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JANUARY SEATTLE “How were you able to do this?!” Zack Keller’s furious roar stopped his girlfriend at the very door of the house as soon as he saw her arrive. Giselle saw a sheet of paper in his hand and didn’t even know what he was talking about, but she had never seen him so upset as at that moment. “I don’t know what you’re talking about…” “Of course you know! You aborted my child! You lost it, on purpose!” he accused her angrily. “Did you even have the damn intention of telling me something?!” The woman in front of him turned pale. “How… how do you know…” Zack threw that paper in her direction and looked at her with disappointment. “Are you forgetting that you’re on my company’s health insurance?” he spat, approaching her. “As soon as your last name appeared on the payment records, they notified me. Imagine my joy when I found out that the insurance had paid for a pregnancy test and then for an ultrasound!” Giselle walked away from him, her face red with embarrassment, but Zack wasn’t one to let up. At thirty-two, a multiple Winter Games champion, moderately wealthy and owner of one of the largest sports representation companies in America, he had learned to deal with anything but lies. Thanks for reading at LeeNovelas.com. “It’s not easy to explain, Zack…” she said, trying to find an excuse. “Yes, it is easy! You were pregnant with my child!” he yelled at her. “You were pregnant and like an idiot I kept quiet because I thought you were looking for the best way to surprise me! Damn, I even called my father, my sick father who almost had another heart attack but this time from joy, because I told him I was going to give him his first grandchild!” Zack was so disappointed that anger was his only defense. “You shouldn’t have told him anything!” Giselle replied. It wasn’t the right time… “It was never going to be the right time because you weren’t planning on having him and on top of that you weren’t even going to tell me!” he shouted with his eyes full of tears. “He was my son too! I had the right to know too, Giselle! And instead I come home and find a message from your doctor reminding you that you had a follow-up appointment, but oh surprise! It wasn’t a follow-up appointment for a pregnancy, but for an induced abortion! You lost our son!” Giselle looked at him with her cheeks soaked in tears. Remember. Read this novel only at LeeNovelas.com, not on other sites. “I’m not ready to be a mother… I’m very young, I have a career in which I want to succeed…” she said as she broke down in sobs. “It was a very difficult decision for me, Zack, but later on we can…” “Weren’t you ready to be a mother? Was it a difficult decision? Do you think I’m an idiot?” “If it had been difficult, at least you would have been depressed, you wouldn’t have gone shopping to go to Cancun!” he hissed with contempt because he couldn’t believe that his girlfriend of three years had cheated on him like that. “He was my son, you should have at least told me!”Giselle wiped her tears and seemed to find the courage to put on a dignified face. “No, I didn’t have to,” she said. “It’s my body, and it’s my decision.” Zack was speechless for a second, as if she had slapped him with those words, and then he approached her. “Get out of my house,” she snapped. “What…? Zack…! You can’t…” “Yes I can!” he roared. “It’s my house, and my decision! And I want you out of my house and out of my life in an hour.” “Zack!” “Whatever you haven’t taken in a damn hour I will burn!” she warned him as she grabbed her trench coat to go out into the cold winter of a January in Seattle. “Get out!” He left there with more than just a broken heart. He left with the desperation of having to take that joy away from his sick father and he didn’t know how he was going to do it. And by the time he got back home, he realized he was completely alone. ********* JULIO VANCOUVER Andrea opened her eyes in a daze. Her whole body hurt, especially her belly. She touched it, frightened, and found it flat and empty. “Help…!” was the only thing she could scream, her voice coming out hoarse and cracked. “Help me… please…” By the time a nurse came to her, her face was already bathed in tears and she clung to her arm in desperation. “My daughter… please, my daughter… what happened to her? My baby…” Luckily, the nurse was prepared for that question. “Your daughter is fine, Mrs. Brand,” she said in a soft voice. “She’s out of danger and they’ve already taken her to special care. Do you remember how she got here?” Andrea couldn’t help but cry as she closed her eyes. She had had a horrible argument with her husband Mason about the excessive expenses she had just when the baby was about to arrive. She was still three weeks away