PART 3
Eleanor looked at her son as if he were a stranger.
“You mean to tell me…”
Her voice trembled.
“You destroyed your marriage.”
She pointed at me.
“You humiliated this woman.”
Then she pointed toward the stroller.
“You showed off these babies to everyone.”
Finally, she jabbed her finger into Adrian’s chest.
“And you knew they weren’t yours?”
Adrian’s face twisted.
“I thought she loved me.”
“Who?”
“Their mother.”
For the first time, a flicker of pity appeared on a few faces in the lobby.
Not mine.
Never mine.
Adrian had spent years tearing me down to protect himself.
I felt nothing.
Gabriel gently tightened his hold on my hand.
“Tell her everything.”
Adrian looked completely broken.
“The affair started three years ago.”
Another wave of shock rippled through the crowd.
“The twins belong to her fitness trainer.”
Eleanor’s mouth fell open.
“She admitted it after they were born.”
“Then why stay?” someone asked.
Adrian let out a bitter laugh.
Because now everyone was watching.
Everyone.
Doctors.
Patients.
Executives.
Nurses.
The image he had spent years building was gone.
“Because I couldn’t face the truth.”
His shoulders sagged.
“I spent years blaming Natalie.”
At last, he looked at me.
“I told everyone she couldn’t have children because I couldn’t admit I was the one with the problem.”
The words detonated through the room.
For five years, I had carried his shame.
Five years.
Then Eleanor turned to me.
For the first time, there was no superiority in her gaze.
No disdain.
No cruelty.
Only horror.
“My God.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“What did we do to you?”
I said nothing.
Because there was nothing left to say.
Some wounds don’t need explanations.
They need distance.
Then another voice broke the silence.
One of the nurses.
“Congratulations, Dr. Carter.”
Everyone turned.
The nurse smiled at me.
Then glanced at my stomach.
“You deserve happiness.”
Several others nodded.
And just like that, the atmosphere shifted.
The focus moved away from the Sterlings.
Toward what was ahead.
Toward me.
Toward the life growing inside me.
Toward the man standing at my side.
