The Rat In Shadows: His Downfall

stomach for the child my husband,

ransfer, he walked out. He left me for his high school sweethe

ly" photos while his own family shame

e to the floor, Braden rushe

t me with p

ou'd be a good mother when yo

haking but clear. "The funniest part is,

ily, I said, "I want a divorce.

pte

ntine

e was across the room, staring at his phone. His face was pinched, his jaw tight. It was a look I knew too well, a mir

t a family, a chance at the child we had both claimed to desperately want. A heavy weight had lifted from m

ice flat. He didn't even look u

the sterile sheet draped over me. My body was prepped, my mind a hazy mix of antici

ally glancing at me, then quickly back at the phon

at could curdle milk. Her lips were pressed into a thin li

ur wife needs you here. This is a crucial procedure, and she'll need your support and as

of his phone rang out in the quiet room, making me jump. He looked up at me, a flicker of something that mi

ally about Isabella's son, or was it the drama of Isabella herself? Wa

rushed, already backing towards the door. "Don't w

icked shut, leaving me with the sympathetic gaze

ready to proceed with the transfer. We have two excellent embryos, as discus

tion of months of injections, scans, tears,

wasn't just late. He had

ore, now felt like a battlefield. My abdomen was bloated from the hormones, my arms bruised from the endless blood draws. Every i

, my voice bar

hand hovering over the delica

eated, louder this time, the words

k. "Clementine, are you sure? We have the embryos ready. This is

but firm. "We rarely get such high-quality embryos. Don't

"It's my body," I said, my voice steady, despite th

emotional marathon. One hundred and twenty-one needle marks on my stomach, each one a silent prayer, a quiet sacrifice. My entire being

deniable. I couldn' t bring a child into a marriage that was already crumbling, into a lif

a whirlwind of resentment and a strange, liberating resolve. The dream of a child, which had consumed me for so

way the instruments, the shimmering scope with the tiny, hopeful dots now covered. The silence in the room was deafening, a star

nic felt like the closing of a chapter, not j