HIS STRIPPER, HIS WIFE novel Chapter 109

Chapter one hundred and nine

Bianca

“Yes, Amanda. He was here.” I shifted a little on the bed, trying to get comfortable, the drip in my arm pulling slightly with the movement. “I woke up and he was just sitting there beside the bed, like he had been there for hours. Then he said he had to go somewhere for two hours and left.”

Amanda blinked, processing that for a second, then she leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “So why are you acting like you’re mad at him? Is it because he didn’t stay long enough while you were awake?”

I shook my head immediately. “No no, I care less about that, but…” My voice trailed off, the words getting stuck somewhere between my throat and my mouth.

“Bianca, what happened again?” Amanda asked, her tone soft, but there was a small frown on her face, like she was bracing herself for something.

I looked at her, and something in me bristled a little at the way she said it. “What do you mean, what happened again? Oh okay, something is always happening to me right?”

“No no, I didn’t mean it like that, I’m sorry,” Amanda said quickly, holding up both hands like she was trying to stop the conversation from going somewhere ugly. “So what happened. Just tell me.”

I let out a long breath and leaned back against the pillow. There was no point holding it in, not with Amanda sitting right there, not after everything that had happened in one single day. So I started talking from the bottom, and once I started, I couldn’t stop.

I told her about the headache that had been building since morning, how it kept getting worse no matter how many times I pressed my fingers against my temple. I told her how I had tried to push through it, how I had convinced myself I could handle it because there was work to do and I didn’t want to seem weak in front of anyone in that office.

Then I told her about the elevator, how dizzy I had felt standing there, how Adrian had reached for my hand and I had pulled away from him without even thinking.

“And then,” I said, my voice dropping a little, “I went to his office to pick up my hospital card and I also wanted to see him before I left. I don’t know why but when I opened the door, Victoria was there.”

Amanda’s face changed instantly. “Victoria was in his office?”

“Yes. And she was standing really close to him. Too close.” I closed my eyes for a second, the image still fresh no matter how much I tried to push it away.

“It looked like something was happening between them, or like something had just finished happening. I don’t know. I just stood there in the doorway and my head was already spinning from the pain, and then seeing that on top of it, it was just too much.”

“So what did you do?” Amanda asked, her whole body leaning forward now, completely locked into the story.

“I didn’t do anything. I just picked my card, turned around and left. I don’t even remember walking to the elevator properly. I remember calling for a cab, and then I remember calling you, and then everything after that was blank until I woke up here.”

I know I had mixed it all up but I had listed everything that happened and that way okay. Amanda sat back slowly, then she started laughing, it made me frown at her.

“What’s funny?” I asked.

We talked a little more after that, about nothing in particular, about the TV show playing quietly in the background, about how uncomfortable hospital beds always managed to be no matter how expensive the room looked. Eventually Amanda left for the night, promising to come back the next morning before she went to work.

The next day, true to her word, Amanda showed up early but she wasn’t alone. I heard the door open and looked up expecting to see her walk in with her usual bag over her shoulder, but instead, my sister Emma came rushing in ahead of her, her eyes already red, her hand pressed against her chest like she had been holding her breath the whole way there.

Emma pulled away just enough to study my face properly, her eyes moving over me like she was checking for something. Behind her, Amanda gave me an apologetic shrug, mouthing something like she wanted to tell me first but Emma had insisted on coming straight to the hospital instead of waiting.

Before I could say anything else, the door opened again and the doctor walked in, the same one from the day before, his clipboard tucked under his arm. He checked the monitor first, then turned to me, asking the usual questions, how I was feeling, whether the headache had reduced, whether I had eaten anything that morning.

“Much better,” I told him honestly, and it was true. The heaviness that had been sitting behind my eyes since the day before had finally lifted, leaving just a faint tiredness that felt manageable.

He nodded, satisfied with whatever he saw on the monitor, then straightened up. “Good. You can go home today. Just make sure you rest properly for the next few days and avoid stress as much as possible.”

The moment those words left his mouth, I felt something in me relax instantly,? didn’t even wait for him to fully leave the room before I was already reaching for the small bag Amanda had brought the day before, pulling out clothes and shoving things back inside without much order, just eager to get out of that place as fast as I could.

“Bianca, slow down,” Emma said, laughing a little as she watched me move around the room faster than someone who had just been discharged should probably be moving. “You’re going to fall again.”

“I don’t care,” I said, zipping up the bag halfway, my hands moving fast, my mind already picturing my own bed, my own space, anywhere that wasn’t this room with its constant beeping and the smell of antiseptic that seemed to follow me even in my sleep.

Amanda had gone to check with the nurses about discharge papers, the plan was that she would go to work from there and Emma was folding one of my sweaters, when the door opened again.

I looked up, expecting Amanda, expecting maybe a nurse with papers for me to sign. But my hand froze halfway through zipping the bag, because the person standing in the doorway wasn’t Amanda, and it wasn’t a nurse either.