Billionaire, I Am Not Your Wife! novel Chapter 83

Chapter 78: Taking It Slowly

Logan’s POV

“She’s in a cancer treatment center with her family around her. She is in a vulnerable medical state, dealing with something terminal and she is also surrounded by family who love her and will not hesitate to kick you out of there, if she wants them to. You can’t get there and immediately demand to see her. This will go very badly for you.”

“I know that, i am aware that blunt force is not going to get me anywhere here. What do you decide i do then? Leave her be?.”

“No, you need to take this from another side entirely. You need a point of entry. Someone who can prepare the ground between you two and try to make it easier for her. You need someone she trusts implicitly, someone that can determine whether she is willing to see you, before you even show up.”

I thought about it. Brooke had told me to arrive with honesty rather than solutions. Reeve was telling me that arriving without warning at a cancer ward was not honest, it was another way of indirectly assuming that she would get used to me being there irrespective of her autonomy.

“Her brother,” I said. “Cameron. He was in Chicago, at the hospital. He knew enough about the situation to help her leave. He might-”

“That’s a significant risk. He may refuse any contact. Based on what you’ve told me about his involvement, he’s protective of her.”

“Yes.” I thought about the man at the hospital, the man that i had mistaken for her lover and slutshamed Sedona in front of him, and i reqlized that he might not be the best person to go to in this sort of situation, but i was desperate and willing to grovel at his feet if needed.

“But if anyone is going to tell me whether there’s any version of this where she’ll see me-it’s him.”

“Then Cameron Preston is your next step.”

I got his number from Reeve, who had apparently gotten it, without losing sweat and I looked at the number for a long moment.

Then I went back into the sitting room.

Nick looked up when I came in. His color was better, the last traces of the hives almost gone, his eyes clearer than they’d been last night.

“Hey, buddy.”

“Hey.” He studied me with those dark eyes. “You look like you found something out.”

“I might know where Mom is,” I said carefully.

He sat up straighter. “Is she okay?”

“She’s getting help. She’s with people who are taking care of her.”

He processed this with the gravity he’d been applying to everything since last night. Then: “Are you going To go get her?

“I’m going to try.”

A long pause, and in it I could hear him deciding. The silence that foollowed was the silence of someone who had not yet decided what to do with something this unexpected.

“Don’t come to the hospital unannounced,” he said at last. “If you show up without warning, I will have you removed before you get near her room. Are we clear?”

“Completely.”

“I’ll talk to her. That’s all I’m offering-I’ll tell her you called, I’ll tell her you know where she is, and I’ll ask her what she wants to do. The answer might be nothing. She might tell me to tell you to stay in Chicago.”

“If that’s what she says, I’ll respect it.”

“Will you.” He said it like a statement, and not a question like he did not believe i was capable of being told no and handling it well.

“Yes,” I said. “Whatever she decides. But I need her to have the information first. I need her to know that I know about the cancer and that she should not have dealt with that alone, she should not have dealt with a lot of things alone and that i am sorry that i was horrible to her and thought she was causing trouble on purpose, trying to victimize herself, to gain attention from me, i am sorry for what my mum said to her as well. I need her to know that I’m sorry. That Nick is sorry. That he didn’t mean what he said and he wants her to know.”

Another silence.

Then Cameron Preston said, very quietly, “I’ll talk to her.”

And the line went dead. I looked at the phone, and wondered if i should dial again, but i ended that thought. He knew what i wanted him to know, all that was left now was to see what happens.