The Unwavering Heart That Broke novel Chapter 39

Antiseptic hung in the air. Fabian walked into the hospital room and spotted Lance, slumped over the side of the bed. He walked over and gave him a gentle tap.

“Lance, what’s going on?”

Lance looked back, surprise flickering in his eyes. “You’re back?”

“Yeah.” Fabian grabbed a chair and sat down beside him. “And guess what greeted me the moment I landed? Nathalie, wandering down the street like she’d lost everything. My car nearly ran her over.”

Lance shot up, staring hard. “Did you hit her?”

“Of course not. Calm down.” Fabian noticed how tense he was and couldn’t help but smirk. “See, this is what I mean. There’s no way you’re actually in love with Felice. Nathalie obviously got the wrong idea.”

That hit Lance hard. His face, already pale, just froze up. He swallowed. “What did Nathalie tell you?”

Fabian shrugged and relayed their conversation from the car.

Lance closed his eyes for a second and looked tired. Like something heavy was sitting on his chest.

Fabian leaned forward. “From the way she looked, she’s definitely serious about this divorce. Maybe you should go talk to her, try to fix things.”

“No one in Cabinda will take her case,” Lance said, his voice flat and rough.

“What are you even thinking? She’s being stubborn and now you are too? You have to coax girls, that’s relationship 101. If you keep stonewalling, she’s just going to make you miserable,” Fabian said, patient but exasperated.

Lance pressed his hand to his temple, sighing. “I’m the patient here. I don’t need your lectures.”

Fabian stood up. “Rest up, then.”

On his way out, the smile faded from Fabian’s lips.

Outside the hospital, he pulled out his phone and dialed. “Find out what really happened between Nathalie and Lance.”

Something was definitely off with those two. He pictured Nathalie’s white, shaken face, absently rubbing his phone between his fingers before striding away.

Nathalie sat up, all worn-out confusion gone in an instant. “Elaine? What’s wrong? What happened?”

Elaine’s voice trembled. “Nathalie, can you please ask Lance to let us go? My family’s business... we’re small, hardly worth noticing. If Lance really wants to mess with us, we’re finished—he could snap us in half without trying.”

Nathalie’s mind went blank, then started spinning. She dug her fingernails into her thigh. “Elaine, slow down, alright? Tell me exactly what happened.”

“Earlier this afternoon, a whole team showed up at our company. They said they found problems with our products and everything had to go through a full inspection. We can’t start production again until they give the green light, but the delays will ruin us! Our suppliers are still shipping stuff out, our customers are demanding orders, and every single day we stop working, our losses just get bigger and bigger.” Elaine’s voice broke as she fought to keep it together.

She sniffed and continued. “Later, Abelard did some digging and found out someone was behind it all. Then we got confirmation—it was Lance who set it up. Nathalie, we never got on Lance’s bad side. Why would he do this to us?”

Nathalie felt her whole world tilt. She wasn’t sure if she was furious or just stunned.

Lance was targeting Damaris’s family.

But why? Why would he even do such a thing?