I quickly checked Bianca's condition and confirmed that she was in the first stages of labor after her water broke, but no further medical intervention was required as all her vitals were still normal. I just instructed Robert to carry her into the ambulance that I'd called while we were on the way there.
Before entering the delivery room, Bianca suddenly grabbed my hand.
"Dr. Hudson, you're the top gynae in the city. Can you please come in and deliver my baby?"
The nurses and medical staff nearby knew a bit about my current family situation and quickly stepped forward to intervene when they heard that.
"Ms. Strickland, Dr. Hudson hasn't performed any of your prenatal checks before and isn't familiar with your specific situation. It would be better if another gynecologist handled it instead. All of the doctors in our obstetrics department are very professional…"
However, no matter how much they tried to talk Bianca out of it, she still grabbed tightly onto my hand and refused to let go.
"I'd been looking forward to this baby for a very long time. Robbie and I haven't had it easy, and we put in so much effort into this.
"I don't trust anyone else with this. Please, Dr. Hudson, can't you help me just this once?"
She then looked at Robert with tear-streaked eyes, a pleading, beseeching expression on her face.
Robert looked at me after a moment of hesitation.
"Kitty, can you please…"
He probably never even realized that he'd just called me "Kitty".
I hadn't heard that nickname from his mouth in the past two years because of our cold war. Yet, thanks to Bianca, I finally got to hear it again today.
I lowered my gaze and tried my best to stop my tears from falling down.
"What if I said I didn't want to?"
Robert went silent for a while. Then, he withdrew a crumpled-up piece of paper from his suit pocket.
It was a "make-a-wish" coupon that I'd given him when we first started dating while we were in our teens.
On it, written in my somewhat childish handwriting, were the words, "This coupon entitles Robert Bowen to one (1) unconditional wish from Kaitlyn Hudson, valid for one-time use only."
Robert then said, "What if I used this to wish for it?"
In the past, no matter how fierce our arguments were, or how much we fought and I threatened to divorce each other, I had never once felt afraid that our relationship would really end just like that.
The reason was that I knew Robert still had this "wish coupon" he could use as his "get-out-of-jail" card to fight to keep our marriage and prevent our relationship from actually ending.
But now, he had used his final chance to save Bianca instead.
"Fine, Robert Bowen. But you had better not regret this!"
I snatched the coupon from him and walked straight into the delivery room without looking back at him, worried that my tears would immediately start falling if I were to stay with him for just a split second more.
Bianca's delivery was indeed a very dangerous and risky one. She had to switch from natural birth to a Caesarean delivery halfway through, and she also had a velamentous placenta, making its removal extremely difficult.
After 16 hours of non-stop surgery on the delivery table, I finally managed to succeed in keeping both Bianca and her baby safe and alive.
I stepped away from the table and immediately felt dizzy and unsteady on my feet.
While walking past the break room, I overheard a few nurses whispering to each other.
"Dr. Hudson is too pathetic for words! To think that she actually helped her husband's mistress deliver their baby. How could she even put up with that?"
"Maybe she just can't bear to part with her husband's wealth and assets. It's just that the mistress has already given him a child, while Dr. Hudson hasn't… I guess she's going to have to step aside now."
"Did you see the baby's features? It really looked a lot like Dr. Hudson's husband. No wonder he loves his mistress so much…"
I stopped walking.
Looking through the glass windows, I could see Robert cradling the newborn baby in his arms while sitting next to Bianca's bed in the ward, laughing and chatting casually with her.
They looked so wonderfully harmonious together that they looked more like they were an actual family of three.
A sharp, piercing pain shot through my chest, and suddenly, the world went black for me. I lost control of my senses and collapsed toward the floor.
A series of cries of alarm rang out around me, and Robert finally looked in my direction.
However, as he rushed toward me in panic, I found myself already in a familiar embrace.
Robert suddenly froze in his steps at that very moment, his face turning a deathly pale color.