My Husband Went Public With My Best Friend On My Delivery Day

Florence started crying the second she heard it. She looked at me like I'd wounded her, wide-eyed and disbelieving. "Cece, I was only trying to help you. How can you think that of me?" I didn't want to hear another word of her shameless act. I pointed at the door and, low and hard, told them to go. "Both of you, get out. I don't want to see either of you." "Cecilia, you're impossible! Flo does one kind thing for you and you treat it like an insult!" Luke had Florence tucked against him, and just then he noticed the inside of her palm was scraped and bleeding. He rushed to help her up so he could get it treated. But Florence noticed the incision on my belly had split open, the blood seeping through and already soaking the hem of my gown. "Luke, let the nurse look at Cece first. I think her incision's torn." Only then did Luke register that I wasn't doing well. Something like concern flickered in his eyes, but he steadied himself fast. "This is a hospital. She'll be fine." "Besides, she just shoved you. Why bother worrying about her? She'll only decide you're up to something again." "Let's get your hand treated first. There are so many germs in a hospital. What if you catch something and get sick?" Luke didn't look at me again. He firmly steered Florence out to have her hand seen to. Even though the scrape on her hand would have healed on its own in another thirty seconds. I pressed a hand to my belly, the room already starting to spin. I was supposed to be resting after giving birth, and I'd had a C-section on top of it. I tried to hang on to consciousness long enough to call a nurse, but the faint came too fast. Too fast for me to even make it back onto the bed. I dropped straight to the floor. Lucky for me it was the nurses' rounds, and before long one of them found me collapsed by the bed, out cold. They rushed me into the operating room to stabilize me. The incision had split, but at least there was no major bleeding. I was under for maybe two or three hours before I slowly came around. The first thing I heard when I woke was the doctor's sharp scolding. "Doesn't your family stay with you? Why were you left alone in the room?" "If the nurse hadn't found you in time, your life would have been in danger. Do you understand that?" My face stayed blank. My heart already ached past the point of feeling anything. Family? What family did I have left? My husband was off getting my best friend's hand treated. Who else was going to look after me? Once I was stable, the nurse wheeled me back to my room. By then Florence had long since had her hand seen to and was back in the room with Luke. The moment they saw me return, they both rushed over, all concern. "Cece, how are you feeling now?" "It's all my fault. I shouldn't have gone off to get my hand looked at. And you're being foolish too. If you felt bad, why didn't you call a nurse?" At that point the nurse who'd come with me spoke up again. "The mother is in a very bad way right now. She needs complete rest, and she needs family to take proper care of her." "Someone has to stay at her side to keep this from happening again. Do you understand?" The two of them nodded quickly and agreed. Once the nurse left, Luke sat down beside me, looking at me like I was the one causing trouble. "You heard what the nurse said. In your condition, what you need most is someone caring for you." "Whatever's going on, you shouldn't be gambling with your own health." "I wouldn't feel right leaving you to a stranger. Flo's attentive. She can take good care of you and the baby." I shut my eyes so I wouldn't have to look at him. Coldly, I said, "I can hire a caregiver." Florence jumped in at once. "A caregiver's no good at all. I've seen so many stories online. Abusing pregnant women or children happens all the time." Then she went right back to playing the victim. "We're best friends. If you won't trust me, are you really going to trust an outsider?" "Best friends?" I let out a mocking little laugh. "I don't have a best friend who sleeps with someone else's husband. Your fake concern right now makes me sick." "Cecilia, are you done throwing your fit?" "Flo's been your friend for over ten years. You're like sisters. How can you be so cruel to her?" Luke got up and went to Florence's side, gathering her tenderly into his arms. "Let's go. She doesn't appreciate it. There's no need to keep pushing yourself on someone who won't warm up to you." "Since you're so tough, let's see how long you can keep it up." With that, Luke took Florence's hand and turned to leave the room. Just before he stepped fully out the door, I spoke, slowly. "Luke, let's get a divorce."

