Chapter 4

After a long silence, my tears completely dried up. Alexander hesitated before carefully breaking the quiet. "Chelsea, you won't be able to attend the wedding this time anyway. We have plenty of chances in the future. How about we let Mia take your place at the ceremony?"

"She won't come between our relationship. Her health is terrible, and we don't know how long she has left. All she wants is a ceremony to give her boy a legitimate name. Let's just grant her this one wish, okay?"

He squeezed my hand tightly, giving away his inner tension.

He had already made up his mind; how could I refuse? After all, he had turned me down ninety-nine times before. What did one more broken promise matter?

I smiled and nodded, agreeing. "She saved your life. You should repay her. We can talk about our wedding later. Right now, I just want to wait for Chloe to wake up."

Alexander seemed ready to keep persuading me, clearly surprised by how easily I agreed. He froze for a second, then held my hand tightly, grinning from ear to ear with undisguised joy.

Just as he finished, his phone buzzed with an alert.

"Why did you buy two plane tickets for two days from now? Your eyes haven't healed yet. Can you even see? Is there an emergency? Why didn't you tell me? I could come with you."

Back when we were dating, he linked my account to his, claiming he just wanted to ensure my safety. But he had never actually checked that app before. Whenever I went anywhere, I always updated him voluntarily, giving him all the security he needed.

I never imagined the first time he'd use that tracker would be under these circumstances. A wave of bitter chill washed over me.

Without even looking up, I lied flatly, "I bought them thinking we could go on our honeymoon after the wedding. Now that it's off, they're useless. I haven't had time to cancel them yet. We'll talk about it later."

Hearing this, he sighed with mild regret and kissed my forehead in reassurance. "We'll have plenty of time to travel as a family of three in the future. Just focus on recovering. There's no rush."

Instinctively, I squeezed my daughter's hand, then slowly let go, suppressing the surging agony inside me.

Before we could say another word, his phone rang again. He answered it and rushed out of the room in a hurry. I knew Mia must be feeling uncomfortable again.

I didn't try to hold him back. His heart had left me long ago; there was no point in humiliating myself further.

Just then, the soft little hand moved. A raspy voice, damaged from the smoke, whispered weakly, "Mommy... are you crying? Chloe will blow on it. The pain will fly away."

"Where is Daddy? I miss him so much... Mommy, can you go find Daddy for me?"

I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek, desperately fighting back the tremble in my voice so my daughter wouldn't notice. I whispered softly, "Chloe is the bravest girl in the world. Does your body still hurt? I'll go get Daddy right now, okay? Don't move around, or you won't look pretty."

My daughter nodded obediently, her eyes full of longing for her father.

I gathered my courage once more to look for Alexander.

No matter how hardened my heart had become, no matter how ready I was to let go of everything, I couldn't rob my child of her last hope for a father's love. I would let her see him one last time, even if it was just to let her give up on him completely.

I pushed myself up from my crouch. The bandages around my waist had already soaked through with blood, leaving faint red stains on the floor.

Ignoring the pain, I made my way to the door of Mia's room.