1

569words2026-01-26 09:07

Due to heavy radiation exposure from an experiment,I lost my child and was diagnosed with bone cancer.
Ethan Clarke,wracked with guilt and with tears in his eyes, said to me with regret that he should've been the one monitoring the data.
But on a niche online forum,I saw his marriage proposal to another woman.

It was posted the same night I lost my child and got my cancer diagnosis.
In our home,under romantic candlelight.
...
The day the experiment succeeded,I collapsed in the lab.
When the ambulance arrived,Ethan was clutching the crystal orb I had handed him,his face lighting up with excitement,muttering about our success.
My body ached with no strength left,but seeing his bright eyes,I forced with all my strenth lest a smile.

I reassured him,"It doesn't hurt at all."
When I heard I had bone cancer,I felt a strange sense of relief.
A sense of fate mixed with relief that I hadn't let Ethan enter the lab.
Otherwise,we could be both facing death now.

But when I learned I ahd lost my child,the tears I had been holding back came streamed down.
I clutched my stomach weakly,tugging at my thinning hair,blaming myself for not being more careful.
Ethan pulled my self-harming hands away and wiped my tears gently.His eyes were red,his voice trembling.
"I'm sorry.It's all my fault.I shouldn't have let you go in."
"If I'd insisted,if I'd monitored the final results,if I'd stopped you..."
With his broken voice he sounded like a child who'd done wrong,repeating,"I'm sorry,I'm sorry..."
Through blurry tears,I saw tears roll down his face as well.A grown man nearly sobbing before me.
But it wasn't his fault.
I knew my toxic emotions were affecting him.
I forced a faint smile,and after a long while,we both calmed down.
He comforted me,"As long as you're okay,that's enough.Kids are trouble,and we don't have time to care for one.I just want you to be okay."
In that moment,I felt like the happiest woman on earth.
Even if I had lost my health,my child,and my future.
Chemotherapy was a grueling process,but the experiment had to go on.Ethan looked at me with guilt in his eyes,and I smiled,urging him back to the lab.
After enduring another chemo session,battling dizziness and nausea,I surfed the Internet aimlessly.
I stumbled across a niche forum discussing a breakthrough in my field.Curiosity drew me in,only to find a gossip thread about a proposal.
My finger froze on the screen.A familiar face appeared—my husband,Ethan Clarke.
He was on one knee,holding a small box.Not a ring,but a necklace with a crystal orb pendant.
Another photo showed a blushing girl in his arms,she was smiling most happily,wearing the crystal orb I had handed him the day I collapsed in the lab.
The caption was syrupy,unlike his usual crisp,no-nonsense style.
"Twenty years ago,I watched helplessly as you were adopted,unable even to bid you goodbye.I prayed day and night,and fate finally brought you back to me.Now,I have the strength to keep you by my side.From this day on,I'll never let you suffer again,my dearest love."
He never liked saying romantic things.He thought they were cheesy,disgusting.
He'd said,"Love isn't in the rods.Sweet talk is just a boy's trick to charm a girl."
But sweet talk wasn't cheesy anymore when said to the right person.
I checked the date.By cruel coincidence,it was the day our experiment succeeded,the day my life began its countdown.
That same afternoon,he'd held me,crying and blaming himself.