“Joanna, can’t you see that I love you? Doesn’t what I’m asking you to do, prove I love you? I know there’s a child inside of you. I know it’s my child, and if there were any other way to save both of your lives, I would. I swear to God, I would, but there isn’t. Please, Joanna, I’m begging. I’ll do anything you want. We can hire as many surrogates as you’d like. Just please don’t do this out of...out of spite.”

“Spite?” Joanna blurted. “You think I’m doing this out of spite? Jesus, Addison, it’s not spite! It’s called love, but you can’t understand that, can you? How someone can give up everything, even their life, for the person they love, and trust me, I love this baby more than I can put into words.” Poking her finger into Addison’s chest, Joanna said, “If it’s the last thing I ever do, I will go to my grave content and happy because my child lived. A child who will have a future because as cold-hearted as you are, I know somewhere deep inside of you, you’ll make that happen, and a child who will know love, because as long as Evelyn and Fran and Noah and the staff are around, that will happen. Now, for the last bloody time, leave me the fuck alone. We have nothing more to say, and this house is large enough that if I’m lucky, I’ll never have to see you again!”

“You won’t if you go through with this.”

“Sorry?”

“If you do this, I’m leaving. I can’t ...I won’t come home every night knowing that you’re living with a time bomb.”

“Jesus Christ,” Joanna said under her breath.

“I mean it, Joanna,” Addison said softly, placing her hands on Joanna’s arms. “I can’t just stand around and...and watch you die.”

Joanna took a step backward. “Who’s asking you to?”

“What?”

“Who’s asking you to stay?” Joanna said, putting her hands on her hips. “Maybe it hasn’t sunk in yet, but you and I are finished, and if you don’t want to watch me die, feel free to get the fuck out. Go back to your hotel and your whore and your precious sodding company and let me worry about my child and me because we are no longer your concern. That is...if we ever were.”

***

The thought of losing Joanna ate at Addison like a cancer, destroying her sensibilities and obliterating the line between right and wrong. Unable to stop herself, for the next two weeks Addison tried to champion her cause again and again. Her mindset was granite and her insistence concrete, but with every word she spoke, every syllable she yelled, and every plea she screamed, she drove an even larger wedge between her and Joanna.