My Sterile Husbands Fatal Mistake

The day of my third-trimester check-up, I stumbled across a confirmation email for a service package my husband had booked. It wasnt for a nursery or a postpartum doula. It was for Post-Abortion Recovery and Wellness.

I thought it was a clerical error, a dark glitch in the system. I was laughing, ready to make a joke about it as he walked into the kitchen, but the look on his face stopped the air in my lungs. He didnt look confused. He looked resolute.

Gideon told me, with a calmness that made my skin crawl, that hed been seeing a college student. He described her as "kind" and "pure," someone who didnt want his money or his title, someone who didn't want to break up our marriage.

But now, this girl was pregnant. And Gideon had decided he couldn't let her suffer the "stigma." He wanted her child to be born with the legitimacy of his name.

Ten minutes later, I was forced onto an ultrasound table. My body went rigid, a cold sweat breaking out as the technician applied the gel. My voice shook so hard I could barely form the words. I asked him if he was divorcing me to marry her.

Gideon didn't look away. He gripped my hand, his thumb stroking my knuckles while he used a paper towel to wipe the excess gel from my swollen belly. He gave me a thin, patronizing smile. He reminded me that when he married me, he promised I would be his only wife. He pointed out that both my parents were gonethat if he left me, Id have nowhere to go.

His plan was simple, and sick: I would adopt the girls baby. My own pregnancy had to be "terminated" because he was afraid that if I had my own flesh and blood, I would never truly love the child he shared with her.

He slid a surgical consent form onto my lap. He told me to be a "good girl," promising that I would always be the mistress of this house, that no one could ever take my seat at the table.

I looked at himreally looked at himfor a long time. Then I stood up, my legs feeling like lead, and walked toward the operating room. At the threshold, I stopped. I told him he didnt need to worry. I told him I hoped hed never regret the choice he made today.

He will never know the truth. He will never know that in this entire world, I am the only person capable of carrying a child for a man with a zero sperm count.

I didn't wake up until three days later.

The first thing I heard through the haze of anesthesia was a hushed, panicked conversation.

"Mr. Scott, that was an incredible risk. Forcing a late-term termination at eight months is dangerous enough, but demanding a total hysterectomy at the same time? Your wife nearly bled out on the table. We almost lost her."

Gideons voice was dismissive, lacking even a hint of tremor. "I made a promise to Daisy. I told her I would only ever have one child, and it would be hers. The only way to guarantee that was to make sure Isabel couldn't try again."

As his eyes shifted toward the bed, they met mine. He didn't flinch. He didn't look guilty. He simply reached out and tucked the thermal blanket around my shoulders with a sigh of feigned exhaustion.

"You heard that, didn't you?" he said, his tone bordering on a pout. "I didn't have much choice, Isabel. Daisy said shed only feel comfortable with the adoption if the 'other mother' was physically unable to conceive. Since you were already going under for the procedure, I figured wed save you a second surgery later and just take care of it all at once."

He saw the tears leaking from the corners of my eyes and wiped them away with a thumb. He actually chuckled.

"I didn't expect the complications, but look at the bright sideId hired the best OB-GYN in the state for Daisy, and he happened to be in the building. You should thank her. Her 'blessings' are the only reason youre still breathing."

My body began to shake. I summoned every ounce of strength I had left to raise my hand and swing at his face. My chest felt like it was being ripped open from the inside out.

"Gideon... you're a monster."

But my hand was weak. It barely grazed his cheek, leaving nothing but a faint streak of salt.

Suddenly, a small, lithe figure shrieked and lunged toward the bed. A sharp crack echoed through the room as her palm collided with my face.

I fell back against the pillows, my oxygen mask slipping, gasping for air like a fish out of water.

A young girl, eyes brimming with performative tears, stood in front of Gideon like a shield. She screamed at me.

"How dare you touch him! Do you have any idea how hard hes worked? Hes been sitting outside the ICU for three days straight! If I hadn't been bringing him nutritious meals every day, he would have collapsed! Why do you treat a man this wonderful like your personal punching bag?"

I didn't miss the look in Gideons eyesthe flash of raw tenderness and protective heat as he looked at her.

I had seen that look before.

Hed looked at me that way when I spent a week in the hospital with alcohol poisoning after covering for him at a high-stakes corporate dinner. Hed looked at me that way when I knelt on the floor, sobbing, begging debt collectors not to take his hands, offering them the only heirloom my mother left me just to buy him another month.

I had destroyed myself for him, and in the end, it was worth less than a single tear from this girl.

The pain was a dull knife carving into my ribs. I propped myself up, looking at the two of themthe devoted lover and his "pure" girl. I let out a jagged, hollow laugh.

