My Husband Chose His First Love While Our Daughter Stopped Breathing

Tags: Evil Rival, Biased Ex, Chronic Poisoning, Female Lead Awakening, Divorce With Child At Ethan’s first love's birthday party, my daughter suddenly gasped for air, her tiny face turning a terrifying shade of purple. I grabbed my husband's arm, desperate to leave, but he shoved my hand away. "What kind of tantrum are you throwing now?" I held my daughter tightly, my voice trembling violently. "Something is wrong with her!" He barely glanced at our daughter. "We haven't even cut the cake yet. Stop ruining the mood." I pointed at Lily's bruised, purple lips, almost screaming through my tears. "Open your eyes and look at her! Her face is blue! We have to get to the ER right now!" He snatched the car keys straight out of my reach, his eyes dripping with disgust. "It’s just a mild rash. Stop acting like she’s on her deathbed." "That’s enough. Stop being so dramatic. We’ll deal with it after Chloe’s party is over." Laughter echoed through the grand banquet hall. Chloe’s friends were raising glasses of champagne, cheering and pushing her to make a wish and blow out the candles. I looked down at Lily in my arms. Her breathing grew shallow and rapid. Her small hands clutched my collar so tightly that her knuckles were white. Her lips shifted from dark purple to an ashen gray. Her eyelids fluttered, looking ready to close forever. "Ethan Hayes!" I screamed his full name, my voice cracking over the noise of the party. Several guests nearby turned to glare at me with furrowed brows. He finally turned around. A flash of irritation crossed his face as he strode over, his voice dropping into a harsh, warning whisper. "Tessa, do you really have to humiliate me here? Half the city’s high society is at Chloe’s birthday party. What is wrong with you?" I seized his wrist, my fingernails digging into his flesh. My voice shook so hard it barely sounded human. "Touch her! Feel her hands—they're freezing! She can't breathe!" Ethan brushed two fingers against Lily’s forehead dismissively, then ripped his arm away from me. He took half a step back, as if I were carrying the plague. "It’s just a rash! Do you always have to make a scene? Kids get sick all the time, but you always act like the sky is falling down." "She has severe asthma!" I practically roared the words in his face. "She ate something with peanuts! Can't you see her throat is closing up?!" Ethan's face darkened. He glanced back at Chloe, who was elegantly cutting the cake, then looked back at me as though I were an unhinged, spiteful shrew. "Chloe ordered that custom cake herself. It’s strictly low-sugar and hypoallergenic. Stop trying to throw dirt on her name. If you want to leave, leave on your own. You’re not getting the car keys. I'm driving Chloe home later." He shoved his hands into his suit pockets, lifting his chin as he looked down at me. "Calm down, Tessa. Don't force me to embarrass you in front of all these people." In my arms, Lily suddenly began to cough violently. A thick string of saliva splattered onto my collarbone, tinged with dark red streaks of blood. My entire body froze, as if struck by lightning. Her body began to convulse. Every trace of color drained from her face, and her eyes began rolling back. "Lily! Lily, look at Mommy!" I patted her cheeks, but she didn't respond at all. The music in the hall continued to play. Chloe was smiling, handing the first slice of cake to a friend, looking like an angel. Ethan stood right there, his arms crossed, watching like an amused bystander at a cheap carnival. No one came to help. Or rather, people saw, but chose to look away. I gritted my teeth and shoved Ethan with all my might, sending him stumbling back two steps. "Are you out of your mind?!" He braced himself against a table, his face livid. I ignored him, clutching Lily close to my chest as I sprinted toward the side exit. My high heels clicked frantically against the marble floor. At the end of the hallway was an emergency exit. I kicked the door open. Cold air rushed in, and Lily's little body twitched in my arms. I didn’t have my phone. He had the car keys. This was an exclusive country club out in the secluded hills—remote enough that getting an Uber was practically impossible. My heels came off as I ran, and I didn't bother looking back. My bare feet slammed onto the gravel road. The sharp rocks cut deep gashes into my soles, but I felt zero pain. "Please! Somebody, please help me!"I threw myself in front of an SUV that was just about to pull out of the parking lot. The driver rolled down his window. Seeing my disheveled hair, my blood-stained feet, and the bluish, limp child in my arms, his expression shifted instantly. "Get in! The nearest children’s hospital is five miles east. I’ll get you there!" I don’t remember how I scrambled into the backseat. All I remember was Lily’s breath—thin as a fraying thread. I held her against me, terrified that if I held her too loosely she’d slip away, yet terrified of crushing her. The driver ran four red lights, turning a fifteen-minute