After Drifting and Drowning, My Husband Chose to Save His First Love

The following afternoon, Callum finally came. The first thing he said when he saw me was, "Lily has been frail since childhood. If she stayed in the water too long, she wouldn't be able to handle it."

I looked at him coldly, almost wanting to laugh.

Clearly, I had been right in front of him at that moment, yet he hadn't hesitated to abandon me.

He had left me behind and killed our child. He was disgusting.

Seeing no reaction from me, he took my hand, speaking gently. "Besides, I knew you'd find a way to save yourself.

"You're always smart."

I couldn't help but feel a wave of nausea, nearly vomiting on the spot.

The doctor had told me that I was lucky to be found by fishermen downstream who brought me to the hospital just in time.

Any later than that, I would have been dead.

Callum's excuses were just to ease his guilt.

I stared at him, tears welling up in my eyes. My voice, thick with hatred, came out with difficulty.

I asked, "Why did you come only now?"

Perhaps he hadn't expected this question. He tucked me in and softly explained, "Lily was scared. She's been crying non-stop, so I had to stay by her side."

A bitter taste rose in my throat as I looked at him, suddenly finding him unrecognizable.

While Lilly had been crying in fear, I had been lying in the hospital.

While Callum stayed with her until she slept, I had lost my child.

We had been married for eight years. Yet he was still able to instantly recognize Lilly's voice.

"Go accompany her," I said.

Callum was taken aback, frowning at me. "What?"

I stared into his eyes and repeated, "I'm telling you to get out."

He was shocked and growled, "What do you want from me? I'm here with you, aren't I?"

I threw a cup at him, and it shattered at his feet.

I pointed to the door and shouted, "Get out, now!"

He was pissed off. "Jennifer Reese, I'm finding you harder and harder to understand.

"You weren't like this before."

With that, he slammed the door and left.

I looked up at the ceiling, fighting back my tears.

On my phone screen was Lilly's latest post from two days ago.

[Drifting in the mountains, an adventure for the brave. Will you be there?]

The location was exactly where I had gone with Callum.

Everything suddenly became clear. Before, I hadn't understood how it could have been such a coincidence for us to meet there.

Now, I realized that what I had thought was fate had all been orchestrated by Callum.

I closed my eyes, placed my hand on my abdomen, and finally broke down in tears.

As my consciousness faded, I dreamt of that day when I was 22—the day I found out I was pregnant for the first time.

The pregnancy report had been handed to Callum, and he had looked at me with no emotion, only saying, "Jennifer, we can't keep this child."

His words hurt me badly. "Why?"

He said gently, "Your life is just beginning. I don't want a child to hold you back."

I shook my head desperately, letting my tears fall. "No, I want to keep it."

He didn't answer, quietly waiting for me to change my mind.

In the end, we didn't keep the child. By the time I was six months pregnant, a complication during the abortion caused severe hemorrhaging, and I almost died.

I was in a coma for three days, and when I woke, Callum held me, comforting me softly, "There will be other children."

I was nearly broken, and my body was damaged too. Even though we had been married for eight years, I hadn't been able to get pregnant again.

His parents went so far as to threaten him with death to get him to leave me.

But he took my hand and said firmly, "I won't leave her. Never."

Back then, I thought everything had been worth it. But now, I wondered if Callum had ever truly wanted a child.