Page 3 of Medical Malpractice

Maybe Leo wasn’t the one for me. Maybe I had to search elsewhere, but just as close.

I checked in with my emotions, and only one resounding offer echoed throughout.

Yes. Yes. Yes. “Yes,” I said.

Nico just hummed, kissed my hair and ordered me to sleep.

Earlier in the night, I’d had my heart broken. But instead of bleeding out, I had encountered another, willing to piece all those severed parts back together.

I fell into sleep with a new sense of hope and opportunity.

Chapter 1

GABRIELLA

Forty-three years old…

A small smile graced my lips as I finished preparing the extravagant dishes on the kitchen bench.

I had prepared a feast of all my husband’s favourite foods since it was the night he was finally coming home.

Nico was a renowned plastic surgeon and had chosen to challenge himself by accepting a two-month secondment abroad.

I had every intention of going with him, but our work schedules never aligned. I was the leading paediatrician at the local hospital, and by the time I dealt with one crisis, two more managed to pop up.

With such demanding jobs, our schedules often clashed, though this was the longest I had ever been without him.

I missed my husband terribly.

His bad jokes that aged poorly. His smoky cologne that he hadn’t changed since college. And those laughing wrinkles that deepened around his eyes. They were always there when he was with me.

We had a good life, filled with joy.

Unable to resist, I sent him a message for the hundredth time that day.

Forty minutes till I see you, honey. I planned the biggest surprise for you.

Can’t wait, babe. Surprise? Tell me it involves you…with nothing on.

The surprise wasn’t me. But it was someone.

I tucked my phone away and checked the apartment, wanting everything to be perfect. I busied my excited mind by finding things to tidy, which had me flicking through the mail that had been neglected for far too long.

I skipped the advertisements, then my gaze caught on a letter addressed to Nico. A second ticked by as I tried to work out why a sudden sense of reckoning came over me.

I recognised the logo in the corner since I had so much trauma associated with the unique image.

A pink heart with a baby handprint in the middle. One Care Fertility Clinic.

For years, we had tried to get pregnant.

A baby was the one thing I truly, deeply wanted above all else, and I was denied it. We explored other options, yet Nico didn’t want a child who wasn’t naturally conceived or was not biologically linked to both of us.

That was a hard period in our marriage and for my personal well-being.

Despite countless investigations, there was no reason why we were unsuccessful. They said it was unexplained infertility. And that took a toll on me.

It was difficult to reconcile my inadequacies as a female. What good was I if my body couldn’t perform the one task it was created to do? What was so wrong with me that I was chosen not to be blessed with a child when it came so easily to others who didn’t deserve it at all?