No Love Lost

On our wedding anniversary, eight months pregnant, I fell down the stairs.
Avery rushed me to the hospital, terrified.
As anesthesia took hold, I overheard the surgeon:
We’ve given six times the normal dose—she won’t feel a thing. But the baby’s vitals are stable. Are you sure you want to induce labor? It could paralyze her.
Avery’s voice was ice: "Do it."
"Caleb’s induction into the family is soon. I can’t risk anything threatening his position. This debt is owed to Sabrina and our son."
"Once Caleb’s secure, I’ll heal Daisy. We’ll have another child. But this one… has to die."
A tear slipped down my temple as darkness swallowed me.
I woke to a stillborn son and a shattered body—paralyzed from the waist down.
Grief was drowned by betrayal.
So when Avery spoke of a fresh start, I chose my own path.
I faked my death… and disappeared.

1.
The news of our son’s death sent me into another spiral of unconsciousness. When I next surfaced, it was to the sound of Avery’s voice, speaking with a friend just outside my room.
“You’ve been with Daisy for years, Avery. Don’t you know her at all? If you had just told her Caleb was your son, she would have loved him as her own. Why did you have to do this to her? Turn her into… this?”
A long silence followed before Avery’s detached voice finally responded. “I know she would have. But it was a risk I couldn’t afford to take.”
“It’s what I promised Sabrina.”
“Besides,” he added, his voice chillingly practical, “we can have another child. Daisy is young. We’ll have our own family someday.”
The friend sounded incredulous. “This was all because you were afraid Daisy’s child, your legitimate heir, backed by the Sterling family’s influence, would threaten Caleb’s inheritance, wasn’t it? That’s all this was about!”
“You’re a monster, Avery! That baby was fully formed. When they carried him out of the OR, I saw him… just a tiny, perfect little thing… How could you?”
Hearing this, a phantom tearing sensation ignited in my lower body. The ghost of a baby’s cry echoed in my ears, a razor blade scraping against my heart. The pain was unbearable.
“And that’s not even mentioning that Daisy is paralyzed because of you! She’s your wife! Do you have any idea how much she went through, carrying your child for nine months?”
“This wouldn’t have happened if she hadn’t been so stubborn, if she hadn’t secretly pricked holes in the…” Avery’s voice trailed off into what sounded like a sigh. “Sabrina was already making a huge concession by allowing Daisy to have a child of her own at all!”
“Do you think I don’t feel the pain of this? But I owe the Quinn family everything. What was I supposed to do?”
The friend’s voice dropped to a furious hiss. “You should never have gotten involved with Daisy Sterling in the first place!”
The conversation ended, the two men parting in anger.
Hidden beneath my blankets, I wept in silence, not daring to make a sound.
A moment later, the door opened. “Is it all taken care of?” I felt Avery gently adjusting my covers. “Give them a generous severance. Enough to ensure they never set foot in this country again.”
He had sent the entire surgical team abroad. A man of decisive, ruthless action.
I laughed, a bitter, silent laugh, and kept my eyes squeezed shut.
I had believed he was as excited for our baby’s arrival as I was. When I fell, the only person I hated was myself. I had twisted my body, taking the impact on my back, sacrificing my own well-being to shield my belly from any sharp edges.
I never imagined it was all a trap.
That it was Avery who had poured oil on the stairs, who had engineered my “accident,” who had an executioner waiting for me at the hospital.
What a cold, black heart.
The husband I adored, the marriage I cherished—all of it, a lie.
For his illegitimate son, Avery had murdered our own flesh and blood. All to fulfill some twisted promise and secure an inheritance.
A violent tremor wracked my body. But the searing pain that radiated from my legs was nothing, not even a fraction of the agony consuming my heart.

