The Lost Blood

On our sixth anniversary, I found my fiancé Carter had given my grandmother's heirloom locket to his "fragile" colleague, Carmen.

When I confronted him, he slapped me across the face.

He then dragged me out into the snow, forcing me to my knees to apologize to Carmen for upsetting her. The stress and his violence triggered a miscarriage. I was losing our baby right there at his feet.

He never even noticed the blood staining the snow. He was too busy comforting the woman he chose over me and our child.

I left that night and never looked back.

Three years later, after building a new life and a successful bakery, he showed up on my doorstep, a ghost of a man, dying of cancer.

He collapsed, coughing up blood at my feet, begging for a forgiveness I no longer had to give.

Chapter 1

My perfect life shattered the moment I saw the vintage locket, the one Carter had promised was for me, hanging around Carmen Wells's neck. It wasn't the locket itself, but the way it dangled, an intimate secret now openly displayed, that ripped through six years of my devotion like a blunt knife. My hands shook as I carried the warm, spiced apple pie through the Aspen loft, the scent of cinnamon and nutmeg a cruel mockery of the anniversary dinner I had painstakingly prepared.

"Honey, I'm home!" Carter's voice boomed from the living room, a familiar warmth that suddenly felt alien. My heart, a loyal soldier in his army for so long, began to beat a frantic retreat.

I found him already on the phone, his back to me, the casual slouch of his shoulders too relaxed for a man who had just crushed my world. The locket glinted as he turned slightly, a sickening confirmation.

"Everything okay?" I asked, my voice thin, hardly recognizable. I set the pie down on the polished dining table, the clatter too loud in the sudden silence.

He turned, his eyes, usually so sharp and confident, now held a flicker of something I couldn't quite place-guilt, maybe, or annoyance. "Yeah, just a minor issue with Carmen. You know, her ex again. Always causing trouble."

My stomach clenched. "Carmen?"

He nodded, already distracted, tapping his fingers impatiently on the sleek phone. "Yeah, she's having a rough night. Some drama at the office, too. I told her I'd handle it."