The Wife He Forgot

The Wife He Forgot

Gavin

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My marriage had been a cold, empty room for five years. I was reeling from a devastating loss, sitting in the ER breakroom, when a familiar voice shattered what little peace I had left. "Mark, are you really going to die for her? For Emily Davis?" David Chase's voice, raw with anger, cut through the hospital air outside my husband' s room. His next words felt like a physical blow: "All these years, every overtime shift, every missed holiday, every time you let Sarah and Lily down... wasn't it all just so you could hear her voice on the dispatch? Just to hear Emily say, 'Engine 32, you're cleared to return to base'?" My world tilted. It wasn' t about his job, not his heroism. It was about Emily Davis, his ex-girlfriend. He had covered for her when her family went bankrupt, joining the fire academy to be near her, while I, Sarah, picked up the pieces, paying his debts, loving him for 16 years, waiting for a new beginning. Then, Lily, our daughter, died. The fever spiked viciously, taking her life in my arms within hours. Mark never knew. He never answered my desperate calls. He was always on duty, always chasing the next emergency-which now I knew was always about Emily. Why was I just a placeholder? Why was our daughter a casualty of his obsession? I didn't understand. I couldn't understand how everything I believed was a lie. How could I have been so blind? Something inside me, something that had been dying for five years, finally broke. I pulled out my phone, not to call a lawyer, but my old professor. "Dr. Reed," I said, my voice shockingly steady. "You once told me about a flight nurse program. Is it too late to apply?"

Introduction

My marriage had been a cold, empty room for five years. I was reeling from a devastating loss, sitting in the ER breakroom, when a familiar voice shattered what little peace I had left.

"Mark, are you really going to die for her? For Emily Davis?" David Chase's voice, raw with anger, cut through the hospital air outside my husband' s room.

His next words felt like a physical blow: "All these years, every overtime shift, every missed holiday, every time you let Sarah and Lily down... wasn't it all just so you could hear her voice on the dispatch? Just to hear Emily say, 'Engine 32, you're cleared to return to base'?"

My world tilted. It wasn' t about his job, not his heroism. It was about Emily Davis, his ex-girlfriend. He had covered for her when her family went bankrupt, joining the fire academy to be near her, while I, Sarah, picked up the pieces, paying his debts, loving him for 16 years, waiting for a new beginning.

Then, Lily, our daughter, died. The fever spiked viciously, taking her life in my arms within hours. Mark never knew. He never answered my desperate calls. He was always on duty, always chasing the next emergency-which now I knew was always about Emily.

Why was I just a placeholder? Why was our daughter a casualty of his obsession? I didn't understand. I couldn't understand how everything I believed was a lie. How could I have been so blind?

Something inside me, something that had been dying for five years, finally broke. I pulled out my phone, not to call a lawyer, but my old professor. "Dr. Reed," I said, my voice shockingly steady. "You once told me about a flight nurse program. Is it too late to apply?"

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My world revolved around Jax Harding, my older brother's captivating rockstar friend. From sixteen, I adored him; at eighteen, I clung to his casual promise: "When you're 22, maybe I'll settle down." That offhand comment became my life's beacon, guiding every choice, meticulously planning my twenty-second birthday as our destiny. But on that pivotal day in a Lower East Side bar, clutching my gift, my dream exploded. I overheard Jax' s cold voice: "Can't believe Savvy's showing up. She' s still hung up on that stupid thing I said." Then the crushing plot: "We' re gonna tell Savvy I' m engaged to Chloe, maybe even hint she' s pregnant. That should scare her off." My gift, my future, slipped from my numb fingers. I fled into the cold New York rain, devastated by betrayal. Later, Jax introduced Chloe as his "fiancée" while his bandmates mocked my "adorable crush"-he did nothing. As an art installation fell, he saved Chloe, abandoning me to severe injury. In the hospital, he came for "damage control," then shockingly shoved me into a fountain, leaving me to bleed, calling me a "jealous psycho." How could the man I loved, who once saved me, become this cruel and publicly humiliate me? Why was my devotion seen as an annoyance to be brutally extinguished with lies and assault? Was I just a problem, my loyalty met with hatred? I would not be his victim. Injured and betrayed, I made an unshakeable vow: I was done. I blocked his number and everyone connected to him, severing ties. This was not an escape; this was my rebirth. Florence awaited, a new life on my terms, unburdened by broken promises.

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