The Unwanted Wife's Return (Ex-Husband Wants Me Back) novel Chapter 384

Her Again

MARY’S POV

We opened our doors, stepped out into the cold air, and walked toward the entrance side by side without

touching

The hospital lobby was big, bright, and smelled strongly of disinfectant, harsh floor wax, and cold air A couple of nurses in blue scrubs walked quickly down the main corridor, their soft shoes making faint squeaking sounds on the polished floor. A middle-aged woman sat behind the tall reception desk, her hands typing away on a keyboard while a small computer screen lit up her face. Up above us, the long fluorescent light tubes buzzed with a low, constant hum that made my head ache.

Alistair walked up to the counter first ‘Hello. I am here to see my mother. Her name is Beatrice Vane.”

The receptionist looked up from her screen, her expression polite but completely blank. She typed a few quick strokes into her system, her eyes skimming down a list on the display. ‘She is in Room 412. Take the main elevator bank to the fourth floor, step out, and make a left down the hallway.”

Alistair gave her a short nod and turned toward the elevators. I followed a few paces behind him, the sound of my shoes tapping softly against the clean floor. The metal elevator doors slid open with a soft chime, and we stepped inside the small box. It smelled like industrial cleaner and stale air, and the tiny light above the floor buttons flickered once or twice as the lift started moving upward.

The ride up was short and dead silent. When the doors pulled open again on the fourth floor, we stepped out into a long, quiet corridor lined with closed wooden doors. The light-colored floor was polished so clean that it reflected the lights overhead, and the walls were painted a boring, light beige color.

Room 412 was all the way at the far end of the hall. The door was not fully closed, left open just an inch or two, allowing a yellow strip of light to spill out across the dark floor of the hallway. As we got closer, I could hear the muted sound of voices coming from inside. A woman was speaking in a smooth, quiet tone, followed by another voice answering her in a softer whisper.

Alistair reached out, placed his palm flat against the door, and pushed it open.

I took a breath and stepped into the room right behind him.

Then my heart dropped, and I stopped dead in my tracks.

The person lying in the hospital bed was not Alistair’s mother.

The woman I was expecting to find, the gray-haired woman with the soft smile who had welcomed me into her heart all those years ago, was nowhere in the bed. Instead, a completely different person was resting against the white pillows. A much younger woman. A woman whose face I would recognize anywhere.

It was Vesper.

She was propped up in the adjustable hospital bed, her long dark hair messy and spread across the white sheets, her face pale and thin. She was wearing a light blue hospital gown that was pulled up close

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to her neck. Her eyes were partially closed, and her chest was rising and falling in slow, steady breaths. She looked fragile, quiet, and helpless, exactly like the kind of woman a man like Alistair would want to jump in and protect from the world.

And sitting right next to the bed, pulled up close on a small visitor chair, was my mother in law. She was wearing a tailored dark suit and expensive heels, her hair pinned up neatly without a single strand out of place, and her makeup looking completely fresh despite the late hour. She held a small knife in one hand. and a shiny red apple in the other, peeling the skin off in one long, continuous spiral.

She did not look surprised to see us at all. She slowly lowered the knife, looked up toward the doorway, and let a slow, knowing smile spread across her face.

“Alistair,” she said in a calm, smooth voice. “You actually came.”

I stood there, frozen near the door, staring at her face.

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