He Made Me Have a Baby for His Mistress. I Made Him Lose EverythingChapter 2

Harborview called at four the next morning.

"Ms. Bennett, your grandmother was admitted with acute heart failure. She's in the ICU. You need to come immediately."

I drove to the hospital in pajama pants and a winter coat. By the time I arrived, Grandma had been stabilized, but only barely. Her attending physician met me outside the cardiac unit with a consent form and a grim expression.

"She needs emergency bypass surgery. Her anatomy is unusually complex, and her previous graft is failing. Dr. Grant Coleman performed her last procedure, so he knows this heart better than anyone. If we could get him here, or even get him on a secure video consult, her odds would improve dramatically."

Grant was one of the country's most respected cardiothoracic surgeons. He was also Ethan's private physician and a paid medical adviser to Prescott Holdings. Three years earlier, Ethan had arranged for him to operate on Grandma personally.

I called my husband.

"It's four in the morning, Natalie. What happened now?"

"Grandma is in heart failure. She needs surgery, and Harborview needs Grant. Can you reach him?"

"Grant isn't in the country."

"Where is he?"

Ethan exhaled impatiently. "Your grandmother is in her eighties. Surgery may not save her. You need to accept that people get old."

Cold spread through my body. "She is fighting for her life, and you're giving me a lecture about acceptance. Put Grant on the phone."

"Ethan, my head is killing me..."

Lila's voice floated through the line. A second later, I heard Grant in the background.

"Ms. Hayes is overstimulated and sleep-deprived," he said. "A mild sedative should be enough."

Grant was in Iceland. Ethan had taken one of America's best heart surgeons across the Atlantic because Lila could not sleep.

"Ethan, let Grant speak to Harborview. Five minutes on a video call could help save Grandma."

"Lila has a history of depression and panic attacks. I'm not leaving her alone while she's unstable. Harborview has other surgeons. Use one of them."

"Grant doesn't have to leave her. He only has to answer a call."

"Enough. If you keep turning every inconvenience into a crisis, we can forget about having a baby when I get home. Take some time and think about the way you're behaving."

He hung up. My next call went straight to voicemail. The one after that did too.

For Lila's sleepless night, Ethan had mobilized a private jet and a famous physician. For my grandmother's failing heart, he could not spare five minutes.

I let myself cry for exactly one minute. Then I opened a password-protected contact list and placed a call to London.

"Charlie, it's Natalie."

"Natalie Bennett? I was beginning to think I'd never hear your voice again."

"I need Bellamy's cardiac response team. Get your Seattle surgeons to Harborview now, and put your London specialists on a secure consult."

His tone changed immediately. "I'll make it happen. Is this an emergency favor, or are you finally coming back to medicine?"

I looked through the ICU window at the woman who had raised me.

"I'm coming back."

Before my marriage, I had been one of the youngest cardiac surgeons ever invited to operate at three major teaching hospitals. Then Ethan told me he hated watching me destroy myself with eighty-hour weeks. He said he needed a partner who would build a life with him, not disappear into an operating room. I loved him enough to believe that giving up my career was a choice we had made together.

It had only ever been my sacrifice.

When I ended the call, I phoned my real estate agent.

"List the Waterford penthouse today. Price it to move, and accept serious cash offers only."

That penthouse was the family home Ethan claimed we needed before we could have a child.

I no longer wanted either one.