Act Like You Love Me (Jessica) novel Chapter 129

Chapter 129

Jessica’s POV

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I sat on the edge of the mattress, my hands white-knuckled as I gripped Aunt Lydia’s shoulders.

I shook her-gentle at first, a soft nudge as if she were merely oversleeping, but then the movement devolved into a more desperate nudge that made the bedframe groan against the floor.

“Auntie? Auntie, wake up. The soup is getting cold. You said you were hungry, remember?”

My voice sounded like thin ice splintering underfoot.

I knew. Deep down, in that cold, logical cellar of my brain I was trying to lock away, I knew.

But shock is a masterful liar. It wraps you in a thick, suffocating cocoon where reality is muffled and the impossible feels like a plan.

I just kept shaking her, waiting for the miracle I’d read about in the Bible-that sudden, divine gasp where breath returns to the lungs just because someone asked with enough agony in their heart.

Adrian was a small, shivering weight pressed against my hip.

He didn’t cry; he was too suspended in the vacuum of the moment for tears.

His wide eyes darted from the unnatural stillness of the woman who had been our anchor to the silver moonlit shadows dancing on the wall.

He watched me reach for her hand again, my fingers working feverishly to rub warmth back into skin that felt like winter stone.

“Momma?” he whispered, his voice a tiny, trembling thread. “Why isn’t she answering?”

I couldn’t answer him. My throat was sealed shut with panic.

Then, the silence of the house was shattered.

Heavy footsteps thundered down the hallway, the sound echoing like a heartbeat out of sync.

A ghost of a thought flickered through my mind-how? Aaron had installed ironclad security, app-controlled locks that only I held the master key to.

Then the memory slammed right into me: the haze of exhaustion, the rush to get the soup, the distraction of Adrian’s play. I had left the front door unlatched.

The bedroom door burst open, hitting the stopper with a crack that made Adrian jump.

It was Aaron.

He stood there, looking like a man who had fought his way through a riot.

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Chapter 129

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His hair was a mess, his top buttons were gone, and his sleeves were shoved up haphazardly as if he’d been clawing at the air for oxygen.

He was pale, his chest heaving, his eyes fixed on me with raw terror.

“Jess,” he breathed, his voice cracking.

Behind him, Fiona hovered in the hallway. A week ago, seeing her would have felt like a slap in the face.

I would have felt that old, familiar burn of jealousy-the “other woman” in house.

my

But tonight, I didn’t care. The sight of her with Aaron didn’t trigger a single spark.

I’d learned my lesson about assumptions; I knew, just by the way he was looking at me, that nothing happened between them.

Tonight, she was just a person in a room full of ghosts.

“Superstar!” Adrian cried out.

He scrambled off the bed and threw himself at Aaron’s legs, clinging to his pants like a life raft.

Aaron reached down, his hand hovering over Adrian’s head for a fraction of a second, but his eyes never left

mine.

He saw me sitting there, huddled over a body that wasn’t a person anymore.

The silence in the room told him everything I hadn’t said.

I looked at him, and the last thread of my composure snapped. I burst into tears—not the quiet, cinematic kind, but a harsh, heaving sob that made my whole body convulse.

Aaron gently nudged Adrian toward the door. I saw Fiona step forward, her expression uncharacteristically soft.

“Hey, kiddo,” she whispered, reaching out, “Would you mind showing me your new toys? Let’s give Mama a minute.”

Adrian hesitated, but Fiona scooped him up, her hand supporting his head as she carried him out.

For once, I let it happen. I didn’t have the strength to be a mother right then; I was just a girl losing her mother.

Aaron was beside me in two strides. The mattress dipped under his weight as he sat, his hands reaching out to cup my face,

His palms were warm-violently warm compared to the skin I’d just touched.

His thumbs brushed the salt from my cheeks, his eyes searching mine.

I couldn’t speak; I could only heave. An ugly sob tore out of my throat, and I pointed a shaking hand at the

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Chapter 129

woman under the duvet.

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“Aunt Lydia… Aaron, she’s… she’s so cold. I turned the heat up, but she won’t get warm. Aunt Lydia…”

He didn’t say a word. He reached over, his fingers pressing into the side of her neck, searching for a pulse he already knew he wouldn’t find.