"Am I supposed to be grateful? Grateful that he killed my baby? Grateful that he gutted me like a fish so I can never be a mother? Grateful that he watched me almost die just so he could keep his little mistress happy?"

Daisys tears began to fall in earnest. She glared at me with a terrifying, righteous fury.

"Fine! Its all my fault! Im the villain! Is that what you want? Do you want me to pay for it?"

She went manic. She shoved Gideon aside and grabbed a paring knife from the fruit basket on the nightstand, pointing it at her own stomach.

"Ill do it! I'll cut my baby and my womb out right now if it'll make you stop being such a bitch!"

Gideon lunged for her, grabbing the blade. Blood began to drip from his palm as he wrestled the knife away. He turned to me, his eyes cold and full of genuine hatred.

"Isabel, are you happy now?"

He scooped the "fainting" Daisy into his arms, carrying her out of the room without looking back. He threw one last sentence over his shoulder.

"I think Ive been too kind to you. Ive let you believe you actually have a say in how this works. Since you want to be difficult, you can find out what life is like without my protection."

I watched them leave, laughing through the tears. The man who once swore hed spend his life shielding me from the world was the one who had finally set it on fire.

Gideons security detail didn't wait. They dragged me out of the bed, barely giving me time to find my shoes.

"As of this moment, Mr. Scott is rescinding all privileges," the guard said, his voice a mechanical drone. "If you want to stay in this private wing, youll need to pay the balance yourself."

I smiled, a bitter, broken thing, and turned toward the exit.

"Don't worry," I whispered. "I don't want anything that belongs to Gideon Scott ever again."

My phone, my credit cards, my keysall gone. They were "company property."

I stood on the street corner, clutching my hospital gown closed under a thin coat, trying to hail a cab. Every time a car slowed down, one of Gideons shadows would step forward.

"Unless you want to be blacklisted by Summit Group, keep driving," theyd say.

The drivers would look at me with pity, shake their heads, and floor it.

The guard looked at my trembling legs and spoke with cold detachment. "Mr. Scott wanted me to give you a message. This is what happens when you're ungrateful. If youre willing to apologize to Miss Daisy and agree to act as her live-in caretaker during the rest of her pregnancy, hell let me take you home."

I didn't even look at him. I just started walking.

A thin trail of blood began to seep down my leg, staining the pavement, drawing stares from the evening commuters. I was numb to it. I walked until the sun dipped below the skyline, until the city lights felt like needles in my eyes, and finally, I reached the house. Our house.

The windows were glowing, a warm invitation against the night chill. I reached out with frozen fingers to punch in the security code.

Beep-beep. Access Denied.

I tried again. And again. The system hissed at me with every failure. Finally, the housekeeper opened the door. She didn't look at me with concern. She looked at me with smug disdain.

"Ma'am, stop. You know the rules. Until you apologize to Mr. Scott, you aren't allowed to use anything he paid for. And he paid for this house."

She looked me up and down, a sneer curling her lip. "If I were you, I'd just say sorry. Look at who he is. There are a thousand women waiting in line for your spot. Youre in your thirties, you have no family left, and now you cant even have kids... hes being generous by not divorcing you. Why make a scene?"

"I'm not coming in," I said, my voice raspy. "I just want one thing."

She scoffed. "Everything in there belongs to him. What could you possibly own? Youre probably trying to steal some jewelry to sell, aren't you?"

"I want my medical file," I said calmly.

She rolled her eyes, disappeared inside, and returned a moment later to hurl a brown envelope at my feet.

I picked it up. Inside was a lab report from a decade ago. It bore Gideons name and a diagnosis: Azoospermia. Permanent infertility.

I remembered the day we got those results right before the wedding. I remembered the crushing weight of the secret. Gideon was a man of immense pride, a man who built an empire on the idea of his own perfection. How could he have lived with the knowledge that he was "broken"? How would his competitors have used it against him?

But the doctor had told me a secret back then. My biology was an anomaly. Something in my hormonal makeup was capable of "triggering" his dormant, non-motile sperm. It was a one-in-a-million medical fluke.

"Mrs. Scott, your husband is a lucky man," the specialist had told me. "Ive never seen a compatibility like this. You are quite literally the only person on earth who could give him a biological child."

I had intended to take that secret to my grave. I wanted to protect his ego. I wanted him to feel whole.

I never imagined I would be the one to tear the veil down.

I took the last bit of cash I had hidden in my coat pocket and went to a 24-hour copy center. I made twenty copies of that report. I called a courier service.

"Deliver these immediately," I told the man, giving him the addresses of every rival CEO in the city. "Tell them its a wedding gift from the former Mrs. Scott. Theyll tip you well."

Gideon, this is the last thing I'm giving you. I hope you enjoy the fallout.

I didn't go back to the mansion. I went to the tiny, one-bedroom walk-up wed lived in when we first started the company.