drive into an eight-minute race against death. The moment we burst into the emergency room, my knees buckled. I dropped straight to the floor, lifting my child toward the oncoming nurses. "Save her! Severe asthma attack, peanut allergy—please, save her!" A nurse scooped Lily up immediately. Another rolled over a crash cart, and a team rushed into the trauma room like a whirlwind. The doors slammed shut. I knelt on the freezing tile floor, covered in mud and blood. My bare feet were torn to shreds, but my mind was completely numb. Only one thought spun through my head over and over again: If anything happens to Lily, I will kill Ethan. I borrowed the desk phone at the nurses' station to dial his number. First call: no answer. Second call: no answer. Third call: he finally picked up. Loud laughter and upbeat music blared through the receiver. "What now?" Ethan's voice was relaxed, slurred with a slight buzz from the alcohol. "Lily is in the resuscitation room." There was a two-second pause on the other end, followed by a scoff. "Tessa, do you really think making up a crisis will make me run back and cater to you? Chloe’s guests are still here. Can you stop being so selfish for once?" "Ethan, I’m not lying to you." I stared at the glowing red light above the emergency room door. My voice was terrifyingly calm. "Her throat swelled shut. She was suffocating. They’re intubating her right now. Do you not understand plain English?" Another brief silence followed, but then a different voice took over. Chloe’s soft, gentle voice leaned close to the speaker, laced with just the right amount of concern. "Tessa, is Lily really okay? Should I tell Ethan to go over? It’s all my fault. I shouldn't have thrown a birthday party today. I just didn't think things through." Her voice was sweet and delicate, like poison dipped in honey. Before I could utter a word, Chloe whispered something to Ethan. His voice returned, instantly heavy with anger. "Listen to her, Tessa! Chloe is being considerate of you, even now. If you have an issue, take it out on me. Stop throwing your passive-aggressive attitude at her!" "Whether I’m giving her attitude or not, you know the truth." "Enough. I can't leave right now. I’ll come over after the party wraps up. Can you tone down your ridiculous exaggerations? Last time Lily scraped her knee, you acted like the world was ending. Now this again." *Click.* He hung up. I gripped the receiver until my knuckles turned stark white, then slowly rested it back on the cradle. The red light over the emergency room clicked off. The doors swung open. A middle-aged doctor in scrubs walked out, pulling off his latex gloves with a heavy scowl. "It was severe laryngeal edema triggered by a massive peanut protein allergic reaction. Her oxygen saturation had dropped below seventy percent by the time she arrived. Five minutes later, and we wouldn't have been able to bring her back." He paused, his tone turning stern and accusatory. "How are you managing her care as parents? With a documented history of severe peanut allergy, how could you let her ingest anything with peanuts?""She couldn’t have eaten peanuts." I snapped my head up. "She hasn't touched a nut since she was an infant! I’ve made that clear to everyone around her. I inspect every single thing she eats!" The doctor sighed and handed me an allergy screening report. "Her blood levels of peanut-specific IgE antibodies are extraordinarily high. That doesn't happen from a one-time accidental exposure. Judging by the data, she has been regularly ingesting trace amounts of peanut protein over an extended period." I took the paper. The numbers blurred before my stinging eyes. *Continuous ingestion.* Not an accident. A continuous exposure. "What do you mean, continuous? Who would repeatedly feed her peanuts?" My voice shook. The doctor shook his head. "That's for you parents to investigate. I strongly advise you to check every food item she comes into contact with—snacks, baby food, even check if her utensils and dishes are being cross-contaminated." *Continuous ingestion.* The words drove into my skull like rusty nails. I sat on the hospital hallway bench all night. Lily had been moved to the pediatric ICU for observation. Looking through the glass window, her tiny frame was hooked up to monitors and IV lines. An oxygen mask covered her small face. She looked like a fragile porcelain doll that had shattered and been clumsily glued back together. At three in the morning, Ethan finally showed up. He reeked of expensive liquor. His suit jacket was slung over his forearm, his tie hung loose, and his steps were uneven. Behind him was Chloe. She had changed into a modest, light-colored dress, her hair pinned up loosely. She carried a thermos and a bag of fresh fruit, the very picture of a thoughtful, caring friend. "Where is she? How is she?" Ethan burped slightly, his eyes scanning the corridor. I didn’t stand up. "ICU." He froze, his drunken haze clearing up just a fraction. "...She’s in the ICU?" Chloe immediately stepped forward, tears welling up in her eyes