Chapter 2

2: 2

Every word rang with feeling, and the tears fell like petals.

But her father lay in the top-floor VIP suite, with Jack tending to him himself.

While my mother had just been stopped at the hospital doors by security, barely able to get inside at all.

All I felt was the bitter irony of it.

Jack drew Evangeline a little further behind him at the sight.

When he looked at me, his tone carried the condescension of someone handing down charity.

"Fine. I'm not unreasonable. Your mother needs treatment, doesn't she? I'll arrange a doctor and get her registered."

"But so you don't have to see Eva and get upset, I'll put her in the standard ward on the lowest level. It's quieter down there anyway."

It felt like a knife driven hard into my chest. I gave a cold laugh.

"Afraid I'll be upset seeing her, or afraid you'll be upset seeing me?"

"Don't be unreasonable."

"Take the room or don't. If you don't want it, take your mother and crawl back to that hometown of yours."

His brow knotted tighter, his voice thick with disgust.

Just then my phone rang.

It was the security guard at the entrance.

"Hello, Miss Swanson? Your mother collapsed at the hospital doors, she's unconscious now, you need to get down here fast!"

Every scrap of pride and backbone shattered in that instant.

I clenched my teeth and forced the tears back.

"Fine, I accept! Just please get someone to save my mother!"

I ran downstairs like a madwoman and watched them wheel her into the ER.

The lights over the ER stayed on a long time.

The corridor was empty. Just me.

Jack never once came down from the top floor.

I leaned against the cold wall, took out my phone, and dialed a lawyer with shaking hands.

"I need you to draw up a divorce agreement. I want a divorce."

"May I ask who your husband is?"

"Jack Henson."

The refusal came without a beat of thought.

"I'm sorry, Miss Swanson. We can't take a case against the Henson family. You'll have to find someone else."

The line went dead.

I slid slowly down to the floor, drowning in it.

No one in this city dared cross Jack Henson.

Even leaving had become something I couldn't afford.

The wedding of the century was still vivid in my mind.

However fierce the love had once been, that was how loud the slap landing on my face now.

After a moment, I lifted my hand and scrubbed the tears away hard.

If the marriage was one in name only, then I would fight for nothing.

I only wanted my mother safe.

I don't know how long it was before the ER lights finally went out.

The doctor came out and pulled down his mask.

"The patient is out of danger for now. She can be moved to a ward for observation. She needs rest, and she can't be subjected to any more shocks."

All the strength went out of me at once, and the tears wouldn't stop falling.

I followed the nurse and had my mother moved into the standard ward on the basement level.

The room was dim and damp.

There was only one window, for ventilation.

Outside it was pitch black, leading who knew where.

I had just gotten my mother settled when my phone buzzed.

It was a message from Jack.

"If there's nothing wrong, stay in the ward. Don't wander around. Eva's father is unstable and can't be upset."

I stared at that line for a long time.

Then I pressed the phone dark and didn't reply.

That night, the ward door pushed open.

Evangeline walked in carrying a fruit basket, all smiles.

"I came to check on your mother, and to apologize for what happened earlier."

My mother was still unconscious, no color in her face, an oxygen tube in her nose.

I stood, my face cold.

"There's no need. Get out. You're not welcome here."

She acted as if she hadn't heard, walking straight in.

Words of concern on her lips, her eyes fixed on the equipment around my mother.

"She looks so worrying, poor thing, suffering like this..."

Before she'd finished, she reached out her hand.

With a single click, she pulled my mother's oxygen tube right out.

"What are you doing!"

My eyes nearly split, and I lunged forward and shoved her away.

Evangeline shrieked and fell hard onto the floor.

The fruit basket toppled, the expensive imported fruit smashed to pulp across the ground.

She lifted her head, crying more piteously than I ever could.

"I only wanted to see how your mother was doing..."

"Cicely Swanson! What do you think you're doing!"

The ward door slammed open, and Jack stood in the doorway holding a thermal container of soup.