Back then, we were broke. We lived on instant noodles and dreams. Gideon used to lie to me, saying hed already eaten at a business meeting so I could have his portion of the food. Id wake up at 2 AM and see him at the kitchen sink, drinking glass after glass of tap water just to stop the hunger pangs.

We got married in that living room. No guests. Just a pair of cheap silver bands that cost less than fifty bucks.

That place meant everything to me. Even after we moved into the ten-million-dollar penthouse, Id secretly bought the unit from the landlord. I used to imagine us retiring there, going back to the beginning when things were simple.

I never thought Id be returning there because the end had come.

I turned the key and pushed open the door.

My heart stopped.

There, on the worn-out thrift store sofa, were two bodies tangled together.

And the silk pajamas Id kept in the closetthe ones Gideon and I bought as our first "luxury" purchasewere draped over Gideon and Daisy.

My brain went white. "Gideon! How could you bring her here? You know what this place is"

Daisy didn't let me finish. She moved with practiced speed, slapping herself across the face so hard her cheek reddened instantly. She threw herself in front of Gideon, weeping.

"Isabel, Im sorry! I just wanted to see where Gideon grew up! I begged him to bring me here! Please, if you're angry, hit me, just don't hurt him!"

Gideons face transformed with fury. He cupped her "injured" face, blowing on her cheek as if she were a child. Then he looked at the guard behind me.

A massive hand gripped my arm. A heavy palm slammed into my cheek. Once. Twice. My ears began to ring. They didn't stop until I was slumped on the floor, gasping.

Gideon looked down at me, his expression flat. "Why do you have to make this so difficult, Isabel? If youre feeling unwell, go back to the hospital. Why are you stalking us?"

"Home?" I whispered, tasting blood. "Do I still have a home?"

I looked at him, my eyes burning. "Why this place, Gideon? You can screw whoever you want, but why did you have to ruin this? The Gideon I loved at twenty was the only thing I had left. Why did you have to kill him too?"

Gideons eyes flickered for a seconda ghost of a memorybut then they hardened into obsidian.

"Ruin it? I built it! If it wasn't for me, youd still be rotting in a hole like this. Don't forget, the money you used to buy this place came from my accounts. Its mine. Ill do whatever I want with it."

He let out a sharp, jagged laugh. "You think Im making it dirty? Isabel, I don't care about this dump. Ill burn it to the ground before I let you hold it over my head."

He signaled the guards to drag me outside. I watched, paralyzed, as they hauled in several canisters of gasoline and a few industrial fire-starters.

With a single flick of his lighter, the only place where we were ever truly happy went up in a roar of orange flame.

Through the wall of heat and smoke, my tears wouldn't stop. Gideon stared at my face, his anger seemingly sated by the destruction. His voice dropped to a cold, clinical low.

"Isabel, what will it take for you to understand? I gave you the Scott name. I gave you the penthouse, the Birkin bags, the couture gowns youre wearing right nowthings most people couldn't earn in three lifetimes. Wasn't that enough?"

"You're not young anymore. Did you really think Id stay in love with a fading woman forever? Im giving you dignity. Im giving you a life of luxury. All I asked was for you to keep your eyes closed and make room for Daisy and the baby. Is that so hard?"

I looked into his eyes, and for the first time, I felt nothing but a deep, hollow pity.

"I won't do it."

"Gideon, you just burned the last bridge. I want a divorce."

His jaw tightened. "Divorce? Never. Even if I don't love you, you're a part of the Scott brand. Im not letting you go."

He stepped closer, his voice a hiss. "I never owed you anything, Isabel. If anything, I owe Daisy. Ive made her live in the shadows during the best years of her life. I tried to give you a graceful way out, but you insisted on making it ugly."

He turned away from me and dropped to one knee in front of Daisy. He pulled a massive, 10-carat diamond from his pocket.

"Daisy, Im sorry I found you so late. I can't give you a legal marriage certificate yet, but Im going to give you the biggest wedding this city has ever seen. I want everyone to know youre the one I love."

Daisy gasped, her eyes shining with triumph, but then she looked at me and pouted.

"I can't, Gideon. I love you, so Ive been willing to be the 'other woman,' but I can't stand the thought of the whole world calling me a home-wrecker. Unless..."

She turned her venomous gaze toward me.

"Unless the 'first wife' stands as our witness. Unless she tells the world that the woman who isn't loved is the real intruder. Unless she admits she is the third wheel."

I met the girls malicious gaze with a blank stare. Gideon, seeing my silence, twisted the knife.

"Isabel, don't forget where your parents are buried. That private cemetery? I own the deed to that plot. You wouldn't want them to end up like this house... would you?"

It felt like hed reached into my chest and squeezed my heart until it burst. I could taste the copper in my throat.