right on cue, her voice breaking. "Ethan, this is all my fault. If only I hadn’t hosted that birthday party—" "This has nothing to do with your party," I said. My voice was raspy, like sandpaper scraping across sheet metal. I slowly lifted my head to look at her. "Whether it has anything to do with you or not, we’ll find out once we investigate." Chloe’s eyelashes fluttered. A brief flicker of panic crossed her face, but she masked it instantly with a veil of hurt. She bit her lower lip, turning to Ethan as tears rolled down her cheeks. "Is Tessa blaming me...?" Ethan’s face hardened. He grabbed my arm, yanking me up from the bench with enough force to make me stumble. "Tessa, that’s enough! Chloe came all the way out here in the middle of the night just to support you! What’s with the hostility? Landing Lily in the ICU is on you for being a careless mother. What does Chloe have to do with this?!""Smell yourself," I said, shaking his grip off and taking a step back. "Your daughter is lying in the ICU hooked to machines, and you were busy celebrating your little golden girl’s birthday. Ethan Hayes, search whatever conscience you have left—do you even qualify as a human being?" His face darkened, his lips pressing into a grim line. "Here you go again. Tessa, I’m warning you for the last time: stop using our child as a bargaining chip—" "The doctor said Lily’s peanut antibody levels are abnormally high," I cut him off, staring directly into his eyes. "This wasn't caused by a single exposure tonight. She’s been ingesting it continuously. Someone has been feeding your daughter trace amounts of peanut protein on purpose." The hallway fell dead silent. Ethan frowned, looking thoroughly confused. "What are you talking about?" "I'm saying someone is trying to kill your daughter." Chloe gasped sharply, nearly dropping the thermos in her hands. She slapped a hand over her mouth, looking horrified. "How could that be...? Ethan, who has Lily been spending time with lately?" As she asked, her eyes darted toward me. It was so fast I almost missed it. It wasn't a look of horror. It was a calculated test. I said nothing more. Talking was pointless right now. Lily was still inside the ICU, and the man standing in front of me only had room in his brain for his high school crush. Anything I said would sound like hysterical accusations to him. Seeing my silence, Ethan assumed I was backing down. His tone softened marginally. "You've been up all night. Go home and get some sleep. I'll stay here and watch over her." Yet as he spoke, his gaze drifted toward Chloe. Chloe shook her head with saintly modesty. "Ethan, you stay here with Tessa. I'll just have the driver take me home. I really am so sorry about tonight..." "You don't need to leave," I said, my voice steady. "Since you're here, why rush? The specialist comes on duty in a few hours. There are questions that need answering." Chloe's steps halted. She turned back to look at me, panic flashing through her eyes again, but she quickly smoothed it away with another layer of sweet compliance. "Tessa is right. I should stay and see if there's anything I can do to help." Ethan frowned. "Tessa, what are you trying to pull?" I ignored him, walked over to the nurses' station, and asked to borrow their phone again. Some paths you have to walk alone. As the sky began to turn pale gray, I dialed Julian’s number. He was my college classmate and the only person in this city I could still trust. Over the past few years, I had isolated myself completely for the sake of Ethan and our marriage, drifting away from nearly all my old friends. Only Julian still sent a message every holiday and mailed toys for Lily's birthday. The phone rang seven or eight times before a groggy, gravelly voice answered. "Tessa?" "Julian, I need your help." I gripped the phone tightly, my fingernails biting into my palm. "Find me a top-tier criminal defense attorney. And I need a forensic technician who can collect physical evidence from my house. As soon as possible." Silence hung on the line for two seconds. Then Julian’s voice snapped completely awake. "What happened?" "Someone is poisoning my daughter." Saying the words aloud, I surprised myself with how calm I sounded. "Someone has been secretly micro-dosing her with peanut protein. She has a lethal allergy. She almost died in the trauma unit last night. I'm going to find out who did it, and I'm going to destroy them." Julian didn't ask a single unnecessary question. "Send me the address. I'll be there within two hours. I know an attorney and a forensics expert. I’m calling them right now." After hanging up, I leaned against the cold wall and slowly slid to the floor, burying my face in my knees. I couldn't cry. Lily was still waiting for me. Suddenly, a shadow fell over me, blocking the fluorescent lights. I lifted my head and met a pair of overly sympathetic eyes. Chloe had walked up while I wasn't looking. She held a cup of warm milk, extending it toward me. "Tessa, drink something warm. You haven't slept all night." I didn't take it. I just stared at her.