He Ignored My Miscarriage, I Cut Him Off

Chapter 2

"Well, don't you look pathetic."

Vanessa leaned against the wall with her arms folded, admiring her designer purse.

"Katherine, do you still not understand? Mr. Cole's first come, first served rule only ever applies to you. Take this purse, for example. The first three times you called, he didn't even glance at his phone. By your 10th call, he casually said he should buy me a new purse."

I leaned against the wall. A chill spread across my back until my whole body went stiff.

So Adrian's first come, first served rule was a rule I had to obey, while Vanessa had the privilege of ignoring it.

"This little thing? Mr. Cole brought it back from Mount Valecrest just for me."

When Vanessa noticed me staring at the charm, she flicked it with one finger and let out an exaggerated, put-upon sigh.

"I only mentioned it once. I didn't expect Mr. Cole to fly there and back the same day. And guess what? He used that so-called priority card from earlier. Exactly 500,000 dollars."

I braced one hand on the floor, my fingers curling so tightly that my fingertips turned white, yet I could barely feel the pain.

I'd come across that Mount Valecrest souvenir charm in a video 6 months earlier. Adrian had a business trip there coming up, so I had asked if he could bring one back for me.

"Katherine, can you stop being so childish? I have a mountain of work that takes priority. Why would I have time for some trivial request from you that came later?"

"I never said you had to get it. I only asked you to bring one back if you happened to have some free time."

"First come, first served. You don't rank anywhere on my priority list."

"What about the priority card? I'll use that."

"That money is reserved for life-or-death emergencies. What you want it for is lower priority."

I lifted my hand. Pain shot through my fingertips, and they trembled in the air.

Somehow, everything that had to wait when it involved me became a priority when it involved Vanessa. Even the priority card that had supposedly been prepared for me put Vanessa first.

Vanessa dangled the charm from her pinky without even looking up.

"You want it that badly? Why don't you beg me to give it to you?"

"I don't want it anymore. I don't need it anymore. I don't want this charm, and I don't want Adrian either."

Adrian came up behind me carrying a bowl of sweet oatmeal. He blew on a spoonful until it cooled and held it to my lips. I turned my face away, but he only frowned and moved the spoon closer.

"If you run yourself into the ground and something happens to your mom again, who'll be there to take care of her?"

The sweet oatmeal went down slowly. Every other time Adrian had bought it for me, I had thought it tasted especially sweet. This time it was cold, with a sour aftertaste.

He fed me one spoonful after another. Only after I had eaten more than half did the crease between his brows finally ease.

"Don't say foolish things like that again. We made a promise that there would never be anyone but each other. You are the only woman who will ever be my wife."

All I could see in Adrian's eyes was my own reflection, and for a moment he looked exactly as he had on Mount Avelin, holding out roses as he confessed his love to me.

"Katherine, I swear you're the only woman I'll ever marry. I'll make the sweet oatmeal you love every day. I even remember you always keep the thermostat at 81°F... Will you choose me just once? I won't make you regret it."

He remembered every preference I had and every little habit in my life. Yet somehow, every single time it mattered, he put me last.

Vanessa pursed her lips. The moment she saw the operating-room light go out, she moved at once, her heels clicking sharply across the floor.

"Mr. Cole, the chief surgeon we arranged for the business partner's family should already be operating on their relative in the other wing. This partnership is basically secured now."

My heart dropped. Before I could ask what she meant, a doctor rushed out of the operating room behind me.

"Get Dr. Mercer, now. The patient has abnormal cell changes and severe hemorrhaging. We can't stabilize her."

"Wasn't Dr. Mercer supposed to be my mother's chief surgeon? Why isn't he in there?"

"Because he's in another operating room, obviously."

Vanessa stood half a step behind Adrian, arms folded, and arched an eyebrow at me.

When I looked at her, she shook her head with feigned helplessness, though the smug curve of her lips gave her away.

I didn't have time for her taunts. I grabbed Adrian by the sleeve, my voice shaking.

"Adrian, please. Get him back here. That's my mother in there."

"But I promised Vanessa yesterday that I'd assign Dr. Mercer to the developer's relative instead."

Adrian took my hand and sighed.

"Kate, calm down. Dr. Mercer started that surgery an hour ago. He'll be able to come to your mom soon."