Chapter 161 Gone
Dante suddenly jolted back to life. He straightened up, his gaze locked on Anne’s abdomen, and instinctively reached out to touch her.
“Anne, the baby…”
Anne was barely over a month into her pregnancy. Her belly was still flat, so there was no visible sign of her condition.
From the outside, it was impossible to tell if the baby was still there.
Anne didn’t look at Dante. She passed by him with a cold indifference, like a stranger.
Dante stood frozen for a moment before spinning around, his eyes following her. “Anne?”
Anne didn’t respond.
At that moment, Meryl spotted Anne.
She quickly set aside Lola, who was barely clinging to life, and rushed over to Anne.
“What do you want to eat? My treat!”
Anne hadn’t eaten since the night before due to the upcoming surgery, so Meryl guessed she must be starving by now.
Anne pondered for a moment before saying, “If it’s on you, let’s go for something big! Your husband’s got money, after all!”
Having switched to modeling and needing to maintain her figure, Anne hadn’t had a hearty meal in ages.
But today was different.
It was a new beginning, which was worth celebrating.
Meryl said, taking Anne’s arm, “Great. We’ll go now. Should be perfect timing, no lines.”
As they were about to leave, Dante abruptly blocked their path.
His eyes were bloodshot as he stared at Anne. “Why are you ignoring me? Anne, what about our baby?”
Anne’s response was chillingly blunt. “Gone.”
Dante stumbled backward, his eyes filled with pain as tears began to slowly roll down his cheeks.
He was incredulous. “Why? The baby is your flesh and blood too. How could you be so heartless to terminate it?”
Anne retorted, “I wanted to. It’s my body. What’s it to you?”
Dante felt like her words had cut him to the core.
He thought, “How have things between us deteriorated to this point?”
“Anne, how could you be so cruel? How could you not even give me a heads-up, just…”
Anne pointed at Lola, who was lying on the ground, looking distressed. “I was going to tell you, but you were pulled away by her call, weren’t you?”
Dante was taken aback. “So, what you were going to tell me was that you were going to abort the baby?”
Anne said, her gaze icy as it swept across his face, “Yep. Dante, I gave you a chance.”
A cold sweat broke out on Dante’s back. He was engulfed by an overwhelming sense of dread.
Anne had given him a chance.
If only he had sat down to listen to her instead of walking away because of Lola’s call, he could have stopped this.
He had abandoned Anne because of Lola’s call.
It was all a tragic series of missteps.
The pain, confusion, helplessness, and anxiety wrapped around Dante tightly.
His eyes were dazed, his hands hanging limply at his sides. Dante even lacked the courage to look at Anne again.
He thought, “It’s my fault. It’s all my fault! The doctor didn’t kill Anne’s baby. The machines didn’t. It was me! My constant indecision, my inability to manage my relationships with other women, that’s what ruined everything!”
Anne looked at Dante with calm detachment.
She had truly loved him once, but now she truly no longer did.
“Are you done? If you’re done, move out of the way.”
No matter how good the soundproofing in the operating room, it couldn’t block out Dante’s shouting.
As Anne lay on the operating table, she could hear him pounding on the door and his desperate pleas.
The doctor turned to Anne and asked, “Your husband seems to be outside. Do you want to reconsider? You’re a couple. Have you ever sat down and talked things through?”
She thought, “Reconsider it? I’ve already made up my mind. I gave him plenty of chances, but Dante repeatedly ignored them. That was just the final straw. If you can’t wake someone who’s pretending to be asleep, you have to learn to cut your losses.”