“Three hours,” he said, his voice tight with barely controlled anger as he strode into the room. “I’ve been trying to reach you for three hours, Bianca. You avoided my calls, refused to come to my office when I specifically told you we needed to talk, and now-” He gestured at the hospital room around us. “Now you’ve orchestrated this whole dramatic scene to pull me away from Mia when she needed me.”
I stared at my husband, trying to process what he was saying through the pounding in my head.
“Orchestrated?” My voice came out flat, emotionless. “You think I orchestrated getting magical exhaustion?”
“The hospital said you were unconscious, that you’d collapsed from some mysterious condition.” His eyes raked over me, taking in that I was sitting up, alert, clearly not on death’s door. “But look at you, right now, you are perfectly healthy and awake. So excuse me if I’m skeptical about this sudden emergency that happened to occur right when I was spending important time with Mia.”
The nurse had frozen near the door, clearly uncomfortable with being trapped in the middle of this confrontation. I didn’t blame her.
“You can go,” I told her quietly. “Thank you for your care.”
She fled gratefully, leaving me alone with my husband.
11
“I was treating a patient,” I said, slowly as if explaining to a child. “A child who was dying. I pushed myself too far, and collapsed. That’s it.. No manipulation. Just me trying to save a life while you were-“I couldn’t finish. Couldn’t say the words without breaking completely.
“While I was what? Supporting someone who’s dying? Helping Mia explore her options for the limited time she has left?” Matthew moved closer, and I could see the frustration radiating off him. “You’ve been making everything about Mia lately. Selling your hospital shares to spite her, refusing to help cure her, and now this.”
“The hospital shares.” I laughed, but it came out broken. “You want to talk about the hospital shares?”
“Yes, I want to talk about them. You requested to sell them two months ago without telling me. You’re deliberately sabotaging my ability to help Mia establish herself professionally, to give her some security for-
“For what, Matthew?” I interrupted, my voice rising despite my pounding headache. “For her remaining months? Her remaining years? Or for the decades she’ll spend as your mate after you’ve divorced me and put a baby in het?”
His face went pale. “What are you talking about?”
“I saw the email. From the fertility clinic. I saw you researching how to get her pregnant despite her illness.” My hands were shaking, and I gripped the bed sheets to steady them. “I saw the real estate listings for bigger houses. I saw you planning an entire future with her while I’m still your wife.”
“That’s not–you don’t understand-”
“Then explain it to me!”
Matthew’s jaw tightened. “Mia is dying.”
I’m so sick of hearing that!
“Our marriage is dying too!” The words burst out of me.
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Chapter
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Matthew opened his mouth to respond, but his phone rang, cutting through the tension like a knife.
He pulled it out, glanced at the screen, and his entire expression softened in a way it never did for me anymore.
“It’s Mia,” he said, and I heard the apology already forming in his voice. “I need to take this. She’s been worried-
“Of course she has.” I turned my face away, unable to watch him. “Answer it. Don’t let me keep you from what’s really important.”
He hesitated, conflict clear on his face. But then the phone rang again, insistent, and his resolve crumbled.
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