No Strings Attached

Chapter 2

She bit her lip hard, her fingers clenched around her cellphone with all the strength she could muster, and she cursed, “lan, you jerk!”

Clara was sweating bullets from the pain. She tried to dial for emergency help, but her fingers were too weak. Finally, her vision went black, and she passed out.

When she came to, she was lying in a hospital bed. Sitting beside her was her best friend, Sasha.

As soon as Sasha saw her open her eyes, she stood up, her gaze full of concern. “Clara, how are you feeling? Are you still in pain?”

Clara looked at her blankly. “What happened to me?”

Sasha hesitated for a moment before saying, “You were pregnant, but the doctor said your uterine wall was thin to begin with. Plus, with lan’s rough… behavior, you had a miscarriage and severe bleeding.”

Clara’s eyes widened in disbelief. Her mind was reeling with the thought. ‘I was pregnant, but the baby’s gone.‘

was her and

though she didn’t know where things with lan were headed, it

curled involuntarily, and tears slid down her cheeks. Sasha couldn’t help but embrace her, whispering words of comfort. “You’ve just had surgery, and you can’t cry, darling. Once

He doesn’t care about your life, and he even cheats on you right in front of your eyes? Doesn’t he think karma’s gonna bite him?”

than if a thousand arrows had pierced it. She clutched Sasha with a cold hand, her voice choked and barely able to speak. She was thinking of the child that was lost before its time, thinking of the man she had loved for

long while, Clara finally spoke. “So you

fourth floor with Heidi. When you were in surgery, I called him from your

eyes, pained. “Take

surgery. You can’t upset yourself.”

need to see with my own

with her and took her to the fourth floor. Clara stood outside the door, watching lan softly. coaxing Heidi to take her medicine. That

resemblance to her own, it was as if everything suddenly made. sense. Clara smiled, but it was tinged with sadness. She turned to Sasha