"Cece, don't do something rash!" "Throwing the word divorce around like that. Have you even thought about how Luke feels?" Florence gripped Luke's hand and shook it, panicked, waving him over to comfort me. "Go on, go soothe Cece. Look how upset she is!" But Luke hadn't taken a single word of mine to heart. "Don't bother with her. She won't dare file for divorce." "We signed an agreement before the wedding. Whoever brings up divorce after we're married walks away with nothing." "So not only would everything she's built these past few years turn to dust, without any money behind her she wouldn't even qualify for custody of the child." Then, without so much as another glance at me, he took Florence and left. I stared blankly at the ceiling, my daughter's crying reaching my ears. It was true. Luke and I really had signed that kind of agreement before we married. Back then, right after Luke proposed to me, he suddenly pulled out a document. I'd assumed it was a prenuptial division of property. Turned out it was only a pledge. There were just three lines in it. 【1. Florence Lyons and Luke Henson will love each other forever, more with each passing day.】 【2. Florence Lyons and Luke Henson will share everything, with nothing held back between them.】 【3. Florence Lyons and Luke Henson will stay together forever. Once married, they can never part for the rest of their lives.】 【Whoever breaks these terms by filing for divorce walks away with nothing and loses everything.】 At the time I thought the whole thing was childish. After I read it, Luke leaned against my shoulder and coaxed me to sign my name. "It's your fault for being so impressive. You're always attracting admirers, and I've got no sense of security." "I wrote this to prove I can live up to every line in it, so I dare to sign. Do you?" I laughed helplessly at that, but I signed the agreement anyway, indulging him. Back then I truly believed I'd never once say the word divorce in my life. After all, Luke loved me too much. And it was precisely because that love had once shone so brightly. That now I couldn't accept it fading to gray. Over the days that followed in the hospital, Luke seemed determined to teach me a lesson. He never came to see me again. Not even a message asking after me. It was Florence who texted me now and then, asking if I felt any better today. Saying she missed me, and missed her little niece, then urging me to let it go and accept how things were. I ignored every one of them, and in the end, so worn down I couldn't stand it, I blocked her number outright. Not long after I blocked Florence, Luke made his first call. "Why did you block Flo? Do you have any idea how heartbroken she was, crying because of what you did?" "Unblock Flo right now!" I answered coldly. "No. I refuse." "Cecilia Summers, are you really going to drive things between us to this kind of ugly ending?" "Things between us broke the moment the two of you got together behind my back." Luke laughed in anger. "Fine. Since you think we're finished, then I'll sell that batch of jade you're responsible for straight to the Tanner family." The instant I heard the Tanner name, that dark memory sent me shaking again, beyond my control. Years ago, Luke and I bought a rough jade stone at the public auction that no one had any faith in. The window they'd cut showed only marble, but when it was sliced open, inside were two imperial-green pieces of glass jade, each the size of two palms. A stone worth a few hundred thousand doubled overnight to nearly a hundred million, and it caught the Tanner family's eye at once. They'd wanted to bid on that stone too, back then, but after appraising it they'd passed. Once the value doubled, they wanted in on the deal, a cut of it. Luke and I talked it over and turned the Tanners down, never expecting them to retaliate. They set me up and had me kidnapped. Three whole days and nights, and every kind of humiliation. Only after Luke handed the jade over to the man in charge of the Tanner family was I let go. For a long time after that, I was almost broken. Luke went with me to see more psychiatrists than I could count, and stayed by my side for weeks on end before I finally pulled through. And because of what happened, once our company grew large, the Tanner family went straight onto our blacklist. No matter how high a price the Tanners offered every time, Luke refused to deal with them. "I'd rather let it rot into worthless rock in my own hands than ever sell to you Tanners." I never imagined that now, to take Florence's side, he would cut open the very memory I feared most. I couldn't stop trembling. "Luke, you can't do this to me!" Maybe he heard the fear in it, because for once Luke softened. "Then unblock Flo, and give her a proper apology." "I won't! I didn't do anything wrong. Why should I apologize?" Seeing me still refuse, Luke turned cold too. "Then don't blame me for what I'm about to do." "Cece, it's really time you learned some sense. I hope this makes you think hard about where the three of us stand."

