She opened her eyes groggily, and the memories from before she lost consciousness rushed back like rain.
“Gerrie, you’re awake?”
A woman’s voice, thick with tears, came from beside her.
Geraldine turned her head and saw her best friend, Alayah Sosa, eyes red and swollen, looking at her with pure distress.
“I just got back from a business trip. I hadn’t even left the airport when I got the call saying you were hurt and hospitalized. You almost scared me to death, you know that?”
She sounded like she was scolding Geraldine, but tears fell anyway.
Geraldine’s nose stung. All the hurt she had been holding in for days surged up at once.
Her eyes welled up, but she only asked softly, “Allie, my parents don’t know, right?”
Alayah shook her head. “I didn’t tell them. I was afraid they’d worry.”
Then her voice lowered. “Gerrie, can you tell me what actually happened?”
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Geraldine pressed her lips together. After a moment of hesitation, she closed her eyes in pain.
“Oliver cheated on me.”
She told her everything that had happened. Alayah was so furious that she dragged a chair over, ready to go confront him.
Geraldine stopped her in time, her voice worn and exhausted. “No matter how much you hit him or curse him, we can’t go back to how things were.
“Allie, I just want to leave him as far away as possible.”
Alayah finally gave up.
They stayed quiet in the ward for nearly ten minutes. Then Alayah wrapped her in a tight hug and broke down crying.
“Gerrie, I don’t want you to go.”
Geraldine gently patted her back. “We’ll see each other again.”
After that, Geraldine stayed in the hospital for five days.
She looked at the countdown on her phone’s calendar.
Nine more days left, and she could leave this city and Oliver behind.
And in those five days, Oliver never once came to visit her.
On the day she was discharged, Alayah accompanied her to see a lawyer and learn about the divorce process. They received a drafted divorce agreement.
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“He still has to sign it. Knowing Oliver, he’ll never agree.”
Geraldine’s expression was calm.
After being hurt again and again, her love for Oliver had faded, and her heart had gone numb with it.
“I have a way,” she said hoarsely.
After parting with Alayah, Geraldine followed the address she had
found and went to see Shanice.
Inside a café, their eyes met. Shanice stared at her in panic and guarded fear.
She asked, “Miss, are you here to take revenge on my daughter and
me?”
Geraldine’s face was cold. “If I came looking for you, it means I already know everything. You can stop pretending to be innocent and pitiful. I’m not Oliver. I won’t feel sorry for you.”
The fragile, wronged look on Shanice’s face slowly began to crack.
She straightened her back, her smile turning smug and arrogant.
After sizing Geraldine up provocatively, she lowered her voice. “Since you already know, I’ll give you some advice. Leave Ollie sooner rather than later. You can’t compete with me. He and I already have a child.”
Even though Geraldine had known this long ago, hearing it out loud still made the numbness in her chest ache.
She took the divorce agreement out of her bag and placed it on the
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table.
“As long as you can get him to sign this, I’ll leave on my own.”
Shanice was surprised by how straightforward Geraldine was. After studying Geraldine suspiciously for a moment, she finally took it.
“Are you serious?”
Geraldine didn’t answer, but her attitude said enough.
They exchanged contact information. Geraldine didn’t stay any longer and turned to leave.
Behind her, Shanice sneered. “Oh, right, Geraldine. I heard you were laid up in the hospital for days. Do you know where Oliver was?
“He was…
“Taking care of my daughter and me.”
That answer didn’t surprise Geraldine at all.
She turned back calmly, her gaze as still and empty as stagnant water.
“Isn’t that exactly what you wanted?”
Using a child to do this would never make Oliver resent her.
“That’s right,” Shanice said smugly. “Since you know your place, I’ll
tell you one more thing. Ollie must have refused when you asked him for a baby, didn’t he?”
Geraldine’s heart tightened, her body stiffening.
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Shanice’s voice lifted. “That’s because he promised me that he’ll only ever have one child, and that child is my daughter.
“So if you’re really smart, you’ll give up on your own. Don’t wait until you can’t walk away with any dignity left.”
After dropping those words, she smiled and walked off.
Her footsteps faded into the distance. Geraldine stood there, pale and
drained.
Deep down, she had known it all along.
She unconsciously placed a hand over her lower abdomen. There was a life growing there, too.
But just like her relationship with Oliver, it was destined to have no ending.
