Chloe never imagined her past would be waiting inside a delivery room.
The contractions had already been relentless for hours.
Every breath felt borrowed.
Every minute felt longer than the one before it.
The labor room at Hartford Memorial looked exactly like hundreds of others.
Bright lights.
Medical equipment.
Nurses moving with practiced confidence.
Nothing extraordinary.
Until Ethan Chen lowered his mask.
For a moment neither of them moved.
They simply stared.
Years of history compressed into a single heartbeat.
They had once been inseparable.
College sweethearts.
Best friends.
Partners who planned futures while sitting in cheap diners and sharing impossible dreams.
Then life became complicated.
Not because they stopped loving each other.
Because too many other voices entered their marriage.
Ethan’s mother had opinions about everything.
Where they lived.
How they spent holidays.
When they should have children.