The Polar Expedition Affair

I sat there in a daze until deep into the night. Only when the cold began to settle into my bones did I finally drag myself home.

But no matter how many times I tried, the code to the front door didn't work.

Just as frustration began to crawl up my spine, the door opened from the inside—and there she was.

Erica.

She was wearing my nightgown.

"What are you doing in my house?"

She blinked at me innocently, her voice soft and aggrieved. "Lucy… are you still angry with me? If you want, I'll leave."

Before I could respond, she buried her face into Reece's chest, who had just come around the corner.

"Erica needs to stay here while she carries the baby," he said as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "She's due soon. I don't feel comfortable with her out there alone."

I stared at him. "You changed the door code. I couldn't get in. You didn't answer your phone."

"Oh… sorry, I forgot to tell Lucy. Reece told me to change it," Erica said, glancing up at him like a child caught stealing candy. "He was worried that someone with bad intentions might show up while I was alone and scare me."

And then, incredibly, she began to cry.

"I was the one locked out," I said, trying to keep my voice steady. "Why are you the one crying?"

I couldn't stand to hear Reece comforting her in that saccharine voice of his. I turned away and walked straight to the bedroom.

The door was open. On the nightstand sat a framed photograph of Reece and Erica. Shoulder to shoulder, sitting under the northern lights, a little red heart drawn in the corner of the print. They were smiling.

Four years ago, I had begged Reece to take me to see the aurora. I even filled out his polar expedition application form myself. But he told me my health couldn't handle the trip, that it was too dangerous.

I asked again and again. Just to visit. Just to see the lights. But each time, he told me work was too busy. And yet… he'd gone with her.

This wasn't my home anymore.

I turned and walked down the hall to the nursery—the room I'd once prepared for our twins.

Gone.

Everything was gone.

The crib. The tiny clothes. The stuffed animals. Vanished. As though they'd never existed.

"Where are my babies' things?" I whispered, my heart thudding in my throat. "Where are they?"

I began searching the room in a daze, flinging open drawers, sweeping aside boxes.

Then, in the corner trash bin, I saw them: the torn remains of ultrasound prints. My babies' first and only images—ripped into confetti.

"No…" I dropped to my knees, gathering the shreds, pressing them to my chest. "My children… my babies…"

My sobs clawed through the silence.

Reece came running up the stairs. He found me crumpled on the floor and wrapped his arms around me without a word. His eyes scanned the nursery, now stripped and reassembled. He froze. Then turned to Erica, who stood hesitating in the doorway.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly, like a child confessing to a small sin. "Did I do something wrong again? You told me I could decorate however I wanted. I just wanted to prepare a room for our baby…"

"Where did you put my children's things?" I screamed. "Tell me where they are! Find them!"

This woman hadn't just killed my children—she had erased them.

I lunged at Erica, gripping her shoulders. "Where are they!?"

"Reece! Help!" she shrieked. "Lucy's gone mad! She's going to hurt me!"

Reece shoved me away.

"I always ruin everything," Erica said through tears, her pale face scrunched in distress. "I didn't mean any harm…"

"Lucy," Reece said, "they're gone. The twins… they're not here anymore. Keeping all that stuff—it's not helping you. It's only hurting you more."

"You got her pregnant behind my back. You moved her into my house. Now you're taking the last memories I had of my children? Have you no shame? You're both disgusting!"

I shoved him off, but he clamped down hard on my wrist, unwilling to let go.

Then—

Slap.

The blow came out of nowhere.

My ears rang. My vision blurred. A sharp, metallic taste rose in my throat.

And then Erica spoke—softly, tearfully, with perfect innocence.

"Lucy… how could you talk to Reece like that? You need to come to your senses. I know you're hurting. But the twins have been gone for so long. Those things... I threw them out. You don't want us—or the baby—to be surrounded by such negativity every day, do you?"