I knew Jeremiah did not love me, but I did not expect even his teammates to see me like this.
The intense contractions in my abdomen made it impossible for me to make any sound.
The skin peeled off under the high temperatures.
All the team members were busy extinguishing the fire and no one asked about my situation.
In a semi-conscious state, I heard someone beside me exclaim.
"Oh! Why is there so much blood on the ground? Oh no, is there something wrong with Zenith?"
"What's wrong with her? She just wants Jeremiah to come over and take a look at her. She's been making such a fuss for quite some time. Forget it, just ask him to come over and take a look at her!"
But I did not get Jeremiah's concern, only his ruthless and merciless questioning.
The gloved hand slapped me hard twice in the face.
"Zenith, wake up! Stop pretending, I'm here."
"Is your brain gone? You set the fire and burned yourself like this, is it interesting?"
To this point, he still thought that I was the one who set the fire and that I was just acting, out of jealousy.
I wanted to give an explanation, but my mouth was too dry to say a word.
My stomach was even more excruciating.
I could only reach out and grab his sleeve, hoping that he would understand my desire for help.
But he hesitated for two seconds and then pressed hard on my abdomen.
"You acted pretty convincingly. If Yvonne hadn't said you hid yourself after setting the fire, I would have believed it."
After leaving these words, he turned and left without hesitation.
In the next second, the exclamations of the team members came from beside him.
"Jeremiah! Blood! Your wife is bleeding!"
"Did she have a miscarriage?"
"Don't worry about her. Yvonne said it's just chicken blood. The baby is already five months old, how can it be so easy to miscarry? Let her act if she loves acting."
After the severe pain, my eyes went dark and I completely lost consciousness.
In my dream, I seemed to have returned to the time when I first met Jeremiah.
At a campus lecture, his face was as cold as an iceberg, but his excellent professional skills captured the hearts of many girls.
I was no exception. After falling in love with him at first sight, I started to ask around about him.
At that time, I was still an intern lecturer at the campus and he coud not see me.
I worked harder and harder to get his attention.
A few months later, I became a regular employee and then treated him to a meal in the name of gratitude.
I keenly noticed that the way he looked at me had changed.
I seized this opportunity and chased after him relentlessly.
Flowers, basketball, cakes, coffee.
I was never stingy with gifts.
Finally, I confessed my feelings to him and he accepted it.
I thought it was the beginning of my happiness, but it turned out to be the beginning of my nightmare.
After we got together, he became more and more indifferent to me. Every time we went on a date, he was either busy with work or on an emergency rescue mission.
I never doubted his words until our wedding day.
An email from abroad completely destroyed my beautiful dream.
Yvonne recorded the ten years they spent together in detail and every second of their memories made my heart ache.
It turned out that all the time he missed the appointment, he was spending with another woman.
What was even more pathetic was that I did not even have the courage to question him.
I was afraid he might leave me.
In my previous life, when Yvonne died, he was so calm that I thought I was the winner in this relationship.
He almost emptied out all the maternity and baby stores in the city for me and my child.
The sudden surge of love made my mind go wild and I completely lost the ability to think.
I did not understand until the moment I gave birth and died at his hands.
He was not trying to love me with his life, he was just trying hard to seek revenge.
His beloved in his heart, from beginning to end, was only Yvonne.
The moment I woke up, I was already lying in the ward.
However, there was an unfamiliar face beside me, asking,
"Are you awake? I'm your neighbor downstairs. I wanted to see how the fire was going, but when I went upstairs, I saw you lying on the ground alone. So, I sent you to the hospital. Are you okay? How are you feeling?"
I struggled to move my limbs, but when my hands touched my stomach, my movements stopped.
"I'm sorry, when I brought you here, the doctor said that your baby could not be saved ...."
I tugged at the corner of my lips and said with a bitter smile, "I don't blame you, I know."
"Thank you for taking me to the hospital."
Even strangers could tell at a glance that something was wrong with me, but my husband of five years was too lazy to give me a glance.
He was more irritated to see me depressed than I was myself.
"I don't know what's going on with these rescue teams. Why don't they save a person lying there?"
"If I hadn't gone upstairs to see you, you would be dead now! Where are your family members? Does the father of the child not care about you?"
"If you have his number, I'll contact him. You can't be alone without someone by your side right now."
"I have already reported the rescue team. If people like them continue to do this, they will be a cancer to society!"
I nodded, but I could only speak with an angry voice, "The father of the child died."
As the words fell, his face was filled with sympathy.
He offered to take care of me until I was discharged from the hospital.
I declined his kind offer.
I transferred the hospitalization and surgery fees to him and persuaded him to leave.
Even though the man had left, online public opinion continued to rage.
The topic of the fire in the backyard of the rescue team leader carried its own heat.
At this moment, it had already hit a hot search headline on major software platforms.
My neighbor kindly posted a photo of me lying on the ground in the comment section.
It instantly sparked a heated discussion across the Internet and everyone cursed the rescue team for only focusing on putting out fires.
Turning a blind eye to a pregnant woman and the life in her belly.
If that was the case, then they should be called a fire brigade team, not a rescue operation team.
I had scrolled through the comments section of the cyberbullying and felt that this punishment was still too light for Jeremiah.
In a minute later, I opened the chat box and wanted to send him a message for a divorce. But, Yvonne's boasting message popped up first.
It turned out that she was also in this hospital, hospitalizing downstairs from me.
In the photo, Jeremiah feed her porridge personally and blew on it carefully again and again for fear that she would get burned.
To tell you the truth, I had seen the photos of them being intimate and blending together countless times. So, this kind of picture could no longer arouse my emotions.
I calmly closed her chat box and called Jeremiah.