from having her daughter, but the contractions had started right there and he had taken her to the emergency room… or so she thought. “How long… how long has it been…?” she stammered, frightened. The nurse smiled gently at her. “You had to have an emergency C-section four days ago. Your baby was born healthy, although small because she was premature, but the operation had more consequences for you… you’ve been in a coma ever since,” she explained, and he saw her holding her breath. “Is there any family member we can call?” Andrea’s eyes widened, frightened. “How… how family member…? My husband! My husband brought me to the hospital. Where is he?” The nurse pressed her lips together and shook her head. “I’m sorry, we only managed to find out your identity from the documents you had in your purse, but no one came to ask about you… and no one stayed either.” Andrea put a hand to her chest in desperation. How could that be? Had Mason not come to see her and her daughter in all that time? She tried to sit up, but pain went through her. “My daughter,” Andrea sobbed, looking at the nurse. “Can I see her…?” “Of course,” the woman replied in a sweet voice, and shortly after she returned with her little girl. “She’s a beautiful girl.” Andrea hugged her full of love.Her baby was safe and that was all that mattered now. However, the anguish would not take long to return. She tried to contact Mason in every way possible, but she was unsuccessful, and two days later when they were discharged from the hospital, even stronger news hit Andrea. “I’m sorry, but we can’t let you leave here until you pay the remaining part of your medical bill,” the director told her. “The remaining part…? I don’t understand, I have medical insurance,” he replied. “And your insurance covered the cesarean section, but not the other hospital expenses for almost a week, the medications… for you and your daughter.” Andrea felt a lump in her throat, a mixture of uncertainty and fear. “And how much is the bill?” she asked. “Eighteen thousand dollars.”—the man answered and she closed her eyes. She had twenty in her account, it was all she had managed to save in the last three years, thinking that one day she would need it to have her baby. When she finished paying the hospital bill she would be left with very little… but she couldn’t do anything else. She nodded and the director gave her the hospital account number while she sat down. She took out her phone and checked her bank account, however she didn’t expect to see that absolute zero. —No…! No, no, no! —she exclaimed desperately, while her heart was pounding and tears ran down her cheeks. —It can’t be… it can’t be…! Her account was empty! Completely empty! Someone had taken all her money and unfortunately the only name that came to her mind was him, her husband, Mason. Andrea stood there, paralyzed and not knowing what to do. “I don’t have… I don’t have the money to pay you… my bill…” The director looked at her with compassion, understanding that she was in a very difficult situation. “Don’t worry,” the man said. “If you can’t pay the bill right now, we can come to an agreement so that you can pay the hospital in installments. It will take you a few years, but…” Andrea looked at him with tears in her eyes and nodded. The director handed her a promissory note in installments to pay back the rest of the medical expenses. Even though the interest would add up to a lot of money, it was the only way to get out of the hospital that very day. With no other options and a broken heart, Andrea signed that debt and hugged her little daughter, taking comfort in her warmth and in the love she felt for her to get through that difficult time. She was barely able to take a taxi and went to her apartment. With difficulty she put the key in the lock, but when she opened the door she was speechless. She couldn’t believe her eyes. The apartment was empty! There was no furniture, no clothes, nothing that indicated that she had ever lived there. Everything was gone! Not only had Mason taken the money from her account—now she had no doubt that it had been him!—but he had also sold everything in the apartment. Everything Andrea loved and her entire life had disappeared in a matter of seconds. It was as if he had wanted to erase every trace of her and her daughter. Not even the crib was left! The only thing he hadn’t sold was the apartment itself and because it wasn’t theirs, it was rented. Andrea couldn’t believe it. How could he be so cruel? How could he abandon her like that, with nothing, nowhere to go? Tears began to roll down her cheeks and she collapsed on the floor, crying bitterly and not knowing what to do. She was alone, with no one to turn to, with a newborn baby in her arms, and without a home.