Chapter 4
The discharge morning began with a nurse asking where my ride was.
I said my husband was coming.
Technically, that was true.
Dominic arrived at the private hospital in a navy suit, not comfortable clothes, not carrying the diaper bag, not asking how I felt.
Victoria was with him.
So was Natalie.
They waited in the SUV instead of coming upstairs.
That should have told me everything.
The nurse helped me stand.
Pain shot through my abdomen so sharply I nearly sat back down.
“Slowly,” she said.
I nodded, embarrassed.
Leo slept in my arms, his tiny mouth opening and closing in dreams.
The nurse offered a wheelchair to the exit.
Dominic refused before I could answer.
“She can walk. It’s just downstairs.”
The nurse’s smile vanished.
“It is standard after surgery.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
I whispered, “I’ll use the chair.”
That was the first time that morning I chose myself.
He hated it.
Outside, the Manhattan afternoon looked too bright, glass doors reflecting cars, hospital staff, people moving normally while my life tilted.
The black SUV waited at the curb.
Rear door open.
Victoria inside.
Natalie checking her phone.
Dominic did not reach for the baby.
Did not help me stand from the wheelchair.
Did not touch my elbow.
Instead, he pulled three folded bills from his wallet and pressed them into my free hand.
I thought he was tipping the attendant.
Then he said the words.
“Take the bus. My mother is waiting.”
For a second, I genuinely did not understand.
The nurse beside me froze.
I looked from Dominic to the SUV.
“What?”
He exhaled like I was testing his patience.
“There isn’t room for all this.”
“All what?”
He looked at me.
The robe.
The hospital bag.
The baby.
The pain.
Me.
Victoria leaned from the back seat.
“Stop making everything about you.”
Natalie looked away.
Not because she disagreed.
Because she did not want to watch too closely.
I realized then that Dominic had not forgotten me.
He had planned this.
He wanted me humiliated at the curb, too weak to resist, too ashamed to make a scene.
He wanted me to accept the bus money and learn my new place.
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Instead, I reached for my phone.
Read the full story 👉 Dominic did not abandon Audrey by accident; he staged the curbside humiliation while his mother and sister watched.
