Scorned Wife, Sudden Fortune

The world came back to me in fragments of pain, the profound exhaustion of thirty-six hours of labor.

They saved me, saved my daughter, and I expected relief.

Instead, I heard my husband, Ethan, from the hall, his voice light, conversational, almost cheerful.

"She' s completely torn apart down there… it' s disgusting. Like a war zone."

My breath caught.

"And her stomach," he whispered, "It' s all loose and flabby, covered in these weird purple lines. She looks like a deflated balloon. I swear, I don' t think I can ever touch her again."