The Officer's Runaway Wife & Secret Son novel Chapter 432

"I had Dr. Warren pull your medical records and ask around. Your lungs… they're pretty much destroyed, aren't they?"

Margot's voice was gentle.

Rhys stared out the window at the sky, ignoring her words.

All his energy was focused on waiting for news from the hospital room and figuring out how to get home as quickly as possible.

Margot didn't mind his coldness.

She took a step forward to stand beside him, positioned just right to see the reflection of his face in the windowpane.

She had etched that face into her mind since she was nine years old.

Even after he got married, divorced, and crawled out of a fire covered in burns, he remained her sole obsession in this world.

She looked at his tightly pressed lips.

She looked at this brother who had spent his life trying to protect everyone, now so ravaged by illness that he didn't even dare to cough loudly, forced to suffer in this corner.

Margot's once-cold fingers gradually warmed, her heart rate quickening.

A secret thrill crawled up her spine.

It was as if a god, once untouchable in the heavens, had finally lost his wings and come crashing down to earth.

They were finally in the same world.

"What a coincidence," Margot said with a small laugh. "I'm rotting away, too. Just held together by medication. The day the pills stop working, it'll all be over."

She reached out, wanting to touch Rhys's hand resting on the windowsill.

She craved that touch so much.

It had been too long since someone had held her hand and told her not to be afraid, too long since someone had rushed her to the hospital when she was in pain.

Just as she was about to touch him, Rhys pulled his hand back and shoved it into his coat pocket.

The movement was sharp, tinged with clear disgust.

Margot's fingers hovered in the air. She stared at the empty spot on the windowsill for a few seconds before slowly retracting her hand.

He said coldly, "I want to live."

Margot froze.

The faint glimmer of light in Rhys's eyes was something she had never seen before.

Even when his marriage to Clara was at its most stable, when he was at the peak of his life, his eyes had always carried a kind of lifelessness.

Now that he was on the verge of death, he wanted to live?

"You want to live?"

Margot covered her mouth and let out a low laugh, her shoulders shaking.

"Rhys, when did you suddenly decide you want to live?" Margot lowered her hand, tears of mirth welling in her eyes. "For Clara? Because she was willing to bring your child to see you, you think you can go back to your happy life?"

She took a step back and pointed toward the emergency room.

"Don't delude yourself. She doesn't love you at all! She just pities you. She's pitying a dying man!"