Reborn to Dodge the Bad Marriage novel Chapter 50

Chapter 50 A Call from the Hospital

Nora wrote, “Okay”

Julian wrote, “Okay.”

Nora looked back over the whole exchange, which contained nothing at all, thought about it, and sent him a

cute sticker.

Sure enough, a cute sticker came straight back.

So that was how it worked. Whatever she sent him, he answered, and the conversation only ended when she decided to end it.

Working that out put something warm in her chest.

The first time around, Adrian had run it the other way. Whenever he messaged her she had to answer instantly, and he was the only one allowed to end a conversation.

If she went more than three seconds without replying, the phone rang, and he wanted to know where she was, what she was doing, and who she was with.

It didn’t matter if it was the middle of the night and she was asleep. She answered instantly.

For years she hadn’t dared put her phone on silent or let herself sleep deeply. There’d been no air in any of it.

Across the city, Julian had just come out of a meeting.

He had his phone out, scrolling back through the same conversation, which had nothing in it and was frankly a little dry. Reading it put him in a good mood anyway.

Half an hour earlier, Miles had nearly fallen over when Julian asked him to take a photo. Being told to make sure it was a flattering one had almost put him on the floor.

Julian was in an unusually agreeable mood today, though, and Miles decided somebody should help the marriage along.

“Sir, is that photo from Mrs. Weston?”

The corner of Julian’s mouth moved. “It is.”

“For what it’s worth,” Miles said, “when a woman sends a man a photo, she usually means something by it.”

“Does she.” Julian looked up at him. “Meaning what? You have experience with this?”

“Some, I’d say. My first girlfriend broke up with me because I never posted her anywhere. My read is that Mrs. Weston is hinting you should post her, so every other woman knows where things stand and backs off.”

Julian thought about what Nora was actually like and raised an eyebrow at him. “You’re sure about that?”

“Women love that sort of thing, sir. You can’t go wrong.”

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Chapter 50 A Call from the Hospital

Julian turned it over, decided it held up, and posted for the second time in his life.

The hospital, the afternoon had gone quiet.

Olivia had just finished with a patient, and on her break she picked up her phone.

Julian’s post was sitting at the top of her feed, and the picture was a selfie of Nora.

Julian’s caption read, “My wife at work. Nothing prettier.”…

Olivia threw the phone at the floor hard enough to crack the screen.

Her eyes went red and she forced the words out through her teeth. “Nora Sinclair! You took Julian from me! You just wait!”

*****

Nora had just finished for the day when the hospital called.

“She’s in emergency surgery?” Nora said. “You need a family member to sign? All right, hold on, I’m on my way.”

The hospital lobby was full when she got there.

Nora went straight through it to the doors of the emergency surgical suite.

A nurse spotted her and pushed a clipboard of consent and release forms at her, sounding rushed. “You’re family to Wren Calloway? Ectopic pregnancy, she’s hemorrhaging, she came in far too late, and we have to take the uterus. Sign, quickly.”

Nora took the pen and the papers and didn’t sign. “I’m her cousin, so I can sign for her. How is she? Has anybody called her husband?”

Wren was her cousin on her mother’s side, and before the wedding she’d pressed a bank card into Nora’s hand with $200,000 on it.

She’d married Damon Winter of the Winters, one of the Big Four, and the marriage had been miserable. In that other life it had ended with Wren taking her own life.

But the first time around, Nora had never heard one word about an ectopic pregnancy or a hemorrhage that needed surgery.

And on something like this, a pregnancy and a hysterectomy, why was the hospital calling her instead of Wren’s husband?

She’d been about to sign. She stopped and looked up at the nurse. “You want to take the uterus? Is there some other condition?”

An ectopic pregnancy and a hemorrhage didn’t automatically mean a hysterectomy. Whether it did depended on what else was going on, and she’d been told to sign and given no reason at all, so she asked.

The nurse pushed her. “We couldn’t reach her husband. We were told to call you. Sign it, and if this goes badly because you dragged your feet, don’t come after the hospital.”

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15:22 Thu, Oct 10

Chapter 50 A Call from the Hospital

Nora capped the pen and looked at her, cold. “Bring me her chart and her test results. She has an ectopic pregnancy. How does that turn into a hysterectomy?”

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