2.
My silent trembling must have been visible, because when Avery returned, he saw the quivering mound under the covers and immediately wrapped his arms around me.
His voice was a masterpiece of regret. “Daisy, I promise you, we’ll have another child.”
“Trust me. I’ll do everything in my power to heal you. Please, don’t cry.”
He kissed my forehead, a gesture of profound, counterfeit love. “When you cry, my heart shatters.”
I stared blankly ahead, my gaze venomous. I couldn’t look at him, terrified the raw hatred in my eyes would betray me.
“Does it really?” I whispered.
Avery gently turned my shoulders to face him. I saw the tear tracks on his cheeks, the raw red rimming his eyes.
“How could it not? I love you, and I loved our child.”
“No one was more excited for our baby to come into this world than I was. What happened… Daisy, I’m the one in the most pain here.”
The man was a virtuoso.
No wonder I’d never seen through his despicable charade all these years. I remembered his ecstatic joy when we first found out I was pregnant. He’d been like a man who’d discovered a priceless treasure, too happy to sleep. Throughout the pregnancy, he had been obsessively attentive, hovering over me with a dozen layers of caution every time I went near a staircase.
Who could have possibly guessed that even then, he was laying the groundwork for his other son, his real family?
“Avery, thank you for the gifts. Caleb loves them.”
Avery was asleep beside me, but his phone buzzed incessantly. Using his thumbprint, I unlocked it. My world shrank to the glowing screen.
I stared for a long time, fat tears plopping onto the glass.
The clothes I had lovingly picked out for our baby had all been exchanged, a month ago, for Caleb’s size.
The villa I had dreamed of giving to our child was now occupied by Sabrina and her son.
The background of their chat history was a photo of the villa’s garden. The three of them—a perfect family—were sitting together on a swing set, radiant with happiness.
My heart went numb.
Scrolling further up, I found Avery’s correspondence with a Feng Shui master, discussing the most auspicious date for Caleb’s formal induction into the family. It was three months from now.
I closed my eyes, a bitter taste flooding my mouth.
Three months.
It was more than enough time for me to disappear.
“I had this dress custom-made by a designer,” Avery said, holding it up. “No one will be able to tell.”
My lower body was slightly misshapen from the injury, and even with a cane, the signs of paralysis were visible.
Seeing my eyes well up, Avery rushed to my side.
I shook my head. “It’s nothing. I was just thinking about when we first met. You were this thoughtful then, too.”
When we’d first met, I’d taken a fall while hiking and scraped my arm. He had meticulously sourced a beautiful, long-sleeved summer gown so I could attend my debutante ball without the scrape showing. It was that meticulous care that had won my heart, convincing me to leave my home and marry him.
He smiled, a fond, indulgent smile, and knelt to help me with a medical dressing. “I’ll be even better to you from now on. Don’t overthink things. I’ll never be ashamed of you.”
If I hadn’t heard the brutal truth with my own ears, I would never have believed this perfect gentleman was a monster who had murdered his own child.
My enemy. The man who had pushed me into this abyss.
I had no choice but to play along, to feign a more severe paralysis to lower his guard. I knew him. Even after he brought Sabrina and Caleb into the family, he would never willingly let me go.
I secretly contacted my best friend, Chloe, and had her arrange for a new hospital and a new medical team.
“You have to be careful,” she had warned. “Avery can’t find out. Not a whisper.”
Two weeks passed. One morning, I woke to find Avery sitting by my bed, his eyes red, unable to meet my gaze.
“Daisy, I’ve booked the best doctors in the world. We’re going to get the feeling back in your legs. I promise.”
Yesterday, during a physical therapy assessment, I had deliberately exaggerated the severity of my condition. As expected, today’s medical report was grim.
“Everything else seems to be fine,” the doctor had said, a line I was sure Avery had fed him. “However, if you two are thinking of having another child in the near future, I’m afraid I can’t recommend it.”
Temporarily infertile?
I scoffed internally. Another lie, courtesy of my husband. Women with amputated limbs could have children, but I, with two legs that could still touch the ground, was being declared barren? It was laughable.
Fine. I would play his game.
“Avery,” I said, my voice carefully fragile. “I know how much you’ve always wanted a child. Maybe… maybe my legs will never get better. What if… what if we adopted?”

3.
Saying the words felt like my heart was bleeding out.
Avery didn’t notice. He just looked at me, stunned, then pulled me into a tight embrace. “Trust me, Daisy. This is just a temporary solution.”
“Once my parents’ wishes are fulfilled, I’ll take you abroad. We’ll start our own new life, the three of us.”
He had it all planned out, down to the country where we would live. The one detail he hadn’t accounted for was me already knowing about Caleb.
And he was moving fast. His desperation to legitimize his bastard son was palpable.
A few days later, he brought the boy to the hospital.
“You’re his mother,” Avery said, his expression cautious, as if afraid I would refuse. “It’s only right that you be the first to meet him.”
I looked at the boy standing outside my room. He was impeccably dressed, exuding an air of quiet aristocracy. My hatred reached its zenith.
Why did his son get to be born with a silver spoon, to grow up cherished and carefree, while my poor, innocent baby was suffocated before he could even see the world?
But a smile remained plastered on my face. “Caleb, is it? Come here.”
It was only when I saw the locket around his neck that I understood the true meaning of despair.
It was an identical locket to the one Avery had given me on the day I reached nine full months of pregnancy. A family heirloom, he’d said.
But the one Caleb wore was older, more worn, infinitely more precious.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Who takes care of you, sweetie? Is she here today?”
I wanted to see her. This Sabrina. I wanted to see the woman who had orchestrated my ruin.
The words had barely left my mouth when the sharp, confident click of high heels echoed in the room. Avery’s expression changed instantly.
“Avery, he’s still so young. I was worried, so I came up… You don’t mind, do you?”
It was her.
Over the years, every time Avery had gotten drunk and called me to pick him up, I’d seen her hovering in the background. She had been infiltrating our lives all along.
I bit down hard on my lip, refusing to show any weakness.
“Mrs. Rhodes, hello. I’m Caleb’s mother. I’m also a cardiothoracic surgeon at this hospital. Sabrina Quinn.”
She claimed they were university classmates, that Caleb was the result of a one-time accident.
He had claimed she was just a surrogate.
I knew better. It was just one lie piled on top of another. The pathetic cowards didn’t even have the courage to admit to their affair.
“Please, excuse him,” Sabrina said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Caleb just loves making these little trinkets.”
Suddenly, the bracelet on her wrist came loose. I stared at it, then my gaze shifted to Avery’s empty wrist.
I’d seen it before.
It was a crude, handmade thing, but Avery had come home wearing it more than once.
Sabrina was marking her territory.
I couldn’t maintain my composure any longer. The air in the room was suffocating.
“I’m tired, Avery. You should all go.”
He didn’t suspect a thing.
As Sabrina left, her triumphant smirk was seared into my brain, lingering long after she was gone.
I clutched my chest, fighting back the urge to sob.
Later that night, Sabrina, on her night shift, came back up to the VIP floor.
“Caleb says he really likes Ms. Sterling.”
“He wanted her to have this bracelet. I’m so sorry about today, I forgot to take it off.”
Avery rubbed his temples. “I don’t wear it often. She probably didn’t even notice. But you should probably avoid her from now on. I don’t want her getting the wrong idea.”
“Good. I was so worried she would misunderstand.”
Then Sabrina’s tone shifted. “Have you told Ms. Sterling about the family induction ceremony? Her legs… it will be inconvenient. Do you need me to step in…?”
“No,” Avery refused without hesitation.
“You just need to take care of Caleb.”
“Daisy is the lady of this house. My wife. She is the one who should be there for such an occasion.”
Suddenly, a nurse rushed in, announcing that I had fallen from my wheelchair.
Avery bolted from the room, his face beaded with sweat as he ran back to me.
“Daisy! Are you alright?”
Just before he burst in, I had twisted my own wrist, a sharp, deliberate motion that brought tears of genuine pain to my eyes.
I hadn't fallen. I had been practicing walking on my own, my recovery far ahead of schedule, when the nurse had suddenly entered to take my temperature. In a panic, I had no choice but to pretend to fall.
Avery held me tight, his eyes overflowing with anguish as the nurse described the scene.
“Daisy, why are you so foolish?”
“Whether you can ever stand again or not, I will always love you.”
I hugged him back.
If it weren’t for Sabrina and Caleb, I might have been the happiest woman in the world.

