Chapter 4
Edward Quan ·
That finally worked.
She stood at once.
"All right. I'll take you."
I breathed out.
But as she turned to get her coat, the child's voice sounded again.
"Mommy."
"Don't let her come."
I froze.
"Why?"
Her voice was very quiet.
"She knows a hospital."
"The last seventeen times, I never came back from there."
My heart seemed to stop.
Just then, my mother-in-law turned.
"Let's go."
I looked at her.
Then at the phone on the bed.
A plan formed quickly.
"Mom, I left my prenatal records at work."
"That's fine. The hospital can look them up."
"But my own doctor needs them."
"What doctor?"
I named an old classmate who worked as an obstetrician.
She frowned.
"We'll go to the hospital I know."
There it was.
I clenched my hands.
"Mom, I've already made an appointment."
"No."
Too fast.
So fast that we both went still.
I looked at her.
"What did you say?"
She pressed her lips together.
After a while, she said, "I mean… that hospital's too far."
I said nothing more.
I picked up my phone and called an ambulance.
Her face changed as soon as she heard me give the address.
"Qinghe, what are you doing?"
"Calling an ambulance."
"I can drive you!"
"It hurts too much. I can't go in an ordinary car."
She came toward me, reaching for the phone.
I switched to speaker immediately.
The dispatcher's voice filled the room.
"Try to stay calm. The ambulance is on its way."
She stopped.
Slowly, her hand withdrew.
She watched me for a long time.
Then she smiled.
"Fine."
"Go wherever you like."
But before leaving, she said something else.
"Qinghe."
"There are things you can't escape just by running away."
I looked up.
She was already out of the room.
The door closed.
I sat motionless on the bed.
After a long while, I lowered a trembling hand to my belly.
"Sweetheart."
"Are you still there?"
A gentle kick.
I burst into tears.
I didn't know whether it was fear or something else.
Only that the one person I could trust was a child who hadn't been born.
A child who said I'd killed her seventeen times.
The ambulance took me to hospital.
After examining me, the doctor said the baby was fine.
No signs of premature labor.
The pain might have been caused by stress.
Lying in the hospital bed, I finally breathed easier.
But as the doctor turned to leave, I called her back.
"Doctor."
"Is there something else?"
I took a little bottle from my bag.
Inside was soup I'd secretly poured into it before getting into the ambulance.
"I'd like to have this tested."
She looked at the bottle.
"What is it?"
"Herbal soup my mother-in-law makes."
I paused.
"I think there may be something in it that shouldn't be there."
She immediately grew serious.
She asked whether I'd had any unusual symptoms, then advised me about appropriate tests and contacting the authorities if I suspected poisoning.
I nodded.
But the moment she left, my phone vibrated.
A message from an unknown number.
【Don't have it tested.】
I stared at the screen.
A second message appeared.
【If you want your child to live, pretend you know nothing.】
I went cold.
Then a third.
【Above all, don't trust your husband.】
I called the number immediately.
Unreachable.
I opened the messages to take a screenshot.
Just then, a photograph arrived.
A pregnant woman lay in a hospital bed.
Her eyes were closed.
A patient identification band encircled her wrist.
I looked at her face.
My blood froze.
It was me.
But I had no memory of the photograph being taken.
Worse was the date in the corner.
October 18, 2027.
A year from now.
Beneath it was a line of text.
【The eighteenth time, and you're still going to trust him?】
Chapter 3: The Husband with Two Faces
I stared at the photograph for a long time.
In it, I wore a pale-blue hospital gown.
My belly was still swollen.
But my face was thin and haggard.
A clock hung behind the bed.
Its hands pointed to exactly 3:17.
I zoomed in.
A detail immediately raised the hair on my neck.
In the left corner stood a man.
Only his upper body was visible.
His head was lowered, his hand stroking the belly of the woman in the bed.