It took me calling him the fifth time before he finally answered, his voice extremely impatient.
"You still have the face to call me? Why? To ask if Yvonne is dead? I'm so sorry to disappoint you! She has been rescued by me! She's alive and well in the hospital now!"
"Zenith, I've known you for so long, but I never thought you were this kind of person. Do you know what you are doing? You are killing people! Are you crazy?"
"I'll give you one hour to get your ass to her ward and apologize to her right now! Or else you'll get a divorce!"
Before I could say anything, I heard the voice of Yvonne sobbing from the other end of the phone.
"Jeremiah, don't blame your wife. It's all my fault. If she says I set fire, just admit it, don't argue with her. Pregnant women shouldn't have too much emotional fluctuations."
He sighed deeply and said disappointedly, "You are just too kind, Yvonne. That's why she always bullies you. We knew each other first, so who is she? What right does she have to attack you?"
"Don't worry, I have to make her remember everything I say this time."
Just when the two of them were getting bored, I said lightly, "Well, let's get a divorce. I agree. I'll send the agreement to you right away and remember to sign it."
Jeremiah did not expect that I would take the initiative to file for divorce.
He was stunned for a moment, then angry. Just as his anger was about to explode, I suddenly hung up the phone.
Before I could block his number, I was bombarded with text messages.
[Where are you? Zenith, are you crazy today? I didn't bother to tell you before because I thought you were pregnant, but you're still pushing it further?]
[Do you really think I don't dare to divorce you just because you're pregnant? I'm afraid that on the day you give birth, no one will sign and you'll have to crawl off the bed and kneel down to beg me!]
[Also, take down the news online immediately! Don't force me to expose your true face in public!]
I did not continue reading, I deleted all the messages and blocked his number.
Even if I had experienced bloody lessons in my previous life, being betrayed by him again, my heart still hurt.
After that, a few nurses came in to change my dressing. They did not pay attention to my expression and chatted to themselves.
"The man downstairs is so handsome. This is the first time I've seen a couple so well matched! I heard they were childhood sweethearts, a campus romance. I'm so envious."
"Your news is too outdated. The latest news is that in order to let his beloved wife eat the porridge he cooked himself, Mr. Carson spent a lot of money to book a window in the canteen, just to cook for his beloved wife every day!"
"Just now I went to give her medicine, but Mr. Carson wouldn't let me touch her. He insisted on doing it himself. What a great couple!"
I stared numbly at the needle hole on the back of my hand.
The hand, which had shed a layer of skin, felt both painful and itchy at this moment.
After they left, I felt like I had been granted amnesty and opened my mouth to take in big gulps of oxygen.
But no matter how hard it was, it could not be inhaled into my chest cavity.
In the evening, the doctor came to see me and said that I had suffered a heavy blow to my abdomen and it would be difficult for me to have children of my own in the future.
My first reaction upon hearing this sentence was actually to be grateful.
Fortunately, without children, he would not have suffered with me.
An innocent life should have had a better life.
After everyone in the ward left, I took out my mobile phone and checked the latest updates online.
The cyberbullying had grown uncontrollable, forcing the leader of rescue unit to come and explain.
However, in his explanation, he said that I was the one who planned the fire.
I hurt someone intentionally out of jealousy.
Not only did I waste the rescue resources of the unit, but I also dragged their good team leader to be scolded.
In the video, the leader added that he hoped netizens could put aside this matter.
But every word he uttered was directing the source of the contradiction towards me.
In order to increase the credibility of the video, Jeremiah registered an account with his real name and issued our marriage certificate.
His actions completely crushed me in the wave of online bullying.
The curses originally directed at the rescue team turned around and swept towards me.
My homepage was officially banned.
The words of explanation were also drowned out in the curses of netizens.
In the following days, I could feel that the hospital staff looked at me with hostility written all over their eyes.
If it were not for poor professional ethics support, I was afraid I would have been kicked out now.
I received express deliveries from different places every day and without exception, they were all threats.
Faced with these, I had never defended myself.
I unblocked Jeremiah's number, only to send him a message on the day the doctor said I could be discharged from the hospital.
[Go to the Town Hall tomorrow and complete the procedures.]
He seized this opportunity and called me back.
"Why, can't hide anymore? You have the nerve to show up? I warned you and gave you a chance, but it was you who didn't want to take down the public opinion on the internet. So, don't blame me for being heartless now!"
"If Yvonne hadn't pleaded for you, I would have called the police and arrested you long ago! Divorce, if you want a divorce. But don't cry and beg me when the child has no father! It's your own fault that he became an orphan!"
Without waiting for me to say anything, he already hung up the phone.
I calmly clicked on the surveillance software of our house and copied the video footage of Yvonne setting fire that day.
The next morning, after being discharged from the hospital, I went straight to the Town Hall with my documents.
But instead of Jeremiah, it was Yvonne showing up.
"I've said it before, you can't beat me. Your husband is just my licking dog."
The moment she looked at my abdomen, she pretended to be surprised and said,
"Oh, the kid is gone? It's such a pity. He was killed by his biological father in his previous life and was killed by his biological father again in this life. He has to have a mother like you. He is such a short-lived kid ...."
What?
Is she also traveling to the past?
Before my brain could react, I slapped her in the face.
After having miscarriage, my body was weak and I did not have much strength.
But she fell straight to the ground.
"Yvonne!"
Jeremiah rushed over from behind me and pushed me to the side.
I rolled down the steps and fell to the ground before stopping.
He hugged her in his arms and as if he recalled something, he suddenly turned his head to look at my stomach.
Touching my flat stomach, his face instantly turned pale.
"Where's the baby?"