Zeroed Out

I was packing my hospital bag, weighed down by my belly, when I noticed a note sitting on the table.

'Babe, there's a planetary alignment that only happens once every 77 years and I just got pulled through a time portal. Don't miss me. See you when I see you.'

The bag slipped from my hands and hit the floor. My husband, Jasper Wynn, had snuck off again behind my back, abandoning his wife who was days away from giving birth.

In our three years of marriage, the excuses he came up with were getting more and more ridiculous than the last.

I pulled out my phone and checked his location. He was already abroad.

I knew exactly what that meant. He was off traveling with Fiona Crest again. Three years together, and none of it mattered more than the woman who still lived rent-free in his heart.

A wave of suffocating fury hit me, and a violent pain tore through my abdomen. Warmth flooded between my legs in an instant.

I doubled over while clutching my stomach and collapsed to the floor. I managed to dial emergency services before everything went black.

My consciousness drifted in and out. The contractions came in relentless waves, drenching me in cold sweat. The warmth between my legs kept spreading, and my body grew colder with every passing second.

The paramedic shouted, "She's showing signs of major hemorrhage. Get her to the OR now!"

My vision started to blur. A nurse grabbed my hand and called out, "Where's your family? We need a signature before we can operate."

I bit down on my lip hard enough to draw blood. My voice was barely a rasp. "It's just me."

"You're about to deliver. Where's your husband?"

My lips trembled, and tears slid down the sides of my face. "He's dead."

Pity flickered across the nurse's expression, and she softened her voice. "Don't worry. The mother's life always comes first."

After three years of indifference and cruelty, he might as well be dead.

Just before they wheeled me into the operating room, my phone buzzed. The private investigator I hired overseas had sent the latest photos of Jasper.

In the photos, he had his arm around Fiona. The two of them stood beneath the Nordvalen night sky, gazing up at the aurora together.

He had once promised to take me to see the northern lights for our honeymoon. Work always came first, though, and the trip kept getting pushed back. Now, I finally understood. I was simply never the one his heart wanted.

The oxygen mask came down over my face, and the agony spread through every inch of my body. As blood drained out of me, a cold so deep that it felt cellular crept through my limbs. Bag after bag of plasma was pumped into my veins.

One raw, guttural scream tore out of me, and then the sound of a baby crying filled the room.

On my phone, the screen was still frozen on one last image. Jasper and Fiona were locked in a kiss beneath the Aurelian Tower.

I held my crying son and let the tears fall without stopping.