He Knelt and Asked Me to Give My Heart to His Student Chapter 05 (Continue)
At nine the next morning, I was waiting outside the county courthouse.
Adrian showed up half an hour late.
He got out of the car at an unhurried pace, but the second he saw me, he stopped cold and stared at my flat stomach.
…Natalie, where’s the baby?”
I followed his gaze downward and smiled faintly. “The day before yesterday, while you were kissing her at the movie
theater, I went through the induction procedure.”
His pupils contracted sharply, and the color slowly drained from his face.
“You mean you got rid of our baby?”
“He was in your womb for six months. He was already formed. How could you do that?”
I had no interest in arguing with him about any of it. I turned and walked toward the courthouse entrance. “Let’s go
finish the paperwork.”
“Natalie!”
He grabbed my wrist hard. “Why didn’t you talk to me before you did something like that? He was my child too!”
Looking at his bloodless face, I almost wanted to laugh.
“Yes, he was your child. But you never went to a single prenatal appointment with me.”
“You weren’t there for my ultrasound, You weren’t there for my nuchal translucency scan. You weren’t there for my
anatomy scan either.”
“And you still have the nerve to call him your child?”
His breathing hitched, and his voice shook. “I-I’ve just been really busy with work lately.”
I shook my head. “No. You weren’t busy.”
“You had time to take Chloe to the movies, take her to get manicures, and go shopping with her. You had time to bring her to academic events so she could make connections. You just didn’t have time for me and the baby”
He went silent. His lips parted, but no words came out.
After a long while, he finally forced out a sentence.
“You still shouldn’t have ended his life so rashly.”
I closed my eyes, exhausted.
“Adrian, don’t forget. You were the one who gave up on him first.”
“You were the one who knelt in front of me three months before my due date and begged me to let him go.”
His grip on my wrist loosened all at once.
When I opened my eyes, I saw the rims of his eyes had gone red. His voice was dry and strained. That was because of a
joke. I didn’t mean it. I was looking forward to this baby too.”
It was as if he desperately needed to prove something.
“I bought a bunch of baby things yesterday. I even hired someone to design the nursery, and I’ve already started reading
parenting books…”
Just last week, I would have given anything for Adrian to care a little more about this child.
Now, listening to him say all that, I felt absolutely nothing.
“It’s too late. The baby is gone.”
He fell silent instantly. After a long pause, he finally said hoarsely, “It’s okay. We can still-”
There is no we anymore,” I cut in.
Even though spring had already arrived, the wind in New York City was still cold.
He seemed to wake up all at once, and his expression slowly settled back into its usual calm.
“Right. We’re here to finalize the divorce.”
The process was simpler than I had imagined.
The moment I walked out of the county courthouse, I felt, truly and unmistakably, relieved.
None of the gut-wrenching agony I used to imagine would come with the end of us ever happened.
It all felt as natural as if we were simply taking care of some ordinary errand.