I nodded slowly. "Fine. Ill be there."

Daisy squealed with delight and threw herself into Gideons arms. He took her to look at gowns and hotels, but he paused at the door.

For a moment, his voice softened. "Its just a ceremony, Isabel. It doesn't change your legal status. Just play along."

"Okay," I said.

He looked at me deeply, finally satisfied. "You don't need to look after Daisy for now. Go rest. When the baby is born, the three of us will go on a trip. Think of it as your compensation."

"Okay," I repeated.

The day of the "wedding," Gideon was so paranoid Id cause a scene that he had guards lock me in the bridal suite early.

Daisy was preening in a gown that cost more than a suburban house. "Isabel, the dress is so heavy, I can't reach my shoes. Be a dear and help me?"

Gideon frowned, his eyes shifting to me. I didn't say a word. I knelt, lifted the layers of lace, and slid the heels onto her feet.

Gideon looked at me with a complicated expressionguilt, perhaps, or a lingering sense of wrongness. He opened his mouth to say something, but Daisy pushed him toward the door.

"Honey, Im parched. Go grab me some orange juice?"

He smiled, kissed her forehead, and stepped out. The second the door clicked shut, Daisys foot lashed out, kicking me square in the chest.

I sprawled back as she looked down at me with a sneer. "You think Im just some gold-digger, don't you? You have no idea. Gideon and I? Weve been together for almost ten years."

The shock must have shown on my face, because she laughed.

"He said I was too young to suffer through the lean years with him. So he kept me in a condo across town while he used you to build the company. He felt so bad for 'using' you that every time he made his first big commissions, he told you the debt collectors took the money. In reality? He was buying me Chanel bags. Whenever I got bored, hed have those 'collectors' come to your house and put on a show so he could siphon more cash to me."

"It was about two million dollars in total. Oh, and that cheap silver bracelet you liked? I threw it in the trash."

I was shaking so hard I couldn't breathe.

Two million dollars. That was the money Id worked three jobs for. Id fainted on a factory line once, nearly losing my arm to a machine, just to make sure Gideons "debts" were paid.

When he found out, hed held me and cried, saying he was a failure.

And all that time... it was a lie.

Daisy kept going, her voice a sharp stiletto. "And then you got pregnant. I was so mad I wouldn't let him touch me. So he staged that 'celebratory dinner' with the investors. He made sure they kept pouring you drinks until you miscarried. You were dying on the operating table, and he was on the phone with me, begging me not to be mad at him."

The world went black for a second.

"But he still won't divorce you!" she hissed, her face contorting with rage. "Youre just a habit he can't quit. You think your 'history' makes you special?"

She smiled thena slow, terrifying grin. "Tell me, Isabel... if Gideon thinks you tried to kill his baby, do you think hell still care about your 'history'?"

My hair stood on end. I turned to bolt for the door, but she was faster. Daisy grabbed a bottle of champagne and smashed it against her own stomach, letting out a blood-curdling scream.

"Gideon! Help me! Shes killing the baby!"

The door flew open. Gideon was there in a heartbeat, his face a mask of horror. He grabbed my wrist and threw me across the room. He didn't see me hit the wall; he only saw the blood beginning to bloom on Daisys white skirt.

"It wasn't me..." I tried to say, but his hand was already around my throat, cutting off my air.

His eyes were bloodshot, his voice a primal roar. "Isabel! Youd even kill a child? You disgust me!"

"You took her baby," he snarled, his face inches from mine. "So don't blame me for what happens to your parents."

Through my tears of agony, I heard him bark an order into his radio. "Destroy the graves. I want the headstones crushed and the remains thrown into the sewer. Now."

"NO!" I screamed, a sound that didn't feel human. "Gideon, you madman! Look at the security cameras! I didn't touch her!"

Daisy scrambled up, sobbing, and ran toward the open window. "The baby is gone! Whats the point of living? Ill just jump! Go ahead, Isabel, tell him more lies!"

Gideon panicked, dropping me to catch her. He held her tight, looking at me with a coldness that froze my blood.

"Isabel, youve exhausted every ounce of mercy I had. You hurt my family? Youre going to pay."

"Call the police," he said to his guards. "Tell them she assaulted a pregnant woman. And call the warden at the county jail. Tell him to make sure she doesn't have a single 'good' day inside."

--------

Gideon ignored every red light on the way to the hospital. He ran into the ER with Daisy in his arms.

"Save my child! Ill donate ten million to this hospital if you save my baby!"

The doctor on duty jumped, looking at Gideon with a confused frown. "Mr. Scott?"

He looked at Gideon, then at the "fainting" Daisy.

"Your child? Mr. Scott, you have a documented case of Azoospermia. You're sterile. How could you have a child?"