Chapter 2
“Excellent. Prepare your paperwork, and you can depart next week.”
“Perfect, right after the design competition finishes, we’ll be ready to go.”
Hanging up, I looked around. This place, which had held six years of our supposed happiness, now seemed utterly ridiculous.
I packed my bags, tossing everything that represented ‘us’ into the trash: the photos we’d taken together, the matching custom mugs, the good luck charm he’d sought for me with such devotion…
From high school sweethearts to my wedding day, from fifteen to twenty-five, all the love from those years went straight into the garbage.
As soon as I finished packing, my phone rang. It was a colleague.
“Riley, there’s a document here at the office that needs your signature at the client’s office.”
I left for work immediately.
As I exited the client’s building, I saw a familiar figure.
“Daddy, take me to the amusement park!”
Caleb scooped up the child, his voice soft with affection. “Alright, Daddy will take you.”
Then he saw me. Caleb set the child down.
Before I could even speak, he grabbed my arm and explained,
“It was just so sad for the kid to not have a dad around… so I brought him out to play.”
I no longer believed a word he said. This whole scene just felt pathetic.
Suddenly, the child picked up a rock from the ground and threw it straight at my head.
Thud! Blood streamed down my face.
Alexa’s eyes immediately welled up with tears. She grabbed my hand and said, “Oh, dear, he’s just a child. Please don’t blame him!”
“That’s right, he’s just a kid! Don’t do anything rash!”
The couple played off each other, pretending to be terrified, like I was about to commit murder on the street.
I glared at Caleb. “Didn’t you say you’d blocked all her contact information? How do you already have a child this old with her?”
Caleb instantly panicked, his eyes darting nervously.
“I… we just happened to run into each other on the street.”
“Yes, and then I saw this child who looked so much like me…”
It was a pathetic excuse, but I no longer cared.
Caleb waited nervously for my reaction.
Alexa stood beside him, her face filled with obvious jealousy and resentment.
Suddenly, the child charged at me like a little cannonball.
I was knocked to the ground, my stomach hitting the curb of the flower bed.
“Leo, are you okay?” Caleb anxiously checked on his energetic son.
The frantic look on his face made it seem as if the child was the true victim.
Their happiness, as a family of three, burned my eyes.
Beneath me, I felt a warm, wet sensation.
“Blood? Why are you bleeding?” Before I lost consciousness, I vaguely saw Caleb’s worried face.
When I woke up again, Caleb was sitting by the hospital bed.
“Sign this!”
He frowned slightly, handing me a document.
“Some busybody passersby called the police earlier. This is a statement saying you won’t press charges.”
“Get up and sign it quickly. I’ll explain everything about Alexa later.”
I couldn’t be bothered to watch Caleb’s act. I turned to the nurse beside me.
“Excuse me, what happened to me?”
The nurse’s curious, almost nosy eyes darted between us. “You were pregnant, and you lost the baby. But you’re still young. Take good care of yourself, and you can have more children later.”
Her voice held a hint of pity. She offered a few simple words of comfort before leaving.
Caleb cleared his throat awkwardly. “You can have more children later, don’t worry about it. Just sign this.”
I raised my hand and swatted the document away.
Was my baby worth less than a piece of paper?
Seeing this, Alexa, who had been eavesdropping outside the door, walked in.
“Please, dear, just sign it. Leo is still so young, he didn’t mean it.”
“If you have any anger, you can take it out on me. Hit me, curse me, anything.”
Tears streamed down her face the moment she entered, as if someone had tormented her.
“That’s right,” Caleb added, “and to get you to the hospital, Alexa got hurt too.”
He gently blew on her barely-scraped skin, his face full of concern.
Alexa raised an eyebrow at me, a blatant taunt in her eyes.
I let out a self-mocking laugh.
My baby dying was a minor detail, but her scraped knee was a huge deal.
I stood up, ready to go home. Caleb tried to stop me, but then Alexa cried out from behind him:
“Honey, my scratch hurts so much!”
Hearing her, Caleb’s steps faltered.
I scoffed, my resolve to break up with Caleb hardening even further.
I had lost everything — my baby, my husband. All I had left was my career.
I needed to focus on the design competition tomorrow.
Before bed, I double-checked all the necessary materials, making sure everything was perfect.
The next day, as soon as I entered the venue, security personnel approached me.
“Ms. Hayes, your entry has been accused of plagiarism. You are disqualified from entering the venue. Please leave!”
The loud voice echoed through every corner of the hall.
Everyone looked over, curious.
“No way, isn’t that Riley Hayes, the genius designer in our industry? She plagiarized?”
“She won a national award at eighteen! Could all her past works be copied too?”
This design was my life’s work for the past three years; there was no way it was plagiarism.
Just as I was about to question the organizers, I saw two familiar figures in the crowd.