“Babe, please come home. I think I’m going into labor.”
The text message from someone to him made his heart race many times faster than usual. Aries roughly rubbed his face before his fingers began typing a reply, but Liana’s scream made him immediately ignore the text message.
“Babe, hurry up. I can’t take it anymore, babe. It hurts so bad!” Liana, Aries’s wife, screamed.
Aries swallowed when Liana’s voice shook him to his core. His breath caught for a moment, and the phone in his hand buzzed again, displaying a message from the other woman who should never have contacted him today—the day his legitimate child was born.
“Babe … Aries!” Liana screamed again, clutching her swollen belly, her face paling as cold sweat poured down her entire body.
“Please take me to the hospital right now. I can’t take it anymore!”
Aries immediately slipped his phone into his pocket and walked toward Liana.
“Babe, hold on a little longer. I’ll get the car keys.” His voice trembled, caught between panic and fear of the message he had just read.
Liana gripped Aries’s wrist tightly, as if afraid he would leave her. “Babe … don’t leave me. I’m scared.”
Thud...
Those words pierced Aries more deeply than having to bear his two worlds in a single day.
He lowered his head and looked into his wife’s teary eyes. “I’m right here, babe. I’m not going anywhere.”
Even as he said it, his phone buzzed again in his pocket. Aries ignored the message. Right now, Liana needed him beside her more.
“Babe! The pain is coming more often. I can’t take it, babe!” Liana moaned loudly, her body beginning to weaken.
Aries wrapped an arm around his wife’s waist and slowly guided Liana forward. “We have to leave now!”
The moment he opened the door, the night wind struck his face. The sky outside looked dark, as dark as his thoughts and heart were right now.
As they hurried toward the car, his phone buzzed again. Once again, Aries ignored it.
Aries bit his lip hard. His fingers trembled as he pulled out his phone, only to see the name on the screen.
“Reina.”
The latest message came from a woman named Reina. “Babe .... please. I’m bleeding.” Aries stood frozen. His body felt numb.
Liana, who was holding on to Aries’s arm, moaned even louder. “Babe… please hurry, I can’t take it anymore.”
Aries looked at Liana. Then he looked at his phone screen. Two worlds, two lives, two women—and he had only two hands.
“Aries ....” Liana clutched his shirt. “Please help me … I can’t take it anymore.”
His saliva felt bitter in his throat. In one swift motion, Aries threw his phone onto the front seat of the car, deciding to ignore Reina’s call for the sake of his lawful wife.
“I’ll take you first,” he murmured, more to himself than to Liana. “You’re my wife.”
The car sped through the night. Aries drove his car toward the nearest hospital.
***** The hospital that night felt like a battlefield. White lights glared, the hurried footsteps of nurses echoed, and the smell of blood mixed with antiseptic assaulted the air.
Aries frantically pushed Liana’s wheelchair. She continued to moan, breathing rapidly.
“Babe … the pain … it’s getting stronger ....” Liana clutched her stomach, trembling.
“Stay calm, babe. We’re here,” Aries tried to reassure her, even though he himself could barely breathe.
The ER doors opened. Two nurses immediately came to them.
“Pregnant? How many centimeters dilated? Is there any bleeding?” Before Aries could answer, a commotion at the rear entrance made everyone turn.
A nurse ran in, pushing a stretcher. “Help! Patient with severe bleeding! Her blood pressure is dropping! Possible premature rupture of membranes!”
On the stretcher, a woman’s body lay limply, her face pale and her lips blue. Aries froze. It was as if the world had stopped. As if time itself held its breath for a moment. It was Reina—the woman he knew, the woman he knew far too well.