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He Begged Me to Save His Other Woman
Novelix
Completed
Six months pregnant and married to the man she once believed would love her forever, Claire Bennett is asked to sacrifice her heart—and her unborn child—for Ethan Reed’s fragile young student. When the “emergency” is exposed as a cruel prank, Claire finally sees the truth: Ethan’s devotion has already left their marriage. She ends the pregnancy, signs the divorce papers, and disappears to rebuild her life. But regret comes too late for Ethan, and the girl he protected is not as innocent as she seems. Years later, Claire must decide whether freedom can finally become happiness.
Chapters (3)
第1章
At a friend's get-together, my professor husband, Ethan Reed, suddenly dropped to his knees in front of me, his voice raw with desperation.
"Claire, Lily's a match for your heart. She can't wait any longer for the surgery."
My throat seized up instantly, though I can't say I was surprised.
I gave a bitter smile. "But a person only has one heart."
Ethan looked up at me. "Don't worry. I'll get in touch with the best cardiac team in New York. They'll fit you with an artificial heart."
I lowered my eyes, my palm resting on my six-month belly.
"I'm due in three months."
He was silent for two seconds.
"The baby... we can always have another one."
The room went terrifyingly quiet.
Then, from nearby, the girl's bright laugh rang out.
"Professor Reed, there was never any match. I was messing with you. I didn't think you'd actually go and beg Mrs. Reed."
The dead silence shattered in an instant.
Our friends let out relieved breaths and started smoothing things over with nervous laughter.
"That joke was brutal. Ethan went white as a sheet."
"If Lily had said she was a match with me, Ethan probably would've wheeled me into the OR himself."
Only I sat perfectly still on the couch. I took out my phone and booked an induced termination for the next day.
Ethan had never truly been angry at Lily.
This frail, sickly student was the research assistant he'd personally mentored for three years. He'd always handled her with kid gloves, like she was something made of glass.
But this time, when he stood up, his expression darkened in a way I'd rarely seen.
The people in the living room finally went quiet, reading the room too late.
Someone whispered a reminder to Lily. "That joke of yours hit Claire. You basically crossed Ethan's line."
"Everyone knows Ethan's famously obsessed with his wife. His first year at Westbridge, a colleague cracked some offhand joke about Claire and Ethan put the guy in the hospital."
Lily froze. Within seconds, her eyes brimmed with tears.
She gingerly tugged at the hem of Ethan's sleeve.
"I'm sorry, Professor Reed. I was just trying to be funny."
Ethan said nothing.
Lily turned to me next, her eyes wet, sniffling.
"Mrs. Reed, I didn't mean it. If you're angry, go ahead and yell at me."
Our friends rushed to mediate.
"Lily just doesn't have a filter. She says things without thinking. You two shouldn't take it to heart."
"Exactly, Ethan. She's the student you've mentored for three years. You put her in the acknowledgments of that paper just recently. You can't freeze her out over one joke."
At that, Ethan's expression finally softened.
He reached out and wiped the tear from the corner of Lily's eye.
"Don't joke about something like that again."
Lily nodded vigorously.
Then Ethan looked at me, a note of apology in his voice.
"Sorry, Claire. I came to you before I'd even verified anything."
Trading away a heart.
Giving up a six-month-old baby.
In his mouth, it was just a casual little "favor."
And this wasn't the first time.
As long as it involved Lily, the normally cool and rational Professor Reed became emotional, reckless, completely without boundaries.
On Christmas Eve, Lily sent a single text saying her period cramps were unbearable, and he drove over a thousand miles to see her in some coastal city.
When people asked, he just shrugged helplessly. "Her health is fragile. I was afraid something might happen to her."
But I was five months pregnant, waiting for him at home all night, and he wasn't afraid something might happen to me.
With me, he was always rational. Like a machine.
"Claire, carrying a child is naturally hard. Once you deliver, it'll be fine."
When I became irritable and fell apart, he chalked it up to pregnancy hormones.
He'd toss out a few words of comfort and disappear into his study.
Every time, I had to choke back the urge to interrupt his work.
Yet the research paper that had consumed five years of his life listed Lily Grant first in the acknowledgments.
An undergraduate with virtually no professional capability whatsoever.
By the time I found out, the story had already been in the news.
In the interview footage, Ethan's expression was calm.
"In five years of teaching, Lily isn't the most gifted student I've encountered. But she is certainly the most resilient."
"I'm grateful she came into my life and gave me the courage to keep going with my research."
第2章
That day, I accidentally knocked over my favorite vase.
When Ethan saw, he just calmly picked up the pieces.
But that vase was something we'd made together during our best year, at a pottery studio in Vermont.
He'd said with a straight face that he was going to make it a family heirloom.
"Maybe I can glue it back together."
I crouched on the floor, my fingers trembling as I tried to fit the shards together.
Ethan frowned and pulled me to my feet.
"It's just a worthless vase."
My eyes stung instantly.
But he was looking at my belly.
"Is the baby giving you trouble again?"
I used to tell myself it was fine.
He was a rational person. It was normal for him not to care about sentimental keepsakes.
Until that night, when I went to bring him fruit in his study and spotted a locked glass cabinet.
Inside, carefully preserved, was a pen Lily had given him.
A twenty-dollar pen from a stationery store.
