Secretly Married (English)

Chapter 40

"Kent, I'm so sorry . . . about Phoebe. I didn't know . . . Please go to the hospital now."

This was the text that Kent got from Elisa just as he was about to meet with the executive producers ofthe film. Prior to that, everyone involved in the film production was waiting for her to show up.

"Guys, I have to go." Kent looked at his manager Mel. "There's been an emergency." Mel looked alarmed and stood up just as Kent did, but Kent shook his head. "I'll text you from there."

Kent ran amid the murmurs of the producers. He started calling Phoebe's number, but it simply kept on ringing. He remembered his wife's call from a few minutes ago, and it left him wondering if her call had anything to do with the emergency. God, please, let her be okay.

Phoebe lay in bed as the hospital staff checked her stats. A few more minutes later, a doctor arrived and tried explaining the situation to her. Every part of her hurt, and she couldn't figure out what hurt more, Kent's lies or the current situation: her baby—their baby—gone.

Kent arrived an hour after being stuck in traffic and suffering through his thoughts. He went straight to the information desk and asked after Phoebe. People were looking at him, wondering what he was doing there. He could even see some taking camera photos of him, but he didn't care.

Once he verified his connection to Phoebe, he raced toward her room. Outside, he found Elisa, who had her back against the wall, and Jhone, who was shouting senselessly at his costar while being re- strained by Harley.

"This is all your fault! You did this to her!" Jhone lashed out. For once, Elisa didn't speak up.

"What's going on?" Kent asked. "Where's my baby?"

Elisa looked up and looked pleadingly at him. "Kent . . . I honestly didn't know."

"Can someone please—" Kent began.

Just as he was about to speak, the doctor came out of Phoebe's room. Kent walked toward her. "I'm—I'm the husband. What happened? What happened to my wife?"

"I will no longer beat around the bush, Mr. Fuentabella. Your wife had a miscarriage."

He heard Jhone whimpering in the corner. He felt his throat closing up, but he tried to remain calm. "Her situation is very precarious, and according to her friend here, she wasn't able to take her prescrip- tion today. That . . . plus a likely stressful situation may have exacerbated the problem. She lost a lot of blood already. So now, our situation is . . . we need you to authorize this D&C procedure for her. She is, understandably, still in a state ofshock and denial, and she hasn't said a word about allowing us to conduct a uterine evacuation, which is necessary. So we need you to sign a release on her behalf."

Kent nodded. This was all too much for him to take, but he tried to appear strong.

"Also, we need a blood transfusion for her. You should start asking for your friends or family to volunteer so you won't have to wait for the blood bank."

After the doctor left, Kent sat down on the bench and tried to make sense of things. He then spoke up. "Can someone please explain what happened?"

No one spoke. He looked at Jhone, Harley, and Elisa.

"Goddamn it! What happened to my wife?" "Fuck you, Kent! You're one to talk!"
It was Jhone. She shoved Phoebe's phone toward him, where he saw a dimly lit picture.

"You can't say that's from your film. You don't have that convenient excuse anymore."

"This—what the fuck is?" He looked at Elisa. He then remembered that day he got so piss-drunk that he couldn't fight off Elisa when she tried to kiss him. "Elisa, what the hell were you thinking? You know this isn't even—"