His face tightened.
“I love you.”
Lauren looked at him for several seconds.
Then she removed her wedding ring.
Ethan stopped breathing.
Lauren placed it on the small table between them.
“I believe you believe that.”
“Lauren.”
“But love that requires me to ignore evidence isn’t love I can use.”
She walked toward the door.
“Where are you going?”
“To check on our daughter.”
He blinked.
“What happened?”
“Nothing yet.”
The word yet terrified him more than anything else she had said.
Lauren reached obstetric triage on the fourth floor twenty minutes later.
Her contractions had stopped.
The fetal monitor showed a strong heartbeat.
Her blood pressure was higher than normal but not dangerous.
Dr. Hannah Brooks, Lauren’s obstetrician and longtime friend, stood with her arms crossed.
“You are not going back downstairs.”
Lauren stared at the monitor.
“Hannah.”
“No.”
“I’m on call.”
“You operated while thirty-one weeks pregnant after discovering your husband was sleeping with the woman on your table.”
