Chapter 53  Chase hurried over to the young nurse, startling her quite a bit. Her face turned pale when she recognized him, stammering, “Mr. Reyes.”  1  Watching Chase’s urgency, I thought to myself, if it weren’t a woman standing there, he might have already acted. His face now showed clear anxiety. “Say that again. What happened with Mrs. Reyes and the child?”  The two nurses exchanged a confused glance, puzzled about why Chase seemed so clueless. “Mrs. Reyes had a miscarriage after finding out she was pregnant and had surgery here,” one of them explained. The other nurse was a bit braver and asked cautiously, “Didn’t you know about Mrs. Reyes‘ pregnancy?”  The question hit Chase like a bolt of lightning, his eyes losing focus as if he’d been dealt a heavy blow. “She was pregnant?” he repeated, disbelief etched across his features.  The nurses looked embarrassed, unsure how to respond. Honestly, how could a husband not know his wife was pregnant? “Yes, I remember Mrs. Reyes being rushed in because her progesterone was low, putting her at risk of a miscarriage. Plus, she was in shock,  hich made saving the baby even harder. She was clinging to the doctor’s hand, crying desperately, insisting they do whatever it took to save her child.”  With his eyes tightly shut, Chase forced out, “Who was her attending physician?”  “Dr. James,” the nurse replied.  I watched from the hallway as Chase, his steps unsteady, made his way to the doctor’s office. The truth was finally going to come out. “Chase, when you realize it was your actions that led to our child’s loss, how will you react? Can you even begin to feel a fraction of my pain?  I followed slowly, arriving just in time to see Chase’s shock as he faced Dr. James. The doctor, a slim, scholarly man with silver–rimmed glasses, sat across from him. He had been a high school classmate of mine, and later went to medical school. He used to have a thing for me. When I was vulnerable and hospitalized, he took special care of me because of our past.  Dr. James seemed to have expected this confrontation, his demeanor much cooler than Chase’s evident shock. “Mr. Reyes, please, have a seat, he offered. He glanced at his assistant. “You can leave us now.”  “Yes, Dr. James,” the assistant nodded and left.  Impatient and direct, Chase cut to the chase, “I want to know about Amanda and the child.”  Dr. James gave him a quick look, and I didn’t miss the sarcasm in his eyes. “Mr. Reyes, are you now concerned about Amanda and the child? I thought your unrelated sister was your only priority,” he remarked, his words dripping with irony and hostility.  But Chase had no time for such trivialities. “Enough with the sarcasm. Just tell me!”  “Alright, I’ll tell you. Amanda was brought into the ER and diagnosed with a pregnancy threatened by miscarriage, so she was transferred to my care. She was already spotting by then. I told her there was a high chance of miscarriage, but she begged me to save the child.”  “She endured so much to protect this child. Her morning sickness was intense, so much so that even drinking water made her vomit. Despite that, she insisted on staying in the hospital to try and save the child.” Dr. James fixed his gaze on Chase. “What baffles me is how, as her fiancé, you managed to visit the hospital every day without once seeing her?”  Chapter 54