. The color, the anger, the arrogance-it all drained from his face, leaving behind a slack-jawed, hollow mask of disbelief.