Chapter 1 - The Empty Chair
At 2:17 p.m., Nurse Lauren placed the emergency consent form across my stomach because there was no room left on the hospital tray.
Three heartbeats pulsed unevenly on the monitors behind her. I could not read the screens through my tears, but I understood the fear in Dr. Naomi Patel’s voice.
“Baby B is in distress. Baby C’s cord is compressed. We have to perform the C-section now.”
My husband’s chair was empty.
Mark had promised he was stepping out for one phone call. Forty minutes had passed. I had called six times while the pressure inside my body became unbearable.
“Call him again,” I whispered.
Lauren lifted the phone. It rang once before going to voicemail.
“Straight to voicemail.”
My hand shook around the pen.
“If I sign, can you save them?”
“We will do everything possible,” Dr. Patel said.
I signed Emily Carter beneath the blurred lines.
Across town, Mark stood in a private dining room wearing a dark blazer, black shirt, and the brown shoes I had bought him for our anniversary. Madison Vale, his first love, stood beside him in an elegant cream dress with one hand over a silver cake knife.
Mark’s phone vibrated.
He looked at my name, turned the phone off, and slipped it into his pocket.
“Today is about us,” Madison said.
He helped her cut the cake.
At the hospital, the bed began moving.
Dr. Patel walked beside me while Lauren kept one hand on my shoulder.
“We have to move now.”
Beneath the bright operating lights, I listened for three cries.
The first came quickly.
The second followed seconds later.
Then I heard only hurried voices.
“Baby C?” I gasped.
Someone squeezed my hand.
No one answered immediately.
May you like
That silence changed everything.
I stopped waiting for Mark to choose me.
