Chapter Three
Chapter Three
Inside the cage were a full-grown tiger and a black wolf.
They seemed to have caught some scent. They threw themselves against the bars, growing wilder by the second.
“Aroooo—”
The wolf threw back its head and howled. Then its yellow-brown eyes locked onto me.
I took an instinctive step back—and suddenly remembered that bouquet with its harsh, strange smell.
I swallowed my fear. “Julian, I don’t feel well. I want to go back to my room.”
Once, if I’d said I didn’t feel well, he would have panicked.
Now he only frowned, exasperated. “Vivian, don’t be difficult. She worked really hard on this.”
Something like cotton wool stuck in my throat.
The show began. Rosalind clumsily guided the tiger and the wolf through flaming hoops and across a narrow beam.
“Bravo! Beautiful!”
Julian clapped and clapped, his eyes on Rosalind, full of love.
It never crossed his mind that I couldn’t “see” the show she’d put on to apologize to me.
None of that mattered now. The fear in my chest was growing.
Because only I could see how often the tiger and the wolf kept turning to look at me.
And what was in their eyes was hunger.
I eased backward without a sound. One step. Then another.
I was almost out of their reach—
A shriek split the air. “Ah!”
Rosalind tumbled off the platform, and the chain slipped out of her hand.
“Rosie!”
Julian shouted her name, out of control, and shot toward her like an arrow off a bowstring.
The instant he left my side, I was standing alone in front of two wild animals.
They turned to me in unison and bared their teeth.
Two enormous shadows leaped at me.
Pain. Unbearable pain.
It felt like my insides were being crushed. I heard a scream tear out of my throat, the scream of something dying.
Everything went red. At the blurred edge of my vision, he was holding Rosalind tight against his chest.
…
When I opened my eyes again, I was in a VIP room at a private hospital owned by the Blackwood family.
“Don’t move,” a nurse said, pressing gently on my shoulder. “You’re lucky to be alive. Three broken ribs and a bleeding liver. Last night there was only one doctor in the ER, Dr. Morris, and the other patient’s husband kept demanding that he see his wife first because she was pregnant.”
“Thank God she only had a few scrapes. By the way, where’s your family?”
My whole body felt like it had been run over again and again. “I don’t have any family.”
The nurse paused. Her eyes softened.
Outside the door, Rosalind was crying. “Julian, I’m so sorry! I really don’t know why they suddenly went wild. It’s my fault Ms. Morel got hurt.”
“Rosie, this isn’t your fault. You’re carrying our baby—no more crying. Go back to your room and lie down like a good girl.”
“I don’t want to. I want to make it up to Ms. Morel.”
The third time I heard the words make it up, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I swept the water glass off the table and it shattered.
Julian rushed in. “Honey, are you thirsty?”
The worry on his face didn’t look fake. And suddenly I was just so tired.
“Did you look into it? Why they suddenly went wild?”
The tiger and the wolf had obviously smelled something. And the only one they’d gone after was me.
“It was an accident,” Julian said without a moment’s thought, tucking the blanket around me. “Just rest. Stop overthinking it, okay?”
The last little light inside me went out.
Three years ago, I’d gone out alone in a rainstorm to rescue a stray cat giving birth, and run into a group of thugs who tried to put their hands on me.
When Julian arrived, the leader was dragging me by the arm into an alley.
“Beat them. Leave them breathing. Barely.”
The screaming in that alley went on for three hours. I had never seen him so furious.
Every one of them went to prison. The one who’d touched me left with a broken arm, and later died behind bars.
And now I’d almost been torn to pieces.
And he wouldn’t even look into it. He didn’t suspect Rosalind for a second.
I turned my face away, calm. “Okay.”
Julian seemed to sense something was off—but then there was a commotion from Rosalind’s room.
He got up in a hurry. “Honey, I’ll go get you something to eat. Wait for me.”
He never came back.
Hungry and exhausted, I fell into a heavy sleep, until a stabbing pain in my left arm woke me.
I looked down. A thick bandage was wrapped around my forearm, soaked through with blood.
“Don’t move. I need to change your dressing. You just had a skin graft.”
“A skin graft? What skin graft?”
“Mrs. Blackwood next door scraped her arm and was worried about scarring. So Mr. Blackwood had the doctors take a patch of skin from you to cover it.”
The nurse sighed. “She gets a scratch and he’s beside himself. Must be nice. Not like the rest of us.”
The color drained from my face. It felt like a knife had carved out half my heart.
“Could you do me a favor? Put in a request to transfer me to another hospital.”
“Transfer? What transfer?”
Julian pushed the door open, his arms full of supplements and all my favorite foods.
He washed my hands and feet himself and fed me fruit by hand.
Thoughtful. Attentive. Gentle. Exactly like before.
But my heart only grew colder.
Because I knew he’d give the best of every meal to Rosalind first.
He’d press his ear to her belly again and again. “In a few months, we’ll be able to feel the baby kick.”
He’d wait until I was asleep, then slip into her room and stay until both of them were covered in the evidence.
He’d introduce her to everyone. “This is my wife. She’s pregnant. Please take good care of her.”
I just watched it all quietly. No tears. No scenes.
When someone truly wants to leave, even saying goodbye feels like a waste of time.
I did only one thing.
Before that bouquet was thrown out, I’d secretly pulled off a single petal and tucked it into the pocket of my hospital gown. While Julian was with Rosalind, I used the phone at the nurses’ station to call the agent handling my paperwork, and asked him to have it tested.
The day I was discharged, the agent finally sent word.
“Ms. Morel, your paperwork should be finished the morning after next. And the lab results are back.”
