~Adeline~
The last thing I expected to hear, standing outside my own daughter’s hospital ward, were words that felt like blades sinking straight into my heart.
“I hate Mommy! Even though she knows I’m allergic to carrots, she still forced me to eat them yesterday. I hate her! Daddy, hurry up and divorce her so Aunt Beth can become my new mommy.”
Zora’s voice—my daughter, whom I had carried for nine months, endured a painful C-section to bring into this world, and raised for seven years—reached me from inside the room where I stood frozen outside.
The nylon bag in my hands crinkled as my grip tightened around it, the sound sharp in the quiet hallway as I struggled to hold back the surge of hurt rising in my chest.
Earlier today, I had come to the hospital because I had been feeling faint all week, with stabbing pains twisting through my stomach. I was supposed to get checked out, but before I could even step in for the test, I saw my husband, Adrian Carter, rushing into the hospital with a worried expression.
Instinctively, I followed him—and that was when I saw my daughter lying in bed, her skin damp with cold sweat.
Zora had always been a weak child, easily falling ill, so when I learnt from the passing doctor that she'd been brought in by a teacher, after developing a fever, I knew the only thing that helped during such times was the porridge I bought from a vendor downtown.
Without hesitation, I rushed there, ignoring the sharp flare of pain in my abdomen and the near miss of a car that almost hit me.
However, upon returning with the porridge secured, I had barely stepped inside when those words reached my ears, freezing me in place.
“I don’t want her as my mommy anymore. I don’t love her. I love Aunt Beth.” Zora’s voice rang out again, clear and unrestrained.
Then I heard my husband's.
“Zora, what have I warned you about saying things like that? I’ve told you, if your mother hears, she’s going to throw a tantrum like a child. Then you won’t be able to see Elizabeth anymore.”
Zora immediately gasped.
“I’m sorry, Daddy. I’ll keep quiet from now on. Just like how Mommy never found out that we went to see Aunt Beth the day before yesterday, she’ll never find out about this.”
Her words landed with a blow and twisted painfully through my chest.
The day before yesterday, I had been extremely sick. I begged Adrian to stay with me, but he said he had important business to attend to. He left me alone that entire night, writhing in pain so intense that I eventually passed out.
When I woke up the next morning, both Zora and Adrian saw my condition and dismissed it, saying I was being overdramatic. At the time, I almost believed them.
But now, hearing that my suffering had only been an inconvenience—something that interrupted the time they spent with Elizabeth Sterling, my husband’s childhood best friend—felt like a blade driving straight through my heart.
So after all these years, after everything I had sacrificed, this was what it amounted to.
A child who harbored resentment toward me without reason and a husband who had never truly cared.
How had my life become like this?
Once, I had been a sought-after genius in the medical field.
However, everything changed after one fateful accident. Adrian had been there that day, and he saved me, but in the process, he ended up breaking his legs. As a way to take responsibility, I stayed by his side to care for him… and somewhere along the way, I fell in love.
After years of effort, I was finally able to nurse him back to health. But on the day of his celebration party, everything took a turn I never expected. Drunk and disoriented, he dragged me into bed, mistaking me for Elizabeth Sterling.
When his grandfather found out, he forced us to marry. Not long after, I discovered I was pregnant.
At the time, I thought it was fate—an opportunity to build a family of my own. So I gave up everything else without hesitation.
But… who could have imagined it would end like this?
I swallowed a self-mocking laugh and lowered my head.
Once a sought-after genius, now, just a wife and mother… despised by both her husband and her own daughter.
How far I had fallen.
“Daddy, I want to have dinner with Aunt Beth,” Zora’s voice came from inside the room once again.
“Okay,” Adrian replied calmly. “I’ll have her come over now.”
The next second, my phone buzzed in my pocket. Reaching in, I pulled it out and saw it was a message from Adrian.
I drew in a steady breath before accessing it.
[Zora isn’t feeling too well. I’ll stay at the hospital with her. Prepare something and bring it over later in the day.]
Reading the message, I painfully realized it was his way of keeping me away.
My throat tightened as I swallowed tears back and replied.
[Okay.]
Shoving the phone back into my pocket, I took one last look at Zora, who was beaming on the hospital bed. It was obvious she was happier to see Elizabeth than her own mother.
The sight made my chest ache as I turned and walked away.
All those years had amounted to nothing but wasted sacrifice. At this point, was there any need to keep deluding myself?
Stepping out of the hospital felt like a breath of fresh air, one that cleared my mind completely. And in that moment, it became painfully clear what I had to do.
I pulled out my phone and scrolled down to a number saved at the bottom, marked with a star, before pressing call.
The line was picked up almost immediately, and Mikaela’s voice came through, bright and familiar.
“Lina!” she said, sounding genuinely happy to hear from me.
“Hey, Kayla,” I replied quietly. “I’ve made up my mind. I’ll help you with the medical research you’ve been stuck on. But in return…”
I paused briefly and my grip tightened around my phone as I inhaled slowly, filling the ache in my chest with determination before announcing.
“I need you to find me the best divorce lawyer in the whole of Seattle.”