His face went white. He let out a shaky breath and pulled me into his chest, wrapping his arms around me tightly.

I buried my face in his shirt, breathing in the scent of him, and the heat of a living, breathing man.

I clung to him while I shattered, my hands fisting in his rumpled shirt as the finality of it started to sink in.

“Shhh, I’ve got you. We’ll get help.” But his voice trembled too, the worry etching deeper lines on his face.

He didn’t waste another second. He pulled out his phone, his voice dropping into a clipped, professional tone as he dictated our address to the dispatcher.

Behind us, the floorboards creaked. I looked up to see Fiona hovering in the doorway, Adrian’s face buried deep in her shoulder.

“Can I take him to the garden?” she asked quietly, her eyes darting toward the bed then back to me with a look of genuine pity.

Aaron offered a single, grateful nod. As they disappeared into the hallway, the heavy, suffocating silence returned.

We waited for what felt like an eternity, the only sound being the panic thump of my heart, until the first faint wail of a siren began to bleed through the walls.

When the paramedics finally burst in, the room felt suddenly cramped, filled with the smell of rain from the outside and the rustle of equipment.

I watched them in a trance: the way they moved in sync, the way they checked vitals and then shared that one, devastating look.

The ride to the hospital flew by, mere minutes at breakneck speed.

Aaron drove like a man possessed, his knuckles white on the steering wheel, while I stared blankly out the

window.

Fiona followed in her own car with Adrian. We didn’t speak; there was nothing left to say.

The hospital hallway was a tunnel of white tile and the biting smell of antiseptic. It felt like a recurring nightmare.

How many times had I stood in places like this, waiting for news that would change the trajectory of my life?

I couldn’t sit down. I paced a narrow strip of the floor, my arms wrapped tight around my middle as if I were trying to hold my organs inside.

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Chapter 199

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Aaron was my anchor. He stayed within three feet of me at all times his shadow following mine.

Avery Sow minutes bell reach out and squeere my shoulder or catch my hand, grounding me back to the earth when I folke I was floating away into a panic attack

the corner of the washing room. Pona was sitting in one of those uncomfortable plastic chairs

Adrien was mocked into her lip, his head resting on her shoulder.

Ce nodigering to him, her hand stroking his hair in a slow, repetitive motion that had finally lulled him into a Sifil deep It was a surreal sight

The woman who had tried to dismantle my happiness now providing a safe harbor for my son.

She’s going to be okay.” I whispered, though I wasn’t sure if I was talking to Aaron or God.

The surgery, made it was just a complication. Maybe she just needs a donor. I’ll give her whatever she need A kidsen a piece of my liver, anything. The doctor is going to come out and tell us it’s just a setback”

Aaron didn’t contradict me. He just held my hand tighter. He knew I was building a house of cards to live in for a few more minutes

Then, the double doors at the end of the hall swung open

A woman in green scrubs stepped out. She was young, her brow furrowed with the kind of exhaustion that comes from delivering bad news all night.

She stopped a few feet away and pulled off her surgical mask.

She had a grim look.

I stopped pacing. My heart started a slow, heavy thud against my ribs.

She’s alive, I told myself. She’s just sick. She’s going to tell me it’s a kidney issue. That the stones caused an infection and we need to prepare for a long recovery.

I can do long. I can do hard. Just give me ‘alive!

The doctor’s eyes met mine. There was no professional distance there-only a deep, weary pity. She didn’t speak immediately. Instead, she gave a subtle, slow shake of her head.

“I’m sorry” she said, her voice barely audible over the hum of the hospital’s ventilation.

The world didn’t end with a bang. It ended with the sound of my own breath hitching in a throat that had gone completely dry.

I looked at Aaron. I looked at Fiona holding my sleeping son.

Then I looked back at the doctor, waiting for her to tell me she was joking. That she’d confused Aunt Lydia with someone else.

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Chapter 129

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But she didn’t. She just stood there in the white light, holding the weight of my ruined world in those two short words.

I felt Aaron’s arms wrap around me from behind, catching me just as my knees began to give way.

I didn’t scream this time. I just went silent, staring at the closed doors, wondering how the sun was ever supposed to rise again.

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