4.
But his love was worthless.
To appease Sabrina, the very next day, he told me it was time for Caleb to be formally welcomed into the family.
“Even though he’s adopted,” he lied smoothly, “we have to do this to silence the gossips.”
I knew this day was coming.
The day Caleb officially became a Rhodes would be the day I left.
Meeting Avery’s expectant gaze, I nodded without a word, even offering to help prepare Caleb’s ceremonial attire.
Avery was deeply moved. “Caleb will be a good, filial son to you, I promise.”
I didn’t want his filial piety!
I wanted my own child!
The silent, screaming roar inside me was buried beneath a placid exterior, a storm no one could see or hear.
After I was discharged, we moved back to the Rhodes family estate. Sabrina and Caleb moved in with us, as if it were their right, and she carried herself with more authority than I, the actual lady of the house, ever had. The elder Rhodeses doted on their newfound grandson, and Sabrina’s status rose accordingly.
It was clear they had known about Caleb all along.
Only I had been the clown, the fool deceived by a charade for years.
On the day of the ceremony, a maid wheeled me into the grand hall of the estate, where the family's history was enshrined. Sabrina was already waiting.
She dismissed the maid and took over the wheelchair, her voice a low, provocative whisper in my ear.
“You’ve known all along that Caleb is my child with Avery, haven’t you, Daisy? It’s truly pathetic how you’ve swallowed all this humiliation just to hang on to your title. But what a shame. As grand as the title ‘Mrs. Rhodes’ is, it won’t be yours for much longer.”
I smiled faintly. “Are you so proud? Of an illegitimate child born in the shadows? What does it matter if his name is added to the family records?”
Sabrina looked at me with exaggerated pity. “After today, Caleb will be groomed as the heir. And you… you’re a cripple. Even if you had managed to produce a child, he would never have compared to my Caleb.”
“Oh, and by the way,” she added, her smile turning cruel and sharp, “I heard your baby was a boy, too, wasn’t he?”
Her laughter was wild, triumphant. “In a story of two choices, Avery still chose me. Don’t you understand yet?”
She could have said anything else.
Mocked me in any other way.
But why did she have to bring up my poor, lost child?
I hadn’t wanted a confrontation. I just wanted to get through this day and leave in peace. Was even that too much to ask?
Leaning on my cane, I pushed myself to my feet and swung my hand, the sharp crack of a slap echoing in the hall.
“Caleb is a Rhodes. But what, exactly, are you?”
At that moment, Caleb ran in and threw his arms around Sabrina’s waist.
“Mama! Why did you hit my mama! You’re a bad woman!”
The elder Rhodeses followed close behind. Seeing Sabrina clutching her face, tears streaming down her cheeks, their expressions turned to stone.
“Daisy, what do you think you’re doing! Who gave you permission to raise a hand in this hall!” Avery’s mother shrieked.
“A barren hen is less useful than a dog! Get out! Don’t be an eyesore!”
She shoved me, hard.

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