The call cut off. I pressed a hand to my chest, gasping, my whole body going numb. I knew this feeling too well. It was one of the ways my depression announced itself. I forced my hand up to the call button, and the moment I saw the nurse, I passed out. When I opened my eyes again, Luke, who'd been gone for days, had finally reappeared at my side. "The doctor says you fainted again. When did you get so fragile?" "In the state you're in, when are you ever going to leave the hospital? How are you supposed to take care of a child?" I only stared blankly at the ceiling and said nothing. Seeing that I'd tuned him out completely, Luke frowned and spoke again, displeased. "Anyway, I'm giving the baby to Flo to look after for now. You just rest here on your own and get better." The instant I heard the baby had been handed to Florence, I shook my head, trembling. "No. Give her back to me." "Can you calm down? You're acting like Flo's going to hurt your baby." I screamed, breaking apart. "I said give my baby back to me!" Something in my state finally reached him. A flicker of unease crossed Luke's eyes. "Are you… are you—" I cut him off and just kept repeating the same words over and over. Luke finally panicked and hurried to call Florence to bring the baby back. The moment I saw her again, I snatched her out of Florence's arms. Florence watched me, her eyes reddening, and spoke gingerly. "Cece, she's fine. Look, she's sleeping so peacefully." But I stared at my baby's face and knew at once something was wrong. She was too quiet. Not the smallest stir. I quickly flicked the soles of her feet. Still no reaction. "Why won't she wake up? What did you do!" Florence answered like the wronged one. "I didn't do anything. I just fed her some milk, and then a little mango juice." Mango juice? Rage sent my hand flying, and I slapped her hard across the face. "Don't you know she's still tiny? She can't have any of that. And you went and gave her mango, the one thing most likely to cause an allergy!" Luke pulled Florence into his arms. "What do you think you're doing! Flo's never raised a child. Of course she didn't know!" I didn't spare them a look. I called for a nurse and had the baby rushed away. Florence cupped her cheek and cried. "I'm sorry, I really didn't know." "What do we do? Is the baby going to be all right?" Luke was quick to soothe her. "Don't worry, we're at a hospital. Nothing's going to happen to her." "Let me take you to get that face looked at first." And with that he led Florence away, without so much as another thought for his daughter. As if he was certain the doctors would save her, that nothing could possibly go wrong. Only I stood there, heart in my throat, ignoring my own condition, waiting outside the emergency room for the result. But fate does love to toy with people. No good news came. What came was the critical-condition notice. "I'm sorry. We did everything we could." I held my baby's small body, already going cold. Ten days. She'd been with me ten days, and then she was gone. I should have cried, but it was as if my tears had run dry long ago, and I couldn't feel anything at all. I took out my phone and called Luke one last time. "What? Come to your senses and ready to apologize to Flo?" I was silent for a long while before I spoke, slowly. "The baby's dead. The two of you killed her." Luke went quiet for a few seconds, then let out a sneer. "It was a tiny bit of mango juice. And you were right there in the hospital, treated in time. There's no way anything could go wrong." "If you want me to feel guilty, at least get your story straight." Then I heard it in the background, the number being called out at the bubble tea shop. "Enough. Because you slapped Flo, I've had to bring her out for bubble tea to cheer her up." "She's even thinking of bringing a cup back for you. She's so good to you. It's time you let this grudge go." This time my silence stretched longer, and at last I called him by the pet name. "Luke, if time could turn back, I wish I'd never met either of you." Then I hung up. I'm sorry. This grudge, I cannot let go. Holding my baby, I looked toward the balcony not far off, and walked straight for it.