REBORN TO LOVE AGAIN

I always believed that love was supposed to feel warm. I believed it was supposed to feel safe, like coming home after wandering in the cold for too long. For years I chased after that feeling, convinced that if I loved hard enough and sacrificed enough then one day the person I loved would finally turn around and see me. I was wrong. The hospital room smelled faintly of antiseptic and cold air, and the quiet humming of machines filled the silence like a distant warning that something was terribly wrong. I lay weakly against the pillows, my body drained of every ounce of strength I had left. Only a few hours earlier I had given birth to a beautiful baby boy, a tiny life that had grown inside me for nine long months. My child. The thought alone made my chest tighten painfully. A nurse had taken him away not long ago, telling me that he needed to be cleaned and examined. I should have been happy. I should have been smiling like other new mothers did when they talked about their children. Instead a strange fear had been sitting inside my heart, heavy and suffocating. I knew Ethan was coming. My fingers curled weakly into the blanket as I stared at the white ceiling above me. Even now my heart still reacted to the thought of him, which felt almost laughable after everything that had happened. Ethan Blackwood. My first love. My greatest mistake. I met him when I was in high school, and from the very first moment I saw him I thought he looked like someone who belonged in a dream. He was tall and confident with a quiet charm that made people naturally gravitate toward him. Girls whispered about him constantly in the hallways and classrooms, and I was no different from them. Except my feelings grew deeper than admiration. I loved him. I chased after him in ways that made me blind to everything else around me. I studied harder because he was an excellent student and I wanted to stand beside him. I joined clubs because he joined them. When the time came to choose a university I did not hesitate for even a second before choosing the same one he did. I thought that if I stayed close enough to him then one day he would notice me. What a foolish girl I had been. The truth was something everyone else seemed to understand except me. Ethan never loved me. He never even saw me. His eyes were always fixed on one person. My elder sister. Sofia Lancaster. Beautiful Sofia who seemed to shine effortlessly wherever she went. Sofia whose laughter filled every room with light. Sofia who had always been better than me in every way imaginable. I never blamed her at first. Love was not something that could be controlled, and I told myself that Ethan was simply unable to see my feelings. Then fate played the cruelest trick imaginable. Sofia discovered she could not have children. The day that news spread through the family was the first time I ever saw real panic in Ethan’s eyes. For someone like him who valued reputation and legacy, having an heir mattered more than anything. And suddenly I became useful. The memory still burned inside my chest even now. The day he asked me to marry him I felt like the luckiest woman alive. I thought my long years of devotion had finally been rewarded. I thought he had chosen me. I did not realize I was only a substitute. A tool. A woman who could give him the one thing Sofia could not. A child. The sound of the hospital door opening slowly pulled me out of my thoughts. My heart trembled instinctively even before I turned my head. Ethan stood in the doorway. Even after everything that had happened he still looked painfully handsome. His dark hair was slightly messy as if he had run his fingers through it many times, and his sharp eyes immediately found me lying in the hospital bed. For a moment something flickered in his expression. Then it disappeared. He stepped inside and quietly closed the door behind him. I tried to smile even though my body felt weak and heavy. "Ethan," I whispered. My voice sounded fragile even to my own ears. He walked closer to the bed with slow measured steps, stopping beside me as he looked down at my exhausted face. "How are you feeling," he asked calmly. His tone was polite, almost gentle. Almost. "I am tired," I admitted softly. "But I am happy." My hand instinctively moved toward my stomach where the baby had once been. "We have a son." The words filled my chest with warmth despite everything else. A son. Our son. For a moment Ethan said nothing. His eyes lowered slightly, and I noticed something cold hidden behind them. Something that made my skin grow uneasy. "Yes," he said quietly. "A son." The way he spoke those words did not sound like happiness. It sounded like confirmation. A strange chill crawled down my spine. "Ethan," I said slowly, trying to read his expression. "Have you seen him yet?" He shook his head once. "No." The room fell silent again. I tried to convince myself that the tension I felt was only exhaustion from the birth, yet the heavy atmosphere continued pressing against my chest. Then Ethan reached into the pocket of his coat. At first I thought he was taking out his phone. Instead I saw something small and metallic glint in the dim hospital light. A syringe. My breath caught in my throat. "Ethan..." I whispered weakly. He looked down at me again, and this time the mask on his face finally disappeared. What remained was something colder than ice. "I am sorry, Aria," he said calmly. The apology did not carry a single drop of regret. My heart began beating violently. "W what are you doing?" For a moment he did not answer. Then he spoke the words that shattered everything inside me. "You were never supposed to live this long." My entire body went numb. "Ethan..." His voice remained emotionless as he continued. "Sofia needs me, and she needs peace. As long as you exist there will always be complications." The room began spinning around me as I struggled to process his words. "You already gave birth to the child," he said quietly. "Your purpose is finished." Tears began sliding down my temples into the pillow beneath my head. The man I had loved for more than ten years was looking at me like I was nothing more than an obstacle. "You said you loved me," I whispered desperately. A faint bitter smile appeared on his lips. "I never said that." The truth struck harder than any blade. My chest felt like it was collapsing. "You only heard what you wanted to hear." He stepped closer to the bed and gently took my arm before I could even attempt to move away. My body was still too weak from childbirth to resist. The cold needle pierced my skin. Pain flared briefly before fading into numbness. "What did you inject me with?" I asked through trembling breaths. He did not answer. Darkness slowly crept into the edges of my vision as the drug began spreading through my veins. "Ethan," I whispered one last time. My voice broke. "What about our child?" For the first time something shifted in his expression. But it was not guilt. It was annoyance. "He will be raised well," he said flatly. "Sofia and I will take care of him." My heart shattered completely. Even my child had already been taken from me. The last thing I saw before my vision faded completely was Ethan turning away from the bed as if my death meant nothing at all. The world slowly dissolved into darkness. And as my consciousness slipped away, one single thought burned through the pain in my heart. If I ever had another chance. If fate ever allowed me to live again. I would never love Ethan Blackwood. Never again.