Chapter 2

Stella's POV

By the time I got back to our Brooklyn penthouse, the rain was coming down in sheets.

I had barely peeled off my soaked coat when that dull, nagging cramp in my stomach suddenly erupted into absolute agony.

This wasn't just some normal cramp. It felt like something inside me was violently tearing apart.

A choked gasp escaped my lips. I doubled over, clutching my stomach as I collapsed onto the floor.

Cold sweat instantly soaked through my clothes, my vision blurring at the edges. Forcing myself to look down, I saw a blinding flash of crimson trailing down my inner thighs, quickly pooling into a terrifying, dark puddle on the hardwood floor.

What the hell is happening to me?

Stumbling out of the apartment, I somehow managed to hail a cab, fighting to stay conscious all the way to the ER.

The harsh, sterile fluorescent lights of the emergency room practically blinded me.

"Ruptured ectopic pregnancy—she's hemorrhaging internally!" the doctor shouted, staring at the ultrasound monitor. "Prep her for emergency surgery right now! Where’s the family? We need a signature, stat!"

Ectopic pregnancy.

The terrifying diagnosis struck me like a bolt of lightning.

Just last week, I’d stared at two pink lines on a pregnancy test. I was supposed to surprise Cole with the news at our anniversary dinner tonight.

But now... it was too late.

Lying there on the gurney, I could feel the hospital gown beneath me already soaked through with my own blood.

Hands shaking violently, I fished out my phone. With fingers slick with cold sweat and blood, I hit Cole’s speed dial.

It rang and rang. Long enough that the edges of my vision started going black. Right before it went to voicemail, the line clicked open.

"Stella, I told you I’m busy. Are you seriously not done yet?" Cole’s voice was tight with suppressed anger. In the background, I could hear the thumping bass of a noisy bar.

"Cole..." I bit down on my bloodless lip, my voice barely a thread. "I’m at the hospital... The doctor says... I need you to sign for surgery... please..."

Dead silence for a split second. Then, Mia’s voice drifted through the receiver, crystal clear: "Cole, my finger really hurts. I scraped it earlier... do you think it’ll get infected?"

"Shh, hold still, let me get a Band-Aid on that," Cole murmured gently. When he spoke into the phone again, his tone was absolute ice. "Stella, stop doing this. Mia had a panic attack on the wall tonight. I literally cannot leave her right now."

"I’m really... bleeding out..." I gasped, feeling the heat rapidly draining from my body. The sharp, frantic beeping of the heart monitor pierced my ears. "Cole, I can't hold on..."

"Enough!" Cole snapped, his patience utterly gone. "Look, I know you’re an orphan. I know you’ve got abandonment issues and you’re desperate for attention. But you don't get to run to the hospital, fake an emergency, and emotionally blackmail me every single time I’m with Mia!"

"I am her lead guide! Right now, I am her only safety anchor. Could you have at least a shred of dignity and stop acting like a jealous clown begging for attention?"

He had all the patience in the world to bandage Mia’s scraped finger, but my bleeding out on a hospital bed, begging for my life? To him, that lacked dignity.

"Okay." I forced the word out with the very last ounce of strength I had left.

"Take a night to cool off," Cole said coldly, and hung up.

The dial tone droned in my ear—the loudest, most pathetic punchline to five years of marriage.

"Patient’s heart rate is dropping! Have we reached the family yet?!" The nurse’s panicked voice sounded muffled, like I was hearing it underwater.

I watched my phone screen slowly fade to black. I felt like a drowning woman who had finally stopped fighting, letting the freezing water swallow her whole.

Any last shred of hope I had for Cole drained away entirely, bleeding out right along with me.

Right before the darkness could consume me completely, I unlocked my phone with my thumbprint and dialed his number.

It didn't even ring a full time before he picked up.

"Stella?"

"I'm at Mount Sinai..." My arm gave out, falling limply off the side of the gurney as the phone slipped onto the blood-stained pillow. "Save me..."