Too Late to Win Me Back

Chapter 6 We'll Have One of Our Own

When Katherine didn't react the way she normally would, Spencer's unease deepened.

She had changed. And for the first time, he felt that she might slip through his fingers at any moment.

The panic clawed through him. He buried his face against her shoulder, then gently eased her back onto the couch. His kisses came soft and lingering.

"Baby, let's have a child."

'A child.'

They had almost had one.

But now they never would.

Katherine's heart clenched. She was still trying to think of how to dodge the conversation when the doorbell rang.

Spencer ignored it at first. But whoever stood outside kept pressing the button.

His irritation flared. With obvious reluctance, he pushed himself off Katherine and went to answer the door.

Jasmine stood outside in a white dress, her eyes wet, her face pale and anxious. Aiden stood beside her, holding her hand.

Spencer's face hardened at once. His expression turned cold.

"Jasmine," he said sharply, "didn't I tell you not to show up here with Aiden without my permission?"

Jasmine fought back tears, looking panicked, helpless, and wronged.

"Mr. Hopkins... Aiden has a fever..."

"Then take him to the hospital. I'm not a doctor!"

He shut the door in their faces.

"You're not going to check on him?"

Katherine looked up at him.

"It's just a child. We'll have one of our own someday."

He held her close, almost needy, almost pathetic in the way he clung to her.

"I haven't been close to them. I belong to you. Only you. Promise you'll never leave me, okay?"

After that, Spencer really did stay with Katherine. The only time he left her side was to take a call in the bathroom.

Even then, Katherine could still make out a few words through the closed door, like fever and hospital.

But she was too tired to think about it for long. The pain from the cancer gnawed through her body. Eventually, she curled up in Spencer's arms and drifted into a restless sleep.

When she woke again, it was deep into the night.

Pain was what woke her.

Spencer had carried her to bed before she fell asleep. The blanket had been carefully tucked around her. The room was set to the exact temperature she liked.

But the other side of the bed was empty.

Katherine sat up slowly and stared into the dark.

She knew exactly where he was.

She could picture it too easily, Spencer at the hospital, Jasmine there beside him, Aiden in bed. The thought sliced through her.

It felt like a blade carving into her chest again and again.

Katherine pressed a hand over her abdomen, got out of bed, and walked to the living room. Then she turned on the camera and pointed it at herself.

"Katherine, this is the last birthday you'll ever have in this world. Happy birthday!"

Tears fell before she could stop them. At the same time, a sharp cramp tore through her belly, so violent it made her bend forward.

"Spencer, do you remember what I told you when we first got together? I told you that if you ever stopped loving me or fell for someone else, you had to tell me. Because if you lied to me... I would leave you forever!"

Katherine's expression showed a resolve she had never displayed before.

"Now I'm the one leaving you!"

After she finished recording, it was too late. Nina was probably asleep.

So Katherine sat alone in the living room until dawn. Only after morning came, when she figured Nina must be awake by now, did she send over the footage.

Katherine: Episode One complete. We start filming Episode Two in one week.

Nina didn't answer right away. Two hours later, she sent a voice message.

Nina was clearly crying, trying and failing to hold it in.

"Katherine... I was wrong. I finally understand why you were acting that way before!"

She sounded wrecked. It had taken Nina two hours just to watch that video!

She was only a stranger, and even she could barely bear it. How much worse must it have been for Katherine, who was living it!

She couldn't begin to imagine what it had cost Katherine to sit there and record all of it herself!

It was a pain worse than death!

The next few days passed the same way. Spencer kept saying he was busy at the office and rarely came home.

Katherine knew he was at the hospital. She didn't bother exposing the lie.

In the little time she had left, she wanted peace.

But peace was the one thing she wasn't going to get.

On the third day of Aiden's hospitalization, Katherine received a video from Jasmine.

In the video, Aiden sat in the middle of a hospital bed while Spencer held a storybook open on one side and Jasmine leaned in from the other, telling the boy a story, a picture-perfect family of three.

Jasmine: Katherine, sorry for taking up Mr. Hopkins' time again. Aiden's just so attached to his dad. Since you don't have children, I guess you wouldn't understand. Mr. Hopkins is so gentle and patient. What should I do? I think I'm starting to fall for him! Kids need their fathers. So maybe, Katherine, you should just leave him.