Chapter 3

In the delivery room, the doctor cut through my abdominal wall and my uterus.

Blood kept seeping out from under the gauze, and the monitor's alarm was a shriek that cut straight through.

When they pulled the baby out, his whole body was purple, his little chest barely rising and falling.

The doctor's hands shook as she cradled him, careful as anything.

"He has a faint heartbeat. Get him to neonatal now!"

When the delivery room door swung open, Evan finally stepped forward.

"Is it a boy or a girl?"

The neonatal doctor spoke fast.

"No time for that. He's premature and asphyxiated. He needs an incubator and respiratory support."

"Family comes with me. We open the emergency track first, deposit later!"

Evan looked instinctively at Charlotte.

Charlotte's lips had gone white, but she still said softly:

"Preemies come with all kinds of complications."

"Even if they save him, he could be a burden to you for the rest of your life."

The doctor stared at her, stunned.

"What did you just say?"

Evan's hand hung in the air.

Then the baby cried.

Short. Weak.

Like a needle, driven straight through my soul.

My baby.

He had been here, in this world.

But the moment he let out his first cry, the first thing out of Evan's mouth was:

"How much is an incubator a day?"

The doctor's eyes went cold.

"Mr. Sanchez, that's your child."

Evan's throat worked.

"I know. I didn't say no to it. I'm just asking."

The baby was wheeled into the resuscitation room.

Charlotte lowered her voice.

"Louise might be in danger too."

"Don't do something rash and end up in debt for the rest of your life."

Evan didn't move.

One minute.

Two minutes.

Three minutes.

The nurse stamped her foot, form in hand, frantic.

"Sign the emergency-track confirmation first!"

Evan finally reached out and took the pen.

But from the resuscitation room came the neonatal doctor's exhausted voice.

"The heartbeat's gone."

The pen dropped from Evan's hand to the floor.

I hovered in front of that door.

The hate ran so deep it turned my soul to ice.

The obstetrician finished sewing up my wound, and when she pushed through the door, she couldn't hold back her tears anymore.

"The mother's gone too."

Evan stood frozen, as if it had never once crossed his mind that it would end like this.

I raised my hand and slapped him.

My transparent body passed straight through him, no sound, no contact at all.

Yet he flinched as though he'd truly been struck.

His eyes reddened, and at last the tears came.

My parents reached the hospital just as the sky was going light.

My mother had run so hard one shoe had come off.

"Where's Louise?"

"Where's my Louise?"

Evan sat on the bench, his eyes bloodshot.

The moment he saw them, he shot to his feet.

"Dad, Mom, the hospital didn't resuscitate her in time."

My father's fist smashed into his face.

"Say that again?"

Evan staggered from the blow, and Charlotte rushed to steady him.

"Sir, please, calm down."

"Evan is already in so much pain."

My mother stared at her white coat.

"Who are you?"

Charlotte said quietly:

"I'm a doctor here at the hospital. And a friend of Evan's."

My mother lunged and grabbed a fistful of her hair.

"It was you!"

"Louise said her stomach hurt, and you told her to bear it."

"Louise wanted to be admitted, and you said she was wasting money."

"She called me. She said every time you looked at her, it was like you were looking at a joke!"

Charlotte shrieked.

"Ma'am, you can't listen to her lies!"

"The woman is dead. You can't drag me into this!"

Evan shoved my mother away.

"Enough!"