Alexander intervened, shoving me away in the process. "What are you doing, Veronica? Stop making trouble. If you want to check the child, then just check it. Don't say anything unnecessary."
I had just had a miscarriage, so his slight shove was enough to knock me to the ground. I winced as I felt the dull pain creeping up in my abdomen. Colleen came forward to help me, but out of Alexander's sight, she gave me a mocking smile.
I shoved her away, feeling a wave of disgust. I tried to steady myself against the wall, but she collapsed beside me, clutching her stomach and crying out dramatically, as if in pain. She even had the nerve to look at me with hurt in her eyes, as though questioning why I’d pushed her after she'd tried to help me up.
Alexander rushed to Colleen's side, helping her up before turning to me, fury in his eyes. "If anything happens to her, Veronica, you'll regret it!"
Pain surged through me, cold sweat beading on my skin as I watched him care for her. I couldn’t tell if the ache came from the physical strain or the emptiness inside me. In that moment, I realized it was probably for the best that the baby was gone—because a man who couldn’t love his wife would never love his child.
When I returned to the villa, I logged onto Facebook, desperate to vent to my friends. But before I could, Colleen's latest post caught my eye—a photo of a man's back.
I recognized it instantly.
It was Alexander.
Her caption read: "Having a man who loves me makes me feel so safe."
The comments were all from his friends:
Sebastian Go: "That doesn’t look like your husband’s back, ha!"
Nash Dan: "Nice one! You've won back your goddess!"
Lester Morris: "So this is the sperm donor. Congrats!"
Alexander tried to rein in his friends with a thinly veiled reprimand:
Alexander: "Come on, boys, I’m just helping out. You trying to drive my wife away?"
His buddies liked the comment and fell silent—except for Sebastian.
Sebastian: "Don’t act like that! She’s not worth it. You’ve been with Colleen since high school, and everyone knows you can’t let her go. Stop fooling yourself!"
Sebastian, Alexander’s lifelong best friend, never liked me. To him, I wasn’t good enough—never as pretty or perfect as Colleen. He made sure I knew it.
But now, with thoughts of divorce weighing heavily on my heart, I felt a chilling detachment. I typed my response: “Don’t worry. That’ll happen soon.”