Part 3When Promises Fail

At 8 PM, after seven hours of silence, Nick finally showed up at the hospital.

He had dark circles under his eyes, and his gaze was heavy with guilt.

“Chloe, I’m sorry,” he said, his voice hoarse. “Vanessa… I couldn’t just let her die. It’s my duty to save lives.”

I swallowed the bitterness rising in my throat. “There are dozens of other doctors in that hospital. Did it have to be you?” I paused. “Nick, I’m not an idiot.”

After a long silence, he took my cold hand in his. “Chloe, in six years, I’ve never asked you for anything. Just this once, I’m begging you. Don’t make a scene. Don’t do anything that could negatively affect Vanessa. Her condition… she can’t handle that kind of stress.”

I looked at the earnest plea in his eyes, and my heart felt like it was being squeezed in a vise. I couldn’t breathe. He shouldn’t be begging me for this. He should be apologizing to me.

A person’s first instinct doesn’t lie. He never once thought about how humiliated I was at the wedding. He never worried about why I ended up in the hospital. His first words, his only thoughts, were of Vanessa.

Tears fell like broken pearls onto the white duvet, spreading into dark, wet spots.

It took all my strength to force out a single word. “Fine.”

He visibly relaxed. “Vanessa knows I was getting married, and she’s emotionally unstable. Let’s postpone the wedding for now.”

His voice was cautious, testing the waters. “I’ll stay with her through her treatment. Once she’s a little more stable… maybe two months. Just two months. Then we’ll have our wedding. Okay?”

I had waited six years. What was another two months? But as I saw the worry for another woman in his eyes, I suddenly felt that I couldn’t wait another two seconds.

The little life inside me seemed to sense my despair and gave a faint flutter. I placed a hand on my stomach, on the five-week-old secret that was ours, but now felt like only mine.

I slowly pulled my hand away, my voice as still as a deep, dark lake. “Nick.”

“My memory isn’t perfect, but I remember being nineteen, in the library, when you handed me that notebook, so nervous you could barely speak.”

“I remember our first date, how your palms were so sweaty you could hardly hold your chopsticks.”

“I remember graduation day, you held me and promised to give me the best life, to make me the happiest bride in the world.”

“All these years, you remembered I don’t eat cilantro, you remembered I have a sensitive stomach and need warm soup, you remembered all my little quirks… I always thought you cherished me, that you held me in the very center of your heart.”

I looked up at him, and the dam finally broke. “But today, Nick… today I can’t feel your love at all.”

Six years of memories swirled between us. Nick’s eyes reddened, and a single tear traced a path down his cheek. “But Chloe,” he whispered, his voice cracking, “Vanessa needs me right now.”

She needs me. Those three words shattered the last vestiges of hope I had.

I looked at him and, through my tears, I smiled. “Then go to her.”

He stared, clearly not expecting that. But he didn't argue. He just turned and left the room.

The next day, as I was packing my things to leave, I ran into Nick in the hallway.

He didn’t see me. His entire world was focused on the girl beside him. She wore a hospital gown, her face pale, and he was half-supporting, half-cradling her, as if she were a frightened little bird.

So this was the woman who had made him abandon me at the altar.