In that moment, it was like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over my head.
We had a screaming fight. I even smashed the cabinet open and hurled that pen into the trash.
The next second, Ethan fished it right back out.
Like he was retrieving something precious.
When he looked at me again, all that was left in his eyes was impatience.
"Claire, go look in a mirror. Look at yourself right now."
"You're the one who broke the vase today. What exactly are you blaming me for?"
I made him swear he hadn't fallen for Lily.
And if he had, then he and Lily could both rot in hell.
Professor Reed, who never believed in oaths or gods, actually hesitated.
After a long time, he finally spoke.
"Yes. I have feelings for her."
"But we haven't crossed any lines, and we won't. There's no reason for you to act like you've suffered some monumental injustice."
I couldn't hold back the tears.
He sighed, reached over, and smoothed my messy hair.
"Claire, we've been together eleven years. There's no excitement left. Sometimes I regret it. Getting married abroad the minute we turned eighteen."
"But back then, I never imagined that ten years later, I'd fall for someone else."
The man who once bought out every firework in the city just to make me smile was him.
The man now looking down at me, coolly discussing his change of heart, was also him.
"Lily's lively. Not dull like you. She likes pranks, she likes cheesy romance movies, she likes feeding stray cats on the street."
"You like all those silly things too. But when she does them, I just find it... endearing."
"I can't help how I feel."
Finally, he lit a cigarette, his tone gentle and cruel at the same time.
"As long as you're willing, the position of Mrs. Reed will always be yours."
"But you have to accept that she's the only one in my heart."
After that night, I sank into a long, slow collapse.
I cried every day until my eyes were swollen shut.
I tried not to care when he came home late. Tried not to care when he missed prenatal appointment after prenatal appointment. Tried not to care when he took Lily to Hawaii on vacation.
But it was all just lying to myself.
Until today.
He knelt before me in front of everyone and begged me to give Lily my heart, even if it meant losing our six-month-old baby.
And suddenly, I realized this marriage had become utterly pointless.
第3章
"Mrs. Reed, I really am sorry. Please forgive me."
Lily sounded far more confident now than she had a moment ago.
A faint trace of amusement hid behind her eyes.
Someone spoke up for her. "Claire, Lily didn't mean any harm. She's always been clueless with jokes. Once when she was drunk, she even said she wanted to marry Professor Reed."
The moment those words left his mouth, the living room went silent.
The man cringed and clapped a hand over his mouth.
"That's not what I meant. I'm saying she doesn't think before she talks. Everyone knows you and Ethan have been together for years with a rock-solid relationship. There's no way either of you would let someone else in."
I smiled without a sound and looked at Lily.
"It's fine. I don't blame you."
The tension in the room visibly eased.
Then I continued.
"Your Professor Reed and I will be divorced soon. Congratulations in advance on getting what you wanted."
"Claire!"
Ethan's face went dark.
"Don't say things like that in front of everyone."
I found it ironic.
"You can kneel in front of everyone and beg me to give Lily my heart, but I can't even mention divorce?"
He frowned.
"It was just a joke. What's the big deal?"
"Lily already apologized, and I talked to her about it. If you keep making a scene, you'll only embarrass everyone here."
Our friends chimed in one after another.
"Claire, calm down. You're still pregnant. Don't let something this small come between you two."
"Exactly. We all saw how much Ethan cares about you just now. He's normally never that harsh with Lily."
I looked slowly at Ethan, my voice strangely calm.
"You weren't angry because of me."
"You were angry because Lily joked about her own tissue match. When you found out the truth, you were disappointed, weren't you?"
Ethan stiffened.
A beat later, irritation crept across his face.
"I'm begging you, can we not do this here? You may not care about your dignity, but Lily still has hers."
Exhaustion rolled over me like a tide.
I closed my eyes and said quietly, "Fine. Monday. I'll see you in court."
I stood to leave.
But Lily dropped to her knees in front of me with a thud.
"Mrs. Reed, please don't blame Professor Reed, okay? He just wants me to have a healthy body. That's all."
I looked at her coldly.
"You went to all that trouble with this little stunt just to prove where you stand in Ethan's heart, didn't you?"
"Well, now you've proved it. You must be thrilled."
Lily looked as if she'd been dealt the ultimate humiliation. Her face drained of color.
I stepped around her and headed for the door.
The next second, I heard Ethan's ice-cold voice behind me.
"Claire, don't forget. Your mother is still at Reed Medical Center."
I stopped mid-step. Never in my life had I imagined Ethan would use my mother against me.
After a long silence, I forced a smile, turned around, and helped Lily up from the floor.
"Everything I just said was a joke. I don't blame you."
Lily choked back a sob. "That's good. I was so scared I'd caused trouble for Professor Reed."
And just like that, the farce was over.
Ethan offered to drive me home.
On the way, he did something rare and tried to explain.
"I only said that to scare you. I had no choice. I would never do anything to your mother."
"You were put in an unfair position today. I know that. To make it up to you, I'll go with you to your prenatal appointment tomorrow."
"Claire, we've been together for over ten years. It's not as if I feel nothing for you. If it's possible, I'd like you and Lily to get along."
I leaned against the car window and stared straight ahead.
"I meant what I said today."
"Ethan, let's get a divorce."
"Whatever happens between you and her from now on has nothing to do with me."
