Chapter 2

I stared blankly at Ava.

She didn't seem to be joking.

If anything, she wiped my body down even more carefully.

Even some of the more sensitive spots.

She didn't shy away from any of it.

"This... isn't this improper?"

"Come on, if I'm not embarrassed, what are you embarrassed about?"

"If you feel like you owe me."

"Once you're back on your feet."

"Just treat me to a meal."

Ava was so easy to be around.

For the next few days.

She was the one at the hospital taking care of me.

Brooklyn seemed to have vanished off the face of the earth.

Not a trace of her.

Ava called her again and again.

Only then did she agree to come by the hospital.

But the moment she walked in.

As if she'd sensed something, Ava shot up and blocked my view.

Then she pushed Brooklyn back out the door.

"Brooklyn, what are you doing?"

"You disappear for days."

"And you show up with hickeys all over your neck?"

"What if Rupert sees that?"

"Aren't you afraid it'll upset him?"

Ava had kept her voice very low.

But I still heard it.

Then.

Brooklyn's careless voice came through: "What do I have to be afraid of? If I've got the nerve to do it, I'm not afraid of him seeing it."

"Brooklyn, you've changed."

"How have I changed?"

"Ever since Rupert's accident."

"Your heart's changed."

"Maybe."

She paused.

Brooklyn went on, "My dear girl, you need to have a little sympathy for me. I'm only twenty-seven this year. And him? He's lying paralyzed in a hospital bed, needing someone to help him just to relieve himself."

"I'm young, in the prime of my life, burning like the sun. Do you want me to spend the rest of it tied to him, and end up a lonely widow?"

"I'm not like you. You're frigid, so it's fine for you to go without sex."

"If I go a few days without it, I get restless, my whole body feels off."

"Forget it. You wouldn't understand even if I explained it to you."

"I came here today to make things clear with him."

"I want a divorce."

At the word "divorce."

Ava cried out, "Brooklyn, are you insane?"

"Rupert's in this state now."

"And you're asking him for a divorce?"

Brooklyn's tone grew colder and colder. "If I don't leave, am I supposed to stay by his side for the rest of my life?"

"He was paralyzed saving you."

"How can you live with yourself?"

"Please."

Brooklyn said indifferently, "Did I ask him to save me?"

"He's the one who insisted on saving me."

"Did I beg him to?"

"You..."

Ava was so furious she didn't know what to say.

Brooklyn couldn't be bothered to argue.

She pushed past Ava and walked into the room.

Seeing me smiling.

She rolled her eyes, then pulled a divorce agreement out of her bag and tossed it onto the hospital bed.

"Rupert Simmons, I want a divorce."

"Sign it."