HIS STRIPPER, HIS WIFE novel Chapter 59

Chapter 59

Chapter 59

Bianca

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“Before you even start,” he said, his hand closing briefly around my elbow, steering me gently away from the spot where we were still standing. “let’s leave here first.”

I didn’t even argue, my legs were already moving before my brain had fully caught up. Adrian’s car was parked a short distance down the street, and neither of us said anything until we were both inside it, the doors shut.

He didn’t start the engine immediately, he just turned slightly in his seat and looked at me, like he had decided before we even sat down that he was going to let me say it at my own pace.

“His name is Max,” I said. “He’s my ex boyfriend.”

Something crossed Adrian’s face then, quick and unguarded before he got control of it again. “Ex boyfriend,” he repeated. “Since when?”

“Before we met,” I said, watching his face come down slightly, less tense at that. “We ended things a while back. I thought it was clean, both sides understood, nobody throwing anything at walls. Apparently I was wrong about that because he has spent the last few weeks refusing to actually let it be finished.”

Adrian nodded slowly, and I kept going, because now that I had started I found I actually wanted to say all of it, to put it somewhere outside my own head where it would stop sitting so heavily.

I told him about the calls I had been ignoring, about the pattern of showing up that Max had developed, each time a little more pointed than the last, each time with something new designed to remind me he was still there and still unhappy.

And then I told him about Velvet, about the pictures, about the threat to forward them to the company’s management with. enough context attached to make whatever conclusions they drew feel very difficult to argue against.

Adrian listened to every word of it without interrupting once, which was not something I had expected from him. He just sat there with his hands folded over his knee, eyes steady on mine, letting me get through all of it before he said anything at all.

When I finally finished, the car was quiet for a moment.

“Do you want me to handle it?” he asked looking at me like he was actually concerned.

“No,” I said.

He nodded once, accepting that without pushing it further, which I appreciated more than I expected to. Then he reached forward and started the engine.

I’ll have security add him to the restricted list anyway,” he said.

I looked out the window as he pulled into traffic, watching the street slide past, I didn’t ask where we were going. He was clearly already going somewhere with purpose and honestly, after the last twenty minutes, I didn’t have the energy to introduce new friction into the air between us when it had only just started to calm down.

He was already irritated, Max did that and I wasn’t going to make it worse with questions.

“Where are you going?” he asked, and I nearly laughed at the timing of it, like he had pulled the thought directly out of my head and turned it around.

The hospital.” I said.

“Okay” he answered simply. Then, after a short pause, “And after?”

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Chapter 59

“Home”

19

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He was quiet for a second, his eyes still fixed on the road, “I’ll confirm if it’s yours or mine.” He said it in the most unbothered tone imaginable.

I

I turned to look at him, he kept his eyes on the road. I decided not to respond to that, mostly because I genuinely couldn’t tell which outcome I was rooting for.

We pulled into the hospital car park about twenty minutes later and I reached for the door before the car had fully stopped moving. Behind me I heard his door open too, and I turned around to find him rounding the bonnet, car keys already in his pocket, walking towards me.

“Why are you getting out?” I asked.

He looked at me, “I’m seeing her too today.”

“Oh.” I said.

“Oh.” he agreed, and kept walking.

I walked beside him without further comment, which felt like the most reasonable response available. We crossed the car park together and walked through the entrance, the hospital smell hitting immediately we went in.

The ward was on the second floor, I knew the route well enough by now that my feet took me there without much instruction from my brain and I pushed it open and stepped inside.

She was sitting up in the bed when we walked in, propped against the pillows with a little more color in her face than I had seen the last time I came, and when her eyes landed on me she immediately started trying to push herself upright to get up.

“Bianca, don’t.” I said, already moving forward, hands out.

ry

But she wasn’t looking at me anymore. Her eyes had moved past my shoulder to the man who had walked in behind me, and the expression on her face stopped me mid step because it wasn’t a surprise to her.

She already knew him.

“Mr A.” She said softly, and she was smiling.

I stood very still for a second, looking between the two of them, waiting for something to rearrange itself into the usual way but It didn’t.

“Have you both met before?” I asked, and even as the words came out I could hear how slow they sounded, like my brain was running slightly behind the rest of the room.

My sister turned to look at me and she nodded, still smiling in that soft way she had been smiling since she first saw him walk through the door.

“He’s my friend,” she said simply.

I blinked. “Your friend.”

“Yes.”

“Your friend,” I said again, because apparently once was not enough to make it feel real.

She laughed a little at that. I automatically stepped closer to the bed, hand reaching out toward her shoulder, but she waved

me off with a small shake of her head that meant she was fine, she did not need fussing over right now.

I straightened and turned to look at Adrian, who was standing a few feet behind me with his hands in his pockets and the

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