Chapter 3
“Adrian, my heart… I’m having an ischemic attack, please take me to the hospital.”
Before I could finish, Adrian’s impatient voice came through the phone. “Hazel, I’ve let you stay home doing nothing every day, and now you think I owe you something?”
“You know I took Yuna to the hospital for a checkup. What are you trying to do now?”
“No, I’m sick, Adrian. Please come back and open
the door for me, or I’ll die!” I strained to speak, hoping he would hear the desperation in my voice.
“Since you like bringing up death so much, why don’t you go ahead and die? That way, at least you can apologize to Aunt Yuna
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while you’re at it.” My son yelled into the phone.
I froze.
I never imagined my son, who I carried for ten months, could say something like that.
“Adrian, you know I have myocardial ischemia…” I clung to my last hope, desperately reaching out to my husband.
His voice dripped with more sarcasm. “That illness was years ago, Hazel. I didn’t know you were this manipulative.”
“I’m really going to die, Adrian. Please come back and open the door for me,” I pleaded, my voice breaking with desperation.
The palpitations in my chest grew faster.
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It felt like I was on the edge of suffocating.
He knew how dangerous this was for me–he had seen me suffer from it before.
In the past, when I couldn’t reach him by phone, I would find a way to get to the hospital on my own.
But this time, to ensure I stayed home and reflected properly without following them to interfere, Adrian had locked the door.
Even with a key, there was no way I could open it.
I dialed again, but the call was immediately ended.
I tried again, only to hear that I had been blocked.
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Tears began to fall down my face.
I had never felt so hopeless before.
He was supposed to be the one I could rely on, the one everyone thought was a perfect husband I could trust for life.
I still remembered, when I graduated from high school, the boy, blushing, came to ask me which school I was planning to apply to.
I also recalled the day the acceptance letter arrived he came over with a bouquet of vibrant red roses and confessed his love to
- me.
We entered the same university and shared a beautiful journey together, from caps and gowns to wedding vows.
When I gave birth to our son, the man who
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never posted on social media made an exception and shared a post: “From now on, Noa and I will stand by your side, keeping you safe.”
So this was his idea of protection.
A desperate urge to survive drove me to dial the fire department, and before I lost consciousness, I managed to give them my condition and address.
I didn’t know how much time had passed, but when I regained consciousness, the first thing I smelled was the scent of disinfectant.
The sky outside had already brightened; a whole night had passed.
A firefighter, clad in uniform, stood before
- me.
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Seeing that I was awake, he immediately helped me sit up.
“Ma’am, how are you feeling?”
“Much better, thank you.” I smiled and expressed my gratitude.
Once he saw I was truly improving, he reached over to a nearby cabinet and grabbed a stack of papers.
“We couldn’t reach your family, so here’s your bill. If everything’s fine, I need to return to my team.”
I thanked him again, assuring him that I could take care of it myself.
The firefighter left.
I stared at the IV drip, the saline solution
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slowly dripping, and my heart grew numb.
When the final bottle finished, I stood up and went downstairs to settle the payment.
But, to my misfortune, I ran into my husband and son on the staircase.
They looked so alike, and even now, their faces bore the same mold of disdain.
“Who told you to come here? Isn’t it enough that you caused Yuna’s infection? What else do you want to do?”
My son, the one I carried for ten months, ran over and shoved me. “You evil woman, I don’t want you to be my mom anymore.”
From Yuna’s smug expression, I knew she had tampered with that needle.
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That’s why she had come for a recheck this morning.
But the entire night had passed, and they hadn’t realized I was hospitalized. They still thought I had come to continue framing Yuna.
My heart had completely frozen over.
I looked at the father and son, and calmly said, “Adrian, let’s get a divorce.”
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