“Even in that moment of danger, in the very first second, I chose you. I used my own body to block the car coming toward us…”

Huo Hanzhou’s voice rang through the airport with unbearable clarity.

I stood frozen in the crowd.

For days, I had tried to convince myself that what happened during the accident had been instinct.

An unconscious reaction.

A cruel coincidence.

But now he had named it himself.

A choice.

He had chosen Bai Lili.

He had chosen the child she was carrying.

And he had left me—his wife—and our baby in the place that remained.

Bai Lili stopped crying.

“Then… do you love me?”

Huo Hanzhou was silent for several seconds.

I waited too.

Pathetic.

After everything, some miserable piece of me still wanted to hear him deny it.

But he lifted a hand, brushed the hair from Bai Lili’s face, and said:

“If I didn’t love you, I wouldn’t have come here.”

Something inside me finally went quiet.

There was no explosion of pain.

No fresh tears.

Only a strange, clean silence.

Like a room after all the furniture had been removed.

My phone vibrated.

I looked down.

It was an email from the international medical program I had applied to months ago.

APPLICATION APPROVED. HUMANITARIAN MEDICAL TEAM, AFRICA. REPORT IN THREE DAYS.

Three days.

Exactly what I had been waiting for.

I put the phone away.

In front of me, Bai Lili had already thrown herself into Huo Hanzhou’s arms.

People around them applauded.

Someone even raised a phone to record them.

“How romantic!”

“A man like that really knows how to love.”

I smiled.

Yes.

Huo Hanzhou knew how to love.

He had simply never loved me that way.

I turned around.

I had barely taken a few steps when someone shouted behind me.

“Mrs. Huo!”

I stopped.

A young nurse from the hospital was running toward me, breathing hard.

Huo Hanzhou heard her too.

He turned.

Our eyes met.

His expression changed completely.

First surprise.

Then disbelief.

Then fear.

“Wanwan?”

Bai Lili immediately stepped away from him.

I did not move.

Huo Hanzhou looked at the suitcase beside me.

Then at my coat.

“What are you doing here?”

What a ridiculous question.

He had left the hospital claiming he had urgent business to handle.

I had left because I had finally understood there was nothing left between us to handle.

“I’m leaving.”

His face hardened.

“Where?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

He walked toward me.

“Go back to the hospital. You haven’t recovered yet.”

Bai Lili caught his arm.

“Hanzhou…”

He did not even look at her.

For the first time that night, all his attention was on me.

Too late.

“Wanwan, listen. What you just heard…”

“I heard everything perfectly.”

He stopped.

“You said you chose her during the accident.”

“The situation was complicated.”

“You said you gave her the company’s core project because you wanted to fulfill her dream.”

“That doesn’t mean—”

“You said you took her to Hokkaido.”

His face lost color.

I had never known about Hokkaido.

During that supposed “business trip,” I had been at home preparing the nursery for our baby.

“And you just said that if you didn’t love her, you wouldn’t have come here.”

Bai Lili lowered her gaze.

Huo Hanzhou took another step.

“Wanwan, we can discuss this at home.”

I shook my head.

“We don’t have a home anymore.”

His expression darkened.

“What does that mean?”

The nurse who had run after me interrupted awkwardly.

“Mr. Huo… I actually came because of the documents Mrs. Huo left in her hospital room.”

“What documents?”

I did not answer.

The nurse did.

“A divorce agreement.”

The airport seemed to fall silent again.

Huo Hanzhou slowly released Bai Lili’s arm.

“Divorce?”

He said the word as if he had never heard it before.

“Yes.”

“How long have you been preparing this?”

“Long enough.”

His jaw tightened.

“I won’t sign it.”

“That decision is no longer entirely yours.”

“Huo Wanwan!”

His raised voice made several people turn.

Bai Lili went pale.

Perhaps she had never imagined that the man who had just confessed his love to her publicly would panic the moment his wife decided to leave.

Huo Hanzhou reached for my wrist.

I stepped back.

It was the first time in years I had deliberately avoided his touch.

He froze.

“Don’t touch me.”

“You’re my wife.”

I looked at him.

“Am I?”

I took out my phone.

I opened one of the photographs Bai Lili had shown me in the hospital.

Hokkaido.

Snow.

Lights.

Bai Lili smiling.

Huo Hanzhou standing behind her with his arms around her.

And in the background, the sign of a resort famous for private weddings and honeymoon packages.

I held the screen toward him.

“Where was your wife while you were doing this?”

His jaw tightened.

“I can explain.”

“I don’t want your explanation.”

Bai Lili suddenly spoke.

“She already decided to abandon you! Why are you still explaining anything to her?”

Huo Hanzhou turned toward her.

“Shut up.”

His voice was so cold that even I was surprised.

Bai Lili’s face went white.

“Hanzhou…”

“I told you to go abroad. Who told you to go to the hospital and provoke her?”

Her eyes widened.

“How did you know?”

Silence.

And suddenly, I understood.

Huo Hanzhou had known Bai Lili came to see me.

Maybe he had not known about the photographs.

But he knew enough.

And still, that same morning, he returned to my hospital room, held me tightly, and whispered:

“In this life, I only need you.”

Nausea rose in my throat.

“How exhausting,” I murmured.

Huo Hanzhou frowned.

“What?”

“Lying to two women at the same time must be exhausting.”

I picked up my suitcase.

He stepped in front of me.

“You’re not going anywhere.”

I lifted my eyes.

“Move.”

“You’re weak. You just lost the baby.”

The words cut through me.

I stared at him for several seconds.

Then I asked:

“Do you remember how that happened?”

His face went completely still.

“Wanwan…”

“I do.”

My voice shook for the first time.

“I remember your arm shielding Bai Lili.”

“I remember you turning toward her.”

“I remember that you didn’t even look back.”

I swallowed hard.

“And I remember waking up in the hospital and being told our child was gone.”

Huo Hanzhou lost all expression.

Bai Lili instinctively placed a hand over her stomach.

That tiny movement did not escape me.

Or him.

My phone vibrated again.

Another email.

This time from the hospital.

My doctor.

PLEASE RETURN IMMEDIATELY. WE HAVE REVIEWED YOUR POST-ACCIDENT RESULTS. THERE IS SOMETHING IMPORTANT WE NEED TO CONFIRM IN PERSON.

I frowned.

Huo Hanzhou saw the sender’s name.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know.”

A second later, my phone rang.

The doctor.

I answered.

“Dr. Lin?”

Her voice sounded unusually serious.

“Where are you?”

“At the airport.”

There was a pause.

“Do not board any flight yet.”

My heartbeat accelerated.

“Why?”

I heard papers moving on the other end.

“Because we found something unusual when we reviewed the procedure performed after the accident.”

I looked at Huo Hanzhou.

He was staring at me now.

“What did you find?”

The doctor took a breath.

“I need to confirm something first.”

Another pause.

Then she asked the question that made the entire airport disappear around me.

“Mrs. Huo… who exactly told you that you had lost the baby?”