Chapter 3 — That Night of Fire

I grabbed her sleeve, my fingertips shaking violently: "Where is my child?" The nurse's expression stiffened. She looked at the doctor next to her. The doctor walked over, bent down and looked at me: "You just take care of your health first." "Where is my child?" My voice was hoarse, I couldn't hear my own voice anymore. The doctor was silent for two seconds: "I'm very sorry, when I was brought here there was no fetal heartbeat. The surgery was to save your life." I stared at the ceiling, my eyes were so dry that they hurt, but I couldn't shed a single tear. The nurse said softly: "At that time, you kept screaming to save the baby..." I placed my hand on my lower abdomen. That place is flat. There's nothing left. This afternoon I'm still thinking, does Chu Nghien like this baby? I was still holding my phone, looking to see if dad was so busy as a firefighter, if the child was afraid of strangers. I even bought a pair of small, yellow socks and hid them in my bedroom drawer, intending to wait until he was on leave to take them out for him to see. But now, I only touch the emptiness under the bandage. The door to the hospital room was pushed open. Chu Nghien rushed in, her hair was messy, her coat button was undone, her face pale. Seeing me, his steps stopped: "Te Hoa." I looked at him. His eyes scanned down, past my legs, past my arms, finally stopping at my stomach. His lips trembled. "Why did you jump from the building?" I said nothing. He took a step closer: "I saw on the news that the Ngo Dong area was on fire. When I got there, you had already been taken away. I didn't know you were really in there." I curled the corners of my lips: "Of course you don't know, you're busy cutting the cake." His face was pale: "Hua Nhuy's place is crowded, my phone is on silent mode, it's not like I didn't answer your call on purpose." "You blocked me." He choked. I looked at him, my voice was so soft that I almost couldn't hear him clearly: "Chu Nghien, I told you I'm pregnant. His throat slid up and down: "I thought you lied to me." "So I locked the door and locked me in." "I just wanted you to calm down, I didn't expect a fire to happen." "I'm a firefighter." These four words hit him straight in the face, making his whole body stagger. The hospital room was so quiet that you could clearly hear the drip of the infusion drops. I asked him word for word: "Don't you know if locking someone in the house when there is a fire, that person will die?" Chu Nghien's eyes turned red: "Te Hoa, you're wrong, you're really wrong." Outside the door, the nurse frowned at him, her eyes as sharp as da.a.o. I looked away: "Go away." He suddenly knelt down next to the bed, his knees hitting the floor hard: "I won't go away, I'll stay and take care of you, I'll make it up to you. If you hit me, you can hit me any way you want." I finally shed tears. Not because he knelt. But because until now, he still thinks that if he lets me hit him a few times, he can exchange it for my child. I sat up on my hands, the wound was stretched, cold sweat immediately broke out on my forehead. The doctor tried to push me down but I dodged. I stared at Chu Nghien: "You told 119 and 120 that I'm mentally unstable, right?" His pupils shrank. "That's just to prevent you from making random calls to the police..." "Have I ever made a random police report?" His lips were pale: "I used to call 120 before." "That day I had low blood pressure and fainted, the neighbor was the one who called, not me." Chu Nghien bowed his head: "Your mother told me to pretend."