Chapter 5 - Sarah Awakens
When I returned to the hospital room at 10:30 PM, the soft rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor was the only sound in the dim space. Sarah was awake, her head propped up on two white pillows, looking impossibly fragile in the faded hospital gown. A small white bandage covered the laceration above her right temple where she had hit the kitchen floor. When she saw me walk through the door, tears immediately welled up in her hazel eyes.
“Ethan…” she whispered, her voice dry and raspy. She reached out with a trembling hand, the IV tubing rattling against the bedrail.
I rushed to her side, dropping to my knees on the linoleum floor and pressing her forehead against mine. “I’m here, baby. I’m right here. You’re safe now. Leo is safe in the nursery down the hall with a dedicated nurse. You don't have to worry about anything.”
“She wouldn't let me sit down, Ethan,” Sarah sobbed, her whole body shaking as the suppressed trauma of the past few weeks finally broke to the surface. “Every time you left for work, she changed. She threw away the lactation teas I bought. She dumped my meals into the garbage disposal and told me I was getting too fat for you to love me. Today, when the room started spinning, I begged her to call you. She looked right at me and said, ‘Let me show you what happens to weak women in our family.’ Then everything went black.”
Hearing her verbalize the torture made my blood boil with a protective fury I had never experienced in my thirty-two years of life. I kissed the knuckles of her bruised hand over and over again.
“I saw the video, Sarah. I saw everything,” I told her softly, stroking her hair away from her bandaged forehead. “I kicked her out of the house today. I took her keys. I hired a lawyer, and tomorrow morning, a judge is signing a permanent restraining order against her. She will never step foot inside our home again, and she will never hold our son again. I promise you on my life.”
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Sarah let out a long, shuddering sigh of relief, her shoulders dropping as the tension finally left her frame. For the first time in months, her eyes didn't look haunted by unspoken fear. “She told me you would take her side. She said a son always chooses his mother over a temporary wife.”
“She was wrong,” I said fiercely, looking straight into her eyes. “You are not temporary. You are my wife, my partner, and the mother of my child. My allegiance is to you and Leo. Anyone who tries to hurt my family gets destroyed. Even if I share their DNA.”
