HIS STRIPPER, HIS WIFE novel Chapter 60

Chapter 60

Chapter 60

Bianca

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Adrian stepped out of the room not long after the doctor walked in, and the moment the door clicked shut behind him, the space immediately felt softer. Emma watched him go with her eyes lingering a second too long on the door, and then she turned back to me with that same small smile still tugging at the corner of her mouth.

“You two seem close,” I said, settling into the chair beside her bed and resisting the urge to ask the hundred questions already lining up behind my teeth.

“We talk sometimes,” she said simply, the way she always answered things she had decided not to fully explain. She had always been like that, my sister, giving you just enough to keep you curious without ever handing over the whole picture

I let it go for now, mostly because I didn’t have the energy to chase it, and instead I reached for her hand resting on top of the blanket, my thumb brushing gently over her knuckles. She looked tired still, the kind of tired that sleep alone couldn’ fully erase, but there was more color in her cheeks than there had been the last time I sat in this exact chair, and something in my chest loosened slightly at the sight of it.

“How are you feeling.” I asked. “Better,” she said. “Tired of this bed though. I keep dreaming about actual food.”

I laughed, because that sounded exactly like her, complaining about hospital meals even while recovering from something that had scared the life out of me a few weeks ago. We talked for a while after that, about nothing in particular, about the nurses she liked and the ones she didn’t, about a show she had been watching on her phone whenever the signal cooperated, and for those few minutes it almost felt normal again, the two of us sitting in a room together with nothing more urgent between us than gossip and complaints about hospital jello.

The door opened again eventually, Adrian stepping back in with the doctor right behind him, and the easy atmosphere shifted slightly, both of us straightening a little out of habit.

“Good news,” the doctor said, flipping through the chart in her hands before looking up at us both. “Her numbers are looking strong. If everything continues the way it has been, we should be able to discharge her within the next few days.”

I felt relieved so fast it nearly made my eyes sting, and I squeezed Emma’s hand tighter without meaning to. She squeezed “A few days.” I repeated, just to hear it said out loud again, just to let it settle somewhere solid in my chest.

“A few days,” the doctor confirmed, already turning to make a note in the chart before glancing toward Adrian with a small nod, the kind exchanged between people who had already spoken about other things before walking into the room.

Once the doctor stepped back out, I turned my full attention back to Emma, leaning forward slightly so she could see how serious I was about what I was about to say.

“Don’t worry.” I told her, “you are not going back to that joint school house. You will come stay with me now. I’m already looking for a better apartment, for you and I, my love.”

She blinked at me for a second, like she hadn’t expected me to have already thought that far ahead, and then she nodded slowly, her throat moving like she was holding something back. I didn’t push her to say more about it, I just held her hand a little tighter and let the moment sit there between us, warm and a little fragile.

The doctor left with Adrian a few minutes later, the two of them stepping out together with quiet voices that faded down the hallway, leaving Emma and me alone again. We talked a little longer, mostly about nothing important, the kind of conversation that exists just to keep two people in each other’s company a little longer before they have to separate.

Eventually her eyelids started getting heavy, the day clearly catching up with her despite how much she had tried to fight it,

Get some rest” I said against the top of her head, and she murmured something that sounded like agreement, already halfway into sleep beforel had even let go.

13:56 Thu, Jul 23 d d )

Chapter 60

10 vouchers

I stepped out of the room quietly, pulling the door closed behind me with the softest click I could manage, and when f turned around Adrian was standing by the door, arms folded loosely, like he had been waiting there without bothering to check the time.

“Ready to go?” he asked.

I nodded, and we walked out of the hospital together, our footsteps falling into the same unhurried rhythm down the long corridor, out through the sliding doors and into the cooler air of the parking lot. He unlocked the car and I climbed in. the seat already warm from the heater he must have left running while he waited, and as he settled into the driver’s seat he glanced at the clock on the dashboard.

It was a few minutes before eight. “I promise you,” he said, pulling out of the parking spot, “I won’t touch you. All you have to do is sleep, and get ready for work.”

I turned to look at him, certain I had misheard something in there. “I don’t understand.”

He didn’t answer right away, his foot pressing down slightly on the accelerator instead, the car picking up speed as we merged onto the main road.

“Let my staff take care of you tonight,” he said eventually, his eyes still fixed ahead. “Not like they ever get to do that for me. Make them busy.”

I felt my mouth curve into a small smile before I could stop it, something about the dry, almost reluctant way he said it making the whole thing feel less like an offer and more like a quiet kind of generosity he didn’t quite know how to hand over directly. I nodded.

He drove the rest of the way in comfortable quiet, and I watched the streets slide past outside my window, recognizing the turns now without needing to think about them, the road folding itself into something familiar the closer we got to his house.

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