Your First Love is Pregnant? I'm Done Being Mrs. Hawthorne!

###Chapter 18: A Deliberate Act

Adrian Pemberton was a bit surprised to get her call. "Nina, why are you still up so late?"

Nina’s voice was filled with pain. "Help me, I’m in trouble..."

Hearing the strange tone in her voice, Adrian asked urgently, "Share your location!"

After sharing her location, Nina’s strength completely gave out. "I’m here. Can you... hurry..."

"Mm," Adrian responded.

Nina lay on the ground for a long time as waves of darkness washed over her vision.

After ten-odd minutes, she slowly started to recover.

Just then, Zachary Hawthorne’s call came through.

Nina didn’t answer.

She sat huddled next to a toppled trash can. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Since she didn’t answer his call, Zachary sent her a message.

[Nina, answer the phone.]

After reading the message, his call came through again.

She pressed the answer key but remained silent.

"Where are you?" Zachary’s voice was tinged with annoyance.

Nina clutched her throbbing abdomen and said nothing.

"Nina, is this some new trick of yours?!"

Zachary’s tone was utterly exasperated.

Nina didn’t want to explain. She had no desire to communicate with him at all.

After arguing with her, he would go find his old flame.

Meanwhile, she was acting like a fool, getting her heart broken over his words and actions.

She refused to debase herself any longer and would no longer hold any expectations for him.

"Nina, what is it you want from me?" Zachary’s tone calmed down.

Leaning against the trash can, Nina listened with a numb expression, devoid of any desire to even think.

When her response didn’t come, Zachary hung up.

Nina didn’t know how long she had been sitting there.

"Nina!" Adrian Pemberton’s voice pulled the dazed woman back to reality.

The man ran to her, his steps urgent, and crouched down, looking at her with a panicked expression. "What’s wrong?"

"I hit my stomach. It hurts so much..." Nina said in a low voice.

Adrian tried to help her up, but the slightest movement brought tears of pain to her eyes.

Nina’s voice trembled. "A little above my stomach. The pain is so bad I can’t walk."

Adrian moved her hand away and saw a patch of red staining her clothes. Her hand was also covered in blood.

"I’m sorry, Nina," Adrian said before sweeping her up in his arms.

The moment he lifted her, Nina’s body shuddered violently.

But in that instant, she also felt a sense of security.

As the fear subsided, her eyes burned with unshed tears.

"Hang in there. We’ll be at the hospital soon and you’ll be fine," Adrian said, carrying her toward his car.

Nestled in his arms, Nina vaguely saw Zachary’s car parked a few meters away.

But she no longer cared.

Adrian placed her in the car, went around to the driver’s seat, and drove away.

The car drove further and further away, disappearing into the night.

Zachary retracted his gaze, a corner of his lip twitching as he let out a cold sneer.

"Did something happen to Miss Wainwright?" Silas Sinclair couldn’t help but ask.

"What’s it to me?" Zachary said indifferently.

’Her going silent for so long... wasn’t it all just to lure me here and make me watch this scene?’

’I can’t believe it. This really is her new trick.’

*

The corner of the trash can had gashed Nina’s abdomen open.

Adrian disinfected the wound, applied medicine, and covered it with gauze.

"You can’t let it get wet for the next few days. Will you still be able to dance tomorrow?" Adrian asked worriedly.

Nina pursed her lips, then said after a moment, "It probably won’t be as bad tomorrow. I should be able to."

Adrian hummed. "If you can’t, I can talk to Miss Aldridge. It won’t be a big deal..."

He paused, then couldn’t resist asking, "You were fine at home, why did you run out?"

Lying on the hospital bed, Nina stared out the dark window. After a long while, she finally said slowly, "Just went for a walk. I’m sorry for troubling you."

"I was on duty anyway. Look, I haven’t even changed out of these clothes," Adrian said, showing off his white coat.

"Being a doctor is so hard," Nina said softly. Her pale face looked even more fragile under the lights.

"At least my troubles aren’t romantic ones. But you, Nina, you’re living in so much pain," Adrian said, tossing the used cotton swab into the trash.

"It won’t be for much longer." Nina knew she had to cut off her unrealistic fantasies about Zachary Hawthorne.

"Nina, did something happen between you two tonight?" Adrian watched her, his usually cool eyes filled with an unprecedented gentleness.

Nina took a deep breath and forced a smile. "It’s nothing."

She had simply found out that Zachary had gone to see Luna Sterling.

She’d found out that while she was agonizing over their relationship, he was out with Luna, introducing her to his circle of friends, playing cards, and having fun.

She’d realized she was someone he was ashamed to present to others.

She’d also realized that no matter when or where, he had a home, friends, and a lover he could return to and be with.

But she had a home she couldn’t return to and friends she didn’t dare visit.

"Get some rest. Call me if you need anything. I’m on duty until four," Adrian said gently.

Nina looked at him and said sincerely, "Thank you, Adrian."

Adrian gave her a gentle smile before turning and leaving the room.

Nina pulled the covers up, buried her face in the blanket, and tears unconsciously streamed from the corners of her eyes.

’It turns out the hospital is the only place I can get a moment’s rest,’ she thought.

Nina didn’t know when she fell asleep.

When she woke up, the sun was already high in the sky.

She rubbed her eyes and sat up.

Although the wound on her abdomen still hurt, it wasn’t as bad as the night before.

Nina opened the door, deciding to go check on Raymond Wainwright.

Just as she reached Raymond Wainwright’s floor, she heard a commotion coming from his room.

Ignoring the pain in her abdomen, Nina ran toward the room.

A crowd had gathered at the entrance to the hospital room.

Adrian was in the middle of it, surrounded and clearly in a bind.

As Nina got closer, she saw that today’s debt collectors were a group of women.

The woman in the lead shouted, "Give her time to get the money? Who’s giving us time?! I’m telling you, if that old woman can’t pay up today, we’re pulling her husband’s oxygen tube! If he dies, we all die together!"

"Pulling an oxygen tube will land you in jail. Please, calm down. This isn’t an amount of money that can be gathered in a short time... If you keep shouting, the hospital will have to call security," Adrian said, beads of sweat forming on his nose.

Nina squeezed her way to his side and said in a low voice, "Adrian, let me handle this."

"You... didn’t you check your phone?" Adrian frowned, instinctively moving forward to try and shield her.

"So that’s the deadbeat’s daughter. She was dressed all fancy yesterday. Probably dressed down today because she was afraid you were coming to collect," someone in the crowd whispered to the debt collectors.

Just as Nina was about to speak, the slightly heavyset woman in the lead stepped forward and grabbed her arm. "You’re the old woman’s daughter?! Forget talking nicely. You’re taking me to your house right now! I’ll take whatever you have! Let’s go!"

In the ensuing struggle, someone bumped into Nina’s abdomen.

The pain was so intense she almost fell to her knees.