Chapter 720
The world around him was still a blur of noise and chaos, people coming and going in a restless tide. But for Jarrod, it felt like the only thing he could hear was the thunder of his own heartbeat.
Elias spoke with the calm detachment of someone who’d merely observed it all- his tone straightforward, unembellished, yet every word was suffocating. Jarrod’s usually refined features turned deathly pale in an instant. Something in his dark eyes seemed to shatter, losing all shape and coherence.
“She had to accept things no one should ever have to,” Elias said quietly. “Even if it really did come to terminating the pregnancy, I don’t think Mr. Silverstein would have had any right to blame her. It was her life at stake. Faced with life or death, what other choice did she have?”
Elias had seen Jarrod back then-seen the confusion on his face as he waited outside the operating room, convinced there’d been some terrible mistake. From Esmeralda’s scattered words, he’d pieced together Jarrod’s attitude, how it had driven a wedge between him and Elodie.
But Elodie… she was the one who had suffered most. She’d endured agony in both body and spirit, and she’d done absolutely nothing wrong.
Elias knew, as a doctor, he shouldn’t let his empathy cloud his judgment. Yet he couldn’t help thinking-Elodie had borne far too much.
“She never told me,” Jarrod muttered, as if someone had driven a spike through his mind.
Elias kept his distance, his voice level. “She was hurting, Jarrod. She felt lost and overwhelmed. Your reaction determined what she could or couldn’t say to you.”
At that time, Elodie had been so adrift, so helpless. How could she possibly have handled Jarrod’s anger or accusations? What was she supposed to do?
Jarrod looked as if all the strength had been drained from him. He seemed at a loss for any expression at all, one hand braced against the wall as he struggled to breathe. Clutching his chest, he bowed his head and drew in a few ragged breaths. “Her chances of recovery… are they good?”
His voice was raw, almost unrecognizable.
As for what had happened to Elodie he would get to the bottom of every last detail.
But right now, nothing mattered more than her. Not the child, not anything else. Every word Elias had spoken was the truth-Jarrod knew that. Even he couldn’t forgive himself for the things he’d said, the way he’d acted toward Elodie at her most vulnerable. Every memory of it stabbed at him like a knife.
How lost had she been? How heartbroken? When she needed comfort most, she’d had to swallow her pain and bear the weight of his lashing emotions-how deeply unfair was that?
Just imagining how hard she’d fought to keep her composure back then made it hard for Jarrod to breathe. Suddenly, he understood-why should she have to explain herself to him? Why should she be the one forced to swallow her sorrow and carry his blame?
Elias didn’t sugarcoat it. “Because the miscarriage was caused by outside factors, her uterus took another hit. Even if we change the surgical plan now, the prognosis won’t be as good as before. You need to prepare yourself for that.”
“You mean… it might not work?” Jarrod’s voice trembled.
“If we try to save her uterus, the odds are only about twenty percent. Failure is very likely-and you know what that means. If the surgery fails, the disease could spread much faster. On the other hand, if we remove the uterus entirely…” Elias looked at the man before him, who seemed utterly defeated. “That’s the safest option.”
There was nothing else Elias could say. He felt helpless, too.
If things had stayed as they were before, Elodie’s condition would have allowed him to preserve her uterus. There might even have been hope for her to have children
someday. But after what had
happened, everything had
worsened her illness had both
advanced and accelerated.
Jarrod’s eyes filled with shock and devastation. The brutal reality left him reeling.
Elias fell silent, but he understood all
too well-this was a double blow for
any man. To have your wife gravely ill, with only a slim chance of recovery, and be told she could never bear children… What husband could accept that without a second, thought, wishing only for his wife’s health? There probably